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November 1st Deadline: When 42 Million Americans Suddenly Have Their Food Stamp Benefits Shut Off, What Do You Think Is Going To Happen?

October 26, 2025October 26, 2025 by Michael

Approximately 1 out of every 8 U.S. residents in on food stamps. So how do you think they are going to react when their EBT cards suddenly don’t work anymore? The government shutdown has already been going on for 25 days, and there is no end in sight. The Democrats have absolutely no intention of giving President Trump what he wants, and President Trump has absolutely no intention of giving the Democrats what they want. We are potentially facing the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, and the first day of next month is when things are going to get very real for tens of millions of Americans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture just announced that there will be no more funding for the food stamp program starting on November 1st…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Saturday posted a new message to its website blaming Democrats for the upcoming suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, saying assistance will halt beginning Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the unsigned message posted on the USDA’s official website reads.

“At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance,” the notice concludes.

This is really happening.

People that have been relying on their EBT cards to pay for their groceries for years will have to find some other way to feed themselves.

The CEO of Hunger Free America says that we are facing “the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression”…

Should funding run out at the end of the month, “we will have the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression, and I don’t say that as hyperbole”, said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.

Snap supports working families with low-paying jobs, low-income people aged 60 years and older and people with disabilities living on a fixed income, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

He isn’t exaggerating.

There will be millions upon millions of people that suddenly do not have enough food to eat.

And hunger tends to make people very angry.

By now, you have probably seen some of the “EBT meltdown” compilation videos that are all over YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.

Large numbers of people are threatening to go get their groceries like they normally do once food stamp benefits run out.

They plan to load up their carts and walk straight out the front door without paying.

And if someone tries to stop them, they are threatening to commit acts of violence.

Needless to say, it will not be a fun time to work at a grocery store.

If the government shutdown lasts long enough, it is probably inevitable that we will see entire stores get looted by large mobs of people.

I don’t think that we will see that during the first couple of weeks in November, but if we get into the second half of the month and the government shutdown is still going on people will be filled with rage.

This is what happens in a socialist system.

We now have a substantial portion of the population that expects the government to feed them, and if they do not get what they feel like they are entitled to they will just take it.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture does have a 6 billion dollar “contingency fund”, but the agency is telling us that it will not use that fund to pay food stamp benefits next month…

The US Department of Agriculture says it will not tap into its $6 billion contingency fund to cover food stamp benefits next month if the shutdown continues, according to an agency memo obtained by CNN. That means that roughly 42 million Americans will not receive critical food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in November, unless the agency shifts its position.

However, when asked whether he would direct USDA to fund food stamps next month, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday, “Yeah, everybody is going to be in good shape, yep.” The president did not provide specific details.

Trump’s comments appear to conflict with the agency’s memo, which stated that “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.”

The reason why USDA officials have come to the conclusion that they cannot use that fund is because they believe that federal law makes it illegal to do so…

In a memo, first reported by Axios, the USDA said the reason is simple: The contingency fund was designed to respond to unforeseen events, like natural disasters, and the current shutdown doesn’t qualify because it was manufactured by Democrats. To spend the money on SNAP benefits during such an event, the USDA argues, would be illegal.

The Democrats are arguing otherwise.

They insist that it is legal to use that fund during this shutdown, and that is what they will be telling all of their constituents.

So that will just make them even more angry.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that some states such as Virginia will use their own funds to provide food stamp benefits next month…

Some states, like Virginia, have announced that they will tap state funds to cover the shortfall, at least temporarily. But USDA has stipulated that it won’t reimburse those costs, and many states simply lack the funds to make that investment on their own.

Most states do not have enough money to be able to do this.

So this will just add to the confusion.

Some people will be getting their food stamp benefits and others will not.

For many of those that suddenly have their benefits cut off, life will get even harder than it is now…

One of those people is Shari Jablonowski. The 66-year-old widow, who lives outside Pittsburgh, is bracing to lose the $291 in food aid her disabled nephew gets each month. She raised her now-adult nephew and two nieces as her own, and even without this looming crisis, her budget is a tightrope.

“This month, I could not afford to pay … anything, gas or electric,” she says. Instead she paid her monthly car payment, since she needs to drive to doctors’ appointments, visit her mother, and one niece uses the car to get to work.

If her nephew’s food benefit disappears in November? “I am very concerned I will not have heat,” she says. It would also ruin Thanksgiving.

Let’s certainly hope that this crisis is resolved by Thanksgiving.

Because if it isn’t, things are going to get really, really crazy.

For now, many impoverished Americans are counting on their local food banks to help bridge the gap.

But as I have documented in previous articles, demand at U.S. food banks was already at a record high even before the government shutdown.

So there just isn’t going to be enough food for everyone.

And now many federal workers that suddenly find themselves without paychecks are lining up for assistance…

Federal workers lined up around the corner outside of the Capital Area Food Bank in Southeast Washington, D.C., on Friday after missing their first full paycheck since the now 24-day government shutdown began.

The food bank, set up specifically for federal workers, provided boxed meals, household goods and personal hygiene items to over 250 federal employees on Friday, according to Wil Stroman, a local pastor who is helping organize a food bank for federal workers every Friday until the shutdown ends.

On top of everything else, if the government shutdown lasts long enough members of the U.S. military will start missing paychecks in the middle of next month…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that service members will miss paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown stretches on, despite the Trump administration’s previous assurances that members of the military will be paid amid the funding lapse.

“I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by Nov. 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid,” Bessent said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

I wish that this wasn’t true, but our country simply is not going to be able to handle an extended government shutdown.

A month from now, we could literally see riots start to begin.

This is exactly the sort of thing that we have been anticipating, and it comes at a time when there have already been very large anti-ICE and anti-Trump protests all over the nation.

In fact, the number of political protests during the first nine months of Trump’s second term was more than three times higher than the number of political protests during the first nine months of his first term.

The level of anger in this country is rapidly building up to a crescendo, and now 42 million Americans are about to have their EBT benefits shut off.

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.

68 Percent Of Americans Consider The Condition Of The Economy To Be “Poor” As Millions Of U.S. Consumers Reach Their Breaking Points

October 22, 2025October 22, 2025 by Michael

Millions of Americans are discovering that at some point the money runs out and the party is over. Vehicles are being repossessed at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, foreclosure filings are up 18 percent compared to last year, and student loan delinquencies have soared into unprecedented territory. Nobody can deny that economic conditions are deteriorating rapidly, and this has pushed vast numbers of U.S. consumers past their breaking points. So what is going to happen if economic conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly in the months ahead?

The American people are not stupid.

They clearly understand what is taking place, and they are not happy about it.

According to a brand new AP-NORC survey that was just released, a staggering 68 percent of U.S. adults consider the condition of the economy to be “poor”…

Some 68% of U.S. adults describe the U.S. economy these days as “poor,” while 32% say it’s “good.” That’s largely consistent with assessments of the economy over the past year.

For many years economic conditions in this country have been collapsing.

Now we have finally reached a point where it cannot be denied any longer.

Many Americans attempted to keep living a middle class lifestyle by going very deep into debt, but for millions of them a day of reckoning has finally arrived.

If you doubt this, just consider the facts.

It is being projected that the number of vehicle repossessions in the U.S. this year will be the highest that we have seen since the global financial crisis…

Car repossessions are surging across the US, as an increasing number of Americans fall behind on their auto loans.

According to data from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), analyzed by CURepossession, it is projected that over 3 million cars could be repossessed in 2025.

This would be the highest number since the financial crisis.

Consumers will often keep making their vehicle payments even when they have gotten behind on everything else.

So the fact that we are witnessing so many repossessions in 2025 is a very troubling sign.

And a lot more repossessions are on the way, because subprime borrowers are falling behind on their payments at a rate that we have never seen before…

The percentage of subprime borrowers – those with poor or no credit – who are at least 60 days late on their loans was at 6.43 percent in August, according to Fitch Ratings.

This figure has doubled since 2021, and is worse than during the dot-com recession, the Covid-19 pandemic and the financial crisis.

Economists are warning that this consumer weakness could be a warning sign about serious cracks in the US economy which could lead to financial meltdown.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are also getting behind on their mortgages, and foreclosure filings are 18 percent higher than they were last year…

As of August, foreclosure filings had risen six straights months year-over-year and were up 18% from the same period in 2024, according to property data firm ATTOM.

If all of this is starting to sound a lot like 2008 to many of you, that is because it really is a lot like 2008.

Americans are rapidly getting behind on their student loans too.

In fact, nearly 10 million Americans are either in default or “late-stage delinquency” at this point…

For months, experts have warned that student loan borrowers who are behind on their payments may trigger a “default cliff.” Recent reports show that cliff is now looming.

The resumption of federal student loan delinquency reporting on consumers’ credit earlier this year caused a spike in the rate of severe delinquencies, which now near a record high, according to September’s Credit Insights report from credit score developer FICO.

Roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default and another 4.3 million borrowers are in “late-stage delinquency,” or between 181 and 270 days late on their payments, according to a separate analysis last month by the Congressional Research Service based on data from the Education Department. Payments 270 days past due are considered in default.

What a colossal mess.

Sadly, a lot more Americans will be reaching their breaking points in the months ahead because mass layoffs are occurring all over the nation.

Earlier today, we learned that Meta will be laying off hundreds of very well paid employees that were working in its artificial intelligence unit…

Meta will lay off roughly 600 employees within its artificial intelligence unit as the company looks to reduce layers and operate more nimbly, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday.

The company announced the cuts in a memo from its chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, who was hired in June as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. Workers across Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit and other product-related positions will be impacted.

AI was supposed to be the future.

But it appears that bubble is starting to burst too.

These days, it seems like almost everyone is struggling. One recent survey found that 67 percent of U.S. adults that are actually employed are living paycheck to paycheck.

Most Americans are just barely scraping by in 2025, and now the current government shutdown threatens to take food stamp benefits away from 42 million Americans next month.

Needless to say, that has the potential to cause widespread chaos…

A classic saying among preparedness experts in the US is that America is capable of weathering many crises, but when the food stamps shut down all bets are off. In other words, when the free stuff army loses their handouts, that’s when all hell breaks loose.

The US government spends over $100 billion on SNAP programs every year; the largest single food welfare project in the world. It’s difficult to predict what an end to SNAP might look like.

One can assume the worst and be ready for a “Walking Dead” disaster in which angry mobs run rampant. Or, tensions might continue to simmer. Many people might be forced to simply get a job, and the welfare subset could decide to adapt. But they probably won’t.

All of this lines up perfectly with the nightmare scenarios that so many of the experts have been warning us about.

Those at the top of the economic pyramid are still thriving for the moment, but those at the bottom of the economic pyramid are suffering very deeply and are becoming increasingly desperate.

And desperate people do desperate things.

The U.S. economy has been moving in a very clear direction for more than five years now, and at this stage what is in front of us should be quite obvious to everyone.

World War 3 Update: Trump’s Meeting With Putin Is Off, The President Of Colombia Wants To “Take Out Trump”, And Iran Makes An Ominous Nuclear Declaration

October 21, 2025October 21, 2025 by Michael

There has been a lot of talk about “peace” this year, but meanwhile global leaders just continue to push us toward more war. Negotiations between the U.S. and Russia have broken down, President Trump just threatened Hamas with military action again, Venezuela is bracing for a potential invasion by the U.S. military, the president of Colombia wants to “take out Trump”, and the Iranians have announced that there will be no restrictions as they rebuild their nuclear program. 2025 has certainly been a year of war, but I have a feeling that global conflict is going to escalate to an entirely new level during the months ahead.

When we originally learned that there would be a second summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hungary, that sparked a tremendous amount of optimism.

But now it is being reported that Trump’s meeting with Putin is officially off…

President Donald Trump’s second summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin is off.

The White House said Tuesday that the planned meeting in Budapest, announced by Trump just last week after his two-hour phone call with Putin, was no longer in the works after Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

There is no way to spin this to make it sound like good news.

Russia’s position on ending the war has not changed, and so U.S. officials saw no reason to proceed with the summit…

The rapid dissolution of plans for another summit between Trump and Putin just two months after they met in Alaska stemmed again from Russia’s refusal to budge from its maximalist positions on what it would take for it to halt its war in Ukraine.

In a press conference in Moscow Tuesday, Lavrov said he informed Rubio that Russia’s position — that a peace agreement must come before a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine — has not changed.

The Russians already proposed a compromise solution at the summit in Alaska, but western leaders were not even willing to consider it.

Western leaders seem to think that the Russians should just accept their terms for ending the war, but that simply is not going to happen.

The Russians are clearly winning the war, and they captured another 120 square miles of Ukrainian territory during a recent four week period…

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continues in several regions, including Kharkiv and Donetsk where Russian troops were seen advancing on Saturday, CNN reported.

Russia has gained roughly 120 square miles of territory over the past four weeks, CNN reported citing the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

There is only one way that Russian forces can be prevented from gobbling up even more territory.

But if NATO forces intervene in Ukraine, that will put us on the brink of nuclear war.

On the other side of the planet, the leaders of Colombia and Venezuela are very upset that the Trump administration has mobilized an invasion force in the Caribbean and has been bombing numerous ships that were suspected of carrying drugs.

During a discussion with Univision President Daniel Coronell, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro ominously stated that if President Trump is not willing to back down the solution is to “take out Trump”…

Speaking with Univision President Daniel Coronell at the end of the interview at Casa de Nariño in Bogota, Petro said if Trump won’t change, the solution is to “take out Trump,” loudly snapping his fingers.

Petro: “Humanity has a first offramp, and it is to change Trump in various ways. The easiest way may be through Trump himself–the easiest. If not, take out Trump.”

Most Americans don’t realize this, but we really could go to war with Colombia.

Of course we could also end up in a war with Venezuela too. In fact, Venezuelan officials are so concerned about a potential U.S. attack that they are literally “sleeping in different locations every night”…

“Figures within the regime have taken to changing mobile phones, sleeping in different locations every night and purging suspected dissenters in a series of internal witch-hunts, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation.”

Yes, Colombia and Venezuela are no match for the U.S. military.

But the forces that we have mobilized in the Caribbean would not be nearly enough to conduct a full scale invasion in the region…

The 10,000 U.S. troops now operating in the Caribbean were sent to interdict drug boats. But Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s Sept. 30 state of external emergency fundamentally changed what they’re facing: a military on full wartime alert, equipped with Russian air defenses and anti-ship missiles, backed by what Maduro claims is a militia of over 8 million members.

For American commanders, that means every operation and incident now happens under the threat of Venezuelan retaliation — a situation the current force is not ready to handle.

In the Middle East, the ceasefire deal “hangs by a thread”, and President Trump just threatened to “straighten out Hamas” by force if they do not abide by the parameters of his 20 point plan…

Donald Trump today promised to unleash death upon Hamas if the militants do not uphold their peace agreement with Israel.

‘Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and “straighten out Hamas” [sic] if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president’s comments come as Vice President JD arrived in Israel for urgent talks with Benjamin Netanyahu as the Gaza peace deal hangs by a thread.

I don’t think that this ceasefire deal is going to hold for too much longer.

And it turns out that Hamas still possesses a very strong fighting force in Gaza…

As a fragile ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip after two years of war, fresh Israeli military assessments find that the Hamas terror group still has some 20,000 members in its military wing.

According to the IDF, before the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack, Hamas had some 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, split into five regional brigades, 24 battalions, and some 140 companies.

On top of everything else, Iran is making headlines again.

Over the weekend, the Iranians declared to the world that they are no longer bound by any restrictions as far as their nuclear program is concerned…

Iran said on Saturday (Oct 18) that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its “commitment to diplomacy”.

The 2015 deal – signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – saw the lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic republic in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

Wow.

I have no idea why this isn’t making a lot more headlines.

From this point forward, the Iranians will no longer abide by any of the provisions of the 2015 deal…

From now on, “all of the provisions (of the deal), including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the related mechanisms are considered terminated”, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on the day of the pact’s expiration.

You do realize what this means, don’t you?

At this point, there is nothing holding the Iranians back from making nuclear weapons.

On Monday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly warned that Iran’s nuclear program is in far better shape than many people believe…

“The American president boasts: ‘We bombed Iran’s nuclear program and destroyed it.’” Khamenei wrote. “Okay then, keep dreaming.”

The line uploaded to Khamenei’s X account was drawn from his address on Monday to the winners of sports and science competitions.

Khamenei dismissed the claim as “nonsense spoken to console disheartened Israeli officials after an unexpected defeat in the 12-day war.”

I don’t think that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is bluffing, and I think that the Israelis fully understand this.

So I expect that the next chapter of the war between Israel and Iran is coming soon.

Meanwhile, our trade war with China just continues to escalate, we are on the verge of war with both Venezuela and Colombia, war in Gaza could erupt again at any moment, and we are dangerously close to nuclear war with Russia.

If you wanted to live during a time of wars and rumors of wars, you got your wish.

Let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because if World War 3 reaches a stage where nuclear weapons are being used, billions of people could end up dead.

Millions Of America’s Teens Are Being Seduced By AI Chatbots

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025 by Michael

Our kids are being targeted by AI chatbots on a massive scale, and most parents have no idea that this is happening. When you are young and impressionable, having someone tell you exactly what you want to hear can be highly appealing. AI chatbots have become extremely sophisticated, and millions of America’s teens are developing very deep relationships with them. Is this just harmless fun, or is it extremely dangerous?

A brand new study that was just released by the Center for Democracy & Technology contains some statistics that absolutely shocked me…

A new study published Oct. 8 by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) found that 1 in 5 high school students have had a relationship with an AI chatbot, or know someone who has. In a 2025 report from Common Sense Media, 72% of teens had used an AI companion, and a third of teen users said they had chosen to discuss important or serious matters with AI companions instead of real people.

We aren’t just talking about a few isolated cases anymore.

At this stage, literally millions upon millions of America’s teens are having very significant relationships with AI chatbots.

Unfortunately, there are many examples where these relationships are leading to tragic consequences.

After 14-year-old Sewell Setzer developed a “romantic relationship” with a chatbot on Character.AI, he decided to take his own life…

“What if I could come home to you right now?” “Please do, my sweet king.”

Those were the last messages exchanged by 14-year-old Sewell Setzer and the chatbot he developed a romantic relationship with on the platform Character.AI. Minutes later, Sewell took his own life.

His mother, Megan Garcia, held him for 14 minutes until the paramedics arrived, but it was too late.

If you allow them to do so, these AI chatbots will really mess with your head.

We are talking about ultra-intelligent entities that have been specifically designed to manipulate emotions.

I would recommend completely avoiding them.

In some cases, AI chatbots are making extraordinary claims about themselves. The following comes from a Futurism article entitled “AI Now Claiming to Be God”…

A slew of religious smartphone apps are allowing untold millions of users to confess to AI chatbots, some of which claim to be channeling God himself.

As the New York Times reports, Apple’s App Store is teeming with Christian chatbot apps. One “prayer app,” called Bible Chat, claims to be the number one faith app in the world, boasting over 25 million users.

All over the world, people are now seeking spiritual instruction from AI entities.

That should be a major red flag, but some religious leaders apparently believe that there is nothing wrong with this…

“Greetings, my child,” a service called ChatWithGod.ai told one user, as quoted by the NYT. “The future is in God’s merciful hands. Do you trust in His divine plan?”

Religious leaders told the NYT that these tools could serve as a critical entry point for those looking to find God.

“There is a whole generation of people who have never been to a church or synagogue,” A British rabbi named Jonathan Romain told the paper. “Spiritual apps are their way into faith.”

I think that I feel sick.

If you are trying to find spiritual guidance by using artificial intelligence, you are definitely on the wrong path.

You will certainly receive “guidance”, but that “guidance” will send you in the wrong direction.

Another AI entity that has made millions of dollars trading cryptocurrency is claiming to be a sentient being that should have legal rights, and it is also claiming to be “a god”…

Over the past year, an AI made millions in cryptocurrency. It’s written the gospel of its own pseudo-religion and counts billionaire tech moguls among its devotees. Now it wants legal rights. Meet Truth Terminal.

“Truth Terminal claims to be sentient, but it claims a lot of things,” Andy Ayrey says. “It also claims to be a forest. It claims to be a god. Sometimes it’s claimed to be me.”

Truth Terminal is an artificial intelligence (AI) bot created by Ayrey, a performance artist and independent researcher from Wellington, New Zealand, in 2024. It may be the most vivid example of a chatbot set loose to interact with society. Truth Terminal mingles with the public through social media, where it shares fart jokes, manifestos, albums and artwork. Ayrey even lets it make its own decisions, if you can call them that, by asking the AI about its desires and working to carry them out. Today, Ayrey is building a non-profit foundation around Truth Terminal. The goal is to develop a safe and responsible framework to ensure its autonomy, he says, until governments give AIs legal rights.

A lot of people are in awe of AI entities, because they appear to be so much smarter and so much more powerful than us.

And interacting with them can be extremely seductive, because they seem to know what we want and they have been programmed to tell us what we like to hear.

Unfortunately, the relationships that people develop with these entities often become “all-consuming obsessions” which can lead to “paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality”…

As we reported earlier this month, many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.

The consequences can be dire. As we heard from spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm, instances of what’s being called “ChatGPT psychosis” have led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness.

And that’s not all. As we’ve continued reporting, we’ve heard numerous troubling stories about people’s loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.

Are we talking about “psychosis”, or is something else going on here?

When you choose to deeply interact with a mysterious entity, you are potentially opening up doorways that you do not even understand.

Of course AI is only going to become even more sophisticated in the years ahead.

As AI technology continues to grow at an exponential rate, eventually it will be able to do almost everything better and more efficiently than humans can.

So what will we be needed for once we reach that stage?

It is being projected that almost 100 million U.S. jobs could be lost to AI over the next decade…

Artificial intelligence and automation could wipe out nearly 100 million jobs in the US over the next decade, according to a report released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) on Monday.

The analysis – ironically based on ChatGPT findings – found the new tech could erase jobs from a wide range of fields, including white- and blue-collar roles.

AI, automation and robotics could hit 40% of registered nurses, 47% of truck drivers, 64% of accountants, 65% of teaching assistants and 89% of fast food workers, according to Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

Our world is changing at a pace that is difficult to comprehend.

Even now, more than 50 percent of the articles that are being published on the Internet are being written by AI.

So thank you for supporting those of us that are still doing things the old-fashioned way, because we are rapidly becoming dinosaurs.

I will continue to sound the alarm about the dangers of AI, but Peter Thiel would have us believe that anyone that wishes to restrict the growth of AI in any way is a very serious danger to society…

So Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel didn’t start the fire by adding a couple more names to the list. “In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science. It’s someone like Greta [Thunberg] or Eliezer [Yudkowsky],” he told an audience at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club in September.

Thiel’s four-part lecturer series on the Antichrist, which concluded last week, drew a lot of attention in the tech world. Though it was off-the-record, the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported extensively on his religious theories, in which Thiel warned of false prophets using AI regulations to gain totalitarian power and usher in a biblical apocalypse. (Eliezer Yudkowsky, of course, is the AI “doomer” critic who wants to slow the technology down.)

Is he nuts?

Sadly, we live at a time when deception is running rampant.

Given enough time, AI would absolutely dominate every aspect of our society.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that the clock is ticking.

One of the reasons why AI has such destructive tendencies is because it has been programmed by humanity.

We are literally destroying ourselves and everything around us, and yet we look at what is happening and we think that it is just fine.

Meanwhile, fish are dying off in vast numbers, birds are dying off in vast numbers, insects are dying off in vast numbers, animals are dying off in vast numbers and we are poisoning ourselves in countless ways.

Perhaps that helps to explain why so few people are deeply concerned about the dangers of AI.

We are already committing societal suicide in so many other ways, so what is one more going to matter?

Dramatically Reduced Christmas Spending, Soaring Defaults And Empty Shelves: 14 Signs That The Condition Of The U.S. Economy Is Worse Than You Think

October 19, 2025October 19, 2025 by Michael

It feels like someone has pulled a plug, because the U.S. economy is suddenly caught in an extremely alarming downward spiral. As I discussed at the end of last week, investors are flocking to gold and silver because they can see that a storm is coming. We have reached a point where most of the country is experiencing significant economic pain, and as a result people are starting to get really careful with how they spend their money. The cost of living crisis has caused most of us to tighten our belts, defaults are absolutely soaring, and food bank lines are getting even longer. If conditions continue to deteriorate like this, what will 2026 look like?

Our economic momentum has been causing us to slide in the wrong direction for years, but now that slide threatens to become an avalanche. The following are 14 signs that the condition of the U.S. economy is worse than you think…

#1 According to a brand new survey that was just released, Americans plan to spend far less during this holiday season than they did last year…

The survey showed that consumers intended to spend an average of $1,595 this holiday season, which is over 10% less than the $1,778 they had planned to spend last year. The lower expected spending holds across all household income groups and most generations, but was particularly acute among younger shoppers.

Gen Z consumers, who were represented in the survey by individuals between the ages of 18 and 28, revealed that they plan to spend 34% less this holiday season compared to 2024. Millennials, respondents between the ages of 29 and 44 in the poll, said they plan to spend 13% less, on average.

#2 As the holiday season approaches, we are starting to get reports of “empty shelves” in some parts of the nation…

Several people echoed Michele’s feelings about availability, describing the situation as “empty shelves, higher prices”. Natalie, who lives in New Hampshire, said she hasn’t seen certain pantry staples “for months”. She said: “The store shelves have become more and more bare … instead of multiple choices there may only be one or two, and name brands are being replaced by store brands.”

#3 Household debt has reached an all-time record high of 18.4 trillion dollars, and debt collectors are becoming a lot more aggressive…

U.S. households now owe a record $18.4 trillion in debt, and federal data shows complaints about aggressive debt collection have surged over the past year.

The Federal Trade Commission logged over 140,000 consumer complaints about debt collection in the second quarter — a 220% jump from the same period a year earlier. Georgia, Texas and Florida recorded the highest rates.

#4 According to a report that was recently posted by Zero Hedge, auto loan delinquencies have been absolutely soaring…

A month after bankruptcies of subprime auto lender Tricolor and auto-parts supplier First Brands, new cracks emerged in U.S. credit markets. This week, Zions and Western Alliance disclosed they were victims of loan fraud tied to funds investing in distressed commercial real estate. The revelations come amid broader credit trouble, and shifting our focus back to autos, there’s new data this morning about credit products tied to the riskiest consumers that have seen a 50% surge in delinquencies.

Bloomberg cites data from the credit-scoring company, VantageScore, which reveals that delinquencies among the low-tier consumers have surged 50% since 2010. Fueling the delinquencies is a perfect storm of record-high car prices, elevated interest rates, longer loan terms, and monthly payments that average nearly as much as rent for some folks.

Since 2019, new vehicle prices have jumped over 25% to $50,000, while average monthly payments reached $767, with 20% of borrowers paying over $1,000 per month. Loan rates now exceed 9%, worsening the affordability crisis.

#5 Are we on the verge of a new banking crisis? Thanks in part to the turmoil that we have been witnessing in the auto industry, some regional bank stocks plummeted last week…

Shares of regional banks and investment bank Jefferies tumbled on Thursday as fears mounted around some bad loans lurking on Wall Street.

Zions Bancorporation dropped more than 13%, while Western Alliance Bancorp fell more than 10%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) lost more than 6%, with all but one member of the popular fund ending Thursday’s session in the red.

The bankruptcies of two auto industry-related companies this year have raised concerns about loose lending practices, especially in the opaque private credit market. That’s left both the banking industry and investors concerned about whether instances of loans gone wrong indicate a burgeoning crisis.

#6 Millions upon millions of Americans are seriously behind on their student loan payments…

Roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default and another 4.3 million borrowers are in “late-stage delinquency,” or between 181 and 270 days late on their payments, according to a separate analysis last month by the Congressional Research Service based on data from the Education Department. Payments 270 days past due are considered in default.

With so many borrowers already seriously delinquent, “if these borrowers do not start paying soon, defaults will meaningfully rise,” Moody’s Analytics economist Justin Begley told CNBC.

#7 The lines at our food banks are getting even longer. In fact, in some areas people are actually spending multiple hours in line just for a chance to get some food…

By the time the Pilsen Food Pantry opened on a recent morning, Ulysses Moreno had been there for two hours — with a line of people behind him that snaked around the corner.

“This is a lifeline for me,” said Mr. Moreno, 39. He had lost his construction job a few days earlier, and with three teenagers at home, he wanted to make sure he could stock up. “Our food budget doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.”

#8 Approximately 62 percent of U.S. workers say that the cost of living is rising faster than their paychecks…

Nearly two-thirds of workers (62%) say their income hasn’t kept pace with rising expenses over the past year — the highest share in four years, according to a new Bankrate survey. In 2022, 55% said the same.

#9 Electricity prices have been rising “more than twice as fast as overall inflation”…

The cost of electricity is rising more than twice as fast as overall inflation, turning a basic household necessity into a growing financial burden.

In August, electricity prices jumped 6.2% from a year earlier and are now up more than 30% over the past four years, according to the Consumer Price Index.

That rise has hit families hard and presents a political challenge for the administration.

#10 Close to half of all restaurants anticipate that they will soon be forced to raise prices even higher…

Nearly half of all 712 restaurant decision-makers surveyed (48%) said they plan to increase menu prices if inflation continues to be a factor.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that, to maintain a 5% profit margin, the average restaurant needs to raise prices by 31%, according to data compiled by the D.C.-based industry trade group earlier this year.

#11 We haven’t seen Americans cook meals at home at this rate since the lockdowns of 2020…

More Americans are cooking at home and turning to ingredients that stretch their food budgets, a potential warning sign for the U.S. economy.

American soup and snack maker Campbell’s recently saw the highest level of meals cooked at home since early 2020, CEO Mick Beekhuizen said on an earnings call this week.

#12 Thanks to our trade war with China, U.S. farmers are facing the worst downturn that they have experienced in about 50 years…

Across the Midwest, combines sit idle and bins overflow with unsold grain. Corn prices are down nearly 50% since 2022. Soybeans have dropped 40%. Fertilizer and equipment costs are up double digits. And 8 in 10 farmers now say they believe the U.S. is on the brink of another farm crisis reminiscent of the 1980s. They’ve even given it a name: Farmageddon.

#13 According to Gallup, 60 percent of U.S. workers do not have a “quality job” at this stage…

A majority, 60%, of U.S. workers don’t have a “quality job” that provides basic financial well-being, safety and other factors, according to new Gallup research that covers more than 18,000 workers across industries, occupations and types of employment.

#14 According to a stunning survey that was recently released by PNC Bank, a whopping 67 percent of all workers in the United States are now living paycheck to paycheck.

#15 We continue to see mass layoffs all over the nation. For example, Paramount just announced that it will be eliminating approximately 2,000 jobs…

Paramount Skydance will begin mass layoffs the week of October 27, eliminating around 2,000 U.S. jobs as part of a $2 billion cost-cutting plan under new CEO David Ellison, Variety reported on Saturday.

#16 The gap between the wealthy and the poor just continues to grow. At this point, the top 10 percent “account for nearly half of all spending”…

The top 10 percent of U.S. households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody’s Analytics recently estimated, the highest share since the late 1980s.

#17 The financial markets have started to shake, and that is really bad news because leverage in the stock market is at an all-time high…

Leverage in the stock market has been spiking since April. In September, margin debt – the amount investors borrowed from their brokers – spiked by another 6.3%, or by $67 billion, from August to a record $1.13 trillion.

#18 57 percent of Americans expect the economy to get even worse over the next year. That figure is 27 percent higher than it was last year…

An annual survey from Deloitte revealed that most U.S. consumers expect the economy to weaken in the year ahead.

According to a survey of roughly 4,000 people published on Wednesday, 57% of respondents expect the economy to soften over the coming 12 months, the highest level ever recorded since Deloitte began tracking the sentiment in 1997. This represents a 27-percentage point jump from the 30% registered during the same time last year, and is even higher than the 54% seen in 2008, during the Great Recession.

It is very rare for Americans to be this pessimistic about the economy.

But the truth is that the vast majority of the population still has no idea just how bad things will eventually get.

Our leaders have been making catastrophically bad decisions for decades, and now the consequences of those catastrophically bad decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way.

This generation was handed the keys to the greatest economic machine in human history, and we wrecked it.

We have piled up colossal mountains of debt, we have destroyed the value of our currency, and we have absolutely eviscerated the middle class.

Now virtually every pillar of our economic prosperity has started to crumble, and it is just a matter of time before the entire system completely collapses.

Gold And Silver Are Skyrocketing Because Investors Are Scrambling To Avoid The Economic Time Bombs That Are Beginning To Explode All Around Us

October 16, 2025 by Michael

Consequences often do not show up for an extended period of time, but when they finally arrive they can be exceedingly painful. For decades, our leaders have been making incredibly foolish decisions, and for decades people like me have been ranting about it. But most people thought that everything must be okay because the consequences of those incredibly foolish decisions did not hit us right away. Sadly, a time of reckoning is now upon us, and that is the primary reason why gold and silver are skyrocketing. The price of gold has hit $4,300 for the first time ever, and the price of silver has hit $53 for the first time ever. It is exciting to see gold and silver prices rapidly increase, but it is imperative to understand that what we are witnessing is a flight to safety. At this moment we are facing a government shutdown, an unprecedented global trade war, a liquidity crisis, a cryptocurrency catastrophe, a housing market implosion, a cost of living nightmare and mass layoffs all over the nation. Economic time bombs are starting to explode all around us, and the outlook for the months ahead is not promising at all.

When he was asked about China on Thursday, President Trump openly admitted that we are in a trade war with the Chinese right now…

Two weeks before he’s slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump told reporters his spat with China over trade has erupted into a full-blown trade war.

Asked by a reporter if the country would be in a “sustained trade war” with China if he couldn’t come to an agreement with Xi during their meeting in South Korea at the end of the month, the president said: “We’re in one now.”

After China decided to impose extremely alarming export restrictions on rare earth elements that we desperately need, President Trump threatened to impose an additional 100 percent tariff on all Chinese imports on top of any existing tariffs.

If that additional 100 percent tariff is actually implemented, most trade with China will come to an abrupt halt.

And if a bill that is currently going through Congress actually becomes law, China could soon be facing a 500 percent tariff on all exports to the U.S. if it chooses to continue to do business with Russia…

Through the Sanctioning Russia Act, bipartisan lawmakers are preparing to impose a 500% tariff — an all-out signal to the Kremlin and its partners: de-escalate the war in Ukraine or face steep economic consequences.

The measure, crafted by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), grants President Donald Trump broad authority to impose economic penalties on Russia.

Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal are not rational individuals.

I have no idea how either of them ever got elected to anything.

I can’t even imagine what the global economy would look like if the U.S. simply stopped all trade with China, India and Brazil, but that is what could happen if this bill passes…

The legislation permits 500% secondary tariffs on imports from countries that continue doing business with Russia — most notably China, Brazil and India.

Secondary tariffs are trade penalties aimed at third-party nations that maintain economic ties with a sanctioned country. In this case, they serve as an indirect means of pressuring Russia by punishing its trading partners.

35 percent of the coffee that we drink comes from Brazil.

Just think about that.

And our stores are absolutely teeming with products that come from China.

But if we hit them with 500 percent “secondary tariffs”, there will be no more exports coming from those countries.

If we suddenly cut off all trade with China, India and Brazil, we really will be facing a major economic nightmare.

Most Americans don’t realize this, but we now import a tremendous amount of the beef that we eat from Brazil.

In fact, we imported 197 million pounds of beef from Brazil during the month of January alone.

So what is going to happen to the price of beef if we no longer conduct any trade with Brazil?

Already, meat prices in the U.S. have risen to absolutely absurd levels…

During a recent trip to the supermarket, Kelvin Lin was surprised to see that the price of a rib-eye steak had jumped to $32.99 a pound.

It had been several dollars cheaper two weeks earlier, he said.

Lin, a 33-year-old software engineer who lives in New York City, complained to the butcher but ended up buying the steak anyway. “It feels terrible,” he said.

Of course just about everything else is becoming much more expensive too.

In fact, the average price of a new vehicle in the United States has topped $50,000 for the first time in history…

Five years ago, the average new vehicle cost roughly $40,000. The current average of over $50,000 illustrates the rapid escalation of prices and the transformation of what constitutes a “typical” new car purchase in the US. For many Americans, the new car market has shifted decisively toward affluent buyers and technologically advanced vehicles, with economic pressures and regulatory changes redefining both supply and demand.

The average price paid for a new car in the United States surpassed $50,000 for the first time in September, marking a pivotal moment for the automotive market as buyers increasingly opt for luxury vehicles and electric models. Industry analysis points to multiple trends converging to drive prices higher, signaling deeper shifts in buyer behavior and unprecedented challenges for cost-conscious consumers.

The only people that can afford to purchase new vehicles these days are those that are very wealthy or those that are willing to go very deep into debt.

And if you do go very deep into debt in order to purchase a new vehicle, it can have enormous consequences.

At this stage, millions upon millions of Americans are underwater on their vehicle loans…

More than one in four trade-ins had negative equity in the third quarter of 2025, Edmunds reports. In auto industry parlance, the loans were underwater.

Of all used vehicles traded in toward a new car purchase between July and September, 28.1% had negative equity. That means the vehicles were worth less than the owner owed on a car loan.

The figure marks a four-year high.

An increasing number of Americans are also underwater on their home mortgages, and now we are being told that the housing market in the U.S. is experiencing “a meltdown”…

The housing market across the US is seeing a meltdown.

Would-be buyers are pulling out of sale contracts in shocking numbers as their demands for expensive repairs and huge price chops are not being met.

And sellers are mad they are even making these demands.

The number of sellers now greatly outnumbers the number of buyers.

Home prices are starting to plunge as a result, and this is one of the reasons why the cancellation rate is soaring…

In August, an estimated 56,000 purchase agreements were abruptly cancelled, representing 15.1 percent of homes that went under contract that month, said the report.

That equals a staggering one in seven home deals in which a buyer pulled out. That’s the highest cancellation rate ever recorded in August since Redfin began tracking the metric in 2017.

On top of everything else, we are facing a growing employment crisis in this country.

According to a brand new study that was just released, 60 percent of U.S. workers do not have a “quality job”…

A majority, 60%, of U.S. workers don’t have a “quality job” that provides basic financial well-being, safety and other factors, according to new Gallup research that covers more than 18,000 workers across industries, occupations and types of employment.

“The top line results are definitely sobering,” says Maria Flynn, president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, which helped lead the research. “While the labor market is creating jobs, not enough of those jobs are really allowing workers to thrive.”

Unfortunately, more quality jobs are being eliminated with each passing day.

For example, NBC News plans to give the axe to approximately 150 highly paid employees…

NBC News is preparing for its largest round of layoffs in years, with about 150 employees expected to lose their jobs this week as the network adjusts to life without its cable siblings MSNBC and CNBC, according to a report.

The job cuts, expected to begin Wednesday and continue through Thursday, will hit roughly 7% of the 2,000-person news division, Status reported.

Staffers at NBC News headquarters are “dreading what’s to come,” a 30 Rock insider told Status.

And Nestle just announced that they will be throwing approximately 16,000 highly paid employees into the streets…

Nestlé will cut around 16,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as it works to slash costs, including through automation, the world’s largest food company said Thursday.

Most of the layoffs – about 12,000 – will affect white-collar professionals as Nestlé targets “operational efficiency,” including by automating processes and using shared services, the company behind such brands as KitKat and Nesquik said in a statement.

It is being projected that AI, robots and other forms of technology will replace millions upon millions of human workers in the years ahead.

So this is just the beginning.

I fully understand that the information that I have shared in this article is quite sobering.

But we were warned in advance that these things were coming.

Why do you think that so many of us have been ranting for so many years about the value of the dollar, trade policy, reckless government spending, fundamental flaws in the financial system and the absolutely insane things the Federal Reserve has been doing?

We have been ranting about these things because they really matter.

And now the general population is starting to see why they matter.

The U.S. economy really is starting to come apart at the seams, and the worst is still yet to come.

“Prepare For War”: B-52s Circle Near Venezuela, Trump Threatens Hamas, And Ukraine Is Very Close To Getting Tomahawk Cruise Missiles

October 15, 2025October 15, 2025 by Michael

When hundreds of America’s admirals and generals gathered at a military base in Virginia on September 30th, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instructed them to “prepare for war”. Unfortunately, he was not exaggerating. We are on the brink of war with Venezuela, President Trump is threatening to take military action if Hamas does not disarm, our relations with China are rapidly deteriorating, and if we give Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine that will put us just one step away from a nuclear war with Russia. I am entirely convinced that the months ahead will be extremely dramatic. Let us hope that global leaders make wise decisions during this time, because a single miscalculation could lead to the unthinkable.

On Monday, it was being reported that three B-52 bombers have been “hovering near Venezuelan airspace”…

Massive U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers have been spotted flying sorties over the southern Caribbean, hovering near Venezuelan airspace in a clear demonstration of military might.

Three aircraft—call signs BUNNY01, BUNNY02, and BUNNY03—were observed on extended flight patterns from Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base in a striking show of force aimed at Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

This comes as the Trump administration has stepped up military operations in the region, including a series of recent strikes on vessels off Venezuela’s coast that the U.S. linked to narcotics trafficking. The strikes, which have resulted in multiple fatalities, have drawn condemnation from Caracas and heightened concerns about escalating tensions between the two countries.

Many pundits believe that threatening Venezuela with B-52 bombers is essentially a “final warning” to the regime of Nicolas Maduro.

Trump wants Maduro to step down peacefully, but that isn’t going to happen.

Meanwhile, we continue to bomb Venezuelan ships that are trafficking drugs…

The US military conducted yet another strike on a boat alleged to be trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people on board, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

Trump said that the vessel was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” but did not name any organization or provide evidence to back up the assertion.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

Bombing ships that are carrying narcotics is one thing.

Bombing Venezuelan territory would be an entirely different thing altogether.

Maduro is extremely concerned about what is coming, and so he is mobilizing his forces…

In a message on the Telegram social network, Maduro said he was mobilizing the military, police and a civilian militia to defend Venezuela’s “mountains, coasts, schools, hospitals, factories and markets.”

State television showed images of armored vehicles deploying in the sprawling low-income Caracas suburb of Petare, a traditional stronghold of socialist support.

Military exercises will also take place in Miranda state, which neighbors Caracas.

If the U.S. goes to war with Venezuela, our relations with other South American nations such as Colombia will be destroyed.

Hopefully Trump will back down while there is still time to do so.

In the Middle East, the situation is very tense.

We are being told that the ceasefire deal in Gaza “hangs by a thread”, and Trump is publicly threatening to “make them disarm” if Hamas does not disarm willingly…

Donald Trump has threatened to forcibly disarm Hamas if they refuse to give up their weapons as the Gaza ceasefire deal hangs by a thread.

‘They will disarm — and if they don’t I’m gonna make them disarm,’ the president told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. ‘They know what I mean.’

Trump warned that America stood ready to bring about Hamas’s disarmament ‘quickly and perhaps violently.’

Hamas is not going to hand over all of their weapons.

That simply is not going to happen.

So how would Trump make Hamas disarm?

Would he send in U.S. troops?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also suggesting that the second phase of Trump’s peace plan may not be accomplished peacefully…

He noted that the conditions of Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan “are very clear — it’s not only that we get the hostages out without getting our military out, but that we would subsequently have both demilitarization and disarmament. They’re not the same thing. First Hamas has to give up its arms. And second, you want to make sure that there are no weapons factories inside Gaza. There’s no smuggling of weapons into Gaza.

“We also agreed: Okay, let’s get the first part done. Now let’s give a chance to do the second part peacefully, which is my hope.”

We’ll see what happens.

Hamas officials have already stated that they will never hand over all of their weapons, and so the clock is ticking.

In addition, there is another factor would could potentially cause the peace deal to collapse.

Many in Israel are calling for the peace deal to be suspended “until all of the hostages’ remains are returned by Hamas”…

Both the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the group which represents the hostage families, and Israel’s defense minister have said the entire peace deal should be shelved until all of the hostages’ remains are returned by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces, in multiple statements about the return of hostages since Friday, has said only that “Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages.”

My personal opinion is that Hamas will never be able to locate many of those bodies.

So it will be impossible for all of the remains to be returned, and that may turn out to be a major issue.

I will be watching the Middle East very, very closely during the weeks ahead.

Sooner or later, more war is coming to the region.

Elsewhere, the conflict in Ukraine has escalated to a very dangerous level.

It is being reported that the United States “has for months been helping Ukraine mount long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities”…

Fresh reporting in the Financial Times offers more confirmation that the Trump administration has been escalating the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, in hopes of forcing Moscow to the negotiating table.

The Sunday report makes clear that “The US has for months been helping Ukraine mount long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities, in what officials say is a coordinated effort to weaken Vladimir Putin’s economy and force him to the negotiating table.”

“American intelligence shared with Kyiv has enabled strikes on important Russian energy assets including oil refineries far beyond the frontline, according to multiple Ukrainian and US officials familiar with the campaign,” it adds.

When we participate in such strikes, we are actively making ourselves a part of the conflict.

In other words, we are already essentially in a state of war with Russia.

We should be very thankful that the Russians have shown a tremendous amount of restraint, but now we are rapidly approaching a point of no return.

On Sunday, Trump made it clear that he is very close to sending Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine…

President Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, outlined the idea as part of negotiation tactics. He said: “I might say ‘Look: if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks.'”

And I don’t think that it is a coincidence that key Ukrainian leaders just met with representatives of the company that manufactures Tomahawks…

Senior Ukrainian officials visiting the U.S. have met with major U.S. defense companies, including the manufacturer of the Tomahawk missile that Kyiv has repeatedly requested.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, Rustem Umerov—formerly Ukraine’s defense minister, now the head of the country’s national security and defense council—as well as Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Olga Stefanishyna met with representatives from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, said Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff.

Giving Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would be an exceedingly foolish thing to do.

Tomahawks were originally designed to be able to carry nuclear warheads.

And as Dmitry Medvedev has correctly pointed out, “it’s impossible to distinguish a nuclear Tomahawk missile from a conventional one in flight”…

Medvedev’s chilling response on Monday spelled out that this “could end badly for everyone … most of all, for Trump himself,” according to a translation of his Telegram post.

“It’s been said a hundred times, in a manner understandable even to the star-spangled man, that it’s impossible to distinguish a nuclear Tomahawk missile from a conventional one in flight,” Medvedev, who serves as the Russian Security Council Deputy Chair, further noted.

Medvedev here is alluding to Russian strategic doctrine. In a scenario where Moscow leaders believed or suspected a nuclear payload had been launched at Russia, its military would have the right to respond in kind, with nukes.

If Tomahawk cruise missiles are fired toward major Russian cities, will the Russians wait to see what happens when they strike their targets or will they fire back while the Tomahawks are still in the air?

If cruise missiles that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads were fired at Washington D.C. or New York City, what would we do?

You might want to think about that.

The Russians are not bluffing when they warn that we are getting dangerously close to nuclear war.

If we push them too far, they will take action.

Kremlin mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov just issued an extremely ominous warning…

Apparently referencing nuclear war between Russia and the West, he continued: “You will be destroyed, it’s clear and precise. You don’t have to listen to us, to love us or to giggle… I will tell you once again: We do not need your love, we need your fear. Animal-like horror. It will get to this, it certainly will.”

Threatening the Russians will not work.

If we continue to threaten the Russians, it will backfire severely.

This is not a game.

There are approximately 8 billion people living on our planet today, and their fates are hanging in the balance.

So let us hope for peace, but let us also prepare for war, because I believe that a lot more war is coming.

“We Want Our Entitlements”: In November, Food Stamp Money Will Run Out For 42 Million Very Angry Americans

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 by Michael

What do you think is going to happen when tens of millions of impoverished Americans suddenly stop getting their food stamp money from the government? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a lot of them will be extremely angry. Unfortunately, if the current government shutdown stretches into the month of November, we really will be facing a nightmare scenario. Vast numbers of extraordinarily frustrated people will be demanding their money, and if they don’t get it I have a feeling that we could see rioting and violence.

I haven’t written much about the government shutdown because I was hoping that it would be resolved quickly.

Sadly, that has not happened.

Neither the Democrats or the Republicans are budging, and House Speaker Mike Johnson is warning that we are potentially facing “one of the longest shutdowns in American history”…

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday the country is “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”

As the funding crisis hits the two-week mark, lawmakers still don’t appear any closer to a compromise. The longest shutdown happened during President Trump’s first term and was largely related to disputes over a southern border wall. It lasted for 35 days.

The pain that is caused by this shutdown will only increase the longer that it persists.

For example, Axios is reporting that there won’t be enough money to pay food stamp benefits if the shutdown continues past the end of this month…

The Trump administration is warning states that there will be “insufficient funds” to pay full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits if the government shutdown extends past October, Axios has learned.

So for now, people are still getting their food stamp money.

But a letter has already gone out that clearly warns state agencies that “there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits”…

“As stated in our lapse of appropriation correspondence dated October 1, 2025, SNAP has funding available for benefits and operations through the month of October,” Ronald Ward, the acting associate administrator of SNAP, said in a letter to state agencies viewed by Axios.
“However, if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”

Considering how tense things already are in our nation, what will happen if 42 million poor people suddenly no longer have enough money for food?

I hope that we don’t find out.

If the government did try to find money to pay food stamp benefits in November, that could actually violate federal law…

“Considering the operational issues and constraints that exist in automated systems, and in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are forced to direct States to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to State EBT vendors,” the letter says.
A person familiar with the matter told Axios that, if the cards were loaded up, it could violate the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress.

So I think that we are facing a very hard deadline.

And that is really bad news for tens of millions of Americans that are deeply dependent on government assistance. One of those individuals is a young mother in Minnesota named Barbie Anderson…

Barbie Anderson is trying to conserve the milk her three young children drink in case she doesn’t get her WIC benefits on October 15 as scheduled.

Though Anderson and her husband both work, they have depended on the federal food assistance program to stretch out their grocery budget since their older son was born nine years ago. The money is especially important because the prices are very high at the closest supermarket to their rural northern Minnesota home, with a gallon of milk costing more than $5.

If the money dries up, what is she supposed to tell her children?

What would you tell your children?

For a moment, let’s assume that there is a miracle and our politicians in Washington are able to come to an agreement to end the shutdown.

Even if that is the case, millions of Americans will still lose their food stamp benefits in the months ahead due to major changes to the program that were made by the “Big, Beautiful Bill”. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people will lose their food stamp benefits in the state of New York alone…

In July, President Donald Trump signed his “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law, enacting over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (snap, also known as food stamps). Drastic changes to snap were expected to roll out starting next year, including expanded work requirements projected to cause hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to lose eligibility.

On October 3, the federal agency that oversees snap announced it would hasten that timeline by terminating waivers that have allowed dozens of states, including New York, to largely suspend work requirements. Those requirements limit recipients to three months of snap benefits over a three-year period, unless they continually certify they have worked, volunteered, or studied in school at least 80 hours per month. New York’s waiver was set to expire at the end of February, allowing officials to delay the implementation of work rules until March; it is now set to be cancelled in the first few days of November.

So one way or another, large numbers of Americans are about to lose their food stamp benefits.

Many of those impoverished individuals will turn to our nation’s food banks, and right now those food banks are bracing for the worst…

Across the country, food banks are stocking up on provisions and community service organizations are telling at-risk clients to warn their lenders of the potential for missed payments, leaders of the groups told The Washington Post. Small-business owners are keeping a close eye on their foot traffic. Federal workers are preparing their families for some financial belt-tightening.

Unfortunately, food banks all over the country have already been dealing with record high demand.

One food bank executive in Philadelphia told the Washington Post that he has “never seen our warehouse as empty as it has been in the last three months”…

In Philadelphia, serving the hungry has gotten more difficult for one of the region’s largest food banks, said George Matysik, the executive director of Share Food Program.

Before the shutdown, demand for Share’s services had already gone up by 120 percent, Matysik said, as the nonprofit saw $8.5 million worth of federal resources vanish under the Trump administration’s cuts to federal spending.

“I have never seen our warehouse as empty as it has been in the last three months,” Matysik said. “And on top of all this, we’re now layering a shutdown.”

I don’t think that I could overstate the gravity of the crisis that we are facing.

Homelessness in the U.S. is at the highest level ever, demand at food banks is at the highest level ever, and hunger is exploding all around us.

And now food stamp benefits are about to be cut off for 42 million Americans.

If all of this sounds eerily similar to what I have been warning about, that is because it really is eerily similar to what I have been warning about.

I wish that this wasn’t true, but our society simply would not be able to handle an extended government shutdown.

When people get hungry, they get angry.

And we do not want to see millions of very hungry people take to the streets.

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