Guest post by Leo Hohmann at Substack – republished with permission. Says Leo: Must-read article I hope everyone will share with their sleeping friends and family members; If our people knew how close we are to nuclear war they would be in the streets demanding peace talks now! Some Westerner commentators, even some very smart ones, still deny that nuclear war is a real possibility in today’s world, or if it is, it’s very remote. My sense is that it’s not remote at all, given the leadership we now have in Washington. If what we’ve seen so far is any indication, the Third World War will start as a conventional war between the U.S./NATO and Russia and quickly escalate to nuclear warheads exploding on military and civilian targets. Why do I believe this? It doesn’t matter if you like Putin, hate Putin or are indifferent towards Putin, there are some indisputable facts: Below is an excellent analysis by economist and attorney James Rickards explaining how we got to this point and why it’s not likely to end well. Russia has met the escalation with its own escalation every step of the way. At what point do rational leaders in the West (if there are any left) pause, consider that the war is lost in Ukraine, deescalate and seek a treaty to end the war? ... The U.S. and Russia already adhere to what’s called the “launch on warning” doctrine. This means that if you detect incoming nuclear missiles, you don’t wait for them to hit their targets. Instead, you launch your counterattack as soon as you detect the missiles. When it comes to nuclear war, it’s use it or lose it. That puts the world on a hair trigger. Hitting a radar facility that’s part of a nuclear defense creates a blind spot in that defense and makes the hair-trigger even more sensitive and launch- prone. ...NATO’s arming and equipping of Ukraine was never a red line for Russia. Western observers simply assumed that providing HIMARS, ATACMSs and tanks would be red lines for Russia. But Russia never specifically said they were. They warned about the overall threat of escalation, but these weren’t specific red lines. But direct attacks on Russian soil are a different matter. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin himself have issued specific warnings about NATO facilitation of attacks within Russia itself. That’s the difference. Russia regards all long-range weapons used by Ukraine as already being directly controlled by servicemen from NATO countries. This is no military assistance, this is participation in a war against us. And such actions could well become a casus belli. Nobody today can rule out the conflict’s transition to its final stage. ...Ukraine is trying to drag the U.S. directly into the war with U.S. boots on the ground. Events may not get that far. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/dire-warning-economist-jim-rickards-are-they-trying/ Retail stores are being shut down at a staggering rate all over the country. If we stay on the pace that we are on, the total number of stores closed in 2024 will be nearly 40 percent higher than the total number of stores closed in 2023. That is what you call a crisis! Meanwhile, banks are shuttering hundreds of branches from coast to coast, and a “restaurant apocalypse” is sweeping across the nation. Everywhere around us, “space available” signs are going up on buildings that were once considered to be prime commercial real estate. If someone tries to convince you that the U.S. economy is in good shape, just show them this article and ask them why so many once-prosperous businesses are closing. Needless to say, they will not be able to win the argument after that. According to the Daily Mail, nearly 2,600 store closings were announced during the first four months of 2024… Big names including Macy’s, Walmart, Walgreens, Foot Locker and 7-Eleven have all said they are closing shops. But discount stores like Family Dollar and bankrupt 99 Cents Only have been worst hit, as have drugstores like CVS and Rite Aid. If the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction, why are many of the largest retail chains in the U.S. shutting down stores? If the closures were to continue at the same rate for the rest of the year they would total 7,800 in 2024 – almost 40 percent more than the total in 2023. When the number of retail stores shutting down goes up by 40 percent in a single year, that is a sign that your economy is really “booming”, eh? Sadly, we are losing more stores with each passing day. In some cases, stores are being closed down due to rapidly slowing economic conditions. But in other cases, stores are being permanently shuttered due to the unprecedented wave of retail theft that never seems to end. “Shrink” is costing U.S. retailers more than 100 billion dollars a year at this point. For a long time, I have been warning that “chaos” would be coming to the streets of America. Now it is here. And it is getting worse every single day. Unfortunately, most Americans still don’t understand the fundamental transformation that is happening to our society and they still believe that our leaders will be able to return things to “normal” eventually. Two US B-1 strategic bombers dropped live munitions on the Korean Peninsula in a show of force eyeing Pyongyang. Tensions in the region have ratcheted up during the Biden administration as the president has taken a hardline approach toward the DPRK. The American B-1Bs and two South Korean fighter jets dropped live GBU-38, 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMS) on test targets in South Korea. "This training showcases the incredible capabilities of our combined forces to simultaneously strike multiple targets in a contested environment," said Lt. Gen. David Iverson, US Force Korea deputy commander and Seventh Air Force commander. "The tremendous capabilities of ROK and US airpower is an overwhelming, asymmetric warfighting advantage for our combined force that adversaries cannot match." In addition to the live test bombing, the US and South Korean air forces conducted yet another round of joint war games. The Defense Department press release added that "US Marine Corps F-35Bs, US Air Force F-16s, and KC-135 Stratotankers, and [South Korean] F-35As and KF-16s for air-to-air training over the western region of South Korea." The provocative drills come as the relationship between US-backed Seoul and Pyongyang continues a long downward spiral. After former President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un failed, Biden adopted a far more aggressive policy towards North Korea, effectively rejecting diplomacy while carrying out a flurry of exercises with the South. The result has been a massive escalation of military activity on both sides of the DMZ. North Korea has conducted record numbers of weapons tests in recent years – including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICMBs) – while the US and South Korea engaged in historic war games. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-bombers-drop-live-munitions-threat-north-korea Approximately 10,000 jobs have reportedly been slashed at California fast food eateries after the minimum wage was hiked to $20. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) law to pay workers $20 an hour went into effect on April 1 and has apparently taken a devastating toll on the industry, Fox Business reported Wednesday. The California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA) said nearly 10,000 jobs have been cut across fast food restaurants since Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 1228 into law last year. To highlight what it says are the unintended consequences of the law, CABIA has taken out an ad in Thursday’s statewide edition of USA Today with mock “obituaries” of popular fast food brands. CABIA’s ad highlights multiple restaurants that have had to raise prices and lay off workers to stay afloat and, in some cases, shut down stores. A California McDonald’s franchisee criticized Newsom’s minimum wage law in March, according to Breitbart News, saying the menu would be “unaffordable” if items on it were scaled to the updated wages. Meanwhile, another fast food franchisee in the state, Harsh Ghai, explained that he was rushing to install kiosks at his restaurants to save money as the $20 minimum wage took effect. “Ghai said he is trying to offset the raised wage by cutting employee hours, doing away with overtime, holding back on opening additional locations, and installing kiosks,” the article stated. Lab-grown meat faces significant hurdles in the US as multiple states push for bans. Florida and Arizona recently prohibited its sale, and Iowa banned schools from purchasing it. Despite initial optimism after the US approved lab-grown meat in June 2023, federal lawmakers are also considering restrictions. International resistance is also growing, with Italy banning lab-grown meat and France considering similar measures. Proponents argue these products are crucial for global protein needs, while opponents stress the importance of natural foods. The future of lab-grown meat remains uncertain amid ongoing legal and political battles. According to a recent “cradle-to-gate life cycle” analysis, the lab-grown meat industry produces four to 25 times more CO2 than traditional animal husbandry. Cultured meats are ultra-processed and therefore likely to cause health problems similar to those caused by other ultra-processed products, such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, Type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, mental health problems and increased all-cause mortality. The starting ingredients in the new fermented synthetic biology products are cheap sugars derived from genetically engineered (“GE”) corn and soy. GE crops are grown in environmentally destructive monocultures that use loads of herbicides, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. As a result, they’re loaded with chemical residues. Once the target organisms in the ferment have consumed the nutrients they need, what’s left over is hazardous biowaste that must be deactivated and safely disposed of. The waste cannot be sent to a landfill or used for any other purpose. Lab-grown meats are not about your health or the environment; they’re a tool to phase out farmers and ranchers and replace them with an ultra-processed product controlled by patents. Lab-grown, or cultured, meat is being promoted as the wave of the future – the “green, sustainable” way to eat. No animal suffering, no greenhouse gas emissions, just meat-like protein that will taste like the burgers and steaks you’re used to. Too bad it’s all a lie. There are also unanswered questions about the potential carcinogenicity of cell-based meats. Most cultured or cell-based meats are created by growing animal cells in a solution of foetal bovine serum (“FBS”). ...some cell-based meat companies are using embryonic stem cells rather than immortalised cells. Others are using cells from living animals.20 Both of these strategies, however, destroy the argument that cultured meat is animal-free. Aside from the fact that this “green” alternative requires the slaughter of pregnant cows to drain the unborn foetus of its blood, to get the cell cultures to grow fast enough, several companies are using immortalised cells. As reported by The Fern,17 “Immortalised cells are a staple of medical research, but they are, technically speaking, pre-cancerous and can be, in some cases, fully cancerous.” https://expose-news.com/2024/06/08/lab-grown-meats-can-be-weaponised/ Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against civilians, groups like “Gays for Palestine” and “Queers for Palestine” have become a vocal and visible part of pro-Hamas rallies on American college campuses and in protests in the streets of American cities. And while these groups may passionately and enthusiastically yell anti-Semitic genocidal chats like “From the River to the Sea,” perhaps they should take a beat and really listen to what prominent Palestinian Islamic, political, and cultural figures really think about them. Palestinian Islamic Scholar Sheikh Yousef Abu Islam: Homosexuals Should Be Thrown Off Rooftops, Stoned To Death; Allah Will Punish Us Like Sodom If We Don’t Fight This Abomination – June 26, 2022 “Allah punished male and female adulterers [only] with flogging or stoning, but when He decided to punish homosexuals, He said that they should be thrown head first from the rooftop of the tallest building, and then they should be stoned from the top.” If the economy is fine, why are so many signs of trouble erupting all around us? Those that keep insisting that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction conveniently ignore the very troubling facts and figures that I regularly share with my readers. When you take an honest look at the cold, hard numbers that the economy keeps producing, there is only one logical conclusion. Our entire system is crumbling, and it appears that conditions will soon get significantly worse. Just look at what is happening to our banks. The FDIC’s most recent report tells us that there are 63 “problem banks” in the United States, and collectively our banks now have 517 billion dollars in unrealized losses… I would love to know what banks are on that list. Wouldn’t you? But the FDIC will not tell us. As Daisy Luther has accurately noted, the FDIC won’t release that information because they are afraid of bank runs… And the condition of our banks just continues to deteriorate because mountains of commercial real estate loans are going bad. At this point, it has become clear that we have never faced a commercial real estate crisis of this magnitude in our entire history… A lot of financial institutions will fail during the months and years that are ahead of us. Just hope that your money is not in one of them. Meanwhile, one recent survey discovered that approximately two-thirds of all small businesses in the United States are teetering on the brink of disaster… I think that it is quite an ominous sign that the household survey showed that the U.S. economy lost a whopping 408,000 jobs last month. Sadly, I think that a lot more months like that are coming. Retailers are also really struggling right now. In fact, as Mark B. Spiegel recently discussed, major retailer after major retailer has been reporting disappointing sales numbers… At one time, Walmart was an unstoppable retail behemoth. But now even Walmart is closing down stores… We really are in the early stages of a historic meltdown. Our leaders were able to keep the game going for years by pumping trillions upon trillions of dollars into the system. But they didn’t fix anything. Instead, they just delayed the inevitable. An Arizona toddler was trapped in a hot Tesla when the vehicle’s battery died without warning, leaving her helpless grandmother with no other option than to call 911. Renee Sanchez said the recent situation could have been “deadly” when her 20-month-old granddaughter got stuck in her car, AZFamily reported. The Scottsdale woman loaded the little girl into her car seat for a trip to the Phoenix Zoo, shut the back door, and went around to the front. When she tried to open the driver’s door, it wouldn’t budge. “My car was dead,” Sanchez told the outlet. “I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it.” The Tesla service department confirmed that Sanchez did not receive any alerts that her car battery was about to die, even though the vehicles are supposed to give the driver three warnings before the battery needs to be recharged. “When that battery goes, you’re dead in the water,” she said. There’s a hidden latch on the driver’s side armrest to manually unlock the door if the battery dies, but that only works if you’re already inside the vehicle. According to AZFamily, there is a little-known way for Tesla owners to unlock their cars if they’re stuck outside, “but it’s a complicated series of time-consuming steps involving wires and battery chargers.” Even many first responders don’t know how to crack the vehicles open when they’re dead, which became evident when Scottsdale firefighters arrived at the scene. “The first thing they said was, ‘Uggh, it’s a Tesla. We can’t get in these cars,’” she recalled. “And I said, ‘I don’t care if you have to cut my car in half. Just get her out.’” With her granddaughter sitting alone inside the car in the hot Arizona weather, Sanchez insisted that firefighters break the car’s window to get her out. While Sanchez has been a big fan of Teslas, this occurrence has made her question how safe they really are. When I first started researching this, I could hardly believe that it was true. A company in Switzerland known as “Final Spark” has constructed a bizarre hybrid biocomputer that combines lab-grown miniature human brains with conventional electronic circuits. This approach saves an extraordinary amount of energy compared to normal computers, but there is a big problem. The lab-grown miniature human brains keep wearing out and dying, and so scientists have to keep growing new ones to replace them. Stem cells that are derived from human skin tissue are used to create the 16 spherical brain “organoids” that the system depends upon. I realize that this sounds like something straight out of a really bad science fiction movie, but it is actually happening. Swiss tech startup FinalSpark is now selling access to biocomputers that combine up to four tiny lab-grown human brains with silicon chips. This new bioprocessing platform, called the Neuroplatform, uses small versions of human brains to do computer work instead of silicon chips. The company says it can fit 16 of these mini-brains onto the Neuroplatform and use a fraction of the energy required to power a traditional set up. The platform, currently adopted by nine institutions, integrates hardware, software and biology to construct a processing system that is energy-efficient and high-performing. During their short lives, the mini-brains are literally trained to perform certain tasks using a reward and punishment system… Researchers do this by training the organoids through a reward system. The organoids are rewarded with dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure (and addiction). Meanwhile, as “punishment,” the organoids are exposed to chaotic stimuli, such as irregular electrical activity. In other words, these miniature human brains are tortured until they learn to obey. Reading that should literally make you sick. What these scientists are doing is so incredibly evil. Final Spark hopes that their new “technology” will become the primary energy source for the AI revolution. The creators of “the Neuroplatform” insist that this is perfectly okay because the mini-brains are not sentient beings. Whether that is true or not, what they are doing is still very wrong. Creating miniature human brains and using them to power a computer may be a way to save a lot of energy, but it also perfectly illustrates how far our society has fallen. We are crossing lines that should never be crossed, and eventually we will pay a very great price for the crimes that our scientists are committing. Interesting article! What do you think of all these deaths during pilgrimage including the airplane crashes? https://www.raptureready.com/2024/06/26/the-hajj-harvest-by-todd-strandberg/ 
Dire Warning From Economist Jim Rickards: ‘Are They Trying to Start a Nuclear War?’
More Than 2,600 Store Closings Have Been Announced So Far In 2024:
US Bombers Drop Live Munitions In Threat To North Korea:
Report: 10,000 California Fast Food Jobs Cut Due to $20 Minimum Wage:
Lab-grown meats are bad for our health, can be weaponised and are a tool to phase out farmers:
Reality Check for ‘Queers for Palestine’ Delivered Directly From Palestinian Leaders-“Homosexuals Should Be Thrown Head First From The Rooftop Of The Tallest Building:”
The Entire System Is Crumbling! Major Red Flags Are Popping Up For Banks, Small Businesses And Retailers:
Arizona Toddler Trapped in Tesla After Battery Dies Without Warning:
They Are Using Lab-Grown Human Brains That They Have Enslaved Called “Organoids” To Run Computers:
