‘It Is Like A Nuclear Bomb Went Off In The Prepping Community’

nuclear-war-family-public-domainIs the prepper movement in the United States dying?  At one time it was estimated that there were 3 million preppers in the United States, but in late 2016 interest in prepping has hit a multi-year low.  The big reason for this, of course, is that the election of Donald Trump has fueled a tremendous wave of optimism among those that consider themselves to be conservatives, patriots and evangelical Christians.  Not since the election of Ronald Reagan has the mood on the right shifted in such a positive direction so suddenly.  But now that everyone is feeling so good about things, very few people still seem interested in prepping for hard times ahead.  In fact, it is like a nuclear bomb went off in the prepping community.

As the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, I am in contact with a lot of people that serve the prepping community.  And I can tell you that sales of emergency food and supplies have been crashing since Donald Trump’s surprise election victory.  Firms that help people relocate outside of the United States have seen business really dry up, and I know of one high profile individual that has actually decided to move back to the country after Trump’s victory.  It is almost as if the apocalypse has been canceled and the future history of the U.S. has been rewritten with a much happier ending.

Personally, I am quite alarmed that so many people are suddenly letting their guard down, but it is difficult to convince people to be vigilant when things seem to be going so well.  Just consider some of the things that have been happening in recent weeks…

-Donald Trump was just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

-The Dow just keeps setting brand new record high after brand new record high.  In fact, the Dow has now risen by more than 1,200 points since Donald Trump won the election.

-The Russell 2000 has shot up an astounding 13 percent just since Trump’s victory.

-Donald Trump has convinced heating, ventilation and air conditioning giant Carrier to keep about 1,000 jobs in the United States instead of shipping them to Mexico.

-Donald Trump has convinced SoftBank to invest 50 billion dollars and create 50,000 new jobs in the United States.

-The U.S. dollar index recently hit the highest level that we have witnessed since March 2003.

-We just learned that U.S. Steel wants to bring back somewhere around 10,000 jobs to communities that lost them.

At this point there is an overwhelming belief among those on the right that Donald Trump is going to be able to do what he has promised to do.

And the numbers back this up.  In a previous article, I discussed the fact that a recent Gallup survey discovered that the percentage of Republicans that believe that the U.S. economy is “getting better” increased from just 16 percent immediately prior to the election to 49 percent immediately after the election.

I don’t recall ever seeing such a shift in public sentiment in just a few days.  Tens of millions of Americans have put their faith in Donald Trump, and time will tell if he will be able to deliver.  As billionaire Mark Cuban recently pointed out, Donald Trump is like a number one draft pick that has not proven himself yet…

“I’ll analogize it to the NBA draft: He’s the No. 1 pick,” Cuban said. “He’s who we put our hopes and dreams with, and we’re going to believe in him. Right now it’s a little bit easier because we haven’t played a game yet.”

“There’s no reason to rush to judgment or come to any conclusions now,” he continued. “Let’s see what happens starting January 21 and go from there. I hope he’s a superstar, and I hope everything turns out the way we all hope it will. But until January 21, there’s no real point at going into detail.”

Let us hope that President Trump will be everything that people are hoping that he will be.

I would love it if 2017 is a year filled with peace and prosperity.  That way I could write less about our economic troubles and instead do more of the positive stories that I have been sharing lately.  And my wife and I could take some time off and just spend some time enjoying our quiet life up here in the mountains.

I don’t think that is the way it is going to go, but I do hope that the optimists are right.

At this point I could start listing out all of the reasons why our economy is doomed no matter who is president, but unless you are already convinced all of that reasoning would probably fall on deaf ears.

Tens of millions of Americans are completely convinced that we are heading into a new golden era for America just because Donald Trump won the election, and for the sake of the nation let us hope that they are correct.

But what if they are wrong?

What if the rioting, violence and civil unrest that the radical left is planning for the Inauguration on January 20th sparks a movement that plunges many of our major cities into chaos throughout Trump’s presidency?

What if all of the incredibly bad decisions that were made during the Obama years result in the biggest economic downturn we have ever seen early in the Trump years?

What if Trump’s inability to get along with China results in a major trade war between the two largest economies on the entire planet?

What if the growing financial instability in Europe results in a new global financial crisis that Trump will not be able to do anything to stop?

I could go on and on, but I think that you get the point.

All of the things that myself and other watchmen have been warning about all this time are coming.

My hope is that the optimists are right and that the horrible events that are coming will be put off for as long as possible.

But I wouldn’t count on it.

A day of reckoning for America is fast approaching, and those that are wise understand the signs of the times.

Apostate Evangelicals Are Poised To Become The Deciding Factor In A Hillary Clinton Election Victory

crowd-concert-music-public-domainIf you look at the numbers, there is no way that Hillary Clinton could possibly win the election without the support of a substantial percentage of evangelical Christian voters.  In fact, if evangelical Christians stuck together they could pretty much elect whoever they want as president.  According to the Pew Research Center, 35 percent of all adults in the United States identify themselves as “evangelical” or “born again”, and it has been estimated that there are  94 million evangelical Christian adults in this country.  If evangelical Christians acted as a single voting block they could determine the outcome of every single presidential election.  Unfortunately, that simply is not going to happen.

A survey that was recently conducted by LifeWay Research found that only 45 percent of Christian evangelicals plan to vote for Donald Trump and 31 percent of Christian evangelicals plan to vote for Hillary Clinton.

That same survey discovered that moral issues are becoming increasingly unimportant to evangelical voters…

Overall, the economy is the top concern for Americans regardless of religious affiliation (30%). National security (17%) and personal character (17%) also are significant issues. Supreme Court nominees (10%), immigration (5%), religious freedom (2%), and abortion (1%) are less important.

“For churchgoers and those with evangelical beliefs, their pocketbook and personal safety are paramount,” said McConnell. “Moral issues aren’t a priority for many of them.”

I don’t know how in the world abortion could come in at only 1 percent.  Even if you add “Supreme Court nominees” and abortion together, you still only get a total of 11 percent.

This just shows that evangelicals in America have their priorities way out of order.

And unfortunately for Donald Trump, he is getting a lot less support from evangelicals than other recent presidential candidates received.  According to the New York Times, previous candidates have generally received about 80 percent support from white evangelical voters, but Donald Trump is only getting about 65 to 70 percent support, and his numbers among non-white evangelicals are absolutely dismal.

If you are an evangelical Christian and you have reservations about Donald Trump, I can respect that.  But there will be other names on the ballot and you do not have to vote for Hillary Clinton.  As I have said before, a vote for Hillary Clinton is an act of unmitigated wickedness.

Hillary Clinton has made support for abortion one of the central pillars of her long political career.  In fact, I don’t know if there is any politician in America that is more associated with abortion than Hillary Clinton.  Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million babies have been murdered in the United States, and Hillary Clinton’s hands are drenched with their blood.

If you vote for Hillary Clinton, your hands will be drenched with their blood too.

Needless to say, I am absolutely horrified that so many prominent evangelical leaders have come out in support of Hillary Clinton during this election season.  For example, a group that represents over 6,000 Latino evangelical churches has just announced that they are endorsing Hillary Clinton

An organization representing more than 6,000 Latino evangelical churches in the U.S. is endorsing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

In a statement Thursday, the group OPEN USA says Clinton has proven her willingness to engage in difficult conversations, listen to contrasting opinions and engage faith leaders.

Meanwhile, 75 evangelical leaders recently signed a petition on Change.org that strongly denounces Donald Trump…

We, undersigned evangelicals, simply will not tolerate the racial, religious, and gender bigotry that Donald Trump has consistently and deliberately fueled, no matter how else we choose to vote or not to vote.

One of the truly alarming trends that we have been seeing this election season is the number of prominent women in the evangelical movement that are openly rejecting Donald Trump and embracing Hillary Clinton.  The following is a short excerpt from a recent Washington Post article that examined this phenomenon…

When Jen Hatmaker speaks to stadiums full of Christian women, she regales them with stories about her five children and her garden back in Austin, Tex. — and stays away from politics. But recently she took to Facebook and Instagram to blast Donald J. Trump as a “national disgrace,” and remind her legions of followers that there are other names on the ballot in November.

And Christianity Today recently published an editorial from one of the top female evangelical leaders in the entire country in which she publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton.  According to Christianity Today, Deborah Fikes is “the former Permanent Representative to the United Nations for World Evangelical Alliance, which represents a constituency of 650 million with alliance offices in 129 countries.”  Fikes says that she stepped down from some of her leadership positions so that she could openly advocate for Clinton

My recent resignations from evangelical leadership positions to endorse Hillary Clinton speaks volumes of how important I believe it is that she is elected in November. The toxic tone and atmosphere that surrounds Mr. Trump and is fueled among his supporters has done irreparable damage to not only our country and the future of the GOP but also to the public witness of evangelicals in America who are seen as some of his biggest supporters.

There is no question in my mind or spirit that with the overwhelming challenges the next American president will face, Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person who has ever run for the Oval Office. On the issues of our national security, economic stability, seeing that healthcare reform continues to move forward, and tackling domestic challenges of poverty, inequality, and racism, we need her to be the person occupying this office.

A lot of these women seem to think that abortion shouldn’t be a major issue in this election, but that is like saying that the Holocaust shouldn’t have been a major issue in Nazi Germany.

Look, you don’t have to vote for Donald Trump or anyone else to be a good Christian.

But if you cast a vote for Hillary Clinton, you are casting a vote for the most evil, wicked and corrupt politician that this nation has possibly ever seen, and you are publicly endorsing the sinful positions that she is proud to stand for.

I know that I have been writing about the election a lot lately, but I feel that it is very important that I do so.  Most of the media coverage has focused on Donald Trump, but I feel that this election is far more about Hillary Clinton.  The things that her and her husband have done have been well documented, and if the American people willingly choose her they will know exactly what they are doing.

Unfortunately, not even Christians are standing united against the Clintons.  The political divide in the evangelical Christian world has grown so deep that it has even reached Liberty University.  The following comes from the Atlantic

That’s why it was such a big deal when, two weeks ago, a group of Liberty students put out a letter explaining why they’re standing against the Republican presidential nominee. Jerry Falwell Jr., who has run the school since his father died in 2007, announced his support for Donald Trump back in January, and he has since spoken on the candidate’s behalf in interviews and at events. “We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history,” the students wrote. “Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him.”

Thousands of people signed onto the letter, including, the students said, roughly 2,000 students or alumni with liberty.edu email addresses. Dustin Wahl and Alex Forbes, two of the letter’s authors, were featured on MSNBC and CNN. They said they received supportive emails and tweets from Russell Moore, the head of the political arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Erick Erickson, the conservative radio-show host.

And the support for Clinton is particularly strong among young adult evangelicals.  When I read the following paragraph on the website of the New York Times, I was absolutely astounded…

Kate Shellnutt, 30, the online editor of Christianity Today and editor of the CT Women section, said she had observed that “the millennial generation has a lot less patience for Trump.” Of the 33 influential millennial evangelicals she profiled for a cover story two years ago, she says she can now find only one, Lila Rose, who is pro-Trump, and even she has been publicly critical of him. Several have been using the hashtag #NeverTrump, Ms. Shellnutt said.

The frightening thing is that this election might be the last chance for evangelical Christians to shape the political direction of this nation, because the truth is that demographics are rapidly shifting, and this includes the demographics of the evangelical community

As Robert Jones has expertly documented in his recent book The End of White Christian America, the number of older, conservative, white male evangelicals is shrinking each year. Meanwhile, the number of younger evangelicals of all ethnic backgrounds — whose moral and political views extend far beyond positions on gay marriage and abortion — is on the rise.

If you follow my work regularly, then you already know that I have very little hope for the future of America.

But if Hillary Clinton is elected, there will be exactly zero hope.

If evangelical Christians stood united, they could stop her, but at this point it appears that is not going to happen.

ISIS Has Camps On The U.S. Border, But Obama Says ‘Right-Wing Extremists’ Are The Greatest Terror Threat

Islamic State White HouseISIS camps have now been discovered directly across the U.S. border with Mexico, ISIS operatives have been captured illegally entering the United States, and ISIS is threatening to conduct a massive campaign of terror against U.S. targets, and yet Barack Obama and his underlings continue to insist that “right-wing extremists” are the greatest terror threat that this nation is facing.  One recent survey found that 84 percent of all Americans believe that ISIS is a “direct threat to the USA”, but Obama refuses to secure our borders and he is even allowing dozens of American citizens that fought for ISIS overseas to come back into this country.  What in the world is Obama thinking?  Even though ISIS has promised to drown all of us in our own blood, the Obama administration has purged virtually all references to Islam out of government terror training materials.  Meanwhile, as you will see below, Obama’s political enemies have been regularly labeled as “potential terrorists” in official government documents during the Obama era.  This includes “patriots”, “conspiracy theorists”, “evangelical Christians” and “general right-wing extremists”.

This week, we learned that it has been confirmed that ISIS cells are operating in northern Mexico just a few miles from U.S. territory.  The following is an excerpt from a bombshell report that Judicial Watch just released…

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector.

The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm.

This comes on the heels of reports that federal authorities recently captured members of ISIS after they came across the border

The warning follows reports from Judicial Watch in recent months that Islamic terrorists have been captured in Texas after coming across the U.S. border from Mexico.

The organization said just last winter its sources within the Department of Homeland Security said several ISIS terror group members were arrested by federal authorities and the Texas Department of Public Safety in McAllen and Pharr.

Considering how porous our border security is at this point, how many more members of ISIS have been able to come across without getting caught?

And none of this should be catching anyone by surprise.  There have been warnings since the middle of last year that ISIS would be attempting to cross the southern border and attack targets inside the United States.  The following comes from a recent article by Kurt Nimmo

In 2014, Midland County, Texas Sheriff Gary Painter said ISIS would cross the border and strike the United States.

In August, a former CIA officer, Mike Baker, told the Laura Ingraham Show ISIS works with the drug cartels.

Judicial Watch said in August ISIS was using Juárez as a staging area and planned to launch a car bomb attack against Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base about fifteen minutes from the border.

In September, Infowars reporter Joe Biggs. traveled to the area and crossed the Rio Grande dressed in an ISIS terrorist outfit. The stunt demonstrated how easy it would be for terrorists to enter the country.

But some members of ISIS don’t even have to try to come into the U.S. illegally.

If you can believe it, the Obama administration is actually welcoming back home many Americans that went overseas to fight for ISIS.  Just check out what Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson recently told 60 Minutes

It was in a televised chat with Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” that he admitted there may not be as much oversight of those who trained and fought with terrorists as some people would like.

Stahl asked: “As I understand it, of the 180 Americans who have gone overseas to fight in Iraq and Syria, 40 have come back. I assume you’re keeping close tabs on those 40?”

Said Johnson: “We have, in fact, kept close tabs on those who we believe have left and those who’ve come back. A number have been arrested or investigated, and we have systems in place to track these individuals.

“But you can’t know everything.”

All of this is happening despite the fact that ISIS is threatening a massive wave of terror attacks inside this country.

They even have a hashtag on Twitter for this campaign.  It is “#WeWillBurnUSAgain”, and it has already been used more than 15,000 times.

A video that was released in conjunction with this campaign sounds quite ominous

“America thinks it’s safe because of the geographical location,” its voiceover says. “Thus you see it invades Muslim lands, and thinks that the army of jihad won’t reach in their lands.

“But the dream of Americans to have safety became a mirage.”

If I was in the White House, I would be inclined to take this sort of thing quite seriously.

But instead, the Obama administration continues to be obsessed with the “threat” from “right-wing extremists”.  For example, a recent National Guard exercise featured role players that posed as “sovereign citizens” and chanted right-wing rhetoric

The exercise, which Infowars reporters were barred from attending, took place in Richmond this past weekend and involved more than 200 soldiers, airmen, local law enforcement and firefighting personnel.

Footage captured by a local shows Guard troops pushing irate citizens away with batons before one of the protest group states, “I’m a sovereign citizen, I refuse to recognize you guys, I refuse to recognize you.”

“Why in the course of a drill for a dirty bomb, would an actor claim to be a sovereign citizen?” asks Keith Johnson, who filmed the footage. “The San Francisco Bay Area is not known for it’s sovereign citizen militia population and hearing this shouted during a mock terrorist scenario was disturbing. Anybody familiar with Richmond will tell you it is not a rural ‘militia’ environment. Located in the East Bay Area near Oakland, it is a community with reduced circumstances. No one there is going to be proclaiming to be a sovereign citizen.”

And of course this is far from an isolated incident.

Since Barack Obama entered the White House, Obama’s enemies have been identified as “potential terrorists” in official government documents over and over and over.  This is something that I documented in a previous article entitled “72 Types Of Americans That Are Considered ‘Potential Terrorists’ In Official Government Documents“.  The list below is from that article.  If you would like to see the original document for each point, just click on the link.  And as you read this list over, ask yourself how many of these characteristics apply to you…

1. Those that talk about “individual liberties”

2. Those that advocate for states’ rights

3. Those that want “to make the world a better place”

4. “The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule”

5. Those that are interested in “defeating the Communists”

6. Those that believe “that the interests of one’s own nation are separate from the interests of other nations or the common interest of all nations”

7. Anyone that holds a “political ideology that considers the state to be unnecessary, harmful,or undesirable”

8. Anyone that possesses an “intolerance toward other religions”

9. Those that “take action to fight against the exploitation of the environment and/or animals”

10. “Anti-Gay”

11. “Anti-Immigrant”

12. “Anti-Muslim”

13. “The Patriot Movement”

14. “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians”

15. Members of the Family Research Council

16. Members of the American Family Association

17. Those that believe that Mexico, Canada and the United States “are secretly planning to merge into a European Union-like entity that will be known as the ‘North American Union’”

18. Members of the American Border Patrol/American Patrol

19. Members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform

20. Members of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition

21. Members of the Christian Action Network

22. Anyone that is “opposed to the New World Order”

23. Anyone that is engaged in “conspiracy theorizing”

24. Anyone that is opposed to Agenda 21

25. Anyone that is concerned about FEMA camps

26. Anyone that “fears impending gun control or weapons confiscations”

27. The militia movement

28. The sovereign citizen movement

29. Those that “don’t think they should have to pay taxes”

30. Anyone that “complains about bias”

31. Anyone that “believes in government conspiracies to the point of paranoia”

32. Anyone that “is frustrated with mainstream ideologies”

33. Anyone that “visits extremist websites/blogs”

34. Anyone that “establishes website/blog to display extremist views”

35. Anyone that “attends rallies for extremist causes”

36. Anyone that “exhibits extreme religious intolerance”

37. Anyone that “is personally connected with a grievance”

38. Anyone that “suddenly acquires weapons”

39. Anyone that “organizes protests inspired by extremist ideology”

40. “Militia or unorganized militia”

41. “General right-wing extremist”

42. Citizens that have “bumper stickers” that are patriotic or anti-U.N.

43. Those that refer to an “Army of God”

44. Those that are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

45. Those that are “anti-global”

46. Those that are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”

47. Those that are “reverent of individual liberty”

48. Those that “believe in conspiracy theories”

49. Those that have “a belief that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of life’ is under attack”

50. Those that possess “a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism”

51. Those that would “impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

52. Those that would “insert religion into the political sphere”

53. Anyone that would “seek to politicize religion”

54. Those that have “supported political movements for autonomy”

55. Anyone that is “anti-abortion”

56. Anyone that is “anti-Catholic”

57. Anyone that is “anti-nuclear”

58. “Rightwing extremists”

59. “Returning veterans”

60. Those concerned about “illegal immigration”

61. Those that “believe in the right to bear arms”

62. Anyone that is engaged in “ammunition stockpiling”

63. Anyone that exhibits “fear of Communist regimes”

64. “Anti-abortion activists”

65. Those that are against illegal immigration

66. Those that talk about “the New World Order” in a “derogatory” manner

67. Those that have a negative view of the United Nations

68. Those that are opposed “to the collection of federal income taxes”

69. Those that supported former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr

70. Those that display the Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”)

71. Those that believe in “end times” prophecies

72. Evangelical Christians

With each passing day, the potential threat posed by ISIS increases, and yet Obama remains fixated on “right-wing extremists”.

What is the future of this country going to look like if we continue to get this type of “leadership” from the White House?