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Republican Operatives Launch All-Out Effort To Unbind The Delegates And Deny Trump The Nomination

Donald Trump Cube - Public DomainIf you think that Donald Trump already has the Republican nomination locked up, then you don’t understand what is going on behind the scenes.  It has long been my contention that the elite will move heaven and earth in order to keep Trump from ever setting foot in the Oval Office.  One way that they could try to do this is by attempting to deny him the nomination at the Republican convention next month.  Over the past couple of days, the Washington Post, CNN and a whole host of other mainstream news outlets have been reporting on a new “last-ditch effort” that has been launched by Republican operatives to get the Republican convention Rules Committee to unbind all of the delegates and allow them to vote however they want.  As you will see below, they can do this, and if they get enough votes they will do it.

This current effort is different from what we have seen so far during this campaign season, because it is actually being organized by the delegates themselves.  The following comes from the Washington Post…

Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer’s party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP presidential nominee.

The moves come amid declining poll numbers for Trump and growing concern among Republicans that he is squandering his chance to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Several controversies — including his racial attacks on a federal judge, his renewed call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and his support for changing the nation’s gun laws — have raised fears among Republicans that Trump is not really a conservative and is too reckless to run a successful race.

This movement is being spearheaded by a delegate from Colorado named Kendal Unruh.  She is actually a key member of the Republican convention Rules Committee, and this is very important for reasons that I will explain below.

For her, it is not about getting some other specific candidate nominated.  Rather, the entire goal is simply to stop Donald Trump…

“This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” said Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”

So what will it take for Unruh and her allies to be successful?

As Fox News explained, there are basically two courses of action…

To prevail, Unruh needs a majority of the 112 members of the convention rules committee, which has two delegates from each state and territory. Then, a majority of the full convention’s 2,472 delegates would have to approve.

There’s a Plan B. If Unruh can win over one-fourth support from the rules committee — just 29 delegates — the full convention must vote on her proposal. So far she’s got around 10 supporters though some prefer delaying the rule’s impact until the 2020 convention, she said.

On Thursday night, Unruh was on a conference call that included at least 30 delegates from 15 different states, and the Washington Post says that regional coordinators for this effort have been recruited “in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Washington and other states.”

One individual that took part in this conference call on Thursday night told CNN that calls are pouring in from people all over the country that want to be part of this movement…

“I will tell you, about every two hours people contact me about how to join this effort,” Lonegan said. “This has never been done before, so there’s no textbook on how to do it. So we’re building an organic effort, state by state, to convince members of the Rules Committee to sign onto a rule that unbinds the delegates to vote their moral conscience.”

So could the Republican convention Rules Committee actually do this?

Could they actually unbind all of the delegates and allow them to vote however they wished?

Well, yes they actually could do this.  As Time Magazine has explained, the Republican convention Rules Committee essentially has the power to make up any rules that they want…

It has the power to review and amend all of the rules of the Republican Party, pending ratification by the full convention. If it wanted to, it could insert a rule that says only candidates with blue hair could be the party’s nominee. It’s that powerful. In a contested scenario, the Rules Committee would be ground zero for fights over who and how candidates are nominated on the floor, as well as how the convention itself is conducted.

And thanks to political wrangling by the Cruz campaign, we do know that the rules committee is dominated by delegates that are loyal to Cruz…

The convention rules committee is made up of one man and one woman from each of the 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. Dominated by party insiders and loyalists to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—who aggressively worked state conventions to secure slots on the committee—it remains to be seen what the committee’s appetite would be for such a dramatic break from the existing rules.

If I was Donald Trump, I would be taking this very, very seriously.

But at this point he seems to be brushing it off …

“I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying,” Trump said in a statement. “People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot — but there is no mechanism for it to happen.”

Right at this moment we still have about a month left before the convention.

So that gives those involved in the anti-Trump movement quite a bit of time to rally their forces.

The rule change that would unbind all of the delegates and free them up to “vote their consciences” has already been drafted.  Here is the text of the proposed rule change…

Preserving Delegates’ Ability to Vote Their Individual Conscience

The secretary of the national convention shall receive and faithfully announce and record each delegate’s vote in accordance with these rules. If any such delegate notifies the secretary of his or her intent to cast a vote of conscience, whether personal or religious, each such delegate shall be unbound and unconstrained by these rules on any given vote, including the first ballot for the selection of the Republican nominee for President of the United States, without the risk of challenge, sanction, or retribution by the Republican National Committee. Allowable personal reasons shall include the public disclosure of one or more grievous acts of personal conduct by a nominee candidate, including but not limited to, criminally actionable acts, acts of moral turpitude or extreme prejudice, and/or notorious public statements of support for positions that clearly oppose or contradict the policies embodied in the Republican Party’s platform as established at the national convention.

In my new book, I warn about the great political shaking that is coming to this nation, and if this rule change is even attempted at the Republican convention it would create seismic shifts in the U.S. political landscape.

Of course there is still one huge question that I have not even addressed in this article yet.

If Trump has the nomination taken away from him, who would the Republican nominee be?

Some are convinced that it would be Paul Ryan, but I believe that it would be somebody else.

Mitt Romney has certainly not hidden his disdain for Donald Trump, and right now he is quietly waiting in the wings.  If the anti-Trump forces get their way, I believe that he would be the man that ultimately walks away with the prize.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Orlando Attack Reality Check: Next Time The Terrorists May Choose To Shoot Up A Church Or A School

Stop Terrorism Hand - Public DomainIslamic terror can strike anywhere.  On Sunday, it was a gay nightclub in Orlando called Pulse, but next time it might be a church or a school.  In fact, it might be your church or your school.  As you will see below, 29-year-old Omar Mateen actually scouted Walt Disney World as a potential target before finally settling on a gay nightclub.  And not too long ago another Islamic terrorist had already made plans to shoot up a very large church in Detroit.  It is high time that we all had a reality check when it comes to Islamic terror.  The terrorists are not limiting themselves to just military and political targets.  Their goal is to create fear and panic, and they want as much media attention on their acts of violence as possible.  So if attacking a church or a school or a theme park will serve their purposes, then that is exactly what they are going to do.

The Director of the FBI says that Omar Mateen had “links to al-Qaida, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State“, and ISIS has proudly taken responsibility for this attack…

The ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq News broadcast a claim of responsibility from ISIS for a shooting rampage at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 50 people dead over the weekend.

The agency said the shooting was the work of an “ISIS fighter,” multiple media outlets have reported.

But we aren’t just fighting ISIS.  According to Wikipedia, there have been hundreds of Islamic terror attacks worldwide so far in 2016, and only a small percentage of them have been conducted by ISIS.

Even if ISIS were totally destroyed tomorrow, the threat of Islamic terror would remain.

There are some people out there that are downplaying the significance of this attack because of the target.  But the truth is that Mateen almost selected Walt Disney World as the target.  The following comes from People Magazine…

The gunman behind the Orlando nightclub shootings, the deadliest mass shooting in American history, recently scouted Walt Disney World as a potential target, a federal law enforcement source tells PEOPLE.

Omar Mateen and his wife, Noor Zahi Salman, visited Walt Disney World in April, the source says. Salman told federal authorities on Sunday that her husband had more recently been “scouting Downtown Disney and Pulse [nightclub] for attacks.”

Unlike the four Disney World theme parks, Downtown Disney, which was recently renamed Disney Springs, doesn’t have security and bag check before entry.

Could you imagine the carnage that kind of attack would have created?

Personally, I don’t even want to think about it.

And as I mentioned above, not too long ago another Islamic radical had actually planned to shoot up a very large church in the heart of Detroit.  21-year-old Khalil Abu-Rayyan of Dearborn Heights, Michigan actually admitted to authorities that he had purchased a gun and had intended to take it into a church that can seat up to 6,000 people on a Sunday morning and start shooting.

Abu-Rayyan also admitted to authorities that since he could not do his jihad in the Middle East, that he intended to “do my jihad over here”.  The following is an excerpt from a news report about this potential attack that was thwarted…

“I tried to shoot up a church one day,” Abu-Rayyan is quoted as saying in court records. “I don’t know the name of it, but it’s close to my job. It’s one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Ya, I had it planned out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading. But my dad searched my car one day, and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going to wear.”

Investigators didn’t name the church Abu-Rayyan allegedly eyed, but claim the property covers about two blocks less than half a mile from his work and can accommodate up to 6,000 members. He allegedly purchased a gun and told an undercover FBI employee that attacking a church would be “easy.”

“A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church,” the affidavit quotes him as saying. “Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”

These kinds of radicals are running around all over America, and over time the threat that they pose is only going to get bigger and bigger.

In fact, Mike Adams is reporting that the FBI is dealing with “over 900 ISIS terror threat leads in the United States” right at this moment…

The FBI is currently investigating over 900 ISIS terror threat leads in the United States, covering all 50 states. Yet the Obama administration has systematically shut down federal prosecutions of such groups and silenced whistleblowers who tried to warn that all this was coming.

And we do know that ISIS recently released a “kill list” of American citizens, and 8 people on that “kill list” just happen to be from Orlando, Florida…

An ISIS kill list released online Monday includes 8 residents from Orlando, Florida – the site of Sunday morning’s horrific terror attack that took the lives of more than 50 people.

The list, obtained and analyzed by Infowars, mentions what appears to be the names, addresses and emails of 8 females from the Orlando area.

Whether any of the Orlando residents listed were among the dead or injured is unknown at this time.

When are we going to start taking the threat of Islamic terror more seriously?

How many Americans have to die before we wake up?

Incredibly, Barack Obama refused to link radical Islam to the attack in Orlando during his speech to the nation in the aftermath of the shootings.  The following comes from Leo Hohmann…

President Obama refused to tie the bloody attack on a gay nightclub Sunday to Islamic terror and said “no definitive judgement” had been made on the motive.

At least 50 people are dead and 53 wounded following an attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in which the shooter shouted, “Allahu Akbar!”

It was the worst act of terror on U.S. soil since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But Obama made no mention of “Islam,” “Muslim” or “Islamic terror” in his televised address to the nation.

Talk about being in a state of denial.

We live at a time when humanity’s ability to destroy is far greater than humanity’s ability to protect, and the ideology that is fueling this wave of terror is growing in almost every country on the entire planet.

Given enough time, it is inevitable that Islamic terrorists will start hitting schools, churches, shopping malls and sporting events inside the United States.

And eventually, they will get their hands on chemical, biological and potentially even nuclear weapons.

So what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.  Meanwhile, many of our top politicians steadfastly refuse to use the phrase “Islamic terror” because it might potentially offend someone.

I don’t know about you, but I know a losing hand when I see one.  The nightmare of Islamic terror has been unleashed in this nation, and the things that we are going to see in the years ahead are going to be absolutely unthinkable.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

EBT Card Outage?: It Is 8 Days Into June And Many Americans Are STILL Waiting For Food Stamp Money

Supermarket Bananas - Public DomainWidespread reports continue to pour in from all over the nation of “glitches” with the food stamp system.  It is eight days into the month and large numbers of people still have not received their benefits, and in other instances it is being reported that EBT cards are simply not working correctly.  So what in the world is going on here?  On downdetector.com there are scores of reports of problems with the EBT system from people all over the nation.  Could this simply be another example of government incompetence, or is something else at work here?

I had heard some rumblings about this over the past few days, but I had not really taken them seriously until I read an article from highly respected author Ray Gano…

It interesting over the weekend I got several emails telling me about cell phones being down, internet being down, and get this, EBT cards not working and having no money associated to them.

This is a concern because when the US Government has payment failures, then there is possibly something happening that the press is not telling you about.

Now, we know that computers have problems and that states, counties and cities run on computers. But what is interesting is that since the beginning of 2016, The US government has had over 2,700 reports on downdetector.com showing that they have been late loading the money onto these EBT cards.

Folks, we are now going on 8 days where the Government has not paid the EBT payments so that people have food.

So I went over to downdetector.com myself, and I was stunned to see that reports of EBT outages continue to pour in every hour.  Here are just a few of the recent comments that have been left by people that are still waiting for their food stamp benefits for June…

Heidi Lynn: I was supposed to get mine on the 5th and still nothing. Even ebt NJ site says $0 as well as my EBT card says $0. I’m on disability. I forgot to add I tried calling NJ Board of Services and was on hold for over an hour. I had to hang up to take dog out, etc. Does anyone know what’s going on yet?

Ann Wilson: Now that it’s been a whole week since I was supposed to get my June benefits, and haven’t, I’m planning on going to my Illinois FCRC office. I hope they will be able to fix this difficulty.

Jenn Johnson: I always get mine on time. I was due to get mine today June 7th and nothing. I am from kentucky. Why is there nothing on the news about this?

Jarrett Manhart: Havnt received mine either. They are never late. And my fone is off so i cant call em. Im on Wi-Fi down the street from me.

Sunny Nicole Jones: I haven’t gotten mine either! I’m glad it’s not just me though because then I would really be worried!

But when I went to confirm these widespread outages with articles from the mainstream media, I came up empty.

Either the mainstream media does not know what is going on yet, or it is being ignored.

If you have not gotten your EBT benefits for this month yet or you know someone that is in that position, please feel free to let me know.  I want to get to the bottom of this.  There are people all over the nation that are reporting problems with the food stamp system, but nobody seems to know exactly how widespread this issue is just yet.

Today there are well over 40 million Americans on food stamps, and a lot of them would start rioting tomorrow if you told them that their food stamp cards were being turned off permanently.

EBT cards are the modern equivalent of the bread lines of the 1930s.  Instead of having to wait in long lines for food, the government just zaps money on to EBT cards each month, and those that are hurting are able to get something to eat.

But down in Venezuela, extremely long food lines are a daily reality for much of the population right now.  The following comes from the Daily Mail…

Venezuela was once South America’s richest nation, but a fall in oil prices combined with other economic problems has led to desperate citizens taking drastic measures.

Nearly half of Venezuelans say they can no longer afford to eat three meals a day, according to a recent poll by the local firm Venebarometro. The poll surveyed 1,200 adults at their homes during the first week of April and had a margin of error of plus or minus of about two percentage points

Those who can, cross the border into Colombia to buy, bring back and then use or sell food and other basic commodities.

Could you imagine not being able to provide three meals a day for your family any longer?

Close to half the population of Venezuela is already in that position, and the economic collapse down there grows worse with each passing day.

Most Americans just assume that nothing like that could ever happen here.

Most Americans just assume that the government will always have plenty of money to give out.

As I mentioned above, there are well over 40 million Americans that receive EBT benefits.

However, when you factor in all government programs, more than 100 million Americans get some form of money or benefits from the federal government each month.

So what would happen someday if suddenly the spigot was turned off?

What would those 100 million people do?

How would they survive?

Hopefully this current EBT outage is just a temporary technical glitch, and hopefully the government will get it fixed in short order.

But someday there will be a major crisis that will cause food stamp benefits to be cut off either permanently or for an extended period of time.

When that day arrives, what will that do to our communities?

Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Why Is The Weather So Crazy All Of A Sudden?

Crazy Weather - Public DomainAll over the planet, global weather patterns have gone completely nuts.  Just over the past few days we have seen “life threatening” heatwaves, extremely dangerous wildfires, vicious tornadoes and unprecedented flooding – and that is just in the United States.  And of course this is just the continuation of a trend that stretches back to last year, when extremely weird weather created “apocalyptic-like conditions” in many areas around the world.  So why is this happening?  For decades, we could count on weather patterns falling within fairly predictable parameters, but now that is completely changing all of a sudden.  All over the globe we are seeing things happen that we have never seen happen before, and the weather just seems to get even more crazy with each passing month.

Just consider what has been going on the past few days.  Let’s start with the “life threatening” heatwave that is currently hammering the west coast…

The West Coast is in the grip of a ‘life threatening’ triple-digit heatwave that is set to continue well into next week, raising the risk of wildfires.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for southeastern California, southern Nevada, western and southern Arizona, western Oregon and far southwest Washington.

From Oregon to Nevada temperatures are set to top 100F tomorrow and into Monday, with Phoenix, Arizona, predicted to top out at 116F.

These are temperatures that you might expect to see in July or August, but right now summer has not even officially begun yet.

And as the article quoted above noted, these extremely high temperatures bring with them a much higher risk of wildfires.  In fact, firefighters in southern California are currently fighting a horrible fire that is raging wildly out of control and that has already forced thousands of people (including Kim Kardashian and Kanye West) out of their homes…

A massive brush fire Saturday in the Calabasas area forced mandatory evacuations as rapid flames consumed 516 acres and threatened 3,000 homes, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

“This is a fast-moving, dangerous fire,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Dennis Cross said. “It’s hard for people to see where this fire is because of the dense canopy and the canyons.”

If you follow my work closely, you already know that 2015 was the worst year for wildfires in all of U.S. history.

More acres burned in the U.S. last year than we had ever seen before.

And so far this year, we are more than a million acres ahead of the pace set last year.

Meanwhile, CNN is reporting that this “is the second year in a row that Texas has been hit by 500-year floods“…

“It could just be really bad luck,” said CNN Senior Meteorologist Brandon Miller. “A 500-year flood doesn’t mean you will go 500 years between them. It just means it is such an extreme event that the odds of it happening are very low, therefore it only happens on average every 500 years.

“It just so happens that parts of Texas have seen them now in back-to-back years, and maybe even twice this year. The odds of that happening are infinitesimally small.”

In a recent article, I noted that the United States has now been hit by 10 major flooding events since the end of last September.

Never before in U.S. history have we ever seen so many major floods in such a compressed period of time.

And the hits just keep on coming.  On Sunday, the east coast was bracing for a series of storms which appeared poised to produce very high winds, severe thunderstorms and even possibly some tornadoes.  The following comes from the Daily Mail…

The East Coast is braced for an incoming storm that could see up to seventeen million people hit with tropical rain, thunderstorms and even tornadoes.

People from New York through North Carolina could be affected, as thunderstorms were expected to blast winds up to 55 miles per hour later on Sunday.

The Governors Ball in New York City was cancelled for safety reasons after organizers saw the forecast for lightning.

And on top of everything else, Florida is about to be hit by tropical storm Colin.

But don’t worry, because all of this is perfectly “normal”, right?

Across the Atlantic, Europe is also dealing with some extremely crazy weather.  Major flooding is being reported all over the continent, and the French just experienced their wettest month since 1886…

Segments of France’s border with Belgium received six-week’s worth of rain in under 24 hours earlier this week, causing widespread flooding across the country. May has been the country’s rainiest month since 1886, Radio France Internationale says.

As a result of that rain, French meteorologists expect the already-swollen Seine in Paris to peak at 6.5 meters (21 feet) above its usual level on Friday. The Louvre is closed due to flooding concerns, and workers have been busy moving priceless works of art as a precautionary measure.

On the other side of the planet, many areas of India have been dealing with an unprecedented heatwave.  On Thursday, May 19th, the all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded in India was broken.  And this was part of a crippling heatwave that pushed temperatures in northern India “above 104 degrees for weeks”…

A severe heat wave warning is in place for much of India through Saturday. Temperatures in northern India have risen above 104 degrees for weeks, the BBC reported. The weather has killed hundreds of people and destroyed crops in more than 13 states, the Associated Press reported.

If this happened where you live, you could just go inside and turn on the air conditioning.

But most of those people do not have air conditioning, and that is why hundreds of them have been dying.

At the exact same time when the crust of our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, our weather is starting to become really crazy too.

Some people are going to dismiss all of this as just a bizarre series of coincidences, others will want to blame “global warming”, and yet others will see all of this as a sign that Jesus is coming back soon.

But what is truly frightening to consider is this…

What if our weather just keeps getting crazier and crazier?

If our weather continues to spiral out of control, it is inevitable that there will be major famines, widespread riots and tremendous political unrest all over the planet.

Is our world equipped to be able to handle seven billion people going absolutely nuts all at once?

Let us hope and pray for weather patterns to begin to return to normal, because I don’t think that we are.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Barack Obama Warns Americans ‘To Be Prepared For A Disaster’

Barack Obama At FEMA - Public DomainWhen Barack Obama speaks to the public, it is very rare that he does so without a specific purpose in mind.  So why is he urging Americans “to be prepared for a disaster” all of a sudden?  On May 31, Obama took time out of his extremely busy schedule to deliver an address at the FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington.  During his speech, he stressed that every American is responsible for preparing for disasters, and that includes “having an evacuation plan” and “having a fully stocked disaster supply kit”.  These are basic steps that I have been encouraging people to do for years, but if they won’t listen to me, perhaps they will listen to the man currently residing in the White House.  The following excerpt from Obama’s speech comes directly from the official White House website…

One of the things that we have learned over the course of the last seven and a half years is that government plays a vital role, but it is every citizen’s responsibility to be prepared for a disaster.  And that means taking proactive steps, like having an evacuation plan, having a fully stocked disaster supply kit.  If your local authorities ask you to evacuate, you have to do it. Don’t wait.

This speech was timed to coincide with the beginning of the hurricane season, although hurricanes have not posed much of a threat lately.

In fact, a major hurricane has not made landfall in the United States for 127 straight months.

But without a doubt, we all need to be preparing for disaster.  Hurricanes can create a short-term emergency that can last for a few days, but there are other threats that could create a major emergency that could potentially last for an extended period of time.  That list of potential threats includes a major volcanic eruption, a natural or engineered pandemic, a west coast earthquake, a New Madrid earthquake, a tsunami on either the east or west coasts, a meteor impact, Islamic terror, war, an EMP burst that takes down the power grid, cyberwarfare, economic collapse, and civil unrest resulting in the imposition of martial law.

Of course the items that I just mentioned are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, in different scenarios we could actually see multiple events happen in rapid succession.

It is interesting to note that during his speech Barack Obama also noted that the American people seem to have become very complacent about getting prepared…

And what we’ve been seeing is some public complacency slipping in; a large portion of people not having preparedness kits, not having evacuation plans.

This is exactly what I have been noticing as well.  There appears to be a tremendous amount of apathy out there, and relatively few people really seem to feel much urgency to get prepared these days.

My contacts in the emergency preparedness industry have been telling me that sales are way down right now.  There was a big peak last fall, but since then it is like interest in prepping has just fallen off the map.

Ultimately, those companies are going to be okay because interest will pick back up shortly as global events begin to spiral completely out of control.  However, of much greater concern is the fact that people have not been using this period of relative calm constructively.

Just like we have seen in Venezuela, time to prepare eventually runs out.  And someday there will be millions of parents that are absolutely horrified when their children come to them crying out for food and they don’t have anything to give to them because they didn’t heed the warnings and they didn’t get prepared.

When that day arrives, many of those families may be forced to turn to whatever help the government is offering at the time.

One more thing that I found particularly noteworthy about Obama’s speech was that he said that there is now “a FEMA app” that can direct you to the nearest “FEMA shelter” in the event of a major emergency.

If you need information about how to put together an evacuation plan, how to put together a disaster preparedness kit, as Craig said, we’ve got an app for everything now.  We have a FEMA app in English and in Spanish to help you prepare your family for a disaster.  You can update the National Weather Service alerts.  You can get safety tips for more than 20 kinds of hazards.  It provides you directions to nearby shelters.

Could you envision yourself and your family having to take refuge in a “FEMA shelter” someday?

If not, you should do what you can to get prepared now.  Over the next couple of days, my wife and I will be releasing a couple of new videos about preparation on our YouTube channel.  In fact, I just checked and the first one is already up…

Unlike Venezuela, it looks like we may still have a little bit more time to prepare for what is ahead.  Some people will relax and use this time to party, but those that are wise will work diligently and will do what they can to get ready for the exceedingly challenging times that are rapidly approaching.

Hopefully you are listening to the warnings and are heeding what the watchmen are saying.

If not, the consequences for what will happen to you and your family will ultimately be on your own hands.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

8 Reasons Why It Is So Hard To Find Someone Decent To Marry

Love And Marriage - Public DomainIt is not easy to be single in America today. If you are a man, it can be exceedingly difficult to find a good woman to marry. If you are a woman, it is literally a miracle if you can find a good man to marry. So is it just our imaginations, or has the process of finding a mate become much more challenging in recent years? Well, it is a fact that fewer people are getting married these days. For the first time in our history, there are more single adults in our country than married adults, and Time Magazine says that 25 percent of Millennials will never get married even once in their entire lifetimes. And of course those that do get married are taking far longer to do so than previous generations. Just recently, I wrote about how the average American woman is getting married 7.0 years later than she did in 1956, and the average American man is getting married 6.7 years later than he did back at that time.

So why is this happening?

Why has finding love become so challenging?

Below, I would like to share 8 reasons why it has become so hard to find someone decent to marry…

#1 The Me-Centered Society

We live in a “me-centered” society in which tens of millions of us are literally in love with ourselves. When pleasing self becomes the highest priority, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for the kind of self-sacrificial love that marriage requires. An astounding 24 billion “selfies” were uploaded to Google last year, and that says a whole lot about where we are at as a nation. So many of us are inclined to stay with our “partners” for only as long as they make us happy, and the instant that ends many of us wish to dispose of them. And that is a lot easier to do if you are “living together” instead of being legally married.

#2 It Has Become Much More Difficult To Find Someone With Good Values

The moral collapse of America is something that I write about extensively.  As a society, we have rejected the values of previous generations, and today most people generally do whatever they feel like doing. But this can become a major problem when you are looking for someone “that shares your values” to get married to. According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of all Americans that belong to the “Silent Generation” attend religious services weekly, but less than 30 percent of all Millennials do.  With each passing generation, we have become less Christian, less “conservative”, and less moral.  Unfortunately for young single adults, these trends do not seem likely to change in a major way any time soon.

#3 A Lot Of Young Adults Are Obsessed With Money And Materialism

A lot of single people these days will not date someone unless that individual has “good prospects” for the future. In fact, one survey found that 75 percent of American women would not date an unemployed man. Of course it is entirely reasonable to want a spouse that will work hard, but many young people are taking their obsession with materialism to ridiculous extremes.

I want to share with you what is going on in China these days, but similar scenes are playing out all across the rest of the world as well…

Parents often provide their male children with a home or car to make them appear more attractive. Women are often encouraged to “marry up” and not to settle for anyone who can’t provide material benefits.

A woman from the southwestern city of Chengdu rejected her boyfriend’s flash mob proposal last December, when she saw the ring and thought the diamond was too small.

She later told a friend that the man had agreed to “buy me a diamond ring as large as one carat,” Soho News reported.

It was reminiscent of a famous line from a 2010 Chinese dating show, when a contestant said, “I would rather cry in the back of a BMW than smile on the back of a bicycle.”

#4 A Lot Of Young Men Of Marriage Age Have Turned Into Bums

Have you noticed that a lot of young men in their twenties and thirties would rather spend all day watching television and playing video games than doing something constructive?

And record numbers of them have moved back home with no apparent intention of moving out. Today, 32 percent of all American Millennials are living at home with Mommy and Daddy. In some cases this is being done out of necessity because there aren’t enough good jobs, but in other cases it is simply pure laziness.

So what are quality young women supposed to do?

Are they supposed to actually consider these unambitious young men that seem perfectly content to indefinitely camp out in the basements of the homes that they were raised in?

#5 Sexual Immorality Is Absolutely Rampant

If you are looking for someone sexually pure to get married to, good luck with that. Everywhere you look in our sexually-hypercharged society, people are behaving like animals.

This is even happening in the wealthiest areas of our nation. The following is an excerpt from a recent Vanity Fair article about what is going on in the Hamptons right now…

Cops put the kibosh on a burlesque party at East Hampton’s Maidstone hotel. A professional orgy-planning outfit is hosting its first bacchanal later in June. Wednesday Martin, the author of Primates of Park Avenue, warns that married, heterosexual women in the Hamptons are conducting steamy affairs with their female fitness instructors. “Female flexuality,” she calls it. A randy rabbi, who blazed through five ex-wives, finally got the ax after running around town with a former flight attendant who was decades his junior. And a Southampton schools superintendent was investigated after one of his X-rated selfies made the rounds on campus.

The CDC says that there are 20 million new STD cases in America each year, and our young people are being corrupted at younger and younger ages. In fact, I just came across a headline earlier today about a “sexy school teacher” that got pregnant by a 13-year-old boy…

The Aldine Independent School District Middle School teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student turned herself in to Montgomery County police Wednesday after a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Prosecutors said Alexandria Vera had a sexual relationship with one of her students and also got pregnant by the eighth-grader.

#6 An Increasing Percentage Of Our Young People Don’t Even Want Someone Of The Opposite Sex

According to the Daily Mail, the percentage of men and the percentage of women that have had sexual relations with a member of the same sex has approximately doubled since 1990…

Researchers from San Diego State University, Florida Atlantic University and Widener University in Pennsylvania, analysed data from the General Social Survey – a nationally representative survey of more than 30,000 adults that has asked Americans about their attitudes toward same-sex sexual behaviour since 1973 and about sexual partners since 1989.

They found that between 1990 and 2014, the percentage of men who reported having had sex with at least one man increased from 4.5 percent to 8.2 percent.

In the same time-frame, the number of women reporting having had sex with at least one woman increased from 3.6 percent to 8.7 percent.

#7 Sexual Immorality Is Running Rampant Even In The Church

Did you know that the rate of teen pregnancy is about the same for Christians in America as it is for society as a whole?

Very few of our churches like to talk about sin, commandments, holiness or eternal judgment anymore, and as a result many people in the church are going just as wild as people in the world.

Let me share with you one example that comes from an article authored by Dr. Michael Brown…

Well, during an I Love New York celebration at a recent women’s conference hosted by Hillsong in New York City, a Hillsong youth pastor was onstage, dressed up as the Naked Cowboy, meaning that he too was wearing nothing but a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, briefs and a guitar.

But hey, after all, what’s wrong with that? We don’t want to get religious now, do we? What’s wrong with a youth pastor standing onstage in his underwear during a women’s conference? (Sarcasm fully intended.)

#8 A Large Percentage Of Our Young People Are Not Marriage Material Because They Are Addicts

You definitely do not want to marry an addict. In America today, millions of young people are addicted to alcohol, millions are addicted to illegal drugs, and millions are addicted to legal drugs.

But for this piece, I want to talk about pornography addiction in particular. As I have mentioned before, there are more than four million adult websites on the Internet, and collectively they receive more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

According to a recent Charisma article, 68 percent of all Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis, so even if you go to church “to find a man”, there is still a very good chance that you could be getting an addict.

And of course all of these sick images are resulting in an explosion of very bizarre “alternative lifestyles” in America including “puppy play”, “ecosexuality” and “polyamory”. Everything about sex, marriage and relationships is literally being turned upside down, and the United States will never be the same from this point forward.

Before I finish this article, I want to leave you with one final thought…

In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced that we would put men on the moon.

In May 2016, Barack Obama announced that we would put men in women’s restrooms.

The very foundations of our society are being systematically destroyed, and yet very few people seem upset about this.

If we continue going down this path, is there any hope for the future of our nation?

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

It Is Being Reported That Turkish Military Forces Have Entered Syria

Turkey Syria Border - Google MapsThere are international news reports that claim that Turkish military forces have entered Syrian territory and have established positions near the towns of Azaz and Afrin.  If these international news reports are true, then Turkey has essentially declared war on the Assad regime.  Back in February, I warned that escalating tensions in the region could be the spark that sets off World War III, but things seemed to cool down a bit in March and April.  However, this latest move by Turkey threatens to take the war in Syria to a whole new level, and everyone will be watching to see how the Russians and the Iranians respond to this ground incursion.

So far, it is the Russian media that it taking the lead in reporting about this movement of Syrian forces.  For example, the Sputnik news agency was one of the first to report Turkish military activity around the town of Azaz…

Amid violent clashes between militants of Daesh and troops of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the town of Azaz in northern Aleppo district, reports are surfacing suggesting that the Turkish Army units have been seen located in the district of Azaz.

In addition, Sputnik claims that Turkish military forces entered a small village called Hamam near the town of Afrin on Saturday…

“Two days ago, the Turkish military entered the village of Hamam in Afrin area. We are ready to repel any attack. Meanwhile, FSA units are suffering serious defeat in clashes with Daesh. They have already lost control of 12 villages. If Daesh comes to Azaz, ‘Democratic Syrian Forces’ will repel the jihadists, and not allow them to enter the city,” Arac stressed.

The map that I have posted below comes directly from Google Maps, and it shows how far south of the Turkish border the towns of Azaz and Afrin are…

Turkey Syria Border - Google Maps

In particular, the Azaz corridor is considered to be extremely important because that is the primary route that Turkey has been using to resupply jihadist rebels in Aleppo.  So Turkey wants to keep that road open at all costs.

Meanwhile, an Iranian news source is also reporting on this Turkish incursion into Syria…

Member of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PDS) Ahmet Arac said that the hundreds of the Turkish soldiers crossed the Syrian border at Bab al-Salameh border-crossing and deployed their forces in al-Shahba’a region near Marea and Azaz.

“The Turkish Armed Forces are preparing an offensive in the Azaz and Marea regions that have been the scenes of tough battles between the ISIL terrorists and its rival group of the Free Syrian Army,” Arac added.

“Also yesterday the Turkish Army carried out rocket attacks on the positions of Democratic Forces of Syria,” he went on to say.

So far, there has been no confirmation of this invasion from the mainstream media in the western world.  But of course since Turkey is our ally, the Obama administration would not want the media talking about this.  So instead, our big media outlets are giving us headlines such as “Judge sentences Catholic to attend Baptist church” today.

If you have been following my work for a while, you already know that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been working very hard to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad for years, and Assad knows exactly what Turkey has been up to…

“..Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia, have crossed all possible red lines, possibly from the first weeks of the Syrian war. Today, the war against Erdogan and against Saudi Arabia is a war against terrorists. The Turkish army, which is not even Turkish, is Erdogan’s army that is fighting today in Syria. Everything that Ankara and Riyadh have done from the very beginning can be considered aggression. Aggression in a political sense or in a military sense – providing terrorists with arms – or direct aggression with the use of artillery, and other military violations. Erdogan is directly supporting the terrorists as he allows them to move into Turkish territory, to carry out maneuvers with tanks. This concerns not only individuals, he finances them [terrorists] through Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and through Turkey itself, of course. Turkey trades oil that has been stolen by IS (Islamic State, Daesh), at the same time carrying out artillery attacks against the Syrian army – when it moves close – in order to help the terrorists. They are terrorists and when we attack these terrorists in Syria, this leads to Erdogan’s direct defeat..”

Assad is a very bad man, but everything that he said about Turkey in that quote is true.  Turkey has been giving direct assistance to ISIS, and Barack Obama has known about it the entire time.

Most Americans simply do not understand how insane Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan truly is.  Our “ally” has essentially become a dictator, and he is obsessed with recreating the old Ottoman empire.  These days, political rallies in support of Erdogan are quite reminiscent of what Nazi rallies under Adolf Hitler were like, and there is a nationalistic fervor in Turkey right now that is so intense that it is hard to describe it to someone in the western world.  It is fueled by the rise of radical Islam, but what is going on in Turkey is broader than that.  It is extremely dangerous, and yet nobody in the U.S. criticizes Erdogan because he is our “friend”.

In addition to moving troops into Syria, Turkey already has forces positioned in Iraq, and the Russians are quite upset about this.  Just consider what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday…

“This (keeping troops in Iraq) is an absolutely unacceptable position,” it cited Lavrov as saying. “In principle, I believe that what the Turks are doing deserves far greater public attention on the part of our Western partners.”

But for Erdogan, what we have seen so far is just the beginning.  He dreams of creating an Islamic empire, and he envisions himself at the top of the food chain.

This is one reason why he is so virulently against birth control for Islamic women in his country.  He wants the population of Turkey to multiply greatly so that the Turks can fulfill their appointed destiny…

In a speech broadcast live on TV, he said “no Muslim family” should consider birth control or family planning.

“We will multiply our descendants,” said Mr Erdogan, who became president in August 2014 after serving as prime minister for 12 years.

In fact, Erdogan actually considers it to be “treason” for Islamic women in Turkey to use contraception…

Mr Erdogan himself is a father of four. He has previously spoken out against contraception, describing it as “treason” when speaking at a wedding ceremony in 2014.

He has also urged women to have at least three children, and has said women cannot be treated as equal to men.

Are you starting to see how dangerous this man is?

Our “ally” is an egomaniac dictator that dreams of recreating the Ottoman empire, and he now has troops positioned in both Iraq and Turkey.

And if he isn’t careful, Erdogan may end up starting a major war which would ultimately involve the United States.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail before events start spinning entirely out of control.

Bill Kristol Announces That ‘There Will Be An Independent Candidate’ To Sabotage Donald Trump

Idea Follow Question - Public DomainIt has long been my contention that the elite are more than willing to do whatever they have to do to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.  There are many forms that this could take, and one potential option just became a little bit clearer.  On Sunday, the founder and editor of the Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol, announced on Twitter that there “will be an independent candidate–an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.”  Kristol has very, very deep ties to the Republican elite, and so this is certainly not an idle threat.  At this point we do not know who the candidate will be, but some of the names that have been mentioned include Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse and billionaire Mark Cuban.  Of course dividing the conservative vote would be suicidal and would virtually ensure a victory for Hillary Clinton in November.  So why would Kristol and other Republican elitists want to do this?

That is a very good question, and it goes to the very core of how the game of politics is played in America today.

The truth is that the elite are accustomed to being in control of both parties, and that is why things never seem to change very much no matter who is elected.

But this time someone that the elite do not control has miraculously captured the Republican nomination, and this scares them to death.

So now the mission is to destroy the Trump candidacy at all costs, even if that means having the Republican elite sabotage the Republican nominee.

I wasn’t sure if they were actually going to pull the trigger on a major third party candidate, but Bill Kristol now says that this is absolutely going to happen…

Of course Donald Trump was horrified when he learned of what Kristol had said.  He responded with a series of very angry tweets…

I would be upset too.  For the Republican elite to purposely sabotage Trump and throw the election to Hillary Clinton is seemingly insane.  This is something that Ben Carson commented on during a recent interview with Fox News…

Former 2016 candidate and Trump backer Ben Carson, speaking Monday on Fox News, echoed Trump’s warnings and invoked the 1992 presidential race as an example.

“A quarter of a century ago, another Clinton was running for the White House, and it was the entrance of a third-party candidate, Ross Perot, that made it possible for him to win,” Carson said. “Wouldn’t it be ironic if the same thing happened this time?”

Of course Kristol and the others that he is working with know precisely what they are doing.

There is no way in the world that Romney, Sasse, Kasich or Cuban could win.  But that wouldn’t be the goal anyway.  The goal would simply be to deny five or ten percent of the vote to Trump so that Hillary would win in a landslide.

At one time it seemed like such sabotage would not be necessary, but now polls have begun to shift and the elite are beginning to panic.  Here is one example of how the numbers have shifted…

That data and recent events suggest that Wall Street, which currently prefers former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to real estate mogul Donald Trump, may not get the president it wants. According to the Iowa Electronic Markets, a prediction online betting platform, the probability that we’ll see a Democrat take the White House in 2016 is shrinking fast.

“The Democratic candidate was all but a certainty to win the presidency less than a month ago—it was at 74 percent and it’s down to 58 percent today,” said Hickey.

In a head to head matchup, there is a very real possibility that Trump could defeat Clinton.  So that is why the elite feel that they have to make a move.

But we probably will not find out the identity of the third party candidate until some time in June at the earliest.  In fact, a source that is involved in this third party effort told CBS News “not to expect an announcement for a couple of weeks.”

So for the moment, we will wait.

But without a doubt, there appears to be a unique opportunity for a third party candidate in this election cycle.  A whole host of recent polls and surveys have shown that the American people are not pleased with either party at this point and that most Americans would like to see an alternative choice to either Clinton or Trump.  The following comes from the New York Times…

The survey also found evidence of overwhelming interest in the presidential contest, although less than a quarter of Americans say they’re excited about it.

Worse, 55 percent of Americans, including 60 percent of Republicans and 53 percent of Democrats, say they feel helpless about the 2016 election. And two-thirds of Americans under 30 report feeling helpless.

“I am despondent,” said Cserbak. “I wouldn’t say I feel totally helpless. I do have a vote.”

Of course no matter who runs as a third party candidate, there is no way in the world that individual will win.  Any third party candidate will simply play the role of spoiler, and will throw the election one way or the other.

I understand that a lot of people out there are very excited about Trump.  And it would be very nice to think that the American people could actually elect a president that is not controlled by the elite.

But that is not how the real world works, and over the next several months we are going to get a very clear lesson in power politics.

If necessary, the elite will move heaven and earth if that is what it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.  Anyone that would suggest otherwise simply doesn’t understand how the game is played.

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