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The Mainstream Media Warns America Will Be Facing An “Economic Hellscape” If The Government Shutdown Continues

January 11, 2019

The Mainstream Media Warns America Will Be Facing An “Economic Hellscape” If The Government Shutdown Continues

Is the mainstream media overhyping the economic impact of the government shutdown for political purposes?  Of course they are.  Once upon a time the mainstream media in the United States at least attempted to maintain a facade of objectivity, but those days are long gone.  In this case, they want to stir up as much public resentment against President Trump as possible in order to try to force him to end the government shutdown.  And when NBC News breathlessly declared that the U.S. “would face an economic hellscape” if this shutdown stretches on for an extended period of time, their article quickly went viral all over the Internet.

But will it really be “an economic hellscape”?

Here are some of the things that they say we will be facing in their “doomsday scenario”…

  • 38 million low-income Americans lose food stamps
  • 6 million face an uncertain timetable for collecting tax refunds
  • 2 million without rental assistance and facing possible eviction
  • 800,000 paycheck-less federal employees plunged into dire financial straits
  • Shuttered parks and museums while overstressed airports cause tourism to tank
  • Federal court system slows to a crawl
  • Disaster relief money doesn’t get to storm-ravaged areas

Yes, things would certainly be unpleasant for a lot of people, and there would be a whole lot of anger around the country.

But such a scenario does not qualify as “an economic hellscape”.  I would encourage the folks over at NBC News to pick up a copy of The Beginning Of The End if they really want to know what the initial phases of a major economic crisis scenario could look like in this nation.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Indiana Grocery Store Can’t Process Food Stamp Payments Due To Govt. Shutdown

January 7, 2019

Indiana Grocery Store Can’t Process Food Stamp Payments Due To Govt. Shutdown

We warned last week what could happen if the government shutdown continues into February…

If people are getting this restless already, what will things look like when tens of millions of Americans are suddenly cut off from their primary source of food money?

Well, as Daisy Luther reports from her Organic Prepper blog, it’s starting…

We weren’t expecting to see a loss of food stamp benefits until the end of January, but a grocery store in Indiana reported they are unable to process EBT payments.

In Clay City, Indiana, the local IGA discovered the problem last week. Initially, they thought it was a technical glitch.

“Our machines weren’t taking any EBT cards and we didn’t really know what was going on. We didn’t know if it was a technical issue. And then we found out it was due to the government shutting down,” Tristen Malone said. (source)

And although it’s for a slightly different reason, The Red Lion store in York County, Pennsylvania has also had issues. New owners recently purchased the grocery store and sent in their application to accept government benefits before the shutdown occurred.

“Right now we’re officially frozen because the government is shut down and we can’t process our application.”

Tom Lohr is the new owner of D & K.

He says they tried to get pre-approved for the license before the sale went through.

“We tried to be proactive and start this in December, late November, early December , set up the new entities with the businesses it just has not worked out.”

Lohr purchased the business, but doesn’t own the company name, so the license belongs to the original owners.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Government Has Been Meddling in Food and Nutrition for a Long Time

November 28, 2017

The Government Has Been Meddling in Food and Nutrition for a Long Time

For over a century, the federal government has had its hand in shaping what we eat in a multitude of ways, usually to bad effect.

Government intrusion is often obvious. We know when government taxes our income, stops us from using our drug of choice, or when they kick down our door and throw us in a cage. But sometimes, government actions are more subtle and confusing. It is often tempting to blame industry alone for the failures in the market and to ignore the substantial – but often less visible – role that government plays in regulating different markets. From the housing crisis and its relationship to banking to healthcare and sky-high costs, this tends to ring true. When it comes to food, nutrition, and its impact on health, blame is often allocated to the market by the uninformed individual.

The average person tends to vaguely understand the issue. They probably know a bit about farm subsidies, taxes, and the Food Pyramid. However, they most likely don’t understand the level at which government regulates our food. There is a long and storied history of government agriculture policy, import tariffs, food quotas, shoddy science guidelines, and regulation, all of which gets passed over for more obvious scapegoats such as the market and corporations.

Regulatory Agencies

The USDA was started under Lincoln in 1862.

There are two main agencies that regulate food in the U.S; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA.) Both are charged with overall food safety nationwide. But the distinction in jurisdictions is often incredibly confused, with both agencies regulating different aspects of the same foods. For example, the FDA manages the feed chickens eat, but the actual chicken facility falls under USDA jurisdiction.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fourth Turning–Social & Cultural Distress Dividing the Nation

November 28, 2015

FOURTH TURNING – SOCIAL & CULTURAL DISTRESS DIVIDING THE NATION

I wrote the first three parts of this article back in September and planned to finish it in early October, but life intervened and truthfully I don’t think I was ready to confront how bad things will likely get as this Fourth Turning moves into the violent, chaotic war stage just over the horizon. The developments in the Middle East, Europe, U.S., China and across the globe in the last months have confirmed my belief war drums are beating louder, global war beckons, and much bloodshed will be the result. Fourth Turnings proceed at their own pace within the 20 to 25 year crisis framework, but there is one guarantee – they never de-intensify as they progress. Just as Winter gets colder, stormier and more bitter as you proceed from December through February, Fourth Turnings get nastier, grimmer, more perilous, with our way of life hanging in the balance.

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I will assess the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation, Part 5 the technological, ecological, political, military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in Part 6 our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

The road ahead will be distressful for everyone living in the U.S., as we experience the horrors of war, economic collapse, civil chaos, political upheaval, and the tearing of society’s social fabric. The pain and suffering being experienced across the globe today will not bypass the people of the United States.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

21 Facts About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Will Blow Your Mind

November 3, 2015

21 Facts About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Will Blow Your Mind

Poverty In America - Public DomainWhat you are about to see is more evidence that the growth of poverty in the United States is wildly out of control.  It turns out that there is a tremendous amount of suffering in “the wealthiest nation on the planet”, and it is getting worse with each passing year.  During this election season, politicians of all stripes are running around telling all of us how great we are, but is that really true?  As you will see below, poverty is reaching unprecedented levels in this country, and the middle class is steadily dying.  There aren’t enough good jobs to go around, dependence on the government has never been greater, and it is our children that are being hit the hardest.  If we have this many people living on the edge of despair now, while times are “good”, what are things going to look like when our economy really starts falling apart?  The following are 21 facts about the explosive growth of poverty in America that will blow your mind…

#1 The U.S. Census Bureau says that nearly 47 million Americans are living in poverty right now.

#2 Other numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau are also very disturbing.  For example, in 2007 about one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps.  Today, that number is one out of every five.

#3 According to Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the authors of a new book entitled “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America“, there are 1.5 million “ultrapoor” households in the United States that live on less than two dollars a day.  That number has doubled since 1996.

#4 46 million Americans use food banks each year, and lines start forming at some U.S. food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning because people want to get something before the food supplies run out.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why This Feels Like a Depression for Most People

October 9, 2015

Why This Feels Like a Depression for Most People

“And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.” – John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Everyone has seen the pictures of the unemployed waiting in soup lines during the Great Depression. When you try to tell a propaganda believing, willfully ignorant, mainstream media watching, math challenged consumer we are in the midst of a Greater Depression, they act as if you’ve lost your mind. They will immediately bluster about the 5.1% unemployment rate, record corporate profits, and stock market near all-time highs. The cognitive dissonance of these people is only exceeded by their inability to understand basic mathematical concepts.

The reason you don’t see huge lines of people waiting in soup lines during this Greater Depression is because the government has figured out how to disguise suffering through modern technology. During the height of the Great Depression in 1933, there were 12.8 million Americans unemployed. These were the men pictured in the soup lines. Today, there are 46 million Americans in an electronic soup kitchen line, as their food is distributed through EBT cards (with that angel of mercy JP Morgan reaping billions in profits by processing the transactions).

These 46 million people represent 14% of the U.S. population. There are 23 million households on food stamps in a nation of 123 million households. Therefore, 19% of all households in the U.S. are so poor, they require food assistance to survive. In 1933 there were approximately 126 million Americans living in 30 million households. The government didn’t keep official unemployment records until 1940, but the Department of Labor estimated 12.8 million people were unemployed during the worst year of the Great Depression or 24.9% of the labor force. By 1937 it had fallen to 14.3% or approximately 8 million people.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Food Supply Interruptions: The Biggest Gamble

May 6, 2015

FOOD SUPPLY INTERRUPTIONS: THE BIGGEST GAMBLE

Nowhere have I witnessed a normalcy bias so strong as when it pertains to food. It has always been available at the grocery stores and in restaurants; at least that is the view of most people alive today. And if one falls on hard times, then the government in this country (the US) will probably supply you with an Electronic Benefit Transfer allowance (food stamps) and perhaps direct you to local food banks and/or co-ops to supplement your cupboards.

We take for granted that these operations are a given, for this is the way it has always worked…..or so we believe. But this is far from accurate, as many hungry Americans already know. While I welcome more and more of my fellow Westerners becoming aware of food reality, I cringe to think it will hit them where it hurts the hardest. It is not in the wallet, but in their bellies.

Currently, the global food chains are taking enormous hits. Many of these revelations are under reported in the mainstream media, who seem to rarely dig far into themes which require out of the box thinking. These events, which are decimating parts of the world’s food supply, will in my opinion continue to escalate for the foreseeable future.

There are steps we can each take to hedge against the worst, and I discuss some of them below. But first let’s look at some of the growing threats. While any one situation taken alone might be easily compensated for, when looked at in the aggregate, a stark picture begins to form.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

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