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A Majority Of The House Now Supports Impeachment – And Some Republicans Senators Are Looking Really Shaky

According to the latest count by NBC News, most of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives now support moving forward with impeachment.  And that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shocked the country by announcing the initiation of an impeachment inquiry this week.  But what is surprising is the number of Republicans that are expressing concerns about Trump.  In the end, this entire ordeal may come down to a vote in the U.S. Senate, and President Trump desperately needs Republicans to stay united.  Unfortunately, even after the release of the transcript of President Trump’s conversation with the President of Ukraine (which you can read right here), some “moderate” Republicans are clearly not standing behind the president.  All that it would take to completely kill the move toward impeachment is a completely united Republican Party, and right now that is not happening.

But of course impeachment proceedings begin in the House, and that is where the focus is right now.

According to the latest count, 220 members of the House “now favor some kind of impeachment action”…

Two hundred and nineteen House Democrats and one independent — a majority of the chamber’s 435 members — now favor some kind of impeachment action against President Donald Trump, according to an NBC News tally.

House Democrats reached the milestone a day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into the president following claims that he might have withheld aid to Ukraine to pressure officials there to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

At this point the Democrats have a solid majority in the House of Representatives, and that is bad news for Trump.

If a vote was taken at this moment, even before any evidence is formally presented, I believe that they would vote to impeach Trump.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter what the truth is in this case.  The Democrats want Trump out, and if it comes to a vote they are going to vote to impeach.

Of course any shred of evidence that could potentially strengthen their case is going to be treated like gold by the Democrats, and several of them had an opportunity to finally read the whistleblower complaint on Wednesday.  The following comes from Politico…

A select group of lawmakers reviewed the whistleblower complaint Wednesday while on Capitol Hill. While the members of Congress could not disclose details of the whistleblower complaint, several said that it was cause for concern.

“Having read the documents in there, I’m even more worried about what happened than when I read the memorandum of the conversation,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “There are so many facts that have to be examined. It’s very troubling.”

When Congressman Mike Quigley was asked about the document, he could hardly contain himself as he described how “alarming” it was…

Quigley asserted the whistleblower complaint “is the political equivalent” of Trump’s claim during his 2016 presidential campaign that he could “stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody” without losing voters.

“What the President said during the campaign, he said he could shoot someone on the street and his base would stay with him. I guess what I read, to me, was the political equivalent of that: defying the constitution, committing a criminal act and thinking, ‘Well I can get away with it,’ ” he said. “Some sort of bizarre cult of personality. Deeply disturbing what we read this morning. Alarming.”

But those sorts of comments are expected from the Democrats.

What is not expected is the number of Republicans that are refusing to back President Trump right now.

For instance, just consider what Republican Senator Ben Sasse just said…

Asked if the mere act of a U.S. president asking a foreign government to investigate the family of his American political rival is an abuse of power, Sasse said: “There’s a lot that we’re hearing about right now that’s leading people to ask a bunch of hypotheticals where we don’t really know all the underlying facts yet. So I don’t think it’s all that useful to speculate about a lot of highly particular hypotheticals. But in general terms, American elections should be for Americans. And the idea that we would have foreign nation-states coming into the American electoral process, or the information surrounding an election, is really, really bad.”

And after reading the transcript of the phone conversation, U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told the press that he found it to be “deeply troubling”…

“It remains troubling in the extreme. It’s deeply troubling,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters Wednesday, when asked about the transcript.

Three Senate GOP aides said Wednesday that their bosses were grousing and frustrated by the White House’s decision and the sense that Republican lawmakers were being forced into the difficult position of defending Trump while contending with what many see as an alarming or at least problematic transcript.

At this point, it is being reported that Republicans in the Senate have already divided into two camps.  One is being called “the Burr Camp”, and the other is being called “the Johnson camp”, and both camps are taking very different approaches…

One early divide among Senate Republicans is between the “Burr camp” and the “Johnson camp,” according to two senior GOP aides who were not authorized to speak publicly, referring to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Burr’s faction of the Senate GOP has a darker, frustrated view of Trump’s handling of Ukraine, while Johnson’s wing is more focused on probing Biden, the aides said.

We shall see how events unfold over the next few months, but right now it doesn’t appear to be smooth sailing for President Trump.

And adding to Trump’s difficulties is the fact that a Ukrainian official has come forward claiming that it was well understood by the Ukrainians that President Trump would only speak to the new president of Ukraine if Joe Biden’s corruption would be part of the conversation.  The following comes from ABC News…

“It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine’s Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. “This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood.”

The Trump administration’s alleged insistence that the two leaders discuss a prospective investigation into Biden, one of the president’s political opponents, casts his July 25 conversation with Zelenskiy in a new light.

In the end, even if President Trump tried to pressure the Ukrainians to look into Joe Biden’s corruption, that definitely does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.

But the Democrats are more than willing to twist the Constitution if that is what it takes to get Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.

So now we have high drama in Washington, and it threatens to tear this country apart.

Nancy Pelosi essentially committed herself to going down the road of impeachment when she made her announcement earlier this week, and it is just a matter of time before we see a vote in the House.

And Pelosi will make sure that the vote is successful, and so that means that Trump’s fate will end up in the U.S. Senate.

In order to remove Trump from office, it will take 67 votes in the Senate, and the Democrats only have 47 seats.

So they would need 20 Republican votes, and at this point we don’t know if there are that many Republicans that are willing to stab him in the back.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time. Of course the most important thing that we can share with people is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if you would like to learn more about how you can become a Christian I would encourage you to read this article.

If Donald Trump Is Impeached, You Should Expect The Mother Of All Stock Market Crashes To Happen

News that an impeachment inquiry is being initiated instantly sent stock prices tumbling on Tuesday, but that small jolt is nothing compared to what we will experience if Donald Trump is actually impeached.  Over the past couple of years we have seen a tremendous boom in stock prices, and one of the big reasons for that boom is the fact that the folks on Wall Street know that Trump is always going to be looking out for their best interests.  Trump understands that his chances of winning again in 2020 will be greatly enhanced if stock prices are rising and most Americans believe that we have a “booming economy”, and so he wants to do everything in his power to try to make those things happen.  That means that Trump’s short-term interests are perfectly aligned with Wall Street’s short-term interests, but things will shift dramatically if someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders ends up in the White House.  Wall Street knows that they have a friend in Donald Trump, and losing that friend would potentially be absolutely devastating.

Needless to say, a lot of investors were unnerved on Tuesday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that a formal impeachment inquiry is being initiated.  The following is an excerpt from Pelosi’s official remarks…

For the past several months, we have been investigating in our Committees and litigating in the courts, so the House can gather ‘all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article I powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity — approval of articles of impeachment.’

And this week, the President has admitted to asking the President of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The action of – the actions of the Trump Presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.

Therefore, today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. I am directing our six Committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry.

The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law.

In the aftermath of that announcement, liberal celebrities all across America erupted in celebration.

But can Nancy Pelosi unilaterally declare the commencement of a formal impeachment inquiry without any sort of a vote?  According to Representative Doug Collins, she actually does not have that power…

In reaction to the Speaker’s announcement, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) tweeted, “Speaker Pelosi’s decree changes absolutely nothing. As I have been telling Chairman Nadler for weeks, merely claiming the House is conducting an impeachment inquiry doesn’t make it so. Until the full House votes to authorize an inquiry, nobody is conducting a formal inquiry.”

In any event, the Democrats are going to push ahead with their investigations, and they seem determined to dig up anything that they possibly can.

In response to Pelosi’s announcement, the White House issued a statement which accused congressional Democrats of being “in dereliction of their Constitutional duty”…

‘In a far departure from all of the work and results of this President, House Democrats have destroyed any chances of legislative progress for the people of this country by continuing to focus all their energy on partisan political attacks. Their attacks on the President and his agenda are not only partisan and pathetic, they are in dereliction of their Constitutional duty,’ said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham in a statement.

We shall see how everything plays out over the next few months, but at this point it seems fairly certain that we will see an impeachment vote on the floor of the House, and it also seems fairly certain that the vote will be split largely along party lines.

Because in this day and age the truth really doesn’t matter.  Even if there isn’t any evidence against Trump at all, most Democrats will vote to impeach because that is what they are expected to do.  And even if Trump is 100 percent guilty most Republicans will vote against impeachment because they would be afraid of being voted out of office by angry voters back home.

So in the end it will probably come down to what the Senate decides to do, and right now the Republicans are holding 53 seats.

Unfortunately for Trump, some of those 53 seats are held by very “moderate” Republicans that are not fans of Trump at all.

Sadly, the fate of the Trump presidency is likely to end up in the hands of a small group of deeply corrupt politicians that I wouldn’t trust to properly mop the floors in my local Dairy Queen.

With that in mind, I think that Trump fans definitely have reason for some pessimism.

Democrats are licking their chops at the prospect of impeaching Trump and then getting either Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren into the White House following the next election.

Joe Biden would try to get along with Wall Street, but a Warren administration would be an absolute disaster for investors and right now she is surging in the polls.

Elizabeth Warren originally made a name for herself by attacking Wall Street.  Virtually all of her economic proposals would be bad news for the top 1 percent, and the fact that she is doing so well right now is just one of the factors that are currently unsettling the markets…

For one, this time around it appears Democrats in the House have momentum toward beginning impeachment proceedings. Second, a formerly robust economic backdrop has given way to jitters about global growth and fears that the U.S. economy is nearing the end of a lengthy expansion. Less confident investors could be more jittery in the face of political headlines than was previously the case.

Also, impeachment proceedings could take center stage in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, potentially damaging Trump’s re-election bid. Fears of a less business-friendly Democratic administration — amplified by the recent strength of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has moved ahead of Biden in some polls — could also be part of the mix, analysts said.

Of course the short-term health of Wall Street is not what we should really be concerned about.

At this moment, the entire global economy is plunging into a substantial downturn, and whoever wins in 2020 is going to have to face that reality.

And beyond that, we are facing long-term crisis after long-term crisis that none of our politicians really want to deal with, and in the end we are going to pay a great price for our short-term thinking.

But for the foreseeable future, the mainstream media is going to be obsessed with the political drama being played out in Washington.

And I know that most Republicans don’t want to hear this, but there is a very real chance that Donald Trump could be impeached by the House.

Then it will all come down to the Senate, and Trump’s fate will be in the hands of moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time. Of course the most important thing that we can share with people is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if you would like to learn more about how you can become a Christian I would encourage you to read this article.

North America’s Bird Population Is Collapsing – Nearly 3 Billion Birds Have Been Wiped Out Since 1970

All around us, our world is literally in a state of collapse, but most people don’t seem to care.  I spend much of my time writing about the inevitable collapse of our economic and financial systems, but they are only one part of the story.  These days, millions upon millions of us are spending countless hours in this “virtual world” that we have created, and that is preventing many of us from understanding what is really going on in “the real world”.  Where I live, I can literally keep the doors wide open for hours without worrying about bugs coming in, because insect populations are disappearing at a pace that is frightening.  They are calling it “the insect apocalypse”, and some scientists are warning that they could all be gone in 100 years.  And this dramatic decline in the insect population is one of the main reasons why North America’s bird population is collapsing.  In the old days, I remember the singing of birds often greeting me in the morning, but these days I am never awakened by birds.  That might make sense if I lived right in the middle of a major city, but I don’t.  I live in a very rural location, and I do see birds out here, but not nearly as many as I would expect.

Sadly, the scientific evidence is confirming what many of us had feared.  According to a scientific study that was just released, North America’s bird population has fallen by “nearly 3 billion birds since 1970″…

If you’ve noticed fewer birds in your backyard than you used to, you’re not mistaken.

North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970, a study said Thursday, which also found significant population declines among hundreds of bird species, including those once considered plentiful.

On second thought, I don’t know if the term “collapse” is strong enough to describe what we are facing.

In 1970, there were about 10 billion birds in North America.

Now, there are about 7 billion.

When are we finally going to admit that we have a major crisis on our hands?

Hopefully it will be before the count gets to zero.

Overall, we are talking about a total decline of approximately 30 percent…

“We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community,” says Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. “By our estimates, it’s a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds.”

Could humanity survive without birds?

Probably, but this is yet another sign that the planetary food chain is in the process of totally breaking down.  Despite all of our advanced technology, we are not going to survive without an environment that supports life, and at this moment that environment is being destroyed at a staggering pace.

According to the lead author of the study, the evidence they compiled “showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds”…

“Multiple, independent lines of evidence show a massive reduction in the abundance of birds,” said study lead author Ken Rosenberg, a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy, in a statement. “We expected to see continuing declines of threatened species. But for the first time, the results also showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds.”

I like having birds in my backyard.  In fact, I wish that I had a whole lot more.

Two of the largest factors being blamed for this stunning decline are “toxic pesticides” and “insect decline”.  We have already talked about the “insect apocalypse” which is raging all around us, but I should say a few words about pesticides.  Yes, they may help to protect our crops and our lawns, but in the process we are literally poisoning everything.

And that includes ourselves.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “there are traces of 29 different pesticides in the average American’s body”, and many believe that this is one of the reasons why cancer rates have skyrocketed in recent decades.

These days it seems like just about everyone knows at least one person with cancer.  If you are one of those rare people that doesn’t know a single person with cancer, please leave a comment below, because I would love to hear your story.  It has been estimated that one out of every three women and one out of every two men will get cancer in their lifetimes, but considering the rate that we are currently polluting our environment those estimates may be too conservative.

Without a doubt, several of the big pesticide companies are some of the most evil corporations on the entire planet, and yet most Americans don’t really seem to care about the death and destruction that they have unleashed all around us.

As with so many other things, this is yet another example that shows that we have no future on the path that we are currently on, and the clock is ticking.

Don’t you want a world in which the birds sing to you in the morning?  Pete Marra, one of the scientists involved in the study, told the press that a number of bird species “that were very common when I was a kid” are among those being hit the hardest…

“We can all talk through the stories about there being fewer and fewer birds, but it’s not until you really put the numbers on it that you can really grasp the magnitude of these results,” Marra said. “We’re now seeing common species that have declined, things like red-winged blackbirds and grackles and meadowlarks — species that I grew up with, that were very common when I was a kid. That is the most surprising and most disturbing part.”

Everywhere around us, we can see decay, decline or collapse.  This stunning drop in the bird population is just one more example.

But just like with so many other issues, most people don’t really care, and most people certainly don’t want to change.

So in the end we will reap what we have sown, and it will not be pleasant.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The Middle East War Begins: Netanyahu Warns There Is “No Other Choice But To Embark On A Wide Scale Campaign In Gaza”

With elections looming on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning that Israel has “no other choice” other than to invade Gaza in order to overthrow the Hamas regime in power there.  In fact, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that on Friday Netanyahu said that war “could happen at any moment”.  The Prime Minister and other Israeli officials are sick and tired of rockets being constantly fired into Israel, and they have come to the conclusion that a peaceful resolution with Hamas is simply not possible.  Here in the United States many on the left will criticize Israel for taking military action, but how long would any U.S. president wait before taking military action against a terror group that was firing missiles at us?  The truth is that Israel has been exceedingly patient with the situation in Gaza, but now the time for patience has run out.

In recent days, Netanyahu has made it exceedingly clear what is about to happen.  Here is one example from the Jerusalem Post…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Thursday that Israel may have no choice but to embark on a military operation in Gaza to overthrow Hamas.

“It looks like there will be no other choice but to embark on a wide scale campaign in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet Radio shortly before he boarded a flight to Moscow where he is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And here is another quote where he essentially says the exact same thing…

“There probably won’t be a choice but to topple the Hamas regime. Hamas doesn’t exert its sovereignty in the Strip and doesn’t prevent attacks,” he said. “We have a situation in which a terror group that launches rockets has taken over, and doesn’t rein in rogue factions even when it wants to.”

Netanyahu’s comments also came two days after a campaign rally in the southern city of Ashdod was interrupted by incoming rocket sirens after rockets were fired from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

I am not sure how Netanyahu could be any clearer.  Here is a third example…

“I do not wage war unless it is a last resort and I don’t risk the lives of our soldiers and citizens just to get applause,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet Radio. “We will probably have no choice but to set out on a big campaign, a war against the terror forces in Gaza.”

“I won’t start it one minute before we are ready, and we are preparing for a `different war’,” he added, shortly before flying to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu always chooses his words very carefully.  He is a gifted communicator, and we have never seen him talk quite like this before.

In the past, Israel has responded to rocket attacks from Gaza by conducting targeted airstrikes, and this is something that we witnessed yet again on Wednesday…

Early Wednesday, Israeli jets launched air strikes on 15 targets belonging to the Hamas terror group, which rules the Gaza Strip, in response to the rockets fired at Ashdod and Ashkelon, which were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, according to the IDF.

But it has become clear that airstrikes will never be enough to permanently stop the rocket attacks, and so the Israeli government is preparing to initiate a major ground operation inside Gaza.

Of course this could potentially spark a much wider regional war.  Israel and Hezbollah have literally been on the brink of war for months, and so if a major conflict erupts it is easy to envision Hezbollah jumping in to aid their allies in the south.

Right now, Hezbollah has approximately 150,000 missiles pointed at Israel, and their troops are battle-hardened after fighting for many years in Syria.

And if Israel and Hezbollah go to war, there is a very strong possibility that Iran could get involved as well.

Basically we are just a hop, skip and jump away from a cataclysmic war in the Middle East, and this is one of the reasons why Israel has shown so much restraint.

But at some point action must be taken.  No nation is going to allow terrorist organizations to keep firing rockets at their citizens indefinitely, and the Israeli government has had enough.

As IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi recently stated, there is “a moral obligation to defend the nation’s citizens against the armies of terrorism that surround them”…

“The changes in the enemy demand that the IDF make changes and adjust its forces and methods of warfare, so urban areas cannot shield the enemy. The firepower the enemy will encounter in the next war will be unprecedented, and a country that allows terrorism to entrench itself in its territory will be seen as responsible for it, and suffer the consequences,” Kochavi warned.

“The IDF has a moral obligation to defend the nation’s citizens against the armies of terrorism that surround them. When the Israeli homefront is under threat by thousands of missiles and rockets, we won’t hesitate to strike a massive blow to eradicate those threats. We will attack and preserve our values, but a main tenet of those values is the need to protect our citizens,” he said.

Personally, I doubt that the Israeli military operation will happen before the election on Tuesday, but I could be wrong.

And let us also hope that it can be postponed until after the upcoming Jewish holidays.

But it is coming, and once Israeli tanks roll into Gaza everything will change.  Global events are about to accelerate significantly, and so many of the things that we have been watching for are about to happen.

Both sides have been preparing for this war for a very long time, and the death and destruction will be immense.

Things are eerily quiet for the moment, but the fighting will soon commence, and when it does this will become the biggest news story on the entire planet.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The Most Memorable Quote From Each Of The 10 Candidates During Thursday’s Democratic Presidential Debate…

Okay, so let’s talk about Thursday’s debate.  Apparently, every month the Democrats are going to subject us to at least one of these debates, and I suppose that this time around we should be thankful that they did not stretch things out over two nights.  All of the big news networks are covering the debate as if it was some sort of political playoff game, but the truth is that Thursday’s debate probably won’t move the numbers much at all.  Nothing of substance was said that wasn’t said in previous debates, and there were no defining moments that will significantly change the course of the campaign.  So that is really bad news for anyone not named Joe, Bernie or Elizabeth.  Real Clear Politics keeps a running average of all the recent major national polls, and according to them none of the other candidates is even close to double digits right now.  It looks like it is going to be a three way race between Biden, Sanders and Warren, and Warren appears to be the one with momentum.  Of course it is still possible that something huge could happen between now and the beginning of next year that could fundamentally shake up the race, but as it stands now the other seven candidates that were on the stage with them might as well pack up and go home.

So the truth is that the debate really wasn’t that important, but many Americans watch these debates for the sheer entertainment value.  With that in mind, here is the most memorable quote from each of the 10 candidates during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate…

–Cory Booker: “I’m the only person on this stage that finds (Justin) Trudeau’s hair very menacing”

–Joe Biden to Bernie Sanders: “For a socialist, you’ve got a lot more confidence in corporate America than I do.”

–Bernie Sanders: “It goes without saying that we must — and will — defeat Trump, the most dangerous president in the history of this country.”

–Kamala Harris: “But the bottom line is this, Donald Trump in office on trade policy, you know, he reminds me of that guy in “The Wizard of Oz,” you know, when you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude?”

–Amy Klobuchar: “What [Trump] has done here, has assessed these tariffs on our allies, he’s put us in the middle of the trade war and treating our farmers and workers like poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos.”

–Pete Buttigieg: “Well, the president clearly has no strategy. You know, when I first got into this race, I remember president Trump scoffed and said he’d like to see me make a deal with Xi Jinping. I’d like to see him making a deal with XI Jinping. Is it just me or was that supposed to happen in like April?”

–Julian Castro to Joe Biden: “Barack Obama’s vision was not to leave 10 million people uncovered. He wanted every single person in this country covered. My plan would do that, your plan would not.”

–Elizabeth Warren: “I was in the United States Senate when 54 Senators said, ‘let’s do background checks, let’s get rid of assault weapons’ and with 54 Senators, it failed because of the filibuster. Until we attack the systemic problems, we can’t get gun reform in this country.”

–Beto O’Rourke: “We’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”

–Andrew Yang: “My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families”

Yes, we have literally gotten to the point where presidential candidates are trying to win votes by offering cash handouts.  If he wins the election, Yang is promising to give $1,000 a month to everyone in America.  Back during the founding of our nation, Benjamin Franklin warned that this would happen someday…

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”

Apparently Andrew Yang decided that he can’t wait until he is president to start handing out free cash, and his unusual announcement is making headlines all over the country.

While doing research for this article, I discovered that the Yang campaign has already begun running ads for this cash giveaway, and I was curious so I clicked on one of the ads.

I learned that you don’t have to actually donate any money to his campaign to qualify for the contest, and you don’t even have to be a Democrat to participate.

So I signed up.

If Andrew Yang wants to financially support my work for an entire year, I will gladly take his money.

Of course what I believe is diametrically opposed to just about everything he believes, and so he probably won’t be too thrilled if I win.

Personally, I think that Yang is making a mistake with his proposal to offer every American $1,000 a month if he becomes president.  With the cost of living these days, $1,000 a month doesn’t really go that far.

If he really wanted to get votes, he should have set the bar higher.  $5,000 a month would really start to get a lot of people excited, and $10,000 a month would be even better.

Yes, if we could all get $10,000 a month from the federal government each month we could all retire and nobody would ever have to work again and we could all spend our days frolicking in our new socialist utopia.

Isn’t that how it is supposed to work?

Sadly, our politicians seem to get more disconnected from the real world with each passing day.  We are 22 trillion dollars in debt, our nation is falling apart all around us, and we are rapidly steamrolling toward oblivion.

But most Americans continue to fall for the con game that our political system has become, and so the endless parade of clowns will continue.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The Suicide Rate In The U.S. Has Hit The Highest Level In 50 Years, And There Is Concern That It Will Go Much Higher

Despite the fact that more money is being spent on suicide prevention efforts than ever before in our history, the suicide rate in the United States continues to rise dramatically.  As you will see below, one new study has discovered that our suicide rate actually increased by 41 percent between 1999 and 2016.  Even though we have the highest standard of living that any generation of Americans has ever enjoyed, we are an exceedingly unhappy nation and we are killing ourselves in unprecedented numbers.  This shouldn’t be happening, but unfortunately the forces that have taken over our culture have convinced multitudes of Americans that their lives are not worth living any longer.  In a culture where truth has been abandoned, it is easy for lies to run rampant, and it takes a great deal of deception to get someone to willingly choose to embrace suicide.  No matter what you are going through right now, there is always a way to turn things around, and we all have been given lives worth living.

Sadly, the suicide rate in this country has continued to escalate year after year.  According to the Los Angeles Times, 2017 is “the latest year for which reliable statistics are available”, and in that year the U.S. suicide rate hit a 50 year high…

Whether they are densely populated or deeply rural, few communities in the United States have escaped a shocking increase in suicides over the last two decades. From 1999 to 2016, suicide claimed the lives of 453,577 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 — enough to fill more than 1,000 jumbo jets.

Suicides reached a 50-year peak in 2017, the latest year for which reliable statistics are available.

These numbers come from a new study that was just released, and it claims that our suicide rate actually increased by 41 percent between 1999 and 2016…

The researchers evaluated national suicide data collected between 1999 and 2016, then created a county-by-county estimation of suicide rates among all adults between the ages of 25-64. In that time period, suicide rates rose an astonishing 41%; from a median of 15 suicides per 100,000 county residents in 1999 to 21.2 in the last three years of analysis.

And suicide is also a rapidly growing problem among our teens and young adults as well.

In fact, suicide is now the second leading cause of death for Americans from age 10 to age 24.

Everyone goes through very low times, and for many people it can seem like those low times will never end.  But when I was at my lowest points many years ago, I always had faith that better days were coming, even though at the time I couldn’t even imagine the absolutely amazing things that were ahead for me.  The point that I am trying to make is that we simply do not know what the future will hold.  No matter how dark things may seem to you right now, a miracle could literally be right around the corner.

This new study that just came out also discovered that suicide rates are significantly higher in rural parts of the country…

It was noted that suicide rates were at their highest in less-populous counties and in areas where people have lower incomes and diminished access to resources. For example, between 2014 and 2016, there were 17.6 suicides per 100,000 people in large metropolitan counties, noticeably lower than the 22 suicides per 100,000 people recorded in rural counties.

The quality of life in rural areas is so much nicer in so many ways, but there is also a lot of isolation and poverty as well.  Humans are meant to be social creatures, and when there aren’t a lot of people around that can feed feelings of depression.  And if someone is deeply struggling with poverty, it can be difficult to see a way out in an area with few economic opportunities.  According to Brookings Institution research analyst Carol Graham, many Americans living in such areas “see no optimism for the future”…

“These are the places that used to be thriving rural places, near enough to cities and manufacturing hubs,” she said. “They’re places that accord with a stereotypical picture of stable blue-collar existence — and a quite nice existence — for whites in the heartland.”

With the collapse of extractive industries such as coal mining, the departure of manufacturing jobs, and a strapped agricultural economy, “these communities just got flipped on their head,” Graham observed. “And the people in those places became unhinged. You’d have a sense of places where everything has left. And among those who stay, you see no optimism for the future.”

If this is happening now, while economic conditions are still relatively stable, what is going to happen to the suicide rate during the next major U.S. economic downturn?

There is never, ever, ever a good reason for someone to commit suicide, but unfortunately during the next recession we are likely to see the suicide rate rise substantially higher.

Another factor that is resulting in a higher rate of suicide in rural areas is a lack of health insurance…

Last but certainly not least, a lack of health insurance coverage is significantly associated with rising suicide rates in rural US counties.

Specifically, the researchers observed that the more people in a county who didn’t have health insurance coverage, the higher that county’s suicide rate was.

When you are buried in medical bills that you know that you will never be able to pay, it can be exceedingly difficult to envision brighter days ahead.  Our healthcare system is deeply, deeply broken, and this is something that I wrote about on Tuesday.

It is such a tragedy when people choose to end their lives because of financial circumstances, because financial circumstances are always temporary.

No matter how bad things are in your life right now, there is always a way to turn them around.  The best days of your life could still be ahead for you, but you have got to be willing to believe that this is true.

Life is an absolutely incredible gift, and don’t let anyone ever convince you that you should end it.

It has been said that life is like a coin.  You can spend it any way that you want, but you can only spend it once.  I would encourage you to spend it loving others greatly, enjoying each day to the fullest, and doing something that truly matters.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

Temperatures In The Pacific Ocean Have Shot Up To Dangerous Levels, And Scientists Are Blaming A “Strange Anomaly”

It is being called “the Pacific marine heatwave of 2019”, and officials are warning that it could have very frightening implications if it does not dissipate soon.  Right now, there is a vast expanse of water stretching from northern Alaska all the way to southern California where the water temperatures have rapidly risen to very dangerous levels.  In fact, in some spots the water temperature is already “as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal”, and there is a tremendous amount of concern about what will happen if the water continues to become even warmer.  At this point things are already so bad that we are being warned that this strange anomaly could “ravage marine life and decimate commercial fishing” all along the west coast.  The following comes from NPR…

A huge new marine heat wave has gripped the waters off the U.S. West Coast, threatening to ravage marine life and decimate commercial fishing over an expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

We are being told that this new anomaly is probably similar to another “marine heatwave” known as “the Blob” that made global headlines when it struck the region in 2014.

And if that is true, then things will definitely get very uncomfortable for marine life, but conditions will eventually go back to normal.  Although for the near future we are being warned that this anomaly is “on a trajectory to be as strong as the prior event”…

“It’s on a trajectory to be as strong as the prior event,” said Andrew Leising, a research scientist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. About five years ago, sea temperatures peaked at close to 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average. This year’s heat wave already is almost as large and almost as warm, with temperatures as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal over a very large area. The size and intensity of the heat wave are ominous signs of its potential danger to marine life.

But what if this new anomaly is not being caused by temporary weather patterns?

Normally, ocean temperatures take a substantial amount of time to change so dramatically, but in this case we have seen a radical change in temperatures “in just three months”…

“It went from a little bit warmer than average to about as warm as we’ve ever seen it, in just three months,” said Nate Mantua, a research scientist at Noaa’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Santa Cruz, California.

Could it be possible that this new anomaly is being caused by something else this time around?

We don’t know, and most of the experts are assuring us that we don’t have too much to worry about, but the size of this new blob has already reached 2.5 million square miles and it continues to expand at an aggressive pace.

The weeks ahead should tell us more.  The previous “Blob” dissipated very rapidly once weather patterns shifted, and hopefully that will happen to this new anomaly.

But if ocean temperatures remain elevated or go up even higher, that could potentially be absolutely devastating for marine life along the west coast, and experts are already warning about what could happen to the salmon population…

“Ocean conditions can be stressful for the salmon, if the temperatures get really warm and their food supplies are very poor,” Mantua said. “That’s a tough combination for them, because their metabolic rates go up with higher temperatures, so their need for food increases and the food supply is going down at same time.”

And it doesn’t take that much of a temperature change to put their lives in jeopardy.  The following information comes from the Seattle Times…

Sustained water temperatures above 68 degrees Fahrenheit can stress young salmon, increase disease and keep adult salmon from reaching their spawning grounds. Water temperatures above 73 degrees can be lethal.

According to Dr. Andrew Leising, this new anomaly is already “one of the most significant events that we’ve seen”, and it just keeps getting worse.

So let’s keep a close eye on it.

To me, an image that the NOAA recently released certainly makes it look like what we are experiencing in September 2019 is significantly more severe than what we experienced in September 2014.  And if ocean temperatures continue to rise, it is inevitable that a lot of sea creatures will die.

But if this new anomaly is being caused by the exact same thing that caused “the Blob” to appear in 2014, then it could dissipate just as quickly and this will just be a relatively temporary phenomenon.

Unfortunately, we don’t know if any of that is true at this point, and there is definitely a possibility that this could be just the beginning of a truly catastrophic event.

What we do know is that we have seen bizarre weather extremes all over the world so far in 2019, and there has been a tremendous amount of global seismic activity.  We live at a time when our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, and many are extremely concerned about what is coming in the years ahead.

We get a tremendous amount of food out of the oceans, and so their stability is of paramount importance.

If ocean temperatures rise high enough, millions of fish will perish, and that will put even more stress on our increasingly strained global food supply.

So many elements of “the perfect storm” are already coming together, and this is yet another one that we can add to the list.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

Hurricane Dorian Has Regained Strength And Is Reportedly “On A Collision Course With The Carolinas”

Are the Carolinas about to take a direct hit from Hurricane Dorian?  As you will see below, that is what some mainstream media reports appear to indicate, but the truth is much more nuanced than that.  Yes, Dorian is definitely heading toward the Carolinas, and without a doubt there is a possibility that it could make landfall along the coast, but there is no guarantee that this will happen.  Meteorologists are telling us that Dorian will eventually be pushed out of danger to the north and east, but that may not happen in time to spare many coastal communities in both North and South Carolina.  And let there be no mistake – this remains an exceedingly dangerous storm.  In fact, in recent hours the storm has regained strength and has become even larger…

Stronger and a little larger, Hurricane Dorian is gradually leaving Florida behind, setting its sights on the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas. These areas face a triple threat of “destructive winds, flooding rains, and life-threatening storm surges,” according to the National Hurricane Center.

We actually do not know if Dorian will make landfall in the Carolinas at this point, but after reading some mainstream articles you would be tempted to think that is precisely what is going to happen.  For example, the following comes from USA Today…

Hurricane Dorian swept past Florida on Wednesday on a collision course with the Carolinas, claiming its first life in the U.S. and promising heavy rains, powerful winds and damaging surge.

That certainly makes it sound like the Carolinas are definitely going to take a direct hit from this storm, right?

But the latest official forecast makes it very clear that things could go either way.  The following comes to us from the NOAA…

At 800 PM EDT (0000 UTC), the large eye of Hurricane Dorian was located near latitude 30.9 North, longitude 79.8 West. Dorian is moving northward near 8 mph (13 km/h). A turn to the north-northeast is anticipated on Thursday, with a turn toward the northeast on Thursday night. A northeastward motion at a faster forward speed is forecast on Friday. On the forecast track, the center of Dorian will continue to approach the coast of South Carolina tonight, move near or over the coast of South Carolina on Thursday, and then move near or over the coast of North Carolina Thursday night and Friday.

But whether this storm officially makes landfall or not, the storm surge that will be created will certainly be immense.

And even though it is no longer a Category 5 storm, Dorian is still capable of “pushing vast amounts of water” because of how absolutely enormous it is…

Now that Dorian is starting to accelerate northward, the storm surge threat to the vulnerable Southeast U.S. coast will increase. Dorian’s enlarged circulation is pushing vast amounts of water, so the surge will be larger than one might assume from Dorian’s decrease from Category 5 to Category 2 strength. Hurricanes such as Ike (2008) and Sandy (2012) produced massively destructive surge long after their peak winds decreased and their circulations expanded.

So those along the Carolina coastline that are not taking this storm seriously are in desperate need of a reality check.

According to Fox News, some of the waves could be up to 37 feet high.

More than a million people along the east coast have been ordered to evacuate, and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is strongly urging those in the danger zone to obey those orders…

“Leave now if you are in an area where an evacuation has been ordered,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper urged. “It is not worth putting your life – or the life of first responders – at risk.”

Cooper said an 85-year-old man fell to his death from a ladder while preparing his Columbus County home for the storm. At least 20 deaths in the Bahamas have been linked to Dorian.

In life, timing can be everything, and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time it can literally cost you your life.

By the beginning of next week communities along the Carolina coastline will be completely out of danger, but over the next couple of days we could potentially see some needless deaths because certain people stubbornly refused to evacuate.

If you don’t believe that the danger is real, perhaps you need to read more about what this storm just did to the Bahamas…

The extent of Dorian’s destruction across the Northern Bahamas is immense. As seen from the air over Abaco Island, the damage stretches for miles.

Entire neighborhoods are flattened, homes shredded, shipping containers and boats hurled inland. Some airports now look more like lakes. The terminal of one airport is now shrouded in debris.

Yes, Dorian is no longer a Category 5 storm, but neither was Hurricane Katrina when it hit New Orleans.

In fact, Hurricane Katrina was only a Category 3 storm when it finally made landfall.

We should be thankful that a “worst case scenario” for this storm never materialized, because what happened to the Bahamas could have very easily happened to us.  It was the worst natural disaster that those islands have ever seen, and the recovery process is going to be measured in years.

By Saturday the danger should be gone, but authorities are watching several more potentially dangerous storms right now.  Hurricane season does not end until November 30th, and so we are definitely not out of the woods yet.

Global weather patterns have definitely been behaving very strangely all year long, and we could most certainly see even more surprises in the weeks ahead.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

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