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Food Shortages Are Starting To Become Quite Serious All Over The Planet

February 2, 2023February 2, 2023 by Michael

The worst case scenario that many of the experts feared is starting to play out right in front of our eyes. Throughout 2022, I repeatedly warned my regular readers that there were all sorts of indications that the emerging global food crisis would go to entirely new level in 2023, and that is precisely what is happening. In response to tightening supplies of food, prices are surging all over the planet and the number of desperately hungry people is exploding. Unfortunately, this crisis is not going to be just temporary. As I will explain at the end of this article, the global nightmare that we are facing is inevitably going to intensify in the years ahead.

Most of us in the western world simply do not understand how badly conditions have already deteriorated in much of the world.

For example, Reuters is admitting that the hunger crisis in Africa has now become “bigger and more complex than the continent has ever seen”…

Across Africa, from east to west, people are experiencing a food crisis that is bigger and more complex than the continent has ever seen, say diplomats and humanitarian workers.

Please let that sink in for a moment.

There have been many famines in Africa in the past, but things have never been as bad as they are right now.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East a severe shortage of wheat is forcing many Pakistanis to wait in line for hours “to receive a single bag”…

Pakistan is currently suffering from skyrocketing prices and a shortage of wheat flour, with people waiting in line for hours to receive a single bag.

Would you wait in line for hours for one bag of flour?

If you were desperately hungry you would.

In South America, seemingly endless civil unrest has intensified the very serious shortages that are happening in Peru…

As the anti-government protests in Peru show no sign of ending, the country is currently facing a shortage of basic products including food items and fuel.

And on the other side of the globe, Australians are growing increasingly frustrated about the very painful potato shortage that has gripped that nation…

Potatoes are among Australia’s favourite vegetables. However, we are facing a shortage of processed potatoes, especially of frozen chips. Coles introduced a two-item limit for shoppers seeking frozen potato products. Fish and chip businesses are under pressure and some are outraged McDonald’s is launching a new potato product in the middle of a crisis.

In previous decades, there have been times when there have been localized famines in various parts of the world.

But what we are facing now is global.

According to the New York Times, food shortages are “causing intense pain across Africa, Asia and the Americas”…

“We’re dealing now with a massive food insecurity crisis,” Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said last month at a summit with African leaders in Washington. “It’s the product of a lot of things, as we all know,” he said, “including Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”

The food shortages and high prices are causing intense pain across Africa, Asia and the Americas. U.S. officials are especially worried about Afghanistan and Yemen, which have been ravaged by war. Egypt, Lebanon and other big food-importing nations are finding it difficult to pay their debts and other expenses because costs have surged. Even in wealthy countries like the United States and Britain, soaring inflation driven in part by the war’s disruptions has left poorer people without enough to eat.

Have I convinced you yet?

This is serious.

Here in the United States, food prices continue to escalate to frightening levels. For example, the price of orange juice just skyrocketed to a brand new record high because it is being projected that Florida citrus production will hit the lowest level since 1945…

OJ futures have hit a new high, surging 10 cents or 4.56% to $2.292/lb, surpassing the 2016 record of $2.2585, due to limited supply.

The USDA predicts Florida’s citrus production will reach 44.5 million boxes this year, which could result in the state’s smallest orange harvest since 1945. This is due to “greening disease” and hurricane damage in Florida’s citrus groves.

In 1945, there were 139 million people living in the United States.

Today, the population of the country has risen to 329 million.

So there are far less oranges per person now.

The size of the national cattle herd is also shrinking…

The latest figures from the US Department of Agriculture cattle-inventory report on Tuesday showed 89.3 million cattle as of Jan. 1, down 3% from a year ago. The decline wasn’t unexpected and was in line with a Bloomberg survey.

This means that beef prices are going to continue to go higher and higher.

You could try to switch to chicken or turkey, but thanks to the bird flu pandemic they certainly aren’t inexpensive either.

At this point, the bird flu has already killed more than 58 million chickens and turkeys in the United States.

If that wasn’t bad enough, now a lot of chicken farmers around the country are reporting that their hens have suddenly stopped laying eggs. This is something that Tucker Carlson recently discussed…

Now healthy hens lay eggs on a regular basis, every 24 to 26 hours. But suddenly, chicken owners all over the country – not all of them, but a lot of them – are reporting they’re not getting any eggs or as many. So what’s causing that? Clearly, something is causing that. Some have concluded their chicken feed may be responsible.

Egg prices have already shot up to a level that most people never dreamed would be possible, and this is creating quite a bit of panic.

More Americans than ever before are suddenly interested in raising their own chickens, and this has sparked quite a buying frenzy at local hatcheries…

Google search interest in “raising chickens” has jumped markedly from a year ago. The shift is part of a broader phenomenon: A small but rapidly growing slice of the American population has become interested in growing and raising food at home, a trend that was nascent before the pandemic and that has been invigorated by the shortages it spurred.

“As there are more and more shortages, it’s driving more people to want to raise their own food,” Ms. Stevenson observed on a January afternoon, as 242 callers to the hatchery sat on hold, presumably waiting to stock up on their own chicks and chick-adjacent accessories.

Unfortunately, everything that I have shared in this article so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

That is because global food supplies are going to continue to get tighter in the years ahead no matter what we do now.

If we suddenly stopped using all fertilizer immediately, we would only be able to feed about half the world.

So the production of fertilizer is absolutely critical.

Unfortunately, almost all of the phosphorus that we use in our fertilizers comes from “non-renewable phosphate rock”, and 85 percent of the remaining supply is located in just five countries…

Without phosphorus food cannot be produced, since all plants and animals need it to grow. Put simply: if there is no phosphorus, there is no life. As such, phosphorus-based fertilisers – it is the “P” in “NPK” fertiliser – have become critical to the global food system.

Most phosphorus comes from non-renewable phosphate rock and it cannot be synthesised artificially. All farmers therefore need access to it, but 85% of the world’s remaining high-grade phosphate rock is concentrated in just five countries (some of which are “geopolitically complex”): Morocco, China, Egypt, Algeria and South Africa.

As supplies of non-renewable phosphate rock continue to get tighter and tighter, global food supplies will continue to get tighter and tighter.

Eventually there will simply not be enough non-renewable phosphate rock to go around, and at point we will be in all sorts of trouble.

The kind of horrifying global famine that I have been relentlessly warning about has become inevitable.

It is just a matter of time.

I would encourage you to learn how to grow your own food now, because we are moving into times that will be extremely “interesting” indeed.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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 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.

Exactly What We Would Expect If A Recession Was Beginning – Sales Are Down Throughout The Economy

February 1, 2023February 1, 2023 by Michael

All of the things that we would expect to see at the start of a major economic downturn are happening. Retail sales are falling, auto sales have been way down, and the housing market is starting to crash like it did in 2008. But unlike the last recession, we are also dealing with a raging inflation crisis, and this is one of the main reasons why real disposable income declined at the fastest rate that we have seen since the Great Depression last year. At this point, close to two-thirds of the entire country is living paycheck to paycheck, and more than half the country cannot even afford to pay an unexpected $1,000 emergency expense. We are in very dangerous territory, because most U.S. consumers are tapped out.

If we really are in the early chapters of a new recession, we would expect to see sales dropping throughout the economy, and that is precisely what is happening right now…

Retail purchases have fallen in three of the past four months. Spending on services, including rent, haircuts and the bulk of bills, was flat in December, after adjusting for inflation, the worst monthly reading in nearly a year. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell last year to their lowest level since 2014 as mortgage rates rose. The auto industry posted its worst sales year in more than a decade.

Everyone can see what is taking place. The economy is really slowing down and there are very dark clouds on the horizon.

The Wall Street Journal recently asked a group of “business and academic economists” if a recession was coming within the next 12 months, and 61 percent of them said yes…

Consumer spending accounts for roughly 70% of the economy. A downshifting consumer is a key reason that business and academic economists polled by The Wall Street Journal, on average, put the probability of a recession in the next 12 months at 61%.

Of course we won’t know whether or not we are officially in a recession at this moment until several months from now.

But all the signs indicate that economic conditions have already deteriorated quite significantly.

For example, demand for cardboard boxes declined “sharply” during the fourth quarter…

Demand and output for cardboard boxes and other packaging material fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to data released by the American Forest & Paper Association and Fibre Box Association on Friday.

It’s the latest indicator that consumer demand is eroding following the pandemic. Dwindling savings, inflation, rising interest rates and fears of a recession may all be swaying consumers to spend less.

To me, this is one of the clearest indicators of what is really going on in our economy.

When there is lots of economic activity, there is lots of demand for cardboard boxes.

And when economic activity drops off, so does demand for cardboard boxes.

So it should deeply alarm all of us that we just witnessed “the most severe quarterly decline since the Great Financial Crisis”…

U.S. box shipments fell by 8.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the Fibre Box Association. KeyBanc’s Adam Josephson, who leads the bank’s analysis of the packaging industry, wrote in a Sunday note that this was “the most severe quarterly decline since the Great Financial Crisis (2Q09).”

U.S. box operating rates fell to 80.9%, the Fibre Box Association said, which was also a low last seen in the first quarter of 2009. This means nearly 20% of the U.S. capacity to produce boxes was stagnant last quarter. Supply of containerboard, which is used to make corrugated boxes, stood at 4.3 weeks, according to the American Forest & Paper Association. That’s down from last quarter, but still historically high.

Another thing that happens when a recession strikes is that a lot of people get laid off.

In recent articles I have been providing lots and lots of examples of this, and today I have a couple of new ones that are quite interesting.

During booming economic times, shipping companies tend to bring on lots of extra workers, but when things get bad they start letting people go.

And so it should deeply alarm all of us that FedEx has decided to give the axe to “more than 10% of its global management staffers”…

FedEx Corp. is laying off more than 10% of its global management staffers as the delivery company faces a shipping slowdown.

In an email to staff Wednesday, Chief Executive Raj Subramaniam said the company was reducing the size of its officer and director ranks and consolidating some teams and functions. The company declined to say how many jobs were being eliminated.

To me, the fact that Paypal has just announced that it will be laying off “approximately seven percent of its workforce” is even more troubling…

Engadget reports that the leading online payment provider, PayPal, recently announced that it will lay off about 2,000 employees, or approximately seven percent of its workforce. The layoffs are anticipated to take place over the coming weeks and will have varying effects on different segments of the business. The company says the layoffs are in response to a difficult macroeconomic environment that has prompted similar responses from other technology giants like Google and Microsoft.

If even our largest and wealthiest tech companies are laying off workers now, are any jobs in the private sector truly safe?

Many that work in the private sector are deeply concerned that they might be next, because thanks to the rising cost of living their savings are almost totally gone. For instance, consider the plight of 32-year-old Minnesota resident Benjamin DeLong…

Recent layoff trends worry Benjamin DeLong, a 32-year-old customer-account manager at an industrial manufacturer in southern Minnesota. His savings rose to $3,700 during the pandemic, thanks in part to government stimulus. He is now down to about 3 cents.

Mr. DeLong said he had to dip into his savings to cover the rising costs of his groceries, utilities and car insurance. He has found some relief in his grocery bills since he and his partner decided last year to purchase some pigs, jointly with other families, to be raised on a relative’s farm. Their portion of meat yielded nearly 150 pounds, saving them about $500 on groceries, Mr. DeLong estimated.

This is what life is like now in much of the country.

Millions upon millions of hard working Americans are living on the edge.

Now a very serious economic downturn has begun, and things aren’t going to get any easier in the long run.

It appears that 2023 is going to be such a tough year for the U.S. economy.

Hopefully you were able to build up a sizable emergency fund while times were relatively stable.

Unfortunately, most Americans did not, and so they find themselves completely unprepared for what is ahead of us.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The Collapse Of Faith In America

February 1, 2023January 31, 2023 by Michael

Once upon a time the United States was known as a “Christian nation”, but now our country is moving away from those roots at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking. I spend a lot of time writing about the ongoing collapse of our economic system, but the truth is that we are witnessing a collapse of faith as well. In 1972, a Pew survey found that 92 percent of all Americans identified as Christians, but the most recent Pew survey that asked this question discovered that only 63 percent of Americans still identify as Christians at this point…

Pew Research Center has been measuring religious identity since 2007 using a slightly different question wording – “What is your present religion, if any?” – as well as a different set of response options. Since 2007, the percentage of adults who say they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” in the Center’s surveys has grown from 16% to 29%. During this time, the share of U.S. adults who identify as Christian has fallen from 78% to 63%.

If you look at this chart, you will see that the decline has greatly accelerated in recent years.

Assuming that this trend continues, it won’t be too long before we are under 50 percent.

And it is very important to note that many Americans that still identify as “Christians” want absolutely nothing to do with traditional Christian values.

Church attendance in the United States has been steadily falling for decades as well, and the shift that we have seen since the pandemic started has been particularly dramatic…

Protestant pastors reported that typical church attendance is only 85% of pre-pandemic levels, McConnell said, while research by the Survey Center on American Life and the University of Chicago found that in spring 2022 67% of Americans reported attending church at least once a year, compared with 75% before the pandemic.

As a result, large numbers of churches are being forced to close all over the nation.

In fact, a recent Guardian article claimed that “thousands of churches are closing each year”…

Churches are closing at rapid numbers in the US, researchers say, as congregations dwindle across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity altogether – even as faith continues to dominate American politics.

As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year in the country – a figure that experts believe may have accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are going down the exact same road that almost every other western nation has already traveled.

At one time, virtually every nation in the western world was heavily Christian, but now most of them have been transformed into post-Christian societies.

It could be argued that the United States is already there as well, and one recent survey found that most parents do not consider it to be important to pass their faith on to their children…

“Parents place less importance on their children growing up to have religious or political beliefs that are similar to their own. About a third (35%) say it is extremely or very important to them that their children share their religious beliefs, and 16% say the same about their children’s political beliefs,” Pew researchers Rachel Minkin and Juliana Horowitz said in Parenting in America Today released on Tuesday.

Numbers such as these should make all of us very sad.

As Americans increasingly move away from what they have previously believed, it is inevitable that even more churches will close.

Meanwhile, many of the institutions that still remain are bitterly divided over sexuality. Here is just one example…

The United Methodist Church announced a proposal Friday to split the denomination over what it called “fundamental differences” regarding its beliefs on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy.

The proposal, signed by 16 church leaders from around the world, will be voted on at the church’s 2020 general conference in May. If passed, it would allow for a “traditionalist” denomination to separate from the United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., with more than 12 million members worldwide.

And Roman Catholicism is also being torn apart by controversies related to sexuality…

Gay “clubs” operate openly in Catholic seminaries, the institutions that prepare men for the priesthood, the late Pope Benedict XVI has claimed in a posthumously published book scathing of Pope Francis’s progressive agenda.

In a blistering attack on the state of the Catholic Church under his successor’s papacy, Benedict, who died on Dec 31 at the age of 95, said that the vocational training of the next generation of priests is on the verge of “collapse”.

He claimed that some bishops allow trainee priests to watch pornographic films as an outlet for their sexual urges.

Our culture is being fundamentally transformed all around us, and many prominent Christian leaders are deeply concerned about where things are headed.

During a recent interview, Franklin Graham warned about what will happen if we do not change course…

Graham, who heads the Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told CBN’s Faithwire he’s read Scripture and knows where culture is headed.

“I know where we’re going,” he said. “I’ve read Revelation. I know what’s getting ready to happen to this world. Judgment is coming.”

Graham continued, “God is going to judge this earth with the rejection of His Son, and there’s gonna be a great price to pay.”

Of course Franklin Graham is quite right.

These are the end times, and judgment is coming.

Unfortunately, most people are not interested in listening to the warnings.

But even though our society is rapidly moving away from religion, more evidence that validates the Christian faith continues to emerge.

For example, a team of researchers in France has determined that an ancient stone that is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris actually contains references to King David from the Bible…

The stele includes phrases such as “House of David” and “Altar of David,” but the damage to the stone’s face made accurate translation of the text difficult.

By using newer technology, including enhancing techniques in digital photography, researchers verified that the text does refer to the biblical King David.

I was so excited when I first read that.

And all over the Middle East, vast numbers of Muslims are becoming Christians after having supernatural experiences with Jesus…

The Rev. Lazarus Yeghnazar, founder of Transform Iran, an organization preaching the Gospel to Iran and planting churches, told CBN’s Faithwire many Iranians find themselves enraptured by Christ following these apparitions.

“They cannot stop talking about it. Hence the severe persecution, the severity of the brutality,” Yeghnazar said of the persecution many Iranian Christians face. “[Believers will say], ‘I saw a vision of a man with a white robe, with a cross on his shoulder or on his heart, and he says, ‘I’m Jesus.’”

Just as He has done throughout the past two thousand years, Jesus is still showing people that He is alive.

Sadly, many Americans simply do not care.

Our nation is choosing to reject faith like never before, and right now there are no indications that this is going to turn around any time soon.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

We Just Witnessed An Economic Sign That Hasn’t Happened Since The Peak Of The Great Depression In 1932

January 30, 2023January 30, 2023 by Michael

Economic conditions are much worse than you are being told. Throughout the past year, prices have been rising much faster than most of our incomes have. As a result, our standard of living has been rapidly declining. It has become increasingly difficult for U.S. households to make it from month to month, and as you will see below, more than a third of all U.S. adults are actually relying on their parents to pay at least some of their bills at this point. But even more alarming is what has been happening to real disposable income. According to Fox Business, the most recent GDP report revealed that the decline in real disposable income that we witnessed in 2022 was the largest that has been measured since 1932…

The most troubling information in the GDP report is the precipitous drop in real disposable income, which fell over $1 trillion in 2022. For context, this is the second-largest percentage drop in real disposable income ever, behind only 1932, the worst year of the Great Depression.

Just think about that for a moment.

The last time real disposable income declined this quickly was literally during the peak of the Great Depression.

And as our incomes get squeezed tighter and tighter, more Americans are starting to fall behind on their bills.

For example, the proportion of subprime auto borrowers that are at least 60 days behind on their payments has just surged to the highest level that we have seen since 2008…

In December, the percentage of subprime auto borrowers who were at least 60 days late on their bills climbed to 5.67% — a major increase from a seven-year low of 2.58% in April 2021, according to Fitch Ratings. It marks the steepest rate of Americans struggling to make their car payments since the 2008 financial crisis.

We are already beginning to witness the largest tsunami of repossessions that we have seen since the “Great Recession”, and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead.

One woman in San Antonio that knows that her vehicle could be repossessed at any time has decided that hiding it is the best strategy for now…

For some, however, the only lesson is to try and outsmart the repo man: hardly the best long-term strategy. Take San Antonio native Zhea Zarecor who is currently trying to negotiate with her lender so her 2013 Honda Fit won’t get repossessed. In the meantime, she’s hiding it.

The 53-year-old, who is currently in school for her bachelor’s in information technology (and raking up massive student loans for an education she should have had some 35 years ago) splits the monthly bill for the car — about $178 — with her roommate. But then the roommate lost his job, and with prices for groceries and everyday items increasing, there just wasn’t enough for the car payments.

Zarecor is trying to make extra money with odd jobs like contract secretarial work and participation in medical studies, but it often feels hopeless, she said. “Our money doesn’t go as far as it used to,” she said. “I don’t see prices going down, so the only relief I see is when I get my degree.”

Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by at this juncture.

As I discussed in a previous article, one recent survey discovered that 57 percent of Americans cannot even afford to pay a $1,000 emergency expense right now.

And a different survey has found that a whopping 35 percent of all U.S. adults are still relying on Mom and Dad to pay at least some of the bills…

More than one third of adults (35%) admit they still have at least one bill on their parents’ tab. According to a new poll of 2,000 Americans, the top three expenses their parents still pay for are rent (19%), groceries (19%), and utilities (16%). In fact, almost one-quarter (24%) of millennials say their parents cover their rent.

Are things really this bad?

Unfortunately, economic conditions are only going to get even worse in the months ahead as countless more Americans lose their jobs.

On Monday, I was quite saddened to learn that electronics giant Philips will be giving the axe to another 6,000 workers…

Philips announced Monday that it’s cutting another 6,000 jobs worldwide as it works to boost profitability.

The workforce reduction will occur over the next two years with the first 3,000 cuts taking place this year, the Dutch consumer electronics and medical equipment maker said on Monday. In its earnings report, the company revealed it suffered a net loss of 1.6 billion euros in 2022, which is down from a net profit of 3.3 billion euros last year.

And it is also being reported that one of my favorite toymakers has decided to eliminate approximately “15% of its global full-time workforce”.

I could go on and on if you would like.

In fact, every day I could fill up my articles with nothing but job loss announcements.

We have entered a very painful economic downturn, and one prominent Wall Street economist is warning that the full impact of this crisis will not be felt until the second half of 2023…

According to one Wall Street economist, a looming recession this year will feel more like the 1970s than a 2008-07 slump.

“People are too focused on ‘08 and 2020. This is more like 1973, 74 and 2021,” Piper Sandler chief global economist Nancy Lazar said on “Mornings with Maria” Monday.

Lazar predicted feeling the full impact of a recession in the second half of 2023 as lag effects from the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes take hold.

Actually, it would be quite wonderful if her seemingly gloomy forecast is accurate.

Because I don’t believe that we are heading into a slowdown like we experienced during the early 1970s.

Rather, I see all sorts of evidence that indicates that we are in the very early stages of the economic equivalent of “the Big One”.

I believe that things will be very rough this year, and I believe that the long-term outlook is even worse.

Our leaders assured us that everything would be okay even as they were flooding the system with money and engaging in the greatest debt binge in all of human history.

Now a day of reckoning has arrived, and we will get to suffer the consequences of their very foolish decisions.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Why Is The Mainstream Media Being So Quiet About The Military Strikes That Are Causing Massive Explosions In Iran?

January 29, 2023 by Michael

Are you ready for a catastrophic war in the Middle East? When I heard that there had been multiple military strikes inside Iran on Saturday night, I went to several prominent mainstream news websites looking for confirmation. But I didn’t see any stories about these strikes on any of their front pages. That puzzled me, because social media is filled with videos of these attacks, and there are lots of stories about them in Middle Eastern news sources. So why is the mainstream media here in the United States choosing to be so quiet about what is happening inside Iran?

I did find a Fox News story about the drone strike that happened in Isfahan, but that story appears to promote the Iranian view that it really wasn’t a big deal at all…

A loud blast has been reported at an Iranian military facility and officials in the country say it was the result of an “unsuccessful” drone attack.

“One of (the drones) was hit by the … air defense and the other two were caught in defense traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop’s roof,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.

If you just read that story, you would be tempted to believe that this attack was a complete nothingburger.

Of course this is what the Iranians often do when they are attacked. They act tough and deny that any serious damage has been done.

But the Jerusalem Post is reporting that the strike on Isfahan was actually “a tremendous success”…

Despite Iranian claims, the drone attack on Iran at Isfahan was a tremendous success, according to a mix of Western intelligence sources and foreign sources, The Jerusalem Post initially reported on Sunday morning.

According to the Post, the facility that was hit is involved in “developing advanced weapons”, and “four large explosions” were recorded…

There were four large explosions at the military industry factory, documented on social media, against a facility developing advanced weapons. The damage goes far beyond the “minor roof damage” that the Islamic Republic claimed earlier Sunday and has falsely claimed in past incidents.

And a major British news source says that a “huge fire” erupted at the facility after it was attacked…

A huge fire has erupted at an Iranian military industry factory following a suspected drone strike – as mystery surrounds who was responsible for the attack.

A loud explosion struck the factory close to Iran’s central city of Isfahan overnight amid rising global tensions.

Footage close to the scene shows huge flames engulfing the facility and plumes of black smoke rising from the area, while emergency vehicles and fire trucks could be seen outside the complex.

In addition, it is also being reported that a “massive fire” erupted at an oil refinery “in northwestern Iran” around the same time…

A massive fire broke out at an oil refinery in northwestern Iran on Saturday, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

The refinery is near the city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province.

“The firefighting is still going on and the size and intensity of the fire made it difficult to extinguish,” Fars reported.

But these were apparently not the only targets that were struck on Saturday.

There were reports of explosions from multiple locations, and some are claiming that Israel has decided to launch a “special military operation” against the Iranians.

#Israel launches special military operation inside #Iran – #AlArabiya
-A center for production of ammunition, UAVs is on fire, 5 locations.
-An oil refinery is on fire.
-A weapons manufacturing plant is on fire.
-Explosions at a military base in Hamadan & Kereja.#iranunderattack pic.twitter.com/yIWLzMoLCK

— MidnightVisions (@MidnightVision5) January 29, 2023

Unfortunately, Israeli officials don’t want to talk, the Iranians are trying to deny that much damage has been done, and the mainstream media in the U.S. is mostly ignoring this story.

But it is abundantly clear that something really huge just happened.

Iran claims it “thwarted: last night’s drone attacks.

OK…. I guess they mean the guys with the water buckets? pic.twitter.com/4SXuAj8X4E

— Zionwarrior6 – FREE IRAN! (@ZionWarrior6) January 29, 2023

And there are reports all over social media that are claiming that more strikes are being conducted on Sunday night.

Incoming news that an IRGC base in Mahabad has been hit.

Iran is getting a beating the 2nd night in a row. #Iran pic.twitter.com/h3Ms3tAbaD

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) January 29, 2023

In fact, some reports are even claiming that a headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard has been targeted.

Explosions are reported at the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in #Iran. pic.twitter.com/lObUt24Dia

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 29, 2023

It sure would be nice if we still had real journalists that were actually interested in reporting important breaking news from around the globe.

But instead of real journalism, most of what we get from the mainstream media is corporate fluff that is carefully designed to promote one particular agenda or another.

Often, I find myself going to foreign news sources in order to find out what is really going on. And according to a news source in the UK, we are being warned that IDF officials believe that a full-blown war between Israel and Iran “will happen before summer”…

And that assurance is key, said Middle East expert Catherine Perez-Shakdam, as Israel seeks to build a coalition ahead of anticipated conflict.

“We know time is running out in terms of Iran’s nuclear programme,” said Ms Perez-Shakdam, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank.

“Israel is preparing for war. Senior IDF officials believe it will happen before summer.”

Yes, the major war in the Middle East that we have been warned about for a long time is actually coming.

Meanwhile, it appears that the coming conflict between the United States and China is even closer than a lot of people would have imagined…

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that the possibility of war between China and Taiwan is “very high.”

Anchor Shannon Bream said, “I want to start with this reports of a top general who is making a comment about a potential war with China in 2025, get your reaction to this. NBC News is citing a memo to his officers with this quote, ‘I hope I am wrong,’ he says to them. ‘My gut tells me will fight in 2025.’ That’s being met with a lot of different reactions, some skepticism this is attributed to the opinion of one man. What do you make of that?”

McCaul said, “I hope he’s wrong as well. I think he’s right, though, unfortunately.”

We live at a time of wars and rumors of wars.

And thanks to the recklessness of the Biden administration, the U.S. could soon be involved in multiple major wars simultaneously.

I realize that there are many of you out there that don’t want to hear this.

But it is the truth.

The dogs of war have been released, and the world will never be the same from this point forward.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The Nuclear War That We Have Been Relentlessly Warned About Is Now Right On Our Doorstep

January 26, 2023 by Michael

Once the nukes start flying, there will be no going back. So I hope that you all understand that we are playing for all the marbles here. Sadly, our leaders don’t seem to get it. They just keep escalating the conflict in Ukraine, and on the other side the Russians just keep escalating matters as well. On Thursday, Russia responded to news that the U.S. and Germany would be giving highly advanced tanks to the Ukrainians by firing “a barrage of missiles and drones across the country”. The Russians are now so invested in this war that there is no way that they could ever back down. Of course the same thing is true for the Biden administration. Joe Biden has staked his presidency on winning this war, and Congress has already approved approximately 100 billion dollars in total aid for the Ukrainians. We are on a collision course with destiny, and the cataclysmic war with Russia that I have been warning about for many years is now right on our doorstep.

Donald Trump is warning that a worst case scenario is coming too. On Thursday, he posted a message that instantly made headlines all over the world…

A Truth Social post from Trump on Thursday appeared to react to the recent wave of announcements on Western tank deliveries.

“FIRST COME THE TANKS, THEN COME THE NUKES. Get this crazy war ended, NOW. So easy to do!” Trump wrote.

BREAKING: President Trump slams escalation in Ukraine – calls for war to end

No other world leader is calling for this pic.twitter.com/8grdhPTT7j

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 26, 2023

He is quite correct.

We must end this war before the nukes start flying.

And actually Joe Biden once warned that we would be facing “World War 3” if we ever sent tanks into Ukraine.

Just going to leave this here. #ww3 pic.twitter.com/Br5VaTRqUX

— Clayton Morris (@ClaytonMorris) January 25, 2023

But now the Biden administration is trying to assure us that sending tanks into Ukraine is perfectly fine.

Look, at this point we are providing more funding for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined, more military equipment for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined, more ammunition for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined, and more military intelligence for the war in Ukraine than everyone else combined.

In addition, we are regularly flying Ukrainians into this country for training.

Once their training is done, they are sent to the front lines where many of them will soon die.

Sadly, as long as it isn’t our boys and girls that are dying on the plains of eastern Ukraine, most Americans are simply not going to care.

But the truth is that this has become our war, and the Russians understand this very clearly…

“There are constant statements from European capitals and Washington that the sending of various weapons systems to Ukraine, including tanks, in no way signifies the involvement of these countries or the alliance in hostilities in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“We categorically disagree with this, and in Moscow, everything that the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is seen as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that this is growing.”

Over and over again, the Russians have threatened us with nuclear weapons, but for some reason we are not taking those warnings seriously.

This week, the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament wrote something that should send a chill up all of our spines…

The head of Russia’s State Duma has said that the promised deliveries of additional weapons to Kyiv by Western countries could heighten the war in Ukraine to a new level that could result in a “global catastrophe.”

Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel on January 22 that “if Washington and NATO countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories…this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons.”

The comments by the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament were broadly taken to mean nuclear weapons, and he has now joined other high-ranking Russian officials who have recently threatened a significant escalation of the unprovoked war the Kremlin launched against Ukraine 11 months ago.

But the Biden administration can’t back down now.

Biden has essentially pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table and is betting everything that this war will be a success…

Biden has pinned his legacy on a major land war in Europe in which the United States has engaged in an effective proxy battle with nuclear rival Russia. This fight – which is, in a way, the last battle of the Cold War – is a test of will between an American president and a Kremlin strongman deeply influenced by the US-Soviet standoff. Biden is leading the most significant foreign policy venture at least since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its success is critical for America’s credibility as well as his own. The magnitude of the mission is likely to overshadow much of the rest of his presidency – including the current investigation into misplaced classified documents – in world history.

So more escalations are inevitably coming.

It is time for the American people to face the truth. We are at war, and there is no way out.

Recently, an extremely long line of tanks was spotted rolling across Kansas.

Looks like the decision for war has already been made.

Kansas, U.S. today.pic.twitter.com/M5CtZikN2K https://t.co/HOo2YTs4Qg

— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) January 25, 2023

Scenes such as this will become increasingly common in the days ahead.

If the American people truly understood what was at stake, there would be massive protests in every major U.S. city right now.

But they don’t understand what is at stake.

We are literally closer to nuclear annihilation than we have ever been in our entire history, and the Russians have actually been preparing for such a scenario for decades.

Unfortunately, the backbone of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal is still made up of hopelessly outdated Minuteman missiles that first went into service back in the 1970s.

Would you want to use a computer or a phone from the 1970s?

Well, then why would we want to fight a nuclear war with missiles from the 1970s?

But instead of addressing that glaring need, the Pentagon is gearing up for conventional wars on multiple fronts, and this is making U.S. arms manufacturers very happy…

The Post also notes the budget proposal does far more than that: “It lays the foundation for a vastly revitalised defence industrial base – and does so with one eye on the People’s Republic of China.” 25 new mass-assembly lines will soon roll out weapons quantities “far in excess of what is required to replenish Ukraine.” 700 HIMARS systems are ordered vs. the 20 sent to aid Kyiv, and 3,600 of two kinds of anti-ship missile, more appropriate for the South China than the Black Sea.

One way or another, the military industrial complex always seems to win.

But if a nuclear war erupts, there will be no winners.

Only losers.

Joe Biden and his minions are assuring us that the war in Ukraine can be won without nuclear weapons ever being used by either side.

Do you believe them?

Hopefully they are correct, because if their gamble fails it will literally mean the end of civilization as we know it today.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The Cost Of Living Has Become Extremely Oppressive And 57 Percent Of Americans Cannot Afford A $1,000 Emergency Expense

January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 by Michael

I don’t have to tell you that your money doesn’t go as far as it once did. You see it every time that you go shopping. Our leaders flooded the system with money and pursued highly inflationary policies for years, and now we are all paying the price. The cost of living has been rising much faster than our incomes have, and this is systematically destroying the middle class. Survey after survey has shown that a solid majority of the population is living paycheck to paycheck, and at this point most U.S. consumers are tapped out. In fact, one brand new survey just discovered that 57 percent of Americans cannot even afford to pay a $1,000 emergency expense…

According to Bankrate’s Annual Emergency Fund Report, 68% of people are worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income. And when push comes to shove, the majority (57%) of U.S. adults are currently unable to afford a $1,000 emergency expense.

When broken down by generation, Gen Zers (85%) and Millennials (79%) are more likely to be worried about covering an emergency expense.

These numbers are quite ominous, because they clearly demonstrate that we are completely and utterly unprepared for any sort of a major economic downturn.

And thanks to the rapidly rising cost of living, we are losing even more ground with each passing month.

Another survey that was recently released found that “earnings are falling behind the cost of living” for 72 percent of middle income families…

Nearly three-quarters, or 72%, of middle-income families say their earnings are falling behind the cost of living, up from 68% a year ago, according to a separate report by Primerica based on a survey of households with incomes between $30,000 and $100,000. A similar share, 74%, said they are unable to save for their future, up from 66% a year ago.

We haven’t experienced anything like this in the United States in decades.

When I walked into a Walmart store the other day, I was shocked by how high the prices are now.

Isn’t Walmart supposed to be the place with “low prices every day”?

Well, the prices were certainly not “low” when I walked through the store.

And I was stunned to learn that McDonald’s is now selling one hash brown for three dollars.

McDonald’s charging $3 for 1 (one) hash brown is actually insane pic.twitter.com/qZwZrPTrTV

— cabral (@comradeaux) January 18, 2023

Are you kidding me?

I am sure that many of you can remember a time when they were 50 cents.

Sadly, those days are not coming back.

Food prices are going to continue to go up, and the CEO of Unilever recently admitted that his company has actually “been accelerating the rate of price increases that we’ve had to put into the market”…

“For the last 18 months we’ve seen extraordinary input cost pressure … it runs across petrochemical derived products, agricultural derived products, energy, transport, logistics,” he said.

“It’s been feeding through for quite some time now and we’ve been accelerating the rate of price increases that we’ve had to put into the market,” he added.

That doesn’t sound good at all.

And he also ominously warned that “there’s more inflationary pressure coming”…

Unilever’s view, he said, was that “we know for sure there’s more inflationary pressure coming through in our input costs.”

As food prices continue to rise, these big companies are going to look for ways to reduce input costs.

One way that they are going to do that is by starting to put crushed bugs in our food.

I know that this may sound really bizarre to you, but this is already happening in Europe…

As of yesterday, a food additive made out of powdered crickets began appearing in foods from pizza, to pasta to cereals across the European Union.

Yes, really.

Defatted house crickets are on the menu for Europeans across the continent, without the vast majority of them knowing it is now in their food.

So you might want to start reading labels a lot more carefully from now on.

Of course it isn’t just the cost of food that has become extremely oppressive.

Just about everything has gotten more expensive, and this has broken the remaining strength of the U.S. consumer.

If you doubt this, just consider some of the latest economic numbers that we have seen.

-U.S. retail sales fell once again last month…

US retail sales continued their fall in December, dropping by 1.1% as inflation remained high, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

That’s the largest monthly decline since December 2021, and practically every category (except for building materials, groceries and sporting goods) saw sales drop from the prior month.

-Sales of existing homes have now fallen for 11 months in a row…

U.S. existing home sales slowed for the 11th consecutive month in December as higher mortgage rates, surging inflation and steep home prices sapped consumer demand from the housing market.

-More Americans than ever before are being forced to pay at least 30 percent of their incomes on rent…

The average US household is now considered ‘rent-burdened’ as a record-high number of people are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

According to Moody’s Analytics’ latest affordability report, the national average rent-to-income (RTI) ratio reached 30 percent for the first time since the company began tracking the data more than 20 years ago.

U.S. consumers are being stretched financially like never before, and many are turning to debt to help them maintain their current lifestyles.

As a result, the savings rate has plunged to a historic low, credit card debt has surged to a record high, and the average rate of interest on credit card balances has also risen to a record high. As Zero Hedge has aptly noted, this is “nothing short of catastrophic”…

The combination of record high credit card debt and record high credit card interest is nothing short of catastrophic for both the US economy, and the strapped consumer who has no choice but to keep buying on credit while hoping next month’s bill will somehow not come. Unfortunately, it will and at some point in the very near future, this will also translate into massive loan losses for US consumer banks; that’s when Powell will finally panic.

For a long time, we have been warned that the very foolish economic policies that our leaders were implementing would have deeply tragic consequences.

And now it is starting to happen right in front of our eyes.

Sadly, the truth is that this is just the beginning.

The entire system is cracking and crumbling all around us, and there is much more pain ahead.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

Wake Up America! Apocalyptic Scenarios Are Unfolding All Around Us, But Most People Are Still Asleep

January 24, 2023 by Michael

How can you get people to wake up if they are determined to keep sleeping? For decades, global events have been moving us in a very ominous direction, and ever since this decade began the pace of change has accelerated dramatically. But even though we just keep getting hit by one major crisis after another, most people still do not get it. Almost everyone seems to be under the impression that the massive problems that we are experiencing right now are “just temporary” and that everything will “return to normal” soon. Meanwhile, apocalyptic scenarios continue to unfold all around us at a breathtaking pace.

Earlier today, I pulled up a USA Today article about the Doomsday Clock that boldly declared that “the world is closer to annihilation than it has ever been”…

The world is closer to annihilation than it has ever been since the first nuclear bombs were released at the close of World War II, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Tuesday. The time on the Doomsday Clock moved forward from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight.

It’s a reset of what has come to be known as the Doomsday Clock, a decades long project of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists featuring a clock face where midnight represents Armageddon.

Yes, we really are on the brink of nuclear war, but the vast majority of the general population hasn’t gotten the memo.

Instead, most of them are having a great time partying, spending money like there is no tomorrow, and getting into other sorts of trouble.

But just because most Americans choose to ignore the war does not alter the reality of what is taking place.

Sadly, both sides just continue to escalate the conflict. In fact, it appears that the Biden administration will soon be sending M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine for the very first time…

The Biden administration is leaning toward sending “a significant number” of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, two U.S. officials said, and an announcement could come as early as this week.

The development comes amid a public standoff with German officials, who are under pressure to send their own Leopard tanks and allow other European countries that operate the German-made vehicles to do so as well.

And it is being reported that the German government has reversed course and has now decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainians…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has finally decided to send a battalion of sought-after Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday, after weeks of pressure from Ukraine and European allies.

On the other side, the Russians have chosen to send a warship armed with hypersonic missiles within shooting range of major east coast cities…

A Russian warship armed with “unstoppable” hypersonic missiles is sailing towards the US coast in a show of strength, reports claim.

The guided missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov has been closely monitored by Nato navies on its maiden voyage armed with 6,670mph Zircon weapons.

An unconfirmed Russian Telegram channel report says it was “spotted on radar in neutral waters of the Atlantic Ocean – at an effective salvo launch distance from the US coast”.

Both sides are playing a very dangerous game.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just warned that we on the verge of seeing “a real war” between the western powers and Russia…

‘When we speak about what is happening in Ukraine – it is a war, not a hybrid one, almost a real war, that the West has been plotting for a long time against Russia,’ Lavrov said today.

If our leaders were sane, they would be trying to find a peaceful solution to this crisis while it is still possible.

Instead, we seem to be playing a very twisted game of “nuclear chicken” where we see how close we can come to the line without actually starting a nuclear war.

So what happens if a “mistake” is made and the missiles start flying?

You might want to start thinking about that.

Meanwhile, it appears that the coming war between Israel and Iran is also getting closer.

In fact, the U.S. and Israel are conducting “the most significant exercise between the United States and Israel to date”…

The Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Central Command on Monday announced the launch of a large-scale drill, which a senior U.S. defense official called “the most significant exercise between the United States and Israel to date.”

The unprecedented drill, dubbed “Juniper Oak 2023,” involves over 140 aircraft, 12 naval vessels, and artillery systems from both countries and will last until Friday, CENTCOM said in a statement.

Once the war between Israel and Iran starts, our planet will never be the same again.

Speaking of the planet, it is being reported that the inner core has apparently stopped moving…

A new study published in Nature Geoscience by geophysicists Yi Yang and Xiadong Song of Peking University in Beijing explored the nature of movement of Earth’s inner core, largely made up of iron and molten liquids. They found the inner core’s movement recently reduced enough they consider it “paused,” all part of what “seems to be associated with a gradual turning back of the inner core as a part of an approximately seven-decade oscillation.”

But don’t worry, because scientists think that this is normal.

Maybe it is.

Probably it is.

Hopefully it is.

Because if it isn’t normal for the Earth’s inner core to “pause”, then there is a possibility that we are all in really big trouble.

In other planetary news, an enormous asteroid that was “just discovered this past weekend” is about to zip past our world at an “extremely close” distance…

An asteroid just discovered this past weekend is set for an extremely close encounter with Earth—and you can watch it live as it zooms past our planet.

Most people assume that our scientists have a really good idea of what is going on up there, and that if a major threat was coming they would tell us about it.

Unfortunately, the truth is that their ability to detect giant space rocks is still fairly limited, and this new space rock that was “just discovered this past weekend” will come closer to us than we are to the center of our planet…

At that point, the space rock will come “only” about 6,500 miles from the center of the Earth while traveling at roughly 33,300 miles per hour. Given that the average radius of the Earth—the distance from the center to the surface—is considered to be roughly 4,000 miles, 2023 BU will zip past us at an altitude of around 2,500 miles above the ground.

Let me try to explain this another way.

This space rock will come more than 30 times closer to us than the moon is…

The approach is so close that it is less than 3 percent of the average distance between the Earth and the moon. The asteroid will also pass within the orbits of geostationary satellites, which circle the Earth above the equator at an altitude of 22,236 miles.

In other words, a space rock that was “just discovered this past weekend” is going to come very close to hitting us.

But it won’t hit us.

Maybe.

Probably.

Hopefully.

If everything else that I have shared so far is not enough, it is also being reported that “excess deaths” are soaring all over the globe…

Healthcare spending is at record-high levels across the Western world, yet systems are struggling to cope. The combined effects of the pandemic and a rapidly ageing population are stressing hospitals, ambulance crews and social care services to their limit. Excess deaths – those beyond usual numbers – are consequently soaring: the crisis is global.

What this means is that far more people are dying than normal all over the world.

In fact, we are being told that there were approximately 15 million “excess deaths” worldwide in 2020 and 2021…

Nearly 15 million excess deaths from any cause are thought to have occurred during 2020 and 2021, according to new WHO research – nearly three times the 5.42 million coronavirus fatalities reported over the same period. Health statistician William Msemburi said the figure was also likely especially high due to people dying from delayed health screenings and medical procedures.

More people will be dropping dead today, and more people will be dropping dead tomorrow.

But at least you won’t be one of them.

Maybe.

Probably.

Hopefully.

I could go on and on, but this article is already getting way too long. We keep getting hit by one thing after another, and I really like how Hal Lindsey summarized the current state of affairs in his most recent article…

The price of eggs… a Mall of America security guard threatening the wearer of a “Jesus saves” t-shirt… attacks on the US power grid… a worldwide obsession with pornography… another wave of nuclear threats coming out of Russia… a universal weakening of democratic institutions… a global reshuffling of leaders… threats of “civil war” in Israel… corruption in the highest levels of government across the world… weaponized Artificial Intelligence… deep fake audio and video enabling previously unimagined levels of deception… global economic chaos… and on and on.

What do these and hundreds of other things like them have in common?

Needless to say, the answer to Hal’s question is quite obvious.

The reason why so many apocalyptic things are happening is because we really are living in apocalyptic times.

Hopefully the general population will wake up and realize what time it is, because the clock is ticking.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

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