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There is a growing national outcry to ban Flock cameras. We do not give up our constitutional rights when we get into our vehicles, and we do not want authoritarian control freaks watching us, monitoring us and tracking us everywhere that we go. This is an issue that is uniting people all over the country, and so you would think that politicians from both parties would be getting on board. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. Many top Republicans are coming out against Flock cameras very strongly, but the silence from the left has been deafening. Yes, there are a few voices on the far left that appear to be concerned about our civil liberties, but most prominent Democrats have been eerily silent about Flock cameras. Why is that?

If you want cameras to watch you everywhere that you go, move to China.

Seriously.

We don’t want to live in a surveillance state, and our Constitution is supposed to protect us from that.

To me, it is exceedingly clear that these cameras are violating our constitutional rights, and there are some politicians that are taking action.

In fact, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley just initiated a major investigation…

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has launched an investigation into Flock Safety’s national surveillance network and is demanding to know who has access to the personal data of Americans captured on Flock cameras.

Hawley wrote in a letter to Flock CEO Garrett Langley that the company has “assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network” of more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states that conducts 20 billion vehicle scans every month.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong. Instead of serving discrete local investigations, as contemplated by our constitutional processes and safeguards, these camera networks harness artificial intelligence to pool what they capture into a national database that customers can search,” he wrote.

Good for him.

This is the sort of thing that our elected officials are supposed to do.

Flock cameras are being abused by law enforcement officers over and over again.

For example, a deputy in Richmond County, Virginia used the Flock system to track a woman that he was romantically involved with 1,639 times…

In one especially shocking incident, Former Deputy Jaquarius Yarbrough of Richmond County, Virginia, allegedly used the license plate tracking system to stalk a woman he was having an affair with 1,639 times over several months.

“What we’re talking about are cameras that are documenting everywhere your car goes,” Maass said. “There are databases where police can type in your license plate and see everywhere you’ve gone… The government shouldn’t be creating databases of movement.”

Sadly, that is not an isolated incident.

A police officer in Kentucky was recently arrested for using the system to track his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times…

A Kentucky police officer was arrested after authorities said he used the Flock Safety license plate reader camera system to track his ex-girlfriend over 2,000 times, marking the latest in a string of recent law enforcement officer resignations or arrests for alleged abuses of the controversial technology.

Things got so bad that the ex-girlfriend was eventually forced to file for an order of protection…

Investigators found Zahir had conducted 2,048 Flock searches from January into May to track two vehicles registered to the victim, his child’s mother, in Kentucky and Indiana, court records show.

During the period he conducted those searches, Zahir harassed the victim and made threatening comments, prompting her to file an order of protection against him, according to the court records.

This just keeps happening again and again.

According to CNN, throughout the country there have been “at least 47 instances of officers being disciplined in some way for alleged abuse of the Flock system for stalking romantic interests”…

The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm that has filed lawsuits against Flock on Fourth Amendment grounds, has tracked at least 47 instances of officers being disciplined in some way for alleged abuse of the Flock system for stalking romantic interests.

Of even greater concern is the fact that Flock cameras often create false positives that flag citizens that are completely innocent.

One police department in California actually discovered that a whopping 71 percent of its Flock alerts were errors…

Hawley said the surveillance notifications have also resulted in mistaken arrests, such as that of a Florida woman who spent 13 days in jail and faced multiple felony counts after investigators mistakenly arrested her based on a search of Flock’s network.

“Errors and false positives add insult to injury,” Hawley wrote.

He cited one California police department that found that 71 percent of its Flock alerts “were wrong” and noted the Los Angeles Police Department ended its Flock contract after an audit showed its officers had stopped 161 vehicles incorrectly flagged as stolen.

Do you want police officers coming to your door because some stupid Flock camera mistakenly flagged you?

But even if Flock cameras worked perfectly, they would still be violating our constitutional rights.

This is a point that Senator Hawley just made very aptly…

“Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church,” Hawley wrote. “The Supreme Court has recognized that a comprehensive, retrospective record of a person’s movements is different in kind from ordinary observation in public.”

He is right on target.

We don’t give up our constitutional rights when we leave our homes.

But the CEO of Flock is telling us that Americans must “compromise” on their constitutional rights in order to feel more secure…

No way.

Even if Flock cameras could make us 100 percent safe, there is no way that I would ever be willing to give up my constitutional rights.

Many respected Republican leaders are choosing to take a stand, but there has been silence from many prominent Democrats.

What is wrong with them?

Why won’t they stand up for the constitutional rights of the American people?

The good news is that we are winning.

In communities all over America, Flock cameras are being turned off.

One of the cities that just pulled the trigger on such a move is Tempe, Arizona…

Of course Tempe is far from alone.

This month, a bunch of other municipalities have also said goodbye to Flock cameras…

Cave Creek, also in Arizona; Bellingham, Massachusetts; and several Texas counties are among the other municipalities that said this month they’re ending their use of Flock cameras.

Bellingham Police Chief Kenneth Fitzgerald said in a statement that during a recent criminal investigation, officials learned that a Flock feature called Free Form, an artificial intelligence-powered tool that can search video information using plain language, was available through the cameras.

“Those features go beyond what most people would think of as a traditional license plate reader,” he said. “That concerned me because I had previously told the public, based on our understanding of the system, that our Flock technology was a license plate reader only.”

I love to see this.

Overall, more than 100 cities and counties have officially deactivated, canceled, or rejected contracts with Flock Safety.

I think that an official in Hood County, Texas said it very well when he stated that “permanent, warrantless tracking doesn’t belong in a free society”…

John Shirley, constable of a precinct in Hood County, Texas, said that after county commissioners voted to remove the cameras, he would be covering them until they could be removed.

“These cameras were constantly scanning and recording regular folks just going about their day. That kind of permanent, warrantless tracking doesn’t belong in a free society,” Shirley said in an Aug. 15 post on Facebook. “By unplugging and covering them, we’re making it clear: privacy isn’t optional, and mass surveillance isn’t how we do things here.”

Yes, if we get rid of all the Flock cameras it may be a little bit more difficult to catch criminals.

But freedom always comes with a cost.

I would much rather live in a free society than a surveillance society like China where virtually everything that people do is watched, monitored and tracked by the government.

I am for an immediate nationwide ban on all Flock cameras and any other devices that perform similar functions.

What about you?

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The absolutely devastating floods and mudslides that we just witnessed along the border between Nepal and Tibet look like something out of a science fiction movie. It is a tragedy of epic proportions, and it has made us forget all of the other catastrophic disasters that have been hitting our planet recently. Unfortunately, the victims in Nepal and Tibet will also soon be forgotten because more catastrophic disasters are on the way. We live at a time when global weather patterns have gone absolutely nuts, giant earthquakes are occurring with alarming regularity, the northern hemisphere is experiencing the worst wildfire season in history, and our overheating oceans threaten to kill billions of fish.

I have never seen anything quite like the disaster that just occurred along the border between Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday.

The footage that one camera captured is particularly horrifying…

Those people didn’t have a chance.

One moment they were normally living their lives, and the next moment they were gone.

Many that were swept away by the rushing waters didn’t even live in the region. In fact, we are being told that “hundreds of tourists” are missing…

Devastating flash floods and mudslides have wiped out buildings and bridges along the Nepal–Tibet border – with hundreds of tourists still missing.

In Nepal, houses and roads were swept away by rushing water and mudslides.

Meanwhile, officials in China–controlled Tibet said they feared ‘major casualties’.

We have seen flooding in Nepal and Tibet before, but this was different.

As the wall of water and mud rushed forward, it came slamming into homes and bridges…

Harrowing footage from the scene showed fast-flowing floodwater ripping through the streets and destroying everything – including homes and bridges – in its path.

River banks burst as walls of water came rushing through the densely populated areas, sweeping people underwater as others sought safety on higher ground.

Aerial footage showed floodwater completely consuming land near the Nepal-Tibet border, sending people running for their lives as buildings collapsed in seconds.

In the end, the final death toll will probably be in the thousands.

Originally, experts were telling us that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake triggered a gigantic ice avalanche which caused the sudden flooding…

But later reports claimed that a landslide that occurred at 8:37 local time triggered the avalanche that created the flooding.

Apparently the huge earthquake that was detected was actually caused by the landslide…

Though the horrifying disaster is still unfolding, initial reports suggested the floods could be the result of an avalanche triggered by an earthquake, Nepal’s foreign minister Shisir Khanal told the country’s parliament Wednesday.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported recording a 4.4 magnitude quake around the time the security footage was taken at the border.

However, USGS hours later clarified that the trembling detected was not an earthquake, but caused by the landslide itself, registering as the equivalent of a 5.2 magnitude quake.

But no matter how it started, nobody can deny that this was truly a historic disaster.

Meanwhile, we just witnessed a series of 13 eruptions at Mount Anak Krakatau…

The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) recorded 13 eruptions from Mount Anak Krakatau in South Lampung Regency, Lampung Province.

The height of the eruptions varied from 50 to 300 meters from the summit of Mount Anak Krakatau, from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Jakarta time.

Suwarno, Head of the Mount Anak Krakatau Monitoring Post in Hargopancuran, Rajabasa District, stated on Wednesday that the volcano remains volatile, so further eruptions are still possible.

This should deeply concern all of us, because one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history occurred there in 1883…

Between 19 May and 21 October 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa (located in the Sunda Strait, then part of the Dutch East Indies—modern-day Indonesia) began erupting, lasting more than five months. On 27 August, the island had its most significant eruption, which destroyed over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago, the island collapsing into a caldera. The eruption of 27 August had an estimated volcanic explosivity index of 6, and is one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history; the third explosion of that day, that occurred at 10:02 a.m., remains the loudest-known sound in history.

The explosion was heard 3,110 kilometres (1,930 mi) away in Perth, Western Australia, and Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi) away.[3] The acoustic pressure wave circled the globe more than three times.[4]: 63  At least 36,417 deaths are attributed to the eruption and the tsunamis it created. Significant additional effects were felt worldwide in the days and weeks after the volcano’s eruption. Additional seismic activity was reported until February 1884, but any reports after October 1883 were dismissed by Rogier Verbeek’s subsequent investigation into the eruption.

That gigantic eruption caused a volcanic winter that lasted for about a year.

Our oceans could actually use a cooling trend right now, because they are hotter than ever.

In fact, average global ocean temperatures just hit the highest level ever recorded…

As a record-breaking El Niño builds in the Pacific and large swaths of the globe’s oceans are affected by marine heat waves, a significant record has fallen.

According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, average global sea surface temperatures have reached a new high, rising to nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit late last week — potentially for the first time in millennia.

This mark surpassed the previous record set in March 2024.

This is crazy.

On August 22nd, we broke the record that had been established in March 2024…

The daily average sea surface temperature across the extra-polar global ocean, between 60°S and 60°N, reached 21.1°C (70°F) on August 22, 2026, the highest value in the Copernicus Climate Pulse record beginning in 1979. The reading exceeded the previous daily record of 21.09°C (69.96°F), set in March 2024, and came in August, although temperatures across the domain normally reach their annual maximum in March and April.

If global ocean temperatures are going to set an all-time record, it is supposed to happen in either March of April.

For it to happen so late in the year is extremely strange.

Many want to blame humans for what is occurring, but scientists have discovered that the warming of our oceans actually gets worse the deeper than you go.

That suggests that whatever is warming our oceans is coming from underneath.

Currently, 42 percent of the Earth’s oceans are experiencing unusual marine heat waves…

According to NOAA data, 42 percent of the planet’s oceans are currently experiencing marine heat waves.

In the Pacific Ocean alone, marine heat waves cover an area that’s equivalent to nine times the size of the contiguous United States — greatly contributing to the new global sea surface temperature record.

So why is this important?

When the oceans get warmer, we tend to experience hotter temperatures, intense droughts, enormous storms and massive wildfires…

Hotter oceans exacerbate the sea level rise and extreme storms that threaten billions of people, as well as driving marine heatwaves that decimate sea life and undermine coastal livelihoods, scientists warned.

The northern hemisphere summer has already been hit by record-breaking heatwaves, drought and wildfires in Europe and North America, and intense rain and typhoons in Asia.

The ocean heat spike is being intensified by a fast developing El Niño event, which is set to be the hottest in at least a century. El Niño events are natural climate variations that raise global temperature and change weather patterns, with serious impacts around the world. The new El Niño has already delivered low monsoon rain in India, major wildfires in Indonesia and heightened fire concerns in Australia.

More importantly, when ocean temperatures rise to unusual levels, fish start dying in very large numbers.

One expert has warned that “the faster the ocean floor warms, the faster we lose fish”…

Chronic ocean heating is fuelling a “staggering and deeply concerning” loss of marine life, a study has found, with fish levels falling by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade.

Researchers examined the year-to-year change of 33,000 populations in the northern hemisphere between 1993 and 2021, and isolated the effect of the decadal rate of seabed warming from short shifts such as marine heatwaves. They found the drop in biomass from chronic heating to be as high as 19.8% in a single year.

“To put it simply, the faster the ocean floor warms, the faster we lose fish,” said Shahar Chaikin, a marine ecologist at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Spain and the study’s lead author.

As our oceans warm, we could lose billions upon billions of fish.

That is really bad news, because the world is already facing very serious food shortages in the months ahead.

In 2026, global food production is being hammered from so many different directions.

We really are facing a “perfect storm”, and for those of us that live in the western world that means that food prices will soon go up even higher.

But for many of those that live in impoverished nations around the globe, a dramatic drop in global food production could be the difference between life and death.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

It is not often that everyone living in the entire continental United States is able to view a blood moon eclipse with their own eyes. On the night of August 27th into the early hours of August 28th, a celestial spectacle will light up the night sky as Earth’s colossal shadow rises to swallow more than 96 percent of the full moon. In a breathtaking cosmic display, the brilliant lunar surface will be plunged into darkness, bleeding into deep shades of copper, fiery orange, and blood red. While a solitary, blazing sliver of light will fight to remain untouched, escaping a technical total eclipse by a razor-thin margin of less than four percent, the agonizingly close near-total blackout will leave onlookers spellbound. Overall, the eclipse will last for a total of five hours and 38 minutes. In the United States, it will start at 9:23 PM eastern time on August 27th, and it will end at 3:01 PM eastern time on August 28th. But it will be at precisely 12:12 AM eastern time that the main event will occur. At that moment the red color of the “blood moon” will reach a peak, and throughout human history many cultures have considered a “blood moon” to be a very ominous sign.

This is not something that happens every day.

Time Magazine has pointed out that 44.4 percent of the entire global population will be able to see this eclipse…

It’s not often that 3.6 billion people—or 44.4% of the world’s population—look at the same thing at the same time. And it’s not often that something comes along that’s worth the attention of all those billions. But that will happen on the evening of Aug. 27 when much of the world will be able to witness a blood moon lunar eclipse, during which 96% of the face of the full moon will fall into Earth’s shadow, glowing a deep orange-red in the process.

Approximately a billion people in the United States, Canada and Latin America will have “prime, hours-long views” as long as the weather cooperates.

I would encourage you to stay up for this if you are able to do so.

A lunar eclipse unfolds in three phases, and the maximum phase for this particular eclipse will last for one hour and 39 minutes…

There are three phases of any lunar eclipse—the penumbral, partial, and total or maximum. The penumbral phase occurs first, when the moon moves into the faint, outer reaches of the Earth’s umbra, or shadow. The partial phase comes next, when the true, darker shadow of the Earth begins to cover the lunar disk. The total or maximum phase is when only a small portion—or none at all—of the moon remains unshadowed. For the upcoming eclipse, the penumbral phase will take one hour and ten minutes, the partial phase one hour and 39 minutes, and the maximum phase, when the moon will be 96% obscured, will also take one hour and 39 minutes. That maximum shadow will occur at 12:12 a.m. ET. The eclipse will then return to the partial and penumbral phases before the moon soars on and leaves the Earth’s shadow behind.

As the maximum phase gets very close, the moon will start to turn red.

And once the moon is 96 percent covered by Earth’s shadow at mid-eclipse at 12:12 AM eastern time, the redness of the moon will be at peak intensity…

As the eclipse become deeper – and approaches maximum – you should begin to notice a red glow on the moon. There are varying opinions as to when this red color might become visible. Some say by 90%. Some say 95%. The darker your sky, the better chance you’ll have of seeing the red color sooner. Since 96% of the moon will be in Earth’s shadow at mid-eclipse, you’ll hopefully see some redness by then.

And you should see a bright white patch along the moon’s northeastern limb. That is the portion of the moon not yet submerged in the shadow. In other words, that’s the unshaded, daytime part of the moon.

So why will the moon turn red?

NASA has explained it in a way that I think is very easy to understand…

A Blood Moon refers to the reddish or copper color the Moon projects during a lunar eclipse. This astronomical event occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon. In doing so, it blocks and filters sunlight on the Moon’s surface.

“The same phenomenon that makes our sky blue and our sunsets red causes the Moon to turn reddish-orange during a lunar eclipse,” NASA reports. “Sunlight appears white, but it actually contains a rainbow of components—and different colors of light have different physical properties. Blue light scatters relatively easily as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere. Reddish light, on the other hand, travels more directly through the air.”

“During a lunar eclipse, the Moon appears red or orange because any sunlight that’s not blocked by our planet is filtered through a thick slice of Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the lunar surface,” NASA continues. “It’s as if all the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon.”

Those living on the east coast will be able to view this eclipse from the very beginning to the very end.

At 9:23 eastern time on August 27th the moon will start to enter the Earth’s shadow, and the eclipse will finally be over at 3:01 eastern time on August 28th…

1. The eclipse begins when the moon enters Earth’s faint outer shadow at 9:23 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27 (0123 GMT on Aug. 28).
2. Things get much more interesting at 10:33 p.m. EDT (0233 GMT), when the partial eclipse begins and Earth’s dark umbral shadow starts to creep across the lunar surface.
3. Maximum eclipse occurs at 12:12 a.m. EDT (0412 GMT) on Aug. 28, when 96.2% of the moon will be immersed in Earth’s umbra.
4. The partial phase ends at 1:51 a.m. EDT (0551 GMT), with the penumbral eclipse concluding at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT).

This eclipse has sparked a frenzy of speculation on social media.

Many are wondering what it might mean, and even mainstream news sources are bringing up Bible verses in relation to this event…

Several passages in the Bible describe the moon turning red, signaling a major event or God’s intervention.

Key references include Joel 2:31, Acts 2:20, which echoes the same imagery, and Revelation 6:12, which describes the moon becoming like blood during apocalyptic events.

Believers often interpret these verses as signs that a blood moon could herald a time of upheaval, judgment for the wicked, or salvation for the faithful, giving the August eclipse a heightened sense of spiritual significance.

This is going to be the final lunar eclipse of 2026.

But there will be several notable eclipses in 2027, and in 2028 a total lunar eclipse will actually occur on New Year’s Eve…

This week’s lunar eclipse follows a total lunar eclipse in March and will be the second and last of the year. But if you miss it, more celestial events are coming in 2027.

Two solar eclipses will take place next year—one on February 6 and the other on August 2. But you might want to make this lunar eclipse count: three lunar eclipses in 2027 will be “penumbral”—meaning the moon will pass through Earth’s penumbra, the fainter part of its shadow, which won’t make quite as spectacular a view. The next total lunar eclipse will take place on New Year’s Eve in 2028—what a way to ring in 2029!

I did not know about that there will be a total lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve in 2028.

Every day I am learning something new, and that is a good thing because if you are not learning you are not growing.

Personally, I am going to make it a point to check out the blood moon eclipse that will happen later this week.

It should be spectacular.

So many unusual events have already occurred in 2026, and I am expecting the pace of events to pick up even more during the remaining portion of this year.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

One of the reasons why the federal government is 40 trillion dollars in debt is because there is an almost unbelievable amount of fraud in our system. When we talk about crime in America, most of the time we focus on the violent thugs terrorizing our streets, but the truth is that they are small-time criminals. The big-time criminals are those that are raking in millions of dollars by stealing from the government. Medicare and Medicaid are considered to be the two largest victims. It has been estimated that Medicare fraud costs U.S. taxpayers up to $80 billion a year, and it has been estimated that Medicaid fraud costs U.S. taxpayers up to $100 billion a year. We are hemorrhaging money like crazy because of all of this fraud, and there is no end in sight.

The worst fraud occurs in major urban areas in blue states.

Everyone knows this.

The Democrats that are in power in these areas are very hesitant to crack down on the fraud, because they would literally be cracking down on the people that voted them into office.

California is a perfect example.

The state is being accused of losing $180 billion to fraud over the years, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office vigorously disputes that figure.

But as you will see below, the facts clearly show that there has been a tremendous amount of fraud going on.

Since California Governor Gavin Newsom is preparing to run for the presidency, he is desperate to keep this from becoming a major political issue.

And so he doesn’t want independent journalists like Nick Shirley poking around in his state.

On Saturday, Newsom signed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law…

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s controversial “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law on Saturday, just days after a radical left-wing operative crashed the journalist’s Capitol interview and launched a crude personal attack on him.

Assembly Bill 2624 expands California’s Safe at Home program to employees of nonprofits that serve people navigating the immigration system.

Critics have blasted the measure as a way to intimidate people “trying to shine light on bad behavior,” , such as Shirley’s investigative reports on fraud in California and Minnesota.

Those that violate this new law could be hit with fines as high as $50,000 and even face prison time in certain circumstances…

The measure imposes penalties on people who distribute information or images of covered immigration workers under circumstances the law defines as inciting violence or threats. Penalties can range from $10,000 to $50,000, with violations potentially carrying jail or prison sentences.

In a post on X, Nick Shirley explained why this new law specifically targets people like him…

He is right.

They are out to get him.

But they can’t stop federal authorities from cracking down on fraud.

One man in California that was recently arrested by the feds is being charged with stealing 27 million dollars from Medicare…

He probably assumed that he would never get caught, because most of those that are doing this never get caught.

In another case, California authorities actually broke up a fraud ring that had stolen 267 million dollars from the state…

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, together with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), today announced charges filed against 21 suspects and the dismantling of a major hospice fraud scheme that defrauded California of $267 million. Operation Skip Trace resulted in the arrest of five people after ten different locations were searched in Southern California. In addition, two handguns and over $757,000 in cash were seized.

“This isn’t a political game for us. This is about protecting taxpayer dollars, protecting the programs that sick and vulnerable Californians rely on, and protecting our state,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Over the life of this fraud scheme, not a single legitimate hospice service was ever provided yet millions were billed in a brazen, calculated scheme that exploited the Medi-Cal system. This wasn’t a mistake or a loophole; it was deliberate fraud. This kind of abuse undermines trust, drains critical resources, and threatens care for those who truly depend on it. This is a perfect example that we have taken a firm stand to investigate, prosecute, and shut down hospice fraud wherever it exists.”

Of course 267 million dollars is just the tip of the iceberg.

It has been estimated that Medi-Cal has lost approximately “$146 billion in taxpayer funds to fraud on Gavin Newsom’s watch”…

Talcove estimates that the Medicaid fraud rate in California is 20 percent, which he calls a “very conservative” figure. Federal officials, however, believe that the current Medi-Cal fraud rate is even higher—and, given the state’s oversight failures and massive Medi-Cal expansion under Newsom, they are almost certainly right. Multiple high-ranking sources at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is currently probing fraud in California, told City Journal on the condition of anonymity that their initial estimate for Medi-Cal’s fraud rate since 2019 is 25 percent.

Based on state experts’ best guesses of annual Medi-Cal expenditures and applying a conservative, 15 percent fraud rate to each fiscal year since 2019, Medi-Cal has lost some $146 billion in taxpayer funds to fraud on Gavin Newsom’s watch.

It is so easy to do this in California, because there is so little accountability.

Most of the time, you either have to cross someone very important or be incredibly sloppy in order to get caught.

And it appears that even the state government is stealing money.

A member of Congress from California named Young Kim is alleging that the state government “spent more than $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid dollars on non-emergency care for illegal immigrants”…

Last week, Congresswoman Young Kim (CA-40) sent a letter demanding answers from Gavin Newsom after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) found California spent more than $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid dollars on non-emergency care for illegal immigrants.

According to CMS, California claimed federal Medicaid reimbursements for services that are explicitly prohibited under federal law. Medicaid funds may be used for emergency care regardless of immigration status; however, CMS auditors found California used federal dollars for non-emergency care for illegal aliens, in violation of longstanding eligibility rules.

“California just spent 1.3 billion taxpayer dollars on healthcare for illegal immigrants while seniors, disabled Americans, and low-income families are pushed to the back of the line,” said Rep. Young Kim. “While hardworking Americans were footing the bill, Gavin Newsom was galivanting around Switzerland following President Trump like a lost puppy. I’m demanding accountability from Governor Newsom and making sure the American taxpayer gets paid back what they’re due.”

Will anyone ever get in trouble for this?

I doubt it.

Fraud has become a way of life in California.

During the last pandemic, fraudsters stole approximately 20 billion dollars from California’s Employment Development Department…

COVID-19 — and the swell of jobless Californians that the virus’ spread produced — created two, separate billion-dollar problems for California’s Employment Development Department. Those issues have continued to plague the agency since the pandemic.

The first problem was the massive amount of fraud that took place when California rushed to distribute federal, and some state, funds to an unprecedented number of people who were suddenly out of a job. The total amount of fraud is estimated to be at least $20 billion.

EDD has worked to recover some of the stolen funds by partnering with federal and state law enforcement agencies. The department reported that thousands of investigations have resulted in 670 convictions — $5.9 billion has been recovered.

They convicted 670 people, but the vast majority of the money will never be returned.

The list of criminals that were involved in stealing money from California’s Employment Development Department includes a fraud ring from Romania and a rapper from Memphis that goes by the name “Nuke Bizzle”…

The scams began almost immediately, with criminals from around the world reportedly siphoning cash from the program. In one case, a Romanian-led fraud ring orchestrated a $5 million unemployment-insurance scheme. Members allegedly “recruited potential [EDD-benefit] applicants through Facebook” and met them at “parks throughout Southern California to complete the application process,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. “Applicants paid . . . a partial fee up front for assisting with fraudulent applications and another fee after applicants received EDD payments,” the office said. Many of the fraudsters wired the stolen funds to Romania.

Around September 2020, Fontrell Antonio Baines, a rapper from Memphis known as Nuke Bizzle, released a music video on YouTube entitled “EDD.” In the song, Baines bragged about ripping off California’s UI program. “Go to the bank with a stack of these,” Baines rapped, holding up EDD envelopes. Another rapper can be heard saying: “You gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim.” All told, Baines obtained more than $700,000 in stolen funds using preloaded EDD debit cards. He pleaded guilty to federal charges.

There are so many more examples that I could share with you.

But I think that you get the point.

All over the nation, word has gotten out that it is incredibly easy to steal from the government.

Most of those that are stealing from the government are Democrats.

And Democrats are extremely determined to cover this up because they are deeply concerned that it might hurt them when voters go to the polls.

Meanwhile, the fraud continues.

In fact, we just learned that three postal carriers that were allegedly involved in a 24 million dollar fraud scheme have just been apprehended…

This is what moral decay looks like.

Given the right opportunity, a significant portion of the population will steal.

It isn’t right, but they don’t care.

A few will get arrested, but the overall level of fraud just keeps increasing.

This is a major national crisis, and urgent action is required.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

A historic economic meltdown appears to be percolating. As the price of diesel spikes, that is going to put pressure on the cost of just about everything else. And considering the fact that Canada is our largest trade partner, slapping a 50 percent tariff on all Canadian goods is not going to help our cost of living crisis either. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is bleeding jobs and the number of Americans that are filing for bankruptcy has risen to a very frightening level. It is starting to look a lot like 2008 all over again, and that is not a good thing at all.

If you use diesel fuel, you have already noticed that it has been getting a lot more expensive.

At this point, the national average for diesel is hovering around five and a half dollars a gallon…

As August 2026 rolls on, persistent price hikes are delivering a real wallet punch to truck owners, RVers, contractors, and heavy-fleet operators across the country. According to the latest fuel tracking data from AAA as of August 18, 2026, the U.S. national average retail diesel price has climbed to a staggering $5.4677 per gallon.

That’s nearly a 15-cent jump in just one week, nearly 38 cents higher than last month, and a painful leap from the ~$3.69 per gallon we saw this time last year. For anyone relying on diesel to tow, haul freight, or earn a living, filling up is getting genuinely tough on the bottom line.

Of course there are some states where diesel is far more expensive than the national average.

In California, the average price of a gallon of diesel just reached seven dollars…

Diesel prices in California hit $7 per gallon again Wednesday as the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East knock out refineries, triggering a fuel supply crunch around the world.

Truckers in the Golden State are shelling out about 30 cents more per gallon than they paid a month ago, according to data from AAA. Prices have surged about 37%, or $1.89 per gallon, compared to the same period last year.

This is a really big deal, because our economy runs on diesel.

According to one industry expert that was just interviewed by CNBC, diesel is “the important macro fuel to watch”…

Diesel is the most important fuel for the global economy, said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy. It is used “in transportation, it’s in heating fuel, it’s in agriculture, it’s in industrial uses,” McNally told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday. “It is the important macro fuel to watch,” he said.

Approximately 76 percent of all commercial trucks use diesel fuel.

Just think about that.

As diesel continues to become more expensive, this is going to have a devastating impact on our trucking industry…

Rising costs for the fuel affect all modes of transportation, from airlines to trucking, and the ripple effect will impact “virtually all industries,” said Joel Sutherland, a professor of supply-chain management at the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business.

For trucking, the consequences could be particularly disastrous. Some 90% of U.S. licensed common carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks, and most are struggling to stay afloat, Sutherland said.

Some trucking companies have ceased doing business, and many more will likely fail if high fuel costs do not subside soon. That could cause U.S. trucking capacity to decline, making it even more expensive to transport goods around the country.

So why is this happening?

You can blame the wars in the Middle East and Europe.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is way below pre-war levels, and the Russians have banned the export of diesel due to drone attacks on their refineries…

Diesel prices are rising as the wars in the Ukraine and Iran wars have disrupted about 8% of the supply needed to meet 28 million barrels per day of global demand, Lipow said.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries have forced Moscow to ban diesel exports of around 800,000 bpd, Lipow added.

The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has affected about 1.2 million bpd of Middle East diesel exports, the analyst said. Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen recently attacked Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea refinery in Jizan, shutting the facility and its 200,000 bpd of capacity at least until the end of August, he said.

Meanwhile, a trade war has just erupted with our largest trading partner.

The U.S. will now be imposing a 50 percent tariff on all Canadian goods, and the Canadians will be responding in kind…

In his first public comments since negotiations collapsed on Friday in Washington, the US president wrote on social media: “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!”

“They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of tariffs,” he added. “No more!!!”

His comments came after the US imposed 50% tariffs on $20bn (£14.6bn) worth of Canadian goods, while Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, has vowed to match them “dollar for dollar”.

Yes, this is really going to hurt.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is insisting that the United States “asked too much and offered too little”…

Prime Minister Mark Carney told his negotiators to walk away from the table after the Trump administration introduced late unacceptable demands on culture, autos and sovereignty that, when taken in concert with their overall approach to talks, revealed the U.S. was not interested in a “true economic partnership” with Canada.

In a departure from his usual diplomatic language, Carney suggested the U.S. sometimes signs trade deals in “pencil,” and while Canada’s government is united and working together, the same is not true of the Trump administration.

“We cannot accept what they’ve offered, and we will not give what they’ve asked,” Carney said on Saturday in Ottawa, adding that the United States ‘asked too much and offered too little.’

We certainly don’t need a trade war with our largest trading partner, because lots of economic red flags have already been popping up all around us.

For example, last week Walmart reported its slowest U.S. sales growth in more than six years. As a result, the stock price absolutely plummeted.

And the fact that the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs last month certainly has a lot of investors on edge.

But those numbers will be quickly forgotten.

What will not be forgotten is the horrific cost of living crisis that has been going on since the beginning of this decade.

One recent survey discovered that Americans believe that it is the greatest challenge that they are currently facing…

According to a Statista Consumer Insights survey conducted between January and July 2026, 53 percent of U.S. adults said that the high cost of living was one of the biggest challenges they currently face – making it by far the most common answer ahead of mental and physical health at 26 percent each.

Needless to say, the rising price of diesel and our trade war with Canada are only going to make our seemingly endless cost of living crisis even worse.

As our standard of living declines, the number of Americans filing for bankruptcy just keeps going up…

The number of Americans who file for bankruptcy is growing. More than 500,000 people took this step in 2025, nearly 50% more than in 2022. And the numbers have kept on climbing, with a 12% jump in June 2026 from a year earlier as many consumers struggled to pay their bills.

At this point, most of the population is living right on the edge, and more people are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

For more than a decade, I have been ranting about the death of the middle class.

But I don’t feel like all of that ranting has done much good, because the erosion of the middle class just continues to accelerate.

There is no way that America can be strong without a strong middle class.

Unfortunately, we are now heading into an economic storm of epic proportions, and what we experienced back in 2008 will look like a picnic in comparison.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We all knew that this was coming. For ages, people like me have been ranting that we would be facing a financial nightmare if we didn’t get the national debt under control. Of course most of the population didn’t want to listen, and they just kept sending big spenders back to Washington. Now we are 40 trillion dollars in debt and we are spending well over a trillion dollars a year just in interest on that debt. Nobody can deny that we have reached a stage where our debt spiral is totally out of control. The federal budget deficit for the month of July was 432 billion dollars. Interest on the national debt for the month of July was 118 billion dollars. Now Treasury yields are spiking as investors become hesitant to buy more of our debt. Borrowing costs are rising to very alarming levels, and we are in far more trouble than most people realize.

The size of the national debt officially crossed the 40 trillion dollar threshold on Tuesday…

The U.S. national debt has surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, marking a historic milestone in a borrowing buildup that has accumulated over generations, through wars, recessions, tax changes, and the expansion of major federal benefit programs under presidents of both parties.

The Treasury Department reported that total public debt outstanding reached about $40.047 trillion Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

This is money that we have stolen from future generations of Americans.

What we have done to our children and our grandchildren is beyond criminal.

People should be going to prison over this.

Thanks to years of absolutely reckless spending, the size of the national debt has more than doubled in less than 10 years…

The Treasury Department’s daily financial report shows that the nation’s debt reached $40.05 trillion on August 18, more than double its level in 2017. The federal debt has ballooned because government spending is outstripping revenue, forcing the U.S. to borrow more money to cover the shortfall.

Our politicians are literally destroying the future of this country.

In 1980, the size of our national debt was just reaching 1 trillion dollars.

When Barack Obama entered the White House, the size of the national debt was sitting at about 10 trillion dollars.

Now we are 40 trillion dollars in debt with no end in sight…

We just hit 30 trillion dollars about 4 years ago.

How long would it take us to hit 50 trillion dollars?

If Elon Musk donated his entire fortune to the government, it would barely even make a dent in the national debt…

The sheer scale of America’s $40 trillion debt is hard to fathom. The amount is significantly greater than U.S. annual GDP. That means even if all U.S. income went toward paying down the debt for a full year—rather than to things like salaries, corporate profits and investment—the federal government would still owe trillions, by this measure.

If Elon Musk helped pay down the debt by sacrificing the entirety of his nearly $1 trillion net worth—itself a mind-boggling sum—it would barely make a dent. The gross debt owed by the federal government is also nearly equal to what is owed by all U.S. households and businesses combined (excluding banks).

Even if you took every single penny from every single billionaire in this country, that would only get you about 8 trillion dollars.

We are drowning in debt with no way out.

At this stage, we are spending more on interest on the national debt each year than we are on either the U.S. military or Medicare…

As the government continues to borrow, interest payments are consuming a larger share of the nation’s spending, creating a compounding effect that further fuels the debt. The U.S. government now spends more on servicing its debt than on national defense or Medicare.

We really are in the endgame.

At the same time that our national debt has hit 40 trillion dollars, a moment of reckoning has arrived for the Treasury market…

The fiscal pressures are increasingly visible in the bond market.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury recently reached roughly 5.3%, its highest level in nearly two decades, according to the Journal and Reuters.

Higher Treasury yields increase the government’s cost of issuing and refinancing debt and can also influence borrowing costs for households and businesses.

Government borrowing costs are starting to spike.

In a desperate attempt to calm investors, the U.S. Treasury Department conducted a dramatic intervention on Wednesday…

In a move announced Wednesday morning, the Treasury Department, led by Secretary Scott Bessent, said it would at least double the size of its government debt buybacks, starting Sept. 9 and running through Nov. 4.

Yields tumbled following the announcement, with the 30-year down about 10 basis points after previously hitting its highest in about 19 years, predating the global financial crisis in 2008.

But it didn’t work.

On Thursday, yields on long-term Treasury bonds bounced right back…

Bond yields climbed Thursday, erasing most of the pullback they saw the previous day after the Treasury Department announced an intervention aimed at easing pressure on longer-dated government debt.

The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond — the primary focus of the accelerated buyback — was up more than 6 basis points at 5.256%.

Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys — the main benchmark for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt — moved more than 5 basis points higher to 4.704%.

This is a really big deal.

And there aren’t going to be any easy fixes, because as Wolf Richter has aptly pointed out, there is only so much that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be able to do moving forward…

Going forward, yields will have to be high enough to entice bond buyers off the fence and buy an additional $1 trillion of new Treasury securities every three to five months or so; yields have to be high enough to overcome their fears about inflation, government profligacy, and the new supply pushing up yields even higher.

This didn’t happen by accident.

Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have brought us to this point.

Meanwhile, bond markets in Europe are also starting to go nuts…

A sharp increase in borrowing costs also took place across Europe. France’s 10-year bond yield hit its highest level since 2009 on Tuesday, while the yield on German bunds climbed to 3.25pc, a 15-year high.

And the yield on 5 year Japanese bonds recently hit the highest level in 31 years.

Government bonds sit at the very foundation of the global financial system.

Now that foundation is really starting to be shaken, and that is an extremely troubling sign.

The stage has been set for a meltdown of epic proportions, and it won’t take very much at all to push us over the edge.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

A multi-year cattle shortage has pushed the price of beef into very painful territory. In fact, in some areas of the country the price of ground beef now exceeds the federal minimum wage. This is the first time in U.S. history that this has ever happened. At the start of 2026, there were only 86.2 million head of cattle and calves in the United States. That is the smallest the national herd has been since 1951. Just think about that for a moment. This is an enormous problem because in 1951 there were 154 million people living in this nation, but there are 342 million people living in this nation today.

We are being told that we are facing a “historic” cattle shortage, and it is causing some of the biggest meatpackers in the country to shut down facilities…

America’s ranchers are facing their smallest cattle herd in 75 years, a shortage now rippling from pastures to some of the nation’s largest meatpackers.

Tyson Foods announced last week that it will close beef facilities in Illinois and Utah and pursue the sale of another in Washington as it reshapes its beef business amid what the company called one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced. Tyson said recent USDA data suggest supply constraints are likely to persist.

This is a major national crisis.

According to the USDA, the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen by 8 million just since 2019…

USDA data shows the U.S. entered 2026 with about 86.2 million cattle and calves, the smallest herd since the early 1950s. That’s down from roughly 94.7 million cattle and calves in 2019, a decline of more than 8 million animals.

This is another instance where the trend is not our friend.

I asked Google to create a graph of the size of the U.S. cattle herd by year, and the decline that we have been experiencing since the beginning of the decade is unmistakable…

So why is this happening?

The answer to that question is very clear.

Ranchers throughout the middle of the nation have been dealing with severe drought…

“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, previously told Fox News Digital.

He said years of dry weather have depleted grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds. Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making the road to recovery even longer.

This isn’t a new phenomenon.

In fact, according to Wikipedia a multi-decade drought in the Southwest actually began in the year 2000…

The southwestern North American megadrought is a multidecadal drought in the southwestern region of North America that began in 2000. The 2000–2021 period was the driest 22-year period the region had experienced since at least 800 CE. The megadrought contributed to the first-ever declaration of a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the two largest reservoirs in the United States by storage capacity.[1] Climate models project increased drought risk and drier soil-moisture conditions in the region through the end of the 21st century.[2]

There had been hope that perhaps the region may be pulling out the megadrought, but then last winter was the driest winter that many areas of the Southwest have experienced in recorded history.

It is really hard to raise cattle if it doesn’t rain, and pastures throughout the Southwest are in very rough shape right now…

Drought is hammering pastures and rangeland across the Plains and Southwest, pushing conditions significantly below where they stood a year ago.

The states with the highest percentage of pasture and range in the very-poor-to-poor category are in those two regions, according to USDA’s weekly Crop Progress report released on Monday. Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming have the highest percentage of pastures in this category at 73%, 72% and 71%, respectively. These states also lack pasture in the good-to-excellent category, with Nebraska and Colorado both at 8% and Wyoming at 4%.

The reason why all of us should deeply care about this is because the consequences are being keenly felt at the grocery store.

Since 2021, the average price of ground beef in the United States has risen by well over 50 percent…

Today, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

In some areas of the country the price of ground beef is still a little bit less than the federal minimum wage, and in some areas of the country the price of ground beef is actually higher than the federal minimum wage.

Ground beef is now more unaffordable than it has ever been in the entire history of our country.

In 1988, the average price of a pound of ground beef was $1.36.

In those days we ate like kings.

But now everything has changed, and it isn’t just the price of beef that is going up.

It is being reported that Oxford Economics is projecting that global food prices will go up 11.8 percent this year alone…

Oxford Economics projects that global food prices will rise 11.8% in 2026 and 4.8% in 2027, with the heaviest toll expected on crops—including grains, fruit, and vegetables—as well as dairy products. This outlook follows Europe’s extreme heat and drought, which have harmed harvests, while growers also grapple with steep energy and fertilizer costs, further aggravated by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

We saw a similar spike in global food prices just prior to the Arab Spring riots in the Middle East many years ago.

And JPMorgan just released a report that is projecting that global food prices will go up another 5 percent during the first half of next year…

That’s a fitting attitude for Americans staring down the possibility of even higher grocery bills. A new report from JPMorgan, Food Security is National Security: A Compounding Storm, warns that global food costs could climb 5% in the first half of 2027.

Personally, I think that JPMorgan’s forecast is way too optimistic.

But that is just my opinion.

JPMorgan is concerned about the dual impact of the Super El Niño and the worldwide fertilizer shortage…

There are two prongs to JPMorgan’s predicted food deficits: a fertilizer shortage and a monumental weather event.

And the Strait of Hormuz’s closure wasn’t just bad for gasoline prices. The strait also sees about a third of the world’s nitrogen fertilizer — an essential form of fertilizer for around half of the world’s crops.

Nitrogen fertilizer shortages are a ticking time bomb. Because it’s needed during the early stages of crop growth, we could still be feeling the effects of a shortage as much as a year later.

Most experts are still anticipating that supplies of fertilizer will be flowing normally through the Strait of Hormuz once we get to next spring.

Of course if that doesn’t actually happen we will have a real nightmare on our hands.

Already, we are facing a harvest season in the fall in which yields will be way down all over the planet thanks to a lack of fertilizer.

Everyone is counting on conditions bouncing back to normal in 2027, but I do not believe that is going to happen.

Approximately 733 million people on this planet go to bed hungry at night now, and I anticipate that number will only grow during the challenging months ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We are facing a global energy crisis, a global debt crisis and a global inflation crisis all at the same time. In all my years, I have never seen anything like this. Two of China’s largest shipping companies just decided to stop sending their oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Meanwhile, diesel prices are heading into the stratosphere with no end in sight. Supplies of diesel fuel are going to get so tight during the months ahead. At the same time, bond yields are surging as the global debt crisis escalates. The U.S. national debt is about to hit 40 trillion dollars and the debt to GDP ratio in Japan is nearing 250 percent. We are caught in a global debt spiral that is out of control, and inflation has become a major issue all over the planet. Anyone that thinks that there is an easy answer to all of these problems is just being delusional.

Just within the past 48 hours, there have been some absolutely enormous developments. The following are 12 gigantic red flag warning signs for the economy…

#1 The crack spread for diesel fuel in the United States just surpassed the $100 mark for the first time ever. Our trucking industry runs on diesel, and so this is going to have enormous implications for all of us…

The U.S. diesel crack, a key measure of refining profitability, hit an ‌all-time high of $102.20 a barrel on Monday as global supply disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine run into peak agricultural consumption season.

Measured as the premium of U.S. diesel futures over U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures , the U.S. diesel crack was trading at $99.82 a barrel, up ​2.4% from Friday, as of 11:56 a.m. ET. The crack has hit new intraday record highs in five of ​the last six sessions, reflecting growing concerns about fuel availability as fresh attacks on Middle Eastern refineries ⁠added to existing supply disruptions.

This is a monster story.

When I first saw the chart posted below, I was visibly stunned…

#2 Two Chinese shipping giants have decided to stop sending their oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the foreseeable future. China normally purchases more oil from the Middle East than anyone else by a wide margin, and so this is a very big deal…

#3 Yet another commercial vessel was just attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. This just keeps happening day after day, and it is not getting nearly enough attention from the mainstream media…

A vessel attempting to exit the Strait of Hormuz was attacked Tuesday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO).

The UKMTO noted it received a report of a ship being hit with “an unknown projectile” as it was leaving the strait, a critical oil shipping channel. The vessel’s engine room was damaged, and a crew member was killed, the organization said.

#4 The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has now fallen to the lowest level since 1982…

The US emergency stockpile of crude oil has dwindled to its lowest level since 1982, prompting fresh concern that oil prices could surge if the Iran war drags on.

The Trump administration released another 5.3 million barrels in the past week as it tries to prevent the conflict from driving up oil prices and hitting the US economy.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) now sits at 293.4 million barrels, a level not seen since Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.

#5 The yield on 30 year Treasury bonds just hit the highest level in 19 years. We are entering a time when it is going to be a lot more expensive for the U.S. government to borrow money…

Treasury yields were little changed on Tuesday after long-dated bonds hit their highest level in almost two decades amid a worsening U.S. fiscal situation and persistently higher inflation.

The yield on the U.S. 30-year Treasury bond fell less than 1 basis point to trade at 5.305%. It hit a new 19-year high earlier in the day and is nearing its highest level since 2002.

#6 The yield on 10 year Japanese bonds just hit the highest level in nearly 30 years. Global investors are really starting to freak out about Japan’s debt crisis…

Japan’s benchmark 10-year government bond yield climbed to a three-decade high on Tuesday, driven by rising overseas bond yields and speculation about a near-term Bank of Japan interest-rate increase.

The 10-year JGB yield added 2.5 basis points to 2.945% early in the trading day, the highest level since September 1996.

#7 College graduates all over the country are having an exceedingly difficult time finding employment. For example, one 21-year-old woman named Irene Chang has applied for approximately 450 jobs without getting hired…

Irene Chang, 21, studied engineering in college because she enjoys solving problems. She also wanted to major in something she thought would lead to a stable career.

“I wanted to work a job right after college,” she says.

But that has been a challenge. Chang graduated in May from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering. She says she started applying for entry-level data analyst roles about a year ago, while she was still in school. Chang estimates she has submitted around 450 applications since last September and has had about 19 interviews — so far she hasn’t gotten any offers.

#8 Approximately half of all U.S. college graduates end up moving back in with their parents once they leave school…

A record number of young adults are choosing to live with their parents rather than contemplate the tricky math of renting or owning homes.

Roughly half of recent college graduates returned to parents’ homes after finishing their studies rather than move out on their own, according to a new survey from Clever Real Estate.

#9 Pending home sales unexpectedly fell back near a record low last month…

Pending home sales in July decreased by 2.3% month-over-month and 2.2% year-over-year, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales report. The report provides the real estate ecosystem—including agents, homebuyers and sellers—with data on the level of home sales under contract.

Pending home sales in July fell to the lowest level since January 2026. Month-over-month pending home sales declined in all four major U.S. regions. Year-over-year pending home sales increased in the Midwest but declined in the Northeast, South and West.

#10 The price of ground beef in the United States is hovering around record high levels…

Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that the national average price of ground beef in the supermarket is hovering just below $7 per pound, a record high, as a prolonged cattle shortage shows no signs of abating anytime soon.

#11 Nearly 60 percent of Democrats now have a positive view of socialism…

The poll, which surveyed 2,287 adults in the United States between August 12-14, found that there is a 26-point difference between Democrats’ positive views on socialism and capitalism.

Among Democrats, 58 percent were found to have a positive view of socialism, while 32 percent have a positive view of capitalism. The poll also found that 18 percent of Democrats have a negative view of socialism, while 50 percent have a negative view of capitalism.

The poll also found that 24 percent of Democrats have “no opinion” of socialism, while 18 percent have no opinion regarding capitalism.

#12 Warren Buffett appears to be convinced that this current stock market bubble is going to end very badly…

I agree with Buffett.

Our financial markets have become giant casinos, and there is no way that this current bubble is going to end well.

The greatest time of financial chaos in our generation is ahead of us.

We are already witnessing so many signs of financial trouble, and it is just a matter of time before there is a mad dash for the exits.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.