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/ 
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:
