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Don’t Look Now, But Utter Chaos Is Being Unleashed All Over The World

July 5, 2023July 5, 2023 by Michael

The relative peace and tranquility that we had been enjoying for several months has been shattered. All of a sudden, chaos is erupting all over the globe. Rioters are setting fires in cities all over France, the IDF just conducted the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, and the Russians and the Ukrainians are both accusing one another of wanting to attack the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. If that facility is bombed, it could potentially cause a nuclear disaster far worse than the one that we witnessed at Chernobyl in 1986. Unfortunately, I believe that global instability will be the norm throughout the remainder of 2023 and beyond. Much more civil unrest and war are ahead, and that has very serious implications for every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

Personally, I have been absolutely stunned by the tremendous violence that has been taking place in France. It is being reported that 5,662 vehicles have been set on fire during the rioting so far…

Ministry of the Interior figures taking account of damage to people and property during the now six nights of riots triggered by the shooting death by a police officer of an Algerian heritage teenager in a Paris suburb at a traffic stop reveals there have been 5,662 vehicle fires so far, reports Le Parisien.

The widespread destruction of vehicles, which as images recorded in the areas of unrest in France attest, include not just private cars but also trucks and buses. Trams have also been targeted by vandals. In one widely-reported case, a large truck was stolen by looters to ram down the doors of a mall to gain access to the merchandise inside. There were 1,919 vehicle fires on Thursday night alone.

France has seen a lot of riots in recent years, but nothing quite like this.

At least 1,000 buildings have been torched during these riots, and that includes 254 police stations…

Damage has not by any means been limited to burnt-out cars and buses, however. As the government figures attest, at least 1,000 buildings have been damaged in the riots. This includes attacks on 254 police stations, as well as dozens of town halls, schools, post offices, and private commercial properties targeted for burning or looting.

The rioters have already caused a billion dollars in damage, and this crisis still isn’t over.

But this isn’t the biggest global story right now.

Over the past few days, the Israeli military has been conducting the most extensive military operation that we have witnessed in the West Bank since 2002…

Over 1,000 IDF troops were involved in the campaign, which appeared to be the largest in the West Bank in some 20 years.

Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Jenin “in the past two years had become a factory for terror. In the past two days, this ended.”

“We cut off the weapons manufacturing process, captured thousands of bombs, destroyed dozens of production sites, workshops and explosives labs,” he said.

The IDF is beginning to wrap up this campaign, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning that this was “not a one-time thing”…

“At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say our widescale action in Jenin is not a one-time thing,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Salem checkpoint, some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Jenin.

“We will continue [to operate] as necessary to root out terrorism. We will not allow Jenin to go back to being a hotbed of terror,” he added.

Tensions in the region have reached a boiling point, and it is just a matter of time before a major war erupts in the Middle East.

But this conflict in the West Bank is not the biggest global story right now either.

To me, the most important global story at the moment is what is going on in Ukraine.

The Russians and the Ukrainians are both warning that an attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is imminent…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that Russia is plotting a potentially dangerous attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which Russian forces have occupied for more than a year. Russia has accused Ukraine, meanwhile, of plotting to attack the same sprawling Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, southern Ukraine, in the next two days.

It was a nerve-racking night for people across Ukraine amid the crossfire of accusations, but especially in the towns and cities near the Zaporizhzhia plant, including the city of Zaporizhzhia just a few miles away, which Russia never managed to capture.

I hope that there is no truth to any of this.

But where there is smoke, there is often fire.

I think that someone has been plotting something, and if an attack is carried out it could potentially create a disaster that is “not even comparable to Hiroshima or Nagasaki”…

An explosion at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant ‘is not even comparable to Hiroshima or Nagasaki’, a Ukrainian opposition leader has told MailOnline.

Such a blast would be ‘a much more terrifying and massive nuclear accident that, in the conditions of such a war, can lead to unpredictable consequences,’ he said.

The good news is that the entire world is now watching the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant very closely due to all of the accusations that are going back and forth.

So it will be much harder for either side to pull something off.

Let us hope that an attack does not happen, because that could set off a chain of events that nobody would be able to control.

For example, if the Russians believed that the Ukrainians attacked the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, they may respond by using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukrainian military targets.

If that happens, the U.S. would likely respond by using tactical nuclear weapons against Russians military targets.

And then it would be just a matter of time before we get to a full-blown nuclear war.

Already, one prominent Russian leader is warning that the U.S. and the EU “will be responsible for the consequences” if the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is destroyed…

“The goal is monstrous: to use a nuclear terrorist attack to accuse Russia and force the collective West to get directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, wrote on his Telegram channel.

Slutsky said tensions are growing around the Zaporizhzhia plant, as they are also “in European capitals.” And in a thinly veiled warning, added, “Brussels and Washington have every chance of being among the sponsors of nuclear terrorists and will be responsible for the consequences of blowing up” the plant.

This is incredibly serious.

But most Americans have absolutely no idea that any of this is going on.

Speaking of the United States, there have been 10 mass shootings in our nation over the past two days…

So far, there have been at least 10 mass shootings on July 4 and 5, according to GVA. Much of the information about each shooting is preliminary, and the details – about the number or nature of the injuries, for example – could change as police investigate.

Mass shootings have become so common that each one barely makes a blip in the news before the next one happens.

And it is just a matter of time before the rioting that we are witnessing in France erupts here too.

We are a nation that is in a very advanced state of decline, and most Americans are completely and utterly unprepared for what is coming.

The chaos that is currently being unleashed all over the world is just a small preview of the great storm that is ahead.

So I would encourage you to get things in order while you still can, because the pace of global change has accelerated to a speed that is absolutely breathtaking.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. 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, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

More Than 105 Million Working Age Americans Do Not Have A Job Right Now

July 4, 2023July 4, 2023 by Michael

Our long slide toward economic oblivion continues, and survey after survey has shown that most Americans are deeply unsatisfied with the current state of the U.S. economy. Inflation is out of control, most Americans are getting poorer due to the rapidly rising cost of living, the housing bubble has started to burst, and the commercial real estate market is a giant mess. But employment is supposed to be our bright spot. The Biden administration continues to tell us that the unemployment rate is less than 4 percent and that there are lot of jobs available for those that want them. But is this really true?

To answer that question, it is imperative to understand that our government places unemployed persons into one of two categories…

Jobless people are classified into one of two categories by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—either unemployed or not in the labor force. To be classified as unemployed in the month they are surveyed, people must be actively looking for work. If they are not actively looking, they are classified as not in the labor force.

Over time, the definition of “officially unemployed” has gotten more restrictive, and today only 6.097 million working age Americans are considered to be in that category.

Meanwhile, a staggering 99.800 million working age Americans are considered to be “not in the labor force”.

When you add both categories together, you get a total of 105.897 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

Let me try to put that into perspective.

During the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, that number never even got up to 90 million.

So that means that the number of working age Americans that are not employed at this moment far surpasses anything that we witnessed during the Great Recession.

Please do not believe the garbage that the federal government is trying to sell you.

Unemployment is not low. In fact, John Williams estimates that the real rate of unemployment in this country is somewhere around 25 percent.

If you are out of work at this moment, please realize that you are not alone.

In April, 37-year-old North Carolina resident Al Brown lost his job, and now his family is really struggling…

Al Brown and his fiancée faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: What’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap?

Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his fiancée and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade.

He’s since quit his gym membership and sold miscellaneous items around his home, including a computer and yard furniture, to make ends meet. His 13-year-old son quit the basketball team. While losing the family’s source of income has taken a financial toll, it’s also resulted in a mental one.

Since he was laid off, Brown has submitted more than 600 job applications, but that has produced only a few interviews and no job offers…

Brown, 37, now spends his days scouring the internet for jobs or reaching out to potential connections. After filing over 600 applications, only a handful have produced interviews, he says.

If jobs are easy to get, why hasn’t Al Brown been able to find one?

Can anyone out there explain that to me?

Perhaps I am just a little slow, because what the Biden administration is telling us about the economy does not seem to correspond with reality at all.

54-year-old Nina McCollum has applied for “hundreds of jobs” since losing her position in March, and she is still jobless as well…

Nina McCollum, 54, was laid off from her writing gig at jobs site Glassdoor back in March. She hasn’t found a new role since, despite applying to hundreds of jobs.

She’s been living off her savings, selling her blood plasma and frequenting food pantries just to get by — all while taking care of a teenage son. Her domestic partner helps out, but he can’t make up for her lost income.

Why can’t these people find work?

What is wrong with them?

Of course the truth is that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. They are diligently searching for jobs, but the reality of the matter is that the employment market has gotten very tight.

Meanwhile, the cost of living just continues to rise, and that has resulted in a “collapse of household savings”…

In February, the U.S. personal savings rate was estimated to be around 4.6 percent—much below the decades-long average of about 8.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But what does this mean?

Some economists think that the collapse of household savings could lead to a spending slowdown and trigger a recession.

The Biden administration may never admit that we have entered a major economic downturn, but that is precisely what we are witnessing.

In fact, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers index has now been below 50 for eight months in a row…

The U.S. manufacturing sector fell deeper into recession territory in May, extending a multimonth slump as experts warn that the economy faces “clear challenges.”

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in a report Monday that its manufacturing purchasing managers index dropped to 46.0 last month, the lowest reading since May 2020 and the eighth consecutive sub-50 reading.

Any readings below 50 represent recession, with all key sub-components in contraction, including the employment index, suggesting layoff pressures are building.

It’s really happening.

Other than for a brief period during the pandemic, we have not seen economic turmoil of this magnitude since 2008 and 2009.

Unfortunately, we are still only in the very early chapters of this crisis.

The economic outlook for the remainder of 2023 is very bleak, the outlook for 2024 is even worse, and the long-term outlook is nightmarish.

But you have to give our leaders credit for propping things up for as long as they did. By flooding the system with money, they were able to delay our moment of reckoning for a long time.

Of course their gimmicks were also making our long-term problems even worse, and now our long-term problems have become our short-term problems.

There is so much pain ahead of us, and our country is not prepared to handle it.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Now They Are Actually Working On A Plan To Block Out The Sun

June 29, 2023June 28, 2023 by Michael

What are they thinking? Without enough sunlight, life on this planet would not be able to survive for long. So when global leaders start talking about blocking out the sun or “re-engineering the atmosphere”, we should all get really, really nervous. Plants need sunlight in order go grow. So less sunlight would mean less food for all of us. And considering the fact that we are already in the early stages of a horrifying global food crisis, growing enough food should be a very high priority. Unfortunately, the globalists see things very differently. They are apparently willing to implement extremely risky measures in a desperate attempt to get temperatures back into a range that they consider to be “normal”. The following comes from a Bloomberg article entitled “EU Looks Into Blocking Out the Sun as Climate Efforts Falter”…

The European Union will join an international effort to assess whether large-scale interventions such as deflecting the sun’s rays or changing the Earth’s weather patterns are viable options for fighting climate change.
The bloc will announce a framework Wednesday for assessing the security implications of a rapidly warming planet, such as the potential for scarce water or food to trigger conflict and migration, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg. Part of that assessment includes studying the potential dangers of re-engineering the atmosphere.

This is madness.

Blocking out the sun isn’t going to solve anything.

In fact, it would have the potential to create far bigger problems than we are facing now.

But the globalists are desperate. Even though they have been imposing unthinkable mandates on their populations, carbon emissions just aren’t going down fast enough to meet their goals. For example, the Dutch government is actually forcing thousands of farmers to turn over their farms…

The Dutch government is planning to purchase and then close down up to 3,000 farms in an effort to comply with a European Union environmental mandate to slash emissions, according to reports.

Farmers in the Netherlands will be offered “well over” the worth of their farm in an effort to take up the offer voluntarily, The Telegraph reported. The country is attempting to reduce its nitrogen pollution and will make the purchases if not enough farmers accept buyouts.

“There is no better offer coming,” Christianne van der Wal, nitrogen minister, told the Dutch parliament on Friday.

Shutting down thousands of farms in the midst of the worst global food crisis in modern history is literally an insane thing to do.

But they are doing it anyway.

And the government of Canada is considering similar measures. Canada is supposed to reduce carbon emissions from fertilizer by 30 percent by 2030, and so the government is looking at ways to impose draconian production reductions on farmers…

Production losses could be significant, according to an analysis commissioned by Fertilizer Canada. Canada could lose over 160 million metric tons of canola, corn and spring wheat between 2023 and 2030 due to the plan, according to the report. That’s nearly double Canada’s expected grain production this season.

Agriculture emissions have soared in recent decades as farmers apply more fertilizer to increase output. Emissions from crop soils rose 87 per cent to about 7.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide over three decades through 2020, according to the latest data from Environment and Climate Change Canada .

I can’t even begin to describe how stupid this is.

We need more food, not less.

Here in the United States, the USDA has made fighting climate change their number one priority. The following comes from Doug Casey…

The US Department of Agriculture has about 100,000 employees. It’s one of the many US government departments that should be abolished. If any of those 100,000 employees actually know anything about agriculture or farming—most of them don’t—they should go out and do it, as opposed to making the lives of farmers miserable.

Interestingly, the #1 mission of the USDA, stated on its website, is to combat climate change. Not to improve food production.

The USDA, the EPA, and many others create regulations on everything and anything that farmers do today. I’d point out that according to USDA rules, a “farm” is any piece of land that produces over or can produce over $1000 worth of product. That’s an unbelievably low amount. A garden in your backyard can be deemed a farm if it suits the authorities.

I feel so sorry for our farmers.

They shouldn’t have to put up with this.

Sadly, the zealotry of the climate change cult seems to get more extreme with each passing year.

In New York City, officials are actually planning to crack down on restaurants that use pizza ovens that are powered by coal and wood…

Historic Big Apple pizza joints could be forced to dish out mounds of dough under a proposed city edict targeting pollutant-spewing coal-and-wood-fired ovens, The Post has learned.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has drafted new rules that would order eateries using the decades-old baking method to slice carbon emissions by up to 75%.

If you have had pizzas that are cooked over real flames, you know how incredibly delicious they can be.

But if authorities in New York City have their way, New Yorkers will soon be deprived of such pleasure.

We live in a world that is literally going insane.

We aren’t going to make enough food for everyone in the world this year, and the outlook for future years is even worse.

Our leaders know that global famine is coming, but they seem absolutely determined to make it even worse.

During this upcoming holiday, take some time to enjoy our sun while you still can.

If the globalists have their way, it won’t be too long before the sun is much dimmer and much less sunlight is reaching our planet.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

A Colossal “Heat Dome” Is Literally Baking Much Of The Country, And This Could Cause Widespread Crop Failures

June 27, 2023June 27, 2023 by Michael

If you live in the Southwest, you don’t need me to tell you that it is hot. A massive “heat dome” has been sitting over the region for quite some time, and it doesn’t appear that it will be moving much for at least several more days. There have been many areas where the heat index has already been up around 120 degrees. In Rio Grande Village, the actual temperature was 119 degrees on Friday, and forecasters were warning that the same reading would be reached again on Tuesday. This extreme heat has already caused several deaths, and it could potentially cause widespread crop failures.

If you live in an area that is being affected by this heat dome, please don’t take any unnecessary risks.

According to a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University, the extreme heat that is being produced can make it “feel like an oven” when you are outside…

A heat dome occurs when a persistent region of high pressure traps heat over an area, according to William Gallus, professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University.

“The heat dome can stretch over several states and linger for days to weeks, leaving the people, crops and animals below to suffer through stagnant, hot air that can feel like an oven,” Gallus said in an article in The Conversation.

Unfortunately, it is going to be some time before cooler temperatures come along, and it is being reported that extreme heat will soon “expand north into the Plains and east into the Southeast”…

Tens of millions of Americans across the south and central U.S. – many of them in Texas – have endured a brutal heat wave over the past couple of weeks as temperatures soared to record levels, including some above 110 degrees.

Forecasters expect the intense heat to continue in Texas for much of this week in and expand north into the Plains and east into the Southeast. Meteorologist Scot Pilie warned on Twitter that more temperature records could topple, leading to dangerous heat index values.

Needless to say, all of this heat is not good for crops.

According to Newsweek, crops in Texas are basically cannibalizing themselves in a desperate attempt to survive…

Crops in Texas are essentially “cannibalizing” themselves to survive during the state’s severe heat wave, according to one farmer.

“They are drying up a lot faster than they should, causing it to lodge and fall over. The plant is basically cannibalizing itself and eating itself up trying to survive,” farmer James Faske told KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi.

This is really bad news, but if crops elsewhere were doing great we would be fine.

Of course that is not the case at all.

Further north, drought conditions continue to spread throughout the Midwest…

Nearly 60% of the Midwest, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin, is under moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which is run jointly by the federal government and the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nearly 93% of the region is abnormally dry, with around 16% of it suffering severe drought.

In the Great Plains states of Kansas and Nebraska, the situation is far worse. A quarter of Nebraska and 38% of Kansas are under extreme drought. More than a tenth of Nebraska and 8% of Kansas are in exceptional drought — the monitor’s most severe stage.

As I have detailed in previous articles, corn and soy farmers are being absolutely devastated by the persistent drought conditions.

At this point, some parts of Illinois “have received only around 5% of normal rainfall this month”…

Parts of Illinois have received only around 5% of normal rainfall this month, he added. Several places in the state should have 10 more inches of precipitation than they’ve gotten since April. Cities in the Chicago area are having their driest periods since 1936. Major rivers in the state, such as the Illinois and Kankakee, are at record lows for this time of year.

So what is going to happen if plenty of rain does not come in the weeks ahead?

Illinois is one of our most important farming states. It normally produces massive amounts of corn and soy.

But now conditions are so bad that giant dust storms are being produced. For example, an absolutely gigantic dust storm that happened on May 1st resulted in an 84 vehicle pileup…

Illinois’ farming practices have come into sharper focus since May 1, when a massive cloud of soil, blown from nearby fields by winds topping 40 mph, blanketed a busy stretch of Interstate 55 south of Springfield. The resulting 84-vehicle pileup killed eight people and injured at least three-dozen others.

Some called what happened that morning a “perfect storm,” unprecedented in its size, its staying power and the carnage it caused.

For a long time I tried to explain to my readers that Dust Bowl conditions would be returning to the middle of the country.

Now we are here.

Last week, I wrote about the fact that 64 percent of our corn and 57 percent of our soy is currently being grown in areas that are experiencing drought.

It will be interesting to see how those numbers change when the next U.S. Drought Monitor update comes out on Thursday.

Even before this “heat dome” arrived, U.S. corn was in horrible condition.

In fact, the last time U.S. corn was in such bad shape was in 1992.

That is more than 30 years ago.

And now this “heat dome” threatens to take this crisis to an entirely new level.

Sadly, all of this is happening in the context of the worst global food crisis in modern history.

Severe famines have already erupted in some areas of the globe, and global food supplies are only going to get tighter in the years ahead.

If you do not know how to grow a garden, I would encourage you to learn, because we are now entering unprecedented territory.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Yes, The U.S. Economy Continues To Move In The Wrong Direction…

June 26, 2023 by Michael

Despite so much evidence to the contrary, the Biden administration continues to insist that the U.S. economy is on the right track. But is that really true? Thanks to the Federal Reserve, interest rates are now much higher and the money supply has been contracting at the fastest pace since the Great Depression. As a result, large companies have been conducting mass layoffs, the housing bubble is imploding, and economic activity is rapidly slowing down all over the nation. But if you ask Joe Biden and his minions, what we are witnessing is all part of the plan. In fact, they continue to speak of “Bidenomics” as if it is a good thing…

Monday’s announcement is part of Biden’s greater push for his economic plan dubbed ‘Bidenomics,’ which ‘is rooted in the simple idea that we need to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up – not the top down,’ Dunn and Donilon wrote.

The president’s economic proposal includes plans to hike taxes on the uber-wealthy and corporations in order to subsidize social, climate and health programs.

Give me a break.

I’m not buying what they are selling, and most other Americans aren’t either. According to one recent survey, well over half of all Americans disapprove of how Biden has been handling the economy…

More than half – 54% – of Americans disapprove of how Biden is handing his job, while just 35% of respondents approved of his stewardship of the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month.

Those figures are a bad sign for Biden and his fellow Democrats.

Of course Biden is not responsible for the stunning reversal in money supply growth that we have been witnessing.

The money supply has been steadily shrinking since late last year, and during the month of April it actually contracted at the fastest pace that we have seen since the Great Depression…

During April 2023, the downturn accelerated even more as YOY growth in the money supply was at –12.0 percent. That’s down from March’s rate of –9.75 percent, and was far below April’s 2022’s rate of 6.6 percent. With negative growth now falling near or below –10 percent for the second month in a row, money-supply contraction is the largest we’ve seen since the Great Depression. Prior to March and April of this year, at no other point for at least sixty years has the money supply fallen by more than 6 percent (YoY) in any month.

It is important to understand that the economy does not immediately respond to a change in the money supply.

There is a lag.

In other words, it takes time for the effects to filter through the entire system.

But we are already starting to see some very troubling signs. As I have been documenting in recent weeks, large companies have been conducting mass layoffs all over the country. Just a few days ago, Ford added their name to the list…

Ford Motor Co. is planning to lay off a minimum of “several hundred” salaried employees, starting as soon as next week, the Detroit Free Press has learned.

The action will be limited to white-collar workers in North America, perhaps just the U.S.

And we are starting to see initial claims for jobless benefits move higher. In fact, Zero Hedge is reporting that we just saw the highest number in almost two years…

264,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits for the first time last week – the highest number since October 2021…

California, New Jersey, and Connecticut saw the largest jump in initial claims as perhaps the tech layoffs are starting to register (as severance packages run dry)…

Meanwhile, U.S. home prices continue to fall as Housing Bubble 2.0 continues to implode. The following comes from CNN…

US home prices fell in May at the largest annual rate in more than a decade, according to a National Association of Realtors report released Thursday.

The median existing home price was $396,100 last month, down 3.1% from a year ago, marking the largest year-over-year price reduction since December 2011.

But don’t worry.

Joe Biden says that everything is going to be okay.

You believe him, don’t you?

The commercial real estate crisis also continues to grow. According to the Daily Mail, experts are calling it “a debt timebomb” that has the potential to absolutely devastate our financial system…

Commercial real estate has become a debt timebomb, experts have warned, as office towers remain empty in once-bustling cities.

The new era of remote work means ‘zombie’ workspaces remain vacant – while higher interest rates make it more expensive to buy or refinance buildings.

Of course the overall economy is steadily deteriorating, and it has been for quite some time.

At this point, the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 14 months in a row.

And it isn’t just the U.S. that is slowing down. According to Yahoo News, the Chinese economy is also “losing momentum”…

China’s consumer-driven recovery is showing more signs of losing momentum as spending slows on everything from holiday travel to cars and homes, adding to expectations for more stimulus to support the economy.

Domestic travel spending during the recent holiday for the dragon-boat festival was lower than pre-pandemic levels, according to official data released this weekend. Home sales figures are below the level in previous years, while estimates for June car sales showed a drop from a year ago.

So what does all of this mean?

What it means is that we are clearly moving in the wrong direction.

The American people clearly understand this, and that is why Joe Biden’s poll numbers are so dismal.

But we should be thankful for one thing.

Economic conditions are still at least somewhat relatively stable, but the current state of affairs will not last indefinitely.

Much bigger problems are on the horizon.

So enjoy these troubled times while you can, because it won’t be too long before this economic crisis becomes far more severe.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

What In The World Is Happening In Russia?

June 25, 2023 by Michael

The entire world has been stunned by the events of the past 48 hours. The leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was leading a convoy of heavily-armed troops to Moscow, and the mainstream media in the western world was salivating over the prospect of a Russian civil war. The “regime change” in Russia that western leaders have desperately been hoping for seemed like a realistic possibility, and that sparked a frenzy of speculation on social media. But just like that, it was over. All of a sudden Prigozhin was heading into exile in Belarus, and we were told that his troops would be heading back to the front lines in Ukraine.

So why was there such a dramatic turnaround?

I wish that I could tell you. Just hours before the deal was announced, Prigozhin and his forces had seized a regional military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don…

Within hours of a 400-vehicle convoy rolling onto Russian soil from Ukraine, Wagner troops seized control of Russia’s regional military HQ in Rostov-on-Don.

They rode heavy military machinery, tanks and trucks.

And at that time, Prigozhin was pledging that his forces would be “going all the way”…

Prigozhin bragged his men — believed to be better equipped than the Russian army — did not need to fire a single shot as they took control of the HQ.

He said: “The border guards greeted us and hugged our fighters. If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything. We are going all the way.”

Of course that was never going to happen, and I think that Prigozhin understood this very well.

One well placed tactical nuke could have taken out him and most of his troops.

But neither side wanted it to come to that.

So Prigozhin backed down, and this sudden reversal left analysts in the western world completely flummoxed…

A loyal henchman slams the premise of the invasion, then claims an airstrike targeted his troops, before taking a major military town without clashes, Prigozhin said, and then marching to within a few hundred miles of Moscow. But suddenly he executes a baffling reversal, turning back to avoid bloodshed, as the Kremlin claims Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus whom Putin seems to treat with contempt, brokered a dramatic reprieve, in which the insurrectionist who has his armor bound for Moscow, now opts for exile in Minsk.

And following the announcement of the deal, Prigozhin was framing the whole episode as simply “a march of justice”…

“They wanted to disband the Wagner military company,” Prigozhin said Saturday. “We embarked on a march of justice on June 23. Now, the moment has come when blood could be spilled. Understanding responsibility [for the chance] that Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our columns around and going back to field camps as planned.”

What a weird turn of events.

Needless to say, people are coming up with lots and lots of theories to explain what just happened.

For example, one ex-CIA analyst says that the “coup” was actually a “false flag” that was orchestrated by Vladimir Putin himself…

An ex-CIA analyst has claimed Vladimir Putin ‘orchestrated’ the coup with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhi in a ‘classic false flag’ to try to make the West believe his army had weakened.

Rebekah Koffler told Fox News’ Eric Shawn on Saturday the coup was staged as a way for the Russian leader to boost his political power and he will eventually ‘gain momentum, mobilize additional personnel, and re-energize his offensive on Ukraine.’

Others are suggesting that the U.S. was involved in getting the Wagner Group to commit this insurrection.

I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is being reported that U.S. officials knew in advance that this rebellion would take place…

U.S. officials felt that if they said anything, Mr. Putin could accuse them of orchestrating a coup. And they clearly had little interest in helping Mr. Putin avoid a major, embarrassing fracturing of his support.

While it is not clear exactly when the United States first learned of the plot, intelligence officials conducted briefings on Wednesday with administration and defense officials. On Thursday, as additional confirmation of the plot came in, intelligence officials informed a narrow group of congressional leaders, according to officials familiar with the briefings who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

In fact, the Washington Post is telling us that U.S. spy agencies actually knew “in mid-June” that “armed action” was probably coming…

U.S. spy agencies picked up intelligence in mid-June indicating Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin was planning armed action against the Russian defense establishment — which he has long accused of bungling the war in Ukraine — and urgently informed the White House and other government agencies so they were not caught off guard, several U.S. officials said Saturday.

And it is interesting to note that Joe Biden is working very hard to assure everyone that the U.S. was not involved in this botched coup attempt…

US President Joe Biden’s primary objective following the Wagner insurrection in Russia has been denying Vladimir Putin’s pretext for accusing the West of wanting him dead. In a phone call with allies, Biden emphasized the imperative in not lending any credibility to expected claims from Putin of Western interference.

Now that the coup attempt has failed, where do we go from here?

Well, I think that this will embolden those western leaders that are pushing for regime change in Russia. They will see this latest episode as evidence that what they are doing is working, and they will be more determined than ever to try to remove Putin.

When asked about the insurrection, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that we have “seen cracks emerge that weren’t there before”…

A mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin came to a swift end Saturday, but it raised new questions about his grip on power and is expected to intensify pressure within Russia over the unpopular Ukraine war.

“I think you’ve seen cracks emerge that weren’t there before,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday. Blinken noted that 16 months ago, at the start of the Ukraine war, Russian forces appeared poised to take the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, but were pushed back.

And during a different interview Blinken ominously stated that we “haven’t seen the last act yet”…

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States is assuming that the potential threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin might not be over.

“This is an unfolding story,” Blinken said Sunday during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We haven’t seen the last act. We’re watching it very closely.”

On the other side, this is a huge wake up call for Vladimir Putin.

I think that we are likely to see changes in the Russian military leadership, and eventually I think that the nation will shift into full war mobilization mode.

We are definitely living during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and this conflict with Russia is still only in the very early stages.

And of course this is just one of the major wars that we are going to be facing in the coming years.

The Chinese are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration, and a massive war could erupt in the Middle East at any time.

If our leaders had any sense, they would be pushing for peace.

Sadly, “war fever” seems to be gripping the entire globe, and that is really bad news for everyone.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

They Want To Implement A Global System Of Digital Identification “For All” That Would Be Connected To Our Bank Accounts

June 23, 2023June 22, 2023 by Michael

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this could be heading. For a moment, I would like for you to imagine a rather chilling “fictional” scenario. Not too far in the future, all “global citizens” are required to possess proper “digital identification” or else they will not be permitted to access the new global digital financial system. Central banks all over the globe have rolled out their new “central bank digital currencies”, but in order to use those currencies you must “prove that you are who you say you are”, and the only way to do that is with the new global system of digital identification that has been introduced. As cash is phased out, those that resist being part of the new global system are increasingly pushed to the outer fringes of society. Hardly anyone is willing to employ them any longer, it has become virtually impossible for them to get loans, and they are looked down upon by much of the general population. And then after the vast majority of the global population has “willingly” signed up for the new global system of digital identification, it is announced that the system will now become mandatory. That means that anyone that does not submit will not be able to buy, sell, get a job or have a bank account.

You may think that I am exaggerating the dangers of a global system of digital identification.

I wish that I was.

Once a global system of digital identification is introduced, it will rapidly become our most important form of identification.

It will become more important than your driver’s license and more important than your Social Security number.

Pretty quickly, it would become required for almost every financial transaction that you make online.

A lot of people may think that would be a good thing. After all, there are so many scammers and thieves on the Internet these days.

And I would agree that there is a need for more financial security on the Internet, but I am 100 percent against any type of global digital identification system because the potential for tyranny would be off the charts.

Unfortunately, that is exactly the type of system that is now being proposed by policy makers at the United Nations.

In a May 2023 policy brief entitled “A Global Digital Compact — an Open, Free and Secure Digital Future for All”, we are told that “an open, free, secure and human-centred digital future” is absolutely critical for the “attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals”…

The present brief proposes the development of a Global Digital Compact that would set out principles, objectives and actions for advancing an open, free, secure and human-centred digital future, one that is anchored in universal human rights and that enables the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. It outlines areas in which the need for multi-stakeholder digital cooperation is urgent and sets out how a Global Digital Compact can help to realize the commitment in the declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations (General Assembly resolution 75/1) to “shaping a shared vision on digital cooperation” by providing an inclusive global framework. Such a framework is essential for the multi-stakeholder action required to overcome digital, data and innovation divides and to achieve the governance required for a sustainable digital future.

Most people in the general population would not be too alarmed after reading that introductory paragraph.

But as they say, the devil is in the details.

If you go to page 8 of the policy brief, you will find the section where a system of digital identification “linked with bank or mobile money accounts” is proposed…

Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes.

I briefly mentioned this the other day, but I don’t think that most people understood the implications that this has for all of us.

Under such a system, if your social credit score gets too low you could be put in “digital jail” for a certain period of time. Your “digital privileges” would be suspended for a while, and that would mean that you could not buy, sell or live your normal life for the duration of your punishment.

Of course if you insist on being a “repeat offender” enough times, you could have your “digital privileges” revoked permanently.

What would you do then?

You wouldn’t be able to buy or sell anything.

You wouldn’t be able to get a job.

You wouldn’t be able to have a bank account.

At best, you would be a total outcast from society.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this sort of a system is a long way off.

Three months from now, the European Union will “mandate” that all member states offer a “digital identity wallet” to every single one of their citizens and businesses…

The European Union will mandate digital identity under eIDAS 2.0, which will go into effect in September 2023 and ensure all Member States offer a digital identity wallet (DIW) to citizens and businesses. According to the European Commission, “At least 80% of citizens should be able to use a digital ID solution to access key public services by 2030.”

Initially, participation by individuals and businesses in the EU system will be voluntary.

But over the past few years we have seen how quickly “voluntary” measures can become “mandatory”.

When I say that we are living in one of the most critical times in all of human history, I am not joking.

There is a reason why the UK, the EU and the U.S. are all getting ready to roll out CBDCs.

And there is a reason why “digital identification” has suddenly become such a hot issue.

They really do want to build a digital prison for all of us, and if you plan to object the time to do so is now.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

The Catastrophic Failures Of The Biden Administration Are Motivating More Americans Than Ever To Prepare For An Apocalypse

June 21, 2023 by Michael

The verdict is in. Joe Biden is the worst president in the entire history of the United States, and that is really saying something because we have had some absolutely horrible presidents. Just about everything that Biden has done since he entered the White House has turned out badly, and our once great nation is now barreling down a deeply self-destructive path. If we do not reverse course, our country is not going to have a future, and more Americans than ever are losing faith in the federal government. In fact, a brand new survey has discovered that a lack of faith in the government in Washington is motivating large numbers of Americans to hoard “water, food, warm clothing, weapons, and cash” for the extremely chaotic times that are ahead of us…

People watching President Joe Biden’s shaky grip on Washington have lost faith the government will protect them in a doomsday event, and that’s driving a national prepper movement.

With the Doomsday Clock the closest to midnight it has ever been, over 70% in a new survey of 6,200 said they “do not have faith in the government” in a catastrophe such as a nuclear war or even climate-change-fueled disaster.

As a result, many are hoarding water, food, warm clothing, weapons, and cash to help them get through the worst days of a doomsday event.

These days, companies that are helping people get prepared for what is coming are generating more revenue than ever before.

In fact, the emergency food industry now generates approximately 500 million dollars in sales each year.

And it turns out that those that are in the 40-year-old to 65-year-old age bracket are the most likely to be prepping…

Those aged 40-65 are more likely to be prepping, and twice as many men as women are getting ready for a disaster.

Just what that disaster will be is dividing the nation. Some 55% cited climate change, 36% virus and disease, and 25% a nuclear attack. But there were other concerns. Over 15% are concerned about an asteroid strike, 15% about a robot or artificial intelligence “takeover,” and 7.5% about a “zombie apocalypse.”

It doesn’t surprise me that middle-aged Americans are the most likely to be prepping.

I have noticed that a lot of young people under the age of 40 just don’t understand the changes that we are witnessing all around us.

But those of us that are a little bit older and a little bit wiser can see where global events are taking us.

At this point, even middle-aged celebrities such as Josh Duhamel are preparing for what life will be like after things “hit the fan”…

“Transformers” and “Las Vegas” star Josh Duhamel has spoken out about becoming a doomsday prepper, stating that he’s planning on protecting his family if the “s*** hits the fan” in Los Angeles. The actor, who has starred in the TV show “Las Vegas,” gave an interview in which he explained, “I’ve become a bit of a doomsday prepper, I guess.”

Duhamel told the website Inverse, “I’m learning how to hunt. I fish.” He added, “Suddenly I had 54 acres out there. So I had two cabins, one with no electricity or water. They both have wells and electricity now, but they’re both really small.”

Overall, it has been estimated that over 20 million Americans are “actively planning” for some sort of a major emergency…

In 2020, more than 20 million Americans, nearly 7 percent of all U.S. households, were actively planning for an emergency, according to the latest analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data.

Plus, those stockpiling canned goods in the cupboards, caching ammunition and hoarding toilet paper now come in all stripes – from suburban ‘guardian moms’ to multi-millionaire tech gurus.

Since that figure is a few years old, I have a feeling that the true number would be significantly higher now.

And speaking of “tech gurus”, a group in Japan has actually come up with a survival plan that is truly bizarre.

It is a floating city that can hold up to 40,000 people, and some are calling it “a real life Noah’s Ark”…

TECH boffins have unveiled plans for a bizarre floating city likened to a real life Noah’s Ark.

The ocean-based metropolis would provide a “self-sufficient habitat” for 40,000 people, designers in Japan say.

It looks cool, but even once construction is started it will take many years before it is finally ready.

And even though the designers claim that it would be “resilient to an apocalypse”, I severely doubt that it could withstand being hit by a giant tsunami…

The developers, N-Ark, even claim the zone – named Dogen City – would be resilient to an apocalypse.

Measuring 4km in circumference, the plan would be for inhabitants to be able to get to any point in the zone within an hour.

At least they are trying to do something.

And the truth is that we should all be trying to do what we can, because all of us can see that our world is getting a little bit more crazy with each passing day.

This week, I was absolutely horrified to learn that three teens actually tried to light sticks of dynamite inside a Philadelphia grocery store…

The Philadelphia Police Department is searching for at least three teenagers who allegedly attempted to light sticks of dynamite inside a grocery store, according to reports.

The incident occurred at the Fresh Grocer located on the 5300 block of Chew Avenue in the city’s Germantown section on June 20 at 5:10 P.M., local news station Fox 29 reported.

Police have said that a member of security called the police after seeing teens roughly between the ages of 16 and 19 years old wearing all-black clothing “light sticks of dynamite within the store,” according to the report.

Our entire society is slowly but surely going completely nuts.

It is almost as if we are all stuck inside a really bad science fiction movie and we can’t get out.

Unfortunately, we are only in the very early chapters of this nightmare. Things will eventually get much worse than they are now.

So if you have already been prepping, don’t stop.

If you have not been prepping, I would encourage you to get moving, because the clock is ticking.

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

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