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We Are Just One Step Away From An Apocalyptic War In The Middle East

April 1, 2024 by Michael

Did you see what just happened in Damascus? In an absolutely stunning move, Israel took out the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Needless to say, the Iranians are absolutely furious and they are promising a “harsh” response. For a long time, I have been warning my readers that an apocalyptic war in the Middle East will be one of the conflicts that defines World War III. The good news is that the war in the Middle East has not escalated to an apocalyptic level yet. But after what we witnessed on Monday, we are just one step away.

The building that was destroyed by the IDF airstrike was reportedly directly next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus…

A building next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus has been destroyed in an airstrike, reportedly killing a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and five others – with state media saying Israel was behind the attack.

Pictures show the building in Syria’s capital razed to the ground, with huge plumes of smoke rising from the site following the explosion this afternoon and emergency workers rushing to the scene.

This particular building was apparently the residence of the Iranian ambassador to Syria.

The Syrian government says that the missiles that destroyed this building were fired from the Golan Heights…

The Syrian Ministry of Defence responded with a statement.

“This evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” it said.

“Our air defences responded to the missiles and shot down some of them. The aggression led to the destruction of the entire building and the martyrdom and injury of everyone inside.

“Work is underway to recover the bodies of the martyrs, treat the wounded and remove debris.”

It appears that the IDF was targeting a gathering of very important regional leaders.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi was among those that were killed. He was the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps…

The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was confirmed killed in the strike, alongside several other Iranian diplomats visiting the Syrian capital.

The IRGC-managed Fars News agency announced the commander’s death on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Another important Iranian military official named Haji Rahimi is also dead…

Haji Rahimi was named as the second commander killed in the attack on Iran’s consulate building in the Syrian capital, according to the statement shared by state news agency IRNA on Monday night.

Haji Rahimi was reportedly a coordinator for the Quds Force, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News.

This was a major victory for Israel, but the Iranians will inevitably respond.

In fact, Iran’s ambassador to Syria has already publicly stated that the response will be “harsh”…

Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari, who was not injured, said at least five people had been killed in the attack and that Tehran’s response would be “harsh.”

The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon said that the “barbaric Israeli aggression is a flagrant violation of international laws, diplomatic norms, and the requirements of the Vienna Convention.”

We shall see what Iran chooses to do.

As Zero Hedge has aptly noted, if Iran’s response is too severe, it could spark “an all-out regional war”…

Depending on Iran’s response, this could be the start of an all-out regional war. For months now, Iranian-made ballistic missiles and drones have rained down on Israel, fired by Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and Yemen. This new brazen Israeli attack on Iran’s embassy takes things into uncharted territory, and also opens up the potential for the Iranians to target Israeli embassies abroad.

Of course the Iranians have already been escalating matters.

Prior to the IDF airstrike on Damascus on Monday, Iranian-backed militants in Iraq used a drone to attack a key naval base in southern Israel…

In a significant first of the Gaza war marking a very serious escalation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed that a drone which slammed into a naval base in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat early Monday morning was launched from Iraq.

The IDF its statement said it identified a “suspicious aerial target” that breached Israeli airspace “from the east” before making impact “in the Eilat Bay area” on the Red Sea. While this isn’t necessarily the first instance of Iraqi militant groups claiming to have fired on Eliat, it appears to be the first time that direct impact was made on an Israeli navy base and that the IDF has confirmed it.

How far can both sides push one another before events spiral completely out of control?

Sadly, we are getting dangerously close to a point of no return.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is also having to deal with violent anti-Netanyahu protests all over the nation…

Israeli police violently clashed with protesters across the country last night, as tens of thousands took to streets across the nation to oppose Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership during the Israel-Hamas war.

Protesters from all parts of Israeli society flooded streets to share their rage at the Israeli prime minister and his handling of the war in Gaza that has so far left nearly 33,000 people, most of whom are civilians, dead.

And police took extreme measures to get them under control, with photographers capturing brutal moments where cops dragged demonstrators across tarmac and beat them into submission.

Benjamin Netanyahu certainly isn’t going to allow such protests to alter the course that he has set.

He continues to insist that the war will never be won unless the IDF goes into Rafah…

Israel will defeat Hamas by entering the terrorist stronghold of Rafah in the Gaza Strip and destroying the remaining battalions there, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Sunday night.

“There is no victory without entering Rafah; there is no victory without destroying the Hamas battalions there,” said Netanyahu in a primetime address, adding that the operation “will take time, but it will happen.”

The premier reiterated that only a combination of military pressure and tough negotiations would bring about the release of the remaining 134 hostages taken to Gaza by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7.

As I discussed last week, it appears that a ground operation in Rafah will begin either this month or next month.

While all of this is happening in the Middle East, we desperately need strong leadership in the White House.

Instead, either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris will be running things until at least January 2025…

Only 38 percent of likely 2024 voters believe President Joe Biden will be alive at the end of another four-year term, according to an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com.

And that means one thing: Vice President Kamala Harris is just as likely to be in the top job as Biden come January 2029 if he wins reelection.

Some 36 percent of likely voters believe Harris will be president at the end of the term. The exact same proportion as think Biden will be in the job.

When the time comes to make absolutely critical decisions regarding the conflict in the Middle East, do you trust either of them to be up to the job?

For a long time, we have been warned that the Middle East would eventually erupt in flames.

Now we are right at the door.

Unfortunately, most people in the western world have no idea how bad this war in the Middle East is going to become.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts 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, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

This Is How Most People Will Die When There Is A Large Scale Nuclear War Between The U.S. And Russia

March 31, 2024March 31, 2024 by Michael

We have never been closer to nuclear war than we are right now. If the conflict in Ukraine sparks a large scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia, billions of people could die. This is why so many of us desperately want leaders from both sides to sit down at the negotiating table and try to work out their differences peacefully. Perhaps a peaceful solution is not possible, but for the good of humanity they should at least make an attempt. Because as things stand right now, all it is going to take is one mistake for the world to be plunged into an unthinkable nuclear cataclysm.

According to author Annie Jacobsen, the U.S. has a network of satellites that is constantly watching for an ICBM launch from one of our enemies…

“The US Defense Department has a early warning system. And the system in space is called SBIRS, a constellation of satellites that is keeping an eye on all of America’s enemies.”

“So the moment an ICBM launches, they see the hot rocket exhaust on the ICBM a fraction of a second after it launches. And so there begins this horrifying policy called launch on warning, and that’s the US counterattack.

“The reason that the United States is so ferociously watching for a nuclear launch somewhere around the globe is so that the nuclear command and control system in the US can move into action to immediately make a counterstrike.

“That policy, launch on warning, is exactly like it says, it means the United States will not wait to absorb a nuclear attack. It will launch nuclear weapons in response before the bomb actually hits.”

In the event of a surprise first strike, there would only be a handful of minutes to get the president out of bed and decide what to do.

Needless to say, the president would not want to launch a counterstrike if it is a false alarm.

Because once the missiles are in the air, there is no calling them back.

When a nuclear warhead explodes, a fireball is created that is unimaginably hot. The following comes from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists…

Microseconds into the explosion of a nuclear weapon, energy released in the form of X-rays heats the surrounding environment, forming a fireball of superheated air. Inside the fireball, the temperature and pressure are so extreme that all matter is rendered into a hot plasma of bare nuclei and subatomic particles, as is the case in the Sun’s multi-million-degree core.

The fireball following the airburst explosion of a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon—like the W87 thermonuclear warhead deployed on the Minuteman III missiles currently in service in the US nuclear arsenal—can grow to more than 600 meters (2,000 feet) in diameter and stays blindingly luminous for several seconds, before its surface cools.

The light radiated by the fireball’s heat—accounting for more than one-third of the thermonuclear weapon’s explosive energy—will be so intense that it ignites fires and causes severe burns at great distances. The thermal flash from a 300-kiloton nuclear weapon could cause first-degree burns as far as 13 kilometers (8 miles) from ground zero.

If you are at ground zero, you will have zero chance of surviving.

According to a study that was conducted several years ago, approximately 34 million people would die during the first few hours of a large scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia.

But that would be just the first wave of death.

In the aftermath of a nuclear exchange, radioactive fallout would spread over much of the continental United States…

Using archived weather data over 48-hour periods across a number of dates in 2021 to simulate the expected radioactive plume, the scientists found that the West Coast states were the lowest risk due to a prevailing easterly wind.

However, depending on the exact wind direction, the worst fallout could fall over any part of the U.S. and Canada east of Idaho. Based on weather patterns on December 2, 2021, Chicago, Illinois and D.C., among other population centers, would be in the direct path of a fatal dose of radiation.

In a worst-case scenario, almost all of Montana and North Dakota, as well as parts of Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and Kansas would receive a dose more than 10 times what is considered lethal, resulting in deaths in a matter of days. Most of the Midwest would receive a lethal dose, while elsewhere would see deaths occur in weeks.

Radioactive fallout would kill far more people than the initial explosions would.

But the good news is that radiation levels would dissipate fairly rapidly.

So if you are far enough away from a ground zero and you are able to survive the initial tsunami of radioactive fallout, it will eventually be safe to go outside again.

But at that point there will be no more supply chains, people will be fighting for whatever dwindling resources are left, and “famine alone could be more than 10 times as deadly as the hundreds of bomb blasts involved in the war itself”…

As horrific as those statistics are, the tens to hundreds of millions of people dead and injured within the first few days of a nuclear conflict would only be the beginnings of a catastrophe that eventually will encompass the whole world.

Global climatic changes, widespread radioactive contamination, and societal collapse virtually everywhere could be the reality that survivors of a nuclear war would contend with for many decades.

Two years after any nuclear war—small or large—famine alone could be more than 10 times as deadly as the hundreds of bomb blasts involved in the war itself.

Ultimately, nuclear winter will kill more people than anything else.

For those of us that live in the northern hemisphere, it will be exceedingly difficult to grow much of anything once temperatures drop far below normal…

This makes Earth freezing cold even during the summer, with farmland in Kansas cooling by about 20 degrees centigrade (about 40 degrees Fahrenheit), and other regions cooling almost twice as much. A recent scientific paper estimates that over 5 billion people could starve to death, including around 99% of those in the US, Europe, Russia, and China – because most black carbon smoke stays in the Northern hemisphere where it’s produced, and because temperature drops harm agriculture more at high latitudes.

Can you imagine what our world would look like if such a war actually happened?

Unfortunately, relations between the United States and Russia are the worst that they have ever been, and we are getting closer to a nuclear war with each passing day.

Politicians in the western world assume that the Russians would never risk a nuclear war because the consequences would be so apocalyptic for everyone.

But Russian politicians have warned us over and over again that if we push Russia too far there will be a nuclear war.

And as I detailed in my new book entitled “Chaos”, the Russians have been feverishly preparing to fight a nuclear war for many years.

They know that there are no “winners” in a nuclear war.

But they also know that whoever strikes first will have the best chance of surviving one.

Right now, Russian forces are advancing and Ukrainian leaders are becoming increasingly desperate…

“Western leaders are bracing for the Ukrainian army’s collapse as it has only been able to slow the advance of Russian forces amid weapons and ammunition shortages, the Times writes.

In its editorial, titled ‘It’s time we talked about the fall of Kiev’, the paper points out that ‘contrary to the predominant view that this is a perpetual frozen conflict, with neither side able to win a decisive advantage, the front line is bitterly contested and there is a real risk of Ukrainian forces being pushed back’.

‘This is the nightmare scenario now being contemplated by western policymakers’, the Times notes.

Russia’s advance ‘would obviously be disastrous for the Ukrainians’. ‘It would also confront the West with all manner of tough challenges’, the newspaper says. ‘The consequences of a partial or complete defeat would be calamitous in ways western populations have barely begun to understand. But we have a lazy habit in the comfortable West – away from Europe’s front line in east and south Ukraine – of wishful thinking and being unprepared for bad surprises’, the Times emphasizes.”

Ukrainian officials realize that the only way they can win the war is for NATO forces to intervene, and some western leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron are very open to the idea.

But Vladimir Putin has warned that this will put us one step away from nuclear war, and he has decided to conscript another 150,000 men into the Russian military…

Vladimir Putin has called up another 150,000 men for Russian army conscription, the highest figure for eight years.

This comes as Orthodox priests have been ordered to say prayers in church for the dictator’s victory in the war.

The recruits are aged 18 to 30 and will be conscripted between 1 April and 15 July amid his war against Ukraine.

The Russians are convinced that western leaders want to bring down the Russian government and divide Russia up into a bunch of smaller pieces.

On the other side, politicians in the western world are determined to do “whatever it takes” to keep the Russians from winning in Ukraine.

Both sides are being unreasonable and paranoid, and that is a recipe for disaster.

All it is going to take is one mistake to unleash a nuclear cataclysm, and billions of lives hang in the balance.

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

The “Mystery Illness” That Has Been Spreading Among Cattle In Texas, Kansas And New Mexico Has Been Identified, And It Isn’t Good News

March 28, 2024March 28, 2024 by Michael

Officials had been greatly puzzled by a “mystery disease” that has been making dairy cattle in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico very sluggish and has been causing them to produce much less milk. So they decided to do some testing, and we now have the results. It turns out that the mystery illness is actually “the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years”…

A mystery illness that’s impacted dairy herds in the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas now has a diagnosis: Influenza A. USDA says genetic sequencing revealed it’s the same strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that’s been in the U.S. for two years.

APHIS says the “National Veterinary Services Laboratories” detected Influenza “A” in samples from several impacted herds in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. The virus is carried by wild waterfowl, which experts think is how the illness is spreading.

The experts did not think that bird flu would be a threat to dairy cattle.

Unfortunately, the experts were wrong.

Scientists were able to confirm the presence of the bird flu by testing samples of milk from sick cows…

According to USDA, as of March 25, unpasteurized, clinical samples of milk from sick cattle collected from two dairy farms in Kansas and one in Texas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas, have tested positive for the virus.

Now that bird flu has been identified as the culprit, dairy farmers are being urged to strictly implement “all standard biosecurity measures”…

Officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

I was quite shocked to learn that this was happening right here in our own country.

The good news is that all milk from sick cows is being kept out of the food chain…

“Also, routine testing and well-established protocols for U.S. dairy will continue to ensure that only safe milk enters the food supply. In keeping with the federal Grade ‘A’ Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), milk from sick cows must be collected separately and is not allowed to enter the food supply chain. This means affected dairy cows are segregated, as is normal practice with any animal health concern, and their milk does not enter the food supply. Consumers in the United States and around the world can remain confident in the safety and quality of U.S. dairy,” the statement said.

Will we eventually get to a point where entire herds of dairy cows have to be killed in order to prevent the spread of the disease?

Let’s hope not.

Earlier this month, we learned that a goat in Minnesota has also tested positive for bird flu…

A goat in Stevens County, Minnesota, has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), becoming the first U.S. detection of HPAI in a domestic ruminant. The goat contracted the virus after a poultry flock on the same premises was depopulated in February due to the virus. Following the confirmation of HPAI in the goat, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health quarantined all other species on the premises. The Board said is working with USDA to investigate the transmission of the virus in this case.

It appears to be just a matter of time before the bird flu starts becoming a significant threat to humans as well.

According to Dr. Chris Walzer, “dozens of mammalian species” have already been infected…

In January, Dr Chris Walzer, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Executive Director of Health, in a statement, said: “It (H5N1) has infected over 150 wild and domestic avian species around the globe as well as dozens of mammalian species. The bird flu outbreak is the worst globally and also in US history, with hundreds-of-millions of birds dead since it first turned up in domestic waterfowl in China in 1996.”

We better hope that the bird flu does not mutate into a form that can spread very easily among humans.

Because according to the NIH, bird flu can have a death rate of more than 50 percent in humans…

As of November 2022, 240 cases of human avian influenza A (H5N1) virus have been confirmed from the Western Pacific Region since 2003 with a case fatality rate of 56%.

A global bird flu crisis would be far worse than anything that we have experienced during the past several years.

Just try to imagine the panic that would ensue if H5N1 were to start killing millions of people around the world.

Hopefully that will not happen any time soon.

Earlier today, I did come across an article about a 21-year-old student in Vietnam that was just killed by H5N1…

A student in Vietnam has died of H5N1 bird flu, according to the country’s Department of Preventive Medicine.

The 21-year-old man developed symptoms of fever and a cough on March 11. A week later, he presented at Ninh Hoa Medical Center in Vietnam’s eastern Khanh Hoa province, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia and transferred to Khanh Hoa General Hospital.

The student tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza on March 20, and further tests conducted two days later at the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute showed the patient was infected with the H5N1 subtype.

Let us pray that this was just an isolated incident.

Meanwhile, other pestilences continue to spread all over the planet.

For example, dengue fever has become a major problem in Brazil, and now government officials in Puerto Rico have declared a dengue fever epidemic…

On Monday, government leaders in Puerto Rico declared a dengue epidemic after a spike in cases of the mosquito-borne disease hit the island.

From the start of the year through March 10, there were 549 cases, including 341 hospitalizations and 29 severe cases, according to the most recent data provide by the Puerto Rico Department of Health. Cases are concentrated in cities including San Juan, Bayamon, Guaynabo and Carolina.

I have been repeatedly warning my readers that global pestilences would be one of the major themes of the next several years.

Bird flu has already killed hundreds of millions of birds, and now it is spreading in mammals.

A widespread bird flu outbreak among humans would have the potential to be absolutely catastrophic, and so we will want to watch this story very, very closely.

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

Interesting Timing: Israel Is Reportedly Getting Ready To Launch A Massive Ground Operation In Rafah “In Mid-April Or Early May”

March 27, 2024 by Michael

An Israeli ground operation in Rafah is a “red line” for Hezbollah and Iran, and so once the IDF goes in the entire region could explode. Of course if Israel intends to destroy Hamas, an operation in Rafah is necessary, because that it where Hamas is hiding. Israeli officials have been telling us over and over again that there will be a ground operation in Rafah no matter what the Biden administration or anyone else thinks, and now we have a timeline. The following is from a Times of Israel article entitled “Report: Israel preparing for Rafah ground operation in mid April or early May”…

Following the failure of the latest round of negotiations in Qatar, Israel is not willing to make any further concessions to Hamas and is gearing up for an invasion of Rafah after Eid al-Fitr — the three-day holiday that follows Ramadan and ends around April 12 — or in early May at the latest, according to Egyptian sources who have been in contact with IDF officials, quoted by the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar daily.

That is very interesting timing.

If this report is accurate, we are likely to see a ground operation in Rafah shortly after the Great American Eclipse of 2024 on April 8th.

According to that same Times of Israel article, the ground operation in Rafah “would last between four and eight weeks”…

The ground op inside the last bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip would last between four and eight weeks, the sources say, and would be accompanied by an evacuation of the civilian population sheltering in Rafah, which amounts to about 1.5 million people, toward the center of the Strip along specific routes and at specific times, announced to civilians in each area of Rafah in advance.

The mass evacuation would be monitored from the ground and the air to ensure that no Hamas fighters or Israeli hostages are hidden among the Gazan civilians, the Egyptian officials say.

Normally, in a military conflict you would never want to tell the enemy what you are going to do or when you are going to do it.

But in this case the Israelis are trying to keep events from spiraling out of control.

Unfortunately, it won’t work.

We are on the verge of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, and it certainly won’t take much to push things over the edge.

On Tuesday, the IDF conducted their deepest strike into Lebanese territory so far…

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Tuesday another rare strike conducted deep into Lebanese territory. The strikes targeted “a military compound used by Hezbollah’s aerial unit” in the Baalbek District which is in the northeast of the country.

This marks the deepest Israeli strike inside Lebanon since the war began in the wake of the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack, at more than 110km from Israel’s border.

In response, Hezbollah fired a bunch of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday…

Hezbollah has fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, killing one person, in response to deadly Israeli strikes on a Lebanese village.

Lebanese sources said seven people were killed in the Israeli attack overnight on Habbariyeh, making it one of the deadliest in recent violence.

Israel said militants were killed, including one involved in attacks on Israel.

It won’t be too long before this conflict goes to the next level.

But it appears that it won’t happen until after the Great American Eclipse on April 8th.

Meanwhile, there continues to be a lot of talk about a coming Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

This isn’t new, but right now lots of people on social media are buzzing about a military training site in a very remote area of China that is “an exact replica of the road network near Taiwan’s Presidential Palace”…

The Chinese have been gearing up for an invasion of Taiwan for quite some time.

Let’s just hope that they do not decide to pull the trigger here in 2024.

Elsewhere, it appears that Russian intelligence has concluded that “the US, UK and Ukraine were behind the Moscow concert hall attack that killed at least 139 people”…

The director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, said on Tuesday that the US, UK and Ukraine were behind the Moscow concert hall attack that killed at least 139 people on Friday – despite repeated claims of responsibility by Islamic State.

Russian officials persisted in saying Ukraine and the West had a role in last week’s deadly Moscow concert hall attack despite vehement denials of involvement by Kyiv and a claim of responsibility by an affiliate of the Islamic State group.

Since Friday’s terror attack, the Russians have been hammering major cities in Ukraine with hypersonic missiles.

This actually plays into the hands of the Ukrainians, because the more destruction that is rained down on Ukrainian cities the more likely it is going to be that western troops will eventually be sent into Ukraine.

And that is precisely what Ukraine wants.

The Ukrainians will not win this war the way that it is going.

Their only chance of winning is for NATO to intervene.

But Vladimir Putin has already warned that sending NATO troops into Ukraine could lead to nuclear war…

Putin noted that while accusing Russia of plans to attack NATO allies in Europe, Western allies were “selecting targets for striking our territory” and “talking about the possibility of sending a NATO contingent to Ukraine.”

“We remember the fate of those who sent their troop contingents to the territory of our country,” the Russian leader said in an apparent allusion to the failed invasions by Napoleon and Hitler. “Now the consequences for the potential invaders will be far more tragic.”

In a two-hour speech before an audience of lawmakers and top officials, Putin cast Western leaders as reckless and irresponsible and declared that the West should keep in mind that “we also have the weapons that can strike targets on their territory, and what they are now suggesting and scaring the world with, all that raises the real threat of a nuclear conflict that will mean the destruction of our civilization.”

On top of everything else, it looks like military conflict could soon erupt in the Balkans…

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti alleged that Serbia is planning an invasion and has deployed military units near the border.

Kurti shared footage showing Serbian army movements and accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic of making “open threats.”

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia maintains it as part of its territory. The situation has raised tensions, and Kurti has called for increased troop presence from NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) to deter any potential aggression.

I truly believe that global war will be one of the dominant themes of 2024.

And it appears that things will escalate to an entirely different level following the Great American Eclipse on April 8th.

Many dominoes will start tumbling once the IDF launches a ground operation in Rafah, and the whole planet will be extremely shocked by what happens.

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

The Baltimore Bridge Collapse Is Going To Have An Enormous Impact On U.S. Supply Chains

March 26, 2024March 26, 2024 by Michael

When I awoke early on Tuesday morning, I was stunned to learn that the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore had collapsed. We are being told that it was a tragic “accident” and that there is no evidence that any foul play was involved. Hopefully that is true. But no matter how it was caused, this tragedy is going to have an enormous impact on U.S. supply chains. And of course this comes at a really bad time, because Houthi missile strikes in the Red Sea and low water levels in the Panama Canal have been putting a tremendous amount of strain on global supply chains recently.

According to Bloomberg, it appears that the Port of Baltimore will be “out of commission indefinitely”…

The Port of Baltimore — the biggest handler of US imports and exports of cars and light trucks — looks to be out of commission indefinitely. The resulting bottleneck could accelerate a shift of goods through West Coast ports. Another crucial question: Which other ports have spare capacity to handle the Ro-Ro vessels that carry automobiles if Baltimore is closed for an extended period.

This is a really big deal, because over 750,000 vehicles came through that port last year alone…

The port is the busiest in the U.S. for car shipments, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration. It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products.

In addition, a whole host of prominent retailers are very dependent on the Port of Baltimore…

Retailers like Home Depot, Bob’s Furniture, IKEA, and Amazon are just some of the companies that use the port to import goods. Other top imports include sugar and gypsum.

“This will have an impact for trade all along the East Coast and it will continue until we know how quickly” the port can reopen, said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.

Vessels were already being diverted to New York and down to Virginia on Tuesday, said Meade. “There will be dozens of diversions in the next week and hundreds in the coming months as long as Baltimore is shut down.”

This isn’t the end of the world, and shipments can certainly be diverted to other ports.

But we are talking about the 11th largest port in the entire nation, and so this will definitely be a serious blow…

More than 52 million tons of foreign cargo, worth some $80 billion were transported out of the port last year, according to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. The 11th largest port in the nation, Baltimore served an average of 207 calls a month last year, according to the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.

In addition, it is going to take a very long time for the Francis Scott Key Bridge to be rebuilt.

As Lara Logan has pointed out, that section of I-695 was the “second busiest strategic roadway in the nation for hazardous material”…

Second busiest strategic roadway in the nation for hazardous material now down for 4-5 years – which is how long they say it will take to recover. Bridge was built specifically to move hazardous material – fuel, diesel, propane gas, nitrogen, highly flammable materials, chemicals and oversized cargo that cannot fit in the tunnels – that supply chain now crippled.

One expert is projecting that it will take more than two years to rebuild the bridge…

While trade is nimble and will reroute, over the long term the bridge will need to be fundamentally engineered and rebuilt, and that will take years.

“It will be in excess of two years,” said Meade, of Lloyd’s List. “There will be significant disruption and cost to this infrastructure project. In 1977, the bridge cost $60 million. Take in inflation and the rapid pace to redesign and build will increase procurement premiums. This will be a very expensive project.”

I would be shocked if it happens that quickly.

We shall see.

In any event, we are talking about a multi-faceted crisis that is going to be affecting U.S. supply chains for the foreseeable future.

At a press conference following the collapse of the bridge, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg openly admitted that we are looking at a “major and protracted impact on supply chains”…

“There is no question this will be a major and protracted impact on supply chains,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Baltimore.

I think that this is the first time I have ever agreed with Pete Buttigieg on anything.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

In the months ahead, U.S. supply chains will be hit with additional challenges.

So if there are things that you are planning to purchase, I would do that now.

Before I end this article, there is one more thing that I wanted to mention.

Global supplies of cocoa just keep getting tighter and tighter, and on Tuesday the price of cocoa jumped above $10,000 per metric ton for the first time ever…

Cocoa prices hit a record Tuesday as supply constraints fuel prices higher.

Futures for May delivery were up 3.9% at $10,030 per metric ton, marking the first time the commodity breaks above the $10,000 mark. Cocoa has been on a tear this year, soaring nearly 138%.

Difficult weather conditions and disease have affected production in West Africa, which produces about 70% of the world’s cocoa. The two largest producers, Ivory Coast and Ghana, have been hit by a combination of heavy rain, dry heat and disease recently.

In January, it was less than half that price.

If you love chocolate, stock up on it while you still can.

Of course the same thing could be said about countless other things.

Do you remember the supply chain problems that we experienced a couple of years ago?

Well, what is eventually coming is going to absolutely dwarf that.

Many are using the term “black swan event” to describe the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but the truth is that we are moving into a time when there will be one “black swan event” after another.

So get prepared while there is still an opportunity to do so, because the months and years ahead of us are going to be extremely chaotic.

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

New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco And Baltimore Were Once Such Beautiful Cities…

March 25, 2024March 25, 2024 by Michael

If America is heading in the right direction, why have so many of our major cities become cesspools of violence, drugs, theft, trash and homelessness? Once upon a time, millions of young people from all over America flocked to our rapidly growing metropolitan areas. Today, there is a mass exodus out of our largest metropolitan areas due to the absolutely deplorable conditions. If you are not yet convinced that we are a nation in decline, spend some time wandering around our core urban areas. The shiny new cities that previous generations of Americans built for us are degenerating at a pace that is absolutely stunning.

Just look at what is happening to New York. A couple of decades ago, it was still in relatively good shape.

But now it is going down the tubes really fast.

A shopping mall in the Big Apple that cost a billion dollars to build just ten years ago is being permanently shut down because conditions in the city have become so intolerable…

A MAJOR city mall with dozen of stores is planning to shut up shop as America’s theft epidemic continues to batter businesses.

Retail operator Westfield announced that it intends to end its lease and sever all operations with the Fulton Center in Lower Manhattan.

Westfield put pen to paper on a two-decade long lease in 2014.

However, as levels of theft and homelessness continue to spiral, the company have decided to forego the contract 10 years early.

Westfield has cited soaring crime and quality of life concerns as their reason for terminating the lease.

Yes, things really are that bad.

Walking away from a billion dollar project is not an easy decision, but Westfield apparently has come to the conclusion that conditions are not going to improve any time soon.

Just because a city was great at one time does not mean that it will always be great.

Detroit was once one of the greatest cities on the entire planet, but now it has become a cautionary tale…

Detroit was once the symbol of the mighty industrial power of America. It was the home of the “Big Three” American car companies that dominated car production around the world. It was America’s success at developing a large industrial middle class.

Today one finds articles like the Guardian’s “The Death of a Great American City: why does anyone still live in Detroit?” So what has happened to what was once one of the greatest Rust Belt cities? The story of Detroit is a much larger tale of what has been happening in the city of Gary in Indiana – a ghost town in the making.

Other major cities should learn from what has happened to Detroit.

But instead, many of them are making the exact same mistakes.

Years of progressive policies have turned some of our most appealing cities into horror shows.

It wasn’t too long ago that the glamour of Hollywood drew in visitors from all over the globe, but now Hollywood is absolutely packed with homeless encampments…

A large Hollywood Boulevard homeless encampment that residents say is a hotspot for selling and buying drugs, a trash-strewn tent city they say took the city three months to clear, has sparked continued concern as unhoused residents are already returning to the location.

The encampments are a persistent problem plaguing neighborhoods not just in Hollywood but across greater Los Angeles.

Conditions are similar up north in San Francisco.

I have written extensively about the hordes of addicts that wander aimlessly through the streets. These addicts leave trash and human excrement wherever they go, and as a result San Francisco is an extremely filthy city today.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the city itself is “dumping raw sewage and trash directly into the Bay at a magnitude that’s almost incomprehensible”…

Sejal Choksi-Chugh, Baykeeper’s executive director, said, “There’s no excuse for polluting the Bay with sewage and trash, and those who pollute must be held accountable. Dumping millions of gallons of untreated sewage into Mission Creek and the Bay is unacceptable, avoidable, and illegal.”

Nearly all of SFPUC’s discharges flow into Mission Creek and Islais Creek, Baykeeper found. The nonprofit’s field investigators visited Mission Creek during sewer discharges and saw the presence of fecal matter, plastics, syringes, and condoms in the water.

“San Francisco is dumping raw sewage and trash directly into the Bay at a magnitude that’s almost incomprehensible,” said Baykeeper attorney Eric Buescher.

Yuck!

I thought that progressives were supposed to be in favor of protecting the environment.

On the east coast, the city of Baltimore is facing a different sort of crisis.

After years of disastrous policies, the police shortage in the city has reached an “apocalyptic” level…

Baltimore is now facing apocalyptic levels of policing shortages.

Last week, THREE police officers patrolled a whole district of 61,000 residents.

Police are now UNABLE to respond to calls, including for child assault.

The department is now postponing police training in an attempt to solve shortages.

At one time in my life, I would visit Baltimore pretty regularly.

And I was always thankful to get out of the city safely.

Of course things are much worse now, and at this point I don’t know why anyone would still want to live there.

Pittsburgh is also experiencing a very serious shortage of police officers.

In fact, things have gotten so bad that police in the city will no longer “respond to any calls that aren’t in progress emergencies”…

Beginning Monday, Pittsburgh police won’t respond to any calls that aren’t in progress emergencies.

Chief Larry Scirotto wants to cut their call volume from approximately 200,000 calls per year down to about 50,000.

That essentially means that calls for criminal mischief, theft, harassment and burglary alarms, just to name a few, will all be handled by the telephone reporting unit or online reporting.

This is what a nation in decline looks like.

We have turned our backs on the values that this nation was founded upon, and as a result we are now experiencing social decay on an epic scale.

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

Pawn Shop Inventories Are Exploding As The Failing U.S. Economy Hammers Those At The Bottom Of The Economic Food Chain

March 24, 2024March 24, 2024 by Michael

How much longer will the Biden administration and the mainstream media continue to deny that we are in the midst of a very painful economic downturn? Debt levels have never been higher, delinquency rates are spiking, the commercial real estate market is crashing, the banking industry is mired in turmoil and large companies are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation. Anyone that attempts to claim that the U.S. economy is in good shape is just being delusional. Unfortunately, it is those that are at the bottom of the economic food chain that are being hurt the most.

If you want to know what is really going on with the economy, pawn shops are a great place to look.

When the economy is doing well, pawn shop inventories tend to go down because people aren’t pawning much stuff and there is lots of buying going on.

But when the economy is not doing well, pawn shop inventories tend to go up because people are pawning lots of stuff for fast cash and there aren’t as many buyers as there were during the good times.

So what are we seeing during the early stages of 2024?

One pawn shop owner that was recently interviewed by USA Today admitted that he has “a glut of inventory” right now…

Clay Baron has everything in his pawn shop from gold rings and pearl necklaces to vintage cowboy boots, silver belt buckles, stereos and ticking clocks.

The only thing he’s short on is space. “Right now we have a glut of inventory,” Baron said, “which tells me that our clientele doesn’t necessarily have money.”

Accumulating pawn shop inventory means fewer buyers than sellers – a sign that for the lowest-income Americans, times remain tough.

That same article pointed out that inventory levels have also grown rapidly at some of the largest pawn shop chains in the entire nation…

Two of the largest, publicly traded pawnshop corporations in the U.S. – which between them own roughly 1,700 pawnshops nationwide – are also reporting growing inventory and increased demand for short-term loans.

FirstCash Holdings Inc. operates nearly 1,200 pawnshops under the FirstCash and Cash America brands in 29 states and the District of Columbia. The company reported “record pawn receivables” in its most recent year-end earnings report and a 10% increase in inventory at its U.S. stores.

EZCORP Inc. also owns 530 pawnshops in the U.S. and reported an 8% increase in inventory at U.S. stores in the company’s latest earnings report. The “challenging macro-economic backdrop” continued to fuel demand for short-term cash loans, the company said.

If anyone comes to you and tries to convince you that the economy is doing well, just show them these numbers.

That will be the end of any debate.

One of the reasons why so many Americans need fast cash is because debt loads have risen to unprecedented levels. Here is just one example…

For Denise and Paul Nierzwicki, credit cards are the only way to make ends meet. The couple, ages 69 and 72, respectively, have about $20,000 in debt spread across multiple cards, all with interest rates above 20%.

The trouble started during the pandemic, when Denise lost her job and a business deal for a bar that they owned in their hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, went bad.

They applied for Social Security, which helped, and Denise now works 50 hours a week at a restaurant. Still, they’re barely scraping together the minimum payments for their credit card debt.

Can you imagine how much stress they must be feeling on a daily basis?

Sadly, there are millions of others that are in similar positions.

The combination of high debt levels and high interest rates has created a “perfect storm” of suffering for U.S. consumers, and so it should be no surprise that delinquency rates have been surging…

The signs are obvious. Last week we noted that banks’ charge-offs are accelerating, and are now above pre-pandemic levels.

…and leading this increase are credit card loans – with delinquencies that haven’t been this high since Q3 2011.

On top of that, while credit cards and nonfarm, nonresidential commercial real estate loans drove the quarterly increase in the noncurrent rate, residential mortgages drove the quarterly increase in the share of loans 30-89 days past due.

When large numbers of people start getting behind on their mortgages, it is only a matter of time before foreclosures start to spike.

And that is precisely what we are witnessing…

Home foreclosures rose again in February as Americans continue to grapple with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

That is according to a new report published by real estate data provider ATTOM, which found that there were 32,938 properties in February with foreclosure filings, which includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Sadly, things are only going to get worse during the months ahead, because the labor market is starting to get very tight.

One 26-year-old woman that has multiple degrees hasn’t been able to find a job even though she has already applied for approximately 1,000 different positions…

Cheyenne Barton, 26, of Kissimmee, Florida, graduated in December with one degree in biomedical sciences and another in computing technology and software development – the kind of practical background employers have coveted.

She initially targeted software development jobs but is now looking for “really any job” where she can use her degrees.

Barton has applied for about 1,000 positions but hasn’t yet notched an interview.

Companies “say they want recent grads who are teachable and can learn quicker,” she says. “But then you apply for the job and it’s like, ‘Oh, we already have over 100 applications with people who are more qualified.’”

Wait a second.

Joe Biden told us that good jobs are easy to find these days.

So why can’t Cheyenne Barton even get an interview?

Something is not adding up.

Of course the truth is that we have seen a major shift in the labor market in recent months. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in February was the highest that they have ever recorded for that particular month…

The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated in February, a sign the labor market is starting to deteriorate in the face of ongoing inflation and high interest rates.

That is according to a new report published Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which found that companies planned 84,638 job cuts in February, a 3% increase from the previous month and a 9% jump from the same time last year.

It marked the highest layoff total for the month of February in data going back to 2009.

The outlook for the rest of the year is absolutely dismal.

So even more Americans will fall into poverty.

And even more Americans will fall into hunger.

And even more Americans will end up homeless.

Over the weekend, a story about a homeless man in Wasco, California that was apparently eating “a severed human leg” has been going viral…

Video footage shot in Wasco, California appears to show a crazed maniac waving around a severed human leg and taking bites out of it before police apprehended him Friday.

Reports have suggested that the man ‘stole’ the leg from the scene of a train accident, where a person was earlier hit and killed.

The footage shows the man, identified as 27-year-old Resendo Tellez, holding and examining the limb, with witnesses saying he was eating parts of it, before attempting to walk away waving it around as multiple police cars close in on him.

That is pretty shocking.

But it is also a preview of where this country is heading.

The economic suffering of the past couple of years has been very painful, but the truth is that it isn’t even worth comparing to what is in front of us.

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

U.S. Troops Are One Mile From The Chinese Border

March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 by Michael

The U.S. cannot afford a war with China. The size of our military has been shrinking, and our resources are stretched way too thin. Today, the U.S. has military bases in 80 different countries, and we have troops stationed in 178 different countries. That is insane. No empire in the entire history of humanity has had forces spread all over the planet like this. Our ammunition levels are extremely low due to major conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and every war game that our leaders have conducted has shown us losing a war to protect Taiwan. So we should be trying to avoid sparking a war with China, because we are holding a losing hand.

But our politicians seem determined to provoke one anyway. It is being reported that officials in Taiwan have confirmed that U.S. forces are now permanently stationed “on its islands in the Taiwan Strait”…

Taiwan has officially confirmed the presence of US troops stationed on its islands in the Taiwan Strait permanently, a development that could further escalate mounting tensions with China.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in 2023 facilitated the deployment of these troops to conduct training programs for Taiwanese frontline forces.

This is going to make Chinese authorities extremely mad.

It would have been bad enough if we had just put troops on Taiwan’s main island.

But we didn’t stop there.

We are being told that U.S. troops have also been stationed on the Penghu islands and the Kinmen islands…

According to reports from Taiwan’s United Daily News (UDN), US Army Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group are now permanently stationed at bases of the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, a Taiwanese army special operations force, located in outlying island counties of Penghu and Kinmen. Notably, Kinmen lies just over a mile from Chinese shores.

Additionally, reports suggest an American military presence in the northeast city of Taoyuan on Taiwan’s main island, with service members providing specialized training on drone equipment for Taiwan’s elite Airborne Special Service Company.

How would we feel if Chinese troops were one mile from the U.S. border?

Taiwan’s main island is approximately 100 miles from China, but in some places the Kinmen islands and China are “barely more than a mile apart”…

The island of Taiwan, governed by the Republic of China (ROC), lies about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan also administers a number of smaller islands known as the Kinmen archipelago, or Kinmen County. Great Kinmen Island and its neighbor islets are on the other side of the strait, in a harbor just east of the port city of Xiamen, practically surrounded by the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—in some places barely more than a mile apart.

What are our leaders thinking?

This doesn’t make war less likely.

It makes war more likely.

On Wednesday, China sent 32 warplanes toward Taiwan in a 24 hour period…

Thirty-two Chinese warplanes were detected over Taiwan in just 24 hours, the country’s defense ministry said.

In the 24 hours between Wednesday 6am and Thursday 6am local time, the second highest number of Chinese planes this year buzzed over the island nation accompanied by five naval vessels around Taiwan.

Twenty of the aircraft ‘crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait’, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement on Thursday. The aircraft were detected after nightfall and included fighter jets, unmanned drones and medium-range transport aircraft, according to the ministry.

The Chinese do this sort of thing when they are upset.

And right now they are very, very upset.

And China has been feverishly preparing for the coming war…

China is building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II and all signs suggest it’s sticking to ambitions to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, a top US admiral testified.

Despite Beijing’s economic challenges, its official defense budget has increased by 16% over recent years to more than $223 billion, Admiral John Aquilino, the leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, told the US House Armed Services Committee in prepared testimony on Wednesday.

In the three years since he took command, he said the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, has added more than 400 fighter aircraft, along with more than 20 major warships. It’s also doubled its inventory of ballistic and cruise missiles since 2020, he said.

When war with China finally erupts, will we be able to handle it?

Of course not.

Our forces are scattered all over the planet, and so many of our resources have already been poured into the war in Ukraine.

Even though there have been efforts to ramp up ammunition production in the U.S., it is being reported that “Russia is producing nearly three times as many artillery munitions as the United States and Europe combined”…

Russia’s defence minister said on Thursday that artillery shell production had risen by nearly 2.5 times in the past year, while artillery component production had soared by a factor of 22 as Moscow races to rearm faster than the West can supply Ukraine.

Russia’s current dominance in artillery production is a factor that could help decide the course of the Ukraine war – which is largely fought with artillery and drones – at a time when the West fears Russia is set for more battlefield wins.

CNN reported earlier this month that Russia is producing nearly three times as many artillery munitions as the United States and Europe combined, citing unidentified Western intelligence sources.

No matter how you feel about the war, that is just embarrassing.

One of the reasons why we won World War II was because the U.S. could simply outproduce everyone else by a wide margin.

But now we just look pathetic.

French President Emmanuel Macron and other western leaders have suggested that NATO troops should be sent into Ukraine if that is what is necessary to keep the Russians from winning.

If that actually happens, U.S. boys and girls will inevitably be sent to die in the trenches of eastern Ukraine too.

In anticipation of a wider war, the Russians are conducting another round of mobilization.

In fact, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has just announced “the creation of 2 new ground armies, with 16 new brigades & 14 new divisions”.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials continue to insist that a major ground operation will happen in Rafah no matter what the Biden administration thinks about such a move…

On Thursday Israel issued its most defiant response yet to Washington pressre that it abandon its plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, over fears of another mass civilian casualty humanitarian disaster, given the high number of refugees packed into the southern Gaza city.

A top Israeli official was quoted in Bloomberg as saying the military is going to invade Rafah and defeat Hamas “even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States.” Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, issued the words in a podcast interview.

“We are going to go in and finish this job, and anybody who doesn’t understand that doesn’t understand that the existential nerve of the Jews was touched” by the Oct. 7 terror attack, he said.

When the IDF goes into Rafah, that could cause the entire region to erupt.

And so U.S. forces may be called on to intervene in the Middle East as well.

Spreading your resources way too thin is a sure way to lose.

Unfortunately, our politicians don’t seem to understand this, and their very foolish decisions will soon lead to absolutely disastrous consequences.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is 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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