A long time ago in Baltimore, I sat outside an Immigration office with my pal, Tom Welsh, ready to answer questions about my worthiness for American citizenship. Because of my mother’s international bank job, I’d spent 20 years since arriving from Cuba as a U.S. resident rather than a citizen. Now a young adult, I looked forward to my entry into the winner’s circle. Tom was there to testify ahead of me that I deserved the high honor. Being slightly less conservative than me, he and I got into a heated political argument. When the Immigration woman came out and called his name, Tom glanced at me and said, “I don’t know now … ” All my life, I’ve loved the culture, history, courage, and literature of the little island that conquered the world. All ended well. I became a citizen and am still best friends with Tom. But the funny incident also gave me a valuable early lesson on the right to disagree in a free country. It’s a lesson the once great nation, Great Britain, has quickly forgotten. It has only been one month since the anemic Conservative Party got deservedly routed in the last UK election. They’d spent the past five years squandering their 2019 landslide by flagrantly ignoring the will of their voters to stem the mass inflow of Muslim immigrants — the vast majority of them hostile to Anglican Judeo-Christian culture. According to the Ministry of Defence, twice as many British Muslims joined ISIS in 2014 than their host nation’s military. Yet the alien waves kept coming, with little impediment from four successive Conservative Prime Ministers — Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak. Even worse, during the COVID pandemic, Johnson mandated some of the most repressive lockdown measures in Europe. His scandalous personal evasion of them led to his resignation. Pre-election 2024, the people understood the Labour Party would be a disaster. Yet they could no longer reward a government that insulted their intelligence while blatantly ignoring their top priority. So previous Conservative voters stayed home in July, effecting the lowest electoral turnout since 2001 (barely 60 percent), and producing a Conservative wipeout. This had to happen due to the Conservative betrayal of the citizenry, as did the nightmare that quickly resulted. For the Labour Party under new PM Keir Starmer bears as little resemblance to that of Tony Blair (1997-2007) as the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton does to today’s mutation under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Both parties have gone full socialist. Public obeisance to the COVID overlords showed each the infinite power of statism to oppress people and quash dissent. Because for most of Johnson’s and Donald Trump’s terms, the Left had total media control, very much including social media. Anyone who questioned medical or political dictum since proven detrimental — first, lockdowns, vaccines, masking, school and church closings, social isolation, and later the Wuhan Lab COVID source, the Hunter laptop story, and the 2020 election itself — was permanently suspended from every platform without recourse, even the President of the United States, Trump. In every case, the critics were proven right. In Britain today, Muslim thugs strut the streets, attack women, and menace the “infidel” majority with near absolute impunity. And the government treats them with kid gloves while threatening to crush the opposition. This dichotomy could not hold. Late last month, a Muslim teenager attacked a girls’ Taylor Swift-themed dance class with a knife, killing three little girls and wounding ten more. The butchery provoked riots all over the country. Government and police officials condemned not Islamic violence but the reasonable people protesting them. Starmer appeared on video doing a natural impression of an English twit. “I’ve asked for early consideration and the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process, who will feel the full force of the law,” he said. Then, Starmer really crossed the line into Orwellian 1984 territory, if forty years late, adding, “And thirdly, I’ve been absolutely clear, the criminal law applies online as well as offline.” Because that’s become the bee in the statists’ bonnet, the difference between yesterday’s hegemonic media tyranny and modern reality: online freedom, courtesy of Elon Musk. Musk bought Twitter in 2022 to liberate speech in America minus fear of censorship. Since then, he has become the bane of dictatorships around the world — in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, and now Britain. Musk’s X is driving the Labour leaders absolutely bonkers, making them international laughingstocks, which only infuriates them further. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, another twit (calling Inspector Morse), particularly beclowned himself last weekend by actually threatening to extradite and imprison American citizens for unwelcome social media posts. “Whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the street or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you,” warned Rowley. “Being a keyboard warrior does not make you safe from the law.” British troopers are certainly welcome to try. It’s been 250 years since Americans taught them a painful lesson, and they’re long overdue for another. But the sad self-induced decline of once Great Britain makes me very sad. All my life, I’ve loved the culture, history, courage, and literature of the little island that conquered the world. I was with King Arthur in Camelot, Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, Gunga Din in India, Sherlock Holmes on the Yorkshire Moor, and James Bond all around the world. I hope someday the sun will rise again over the British Isles. Until then, I’ll refer to the UK as the UKSR. It’s out — the timeliest political detective thriller in a decade, The Washington Trail! Join DC private eyes Mark Slade and Neil Cork as they try to thwart a plot to end America before it’s too late. Though a pair of lovely femme-fatales just might slow them down. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever exciting mysteries are sold. READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: The Star Trek Election III: Men vs. Women We’ll Never Have Paris The Impeccable Timing of a Political Thriller The post The Sun Sets on Britain appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The Democrats and the media (please pardon the redundancy) claim that Donald Trump is a radical who would topple our democracy. Last November CNN attempted to rev up the anti-Trumpers with an article portraying Trump as someone whose radical actions would include firing masses of federal bureaucrats and what Trump calls “Marxist” prosecutors as well as rounding up illegal immigrants to ready them for deportation. We know that Harris backed the bailing out of violent Minnesota rioters who did much destruction in light of the George Floyd death in police custody. The article also quotes Trump as saying he’d appoint a special prosecutor to go after Biden because he was the most corrupt president in history. Taken literally, these policies don’t seem radical at all. Firing masses of federal bureaucrats would make the government more responsive to those elected to actually run it. Any president can fire all the U.S. attorneys and replace them because it’s the president’s prerogative to fire people working for him in senate-confirmed positions. George W. Bush did just that in 2006 and the media were caterwauling then about injecting politics into the Justice Department. They were wrong then and would be just as wrong if Trump was reelected and did the same. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Iran’s Khamenei Threatens Israel … and the West) More recently, the Dems — and their draft platform — label Trump a radical for his supposed backing of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” which is an outline for a conservative government in Trump’s second term. But Trump has conclusively rejected “Project 2025,” which says as much about his conservatism as the Democrats’ attempt to label him a radical. The Oxford English Dictionary — of which I have two versions — defines a radical as someone “advocating complete political or social reform” or “representing or supporting an extreme or progressive section of a political party.”  That definition doesn’t fit Trump at all, but it does fit both Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Remember, please, that in 2019 Harris was labeled the most liberal senator, a competition that included semi-Marxist Elizabeth Warren and comically-communist Bernie Sanders. So far, Harris is trying to replay the Biden 2020 campaign by hiding from the media. Why not? A basement campaign got Biden elected by not saying anything much except that he wasn’t Donald Trump.  Nevertheless it’s fair to judge how far left Harris and Walz are by their current and past  actions. Harris’s biggest fault is the Biden-Harris open border immigration crisis that she helped cause. It has brought between 10 and 22 million illegal aliens into this country. Harris is not just a radical on this issue, she’s what would normally be called a fanatic. On August 10, Harris said that she’d not only back amnesty for those illegals: she promised to sign legislation that would give them a path to citizenship, which means the right to vote. Harris said, “We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform. That includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.” No person who has broken our law to enter the nation illegally should ever be granted citizenship. And then there’s Harris’s fondness for Biden’s “woke” ideology that has been a disaster for our society generally and our military specifically. In 2017, Harris said, “We have to stay woke. Like everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you’re the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke.” If you can make sense out of that word salad, you can see that Harris is totally dedicated to the “woke” ideology that divides, not unites, and attempts to justify everything from her selection as vice president (Biden admitted in April that she was a “diversity” hire) to transgender people serving in the military. As Kim Strassel makes clear in the Wall Street Journal  Harris is a radical. She was the first to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’s Medicare reform to basically prohibit private health insurance and then fumbled back from that position to make it entirely unclear what she would do. In 2019, Harris said she would ban fracking for oil but said recently that she wouldn’t.  That same year she backed the “Green New Deal,” which included a federal jobs guarantee among its many bad ideas. Harris has always backed Biden’s “climate change” policies including his attacks on our oil industry. She helped Biden preside over the ban on the Keystone Pipeline which would have brought cheap Canadian oil to the U.S. market. Harris was silent when Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 U.S. servicemen and left hundreds of Americans and American allies to the mercies of the Taliban. She is at least partially responsible for the latest State Department screwup which sent $239 million in counterterrorism funding to the Taliban. We know that Harris backed the bailing out of violent Minnesota rioters who did much destruction in light of the George Floyd death in police custody. And then there’s Biden’s plan to overhaul the Supreme Court. Harris supports his effort to create term limits for Supreme Court justices and impose an “ethics code” on the court. Neither of which cannot be done without a fundamental amendment to the Constitution which requires that the justices serve during “good behavior.” Harris and Biden want to guarantee a liberal Supreme Court. That should be enough to vote against her in November. All of that is proof positive that Harris, not Trump, is a radical progressive. And then there’s “Tampon Tim” Walz. Walz is justifiably infamous for pushing and signing Minnesota legislation that put free tampons in boys’ bathrooms. You can imagine what boys did with them. Wearing them stuck in their ears and up their noses comes readily to mind. (READ MORE: What’s Next for Biden and Harris?) Walz is also justifiably infamous for claiming he’d reached a military rank he never achieved and for quitting the Minnesota National Guard when they were ordered to Iraq. (Last week the Harris campaign changed his official governor’s bio to correct his military rank.) But as Breitbart News reported, retired Army command master sergeant Doug Julin said that Walz knew for months — well before he quit the Minnesota National Guard supposedly to run for Congress — that they were deploying to Iraq. Walz literally ran away from his duty. As bad if not worse is what Walz told an MSNBC interviewer in 2022 about freedom of speech. He said, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”  He wants to suppress or punish speech that’s politically inconvenient for Democrats and clearly doesn’t understand that the First Amendment guarantees free speech whether he agrees with it or not. Walz also signed into law the strongest transgender protection bill in the country and the strongest pro-abortion bill in the country. It’s long past time to label Harris a radical progressive. Walz deserves the same. Let’s stick that label on them and not let people forget it. The post Harris and Walz Are the Radicals appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

As we stand at the crossroads of a nation in need, we’re faced with a stark reality: our welfare system, designed to uplift, has inadvertently ensnared millions in a cycle of dependency. The poverty trap, a labyrinth of well-intentioned but misguided policies, has crippled the very fabric of our society. It’s time to shatter the status quo and work toward a new path — one that empowers, educates, and inspires. In this new era of welfare reform, we’ll witness the transformative power of human resilience, creativity, and determination. The current system, born from a desire to alleviate suffering, has morphed into a behemoth of bureaucracy, stifling innovation and perpetuating a culture of complacency. We’ve lost sight of the ultimate goal: self-sufficiency. It’s time to recalibrate our approach, to infuse the welfare system with a sense of purpose and direction. Imagine a world where benefits are not a destination, but a stepping stone; where recipients are not passive, but active participants in their own transformation. Envision a system that weaves together education, job training, and work requirements, creating a tapestry of opportunity and growth. The naysayers will claim that such a vision is utopian, that the entrenched interests and bureaucratic red tape will forever hinder progress. But we mustn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We owe it to ourselves, our children, and the generations to come to try. Let’s draw inspiration from the success stories — Denmark’s Flexicurity Model, Australia’s Mutual Obligation, and Wisconsin’s Welfare Reform. These pioneers have proven that with courage, creativity, and a commitment to evidence-based policy, we can: Slash poverty rates Boost workforce participation Unlock human potential The Power of Education and Job Training Education and job training are the keys to unlocking the door to self-sufficiency. By providing recipients with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete in the modern workforce, we can empower them to break free from the cycle of dependency. Vocational Training: Programs that focus on specific industries or skills, such as healthcare, technology, or manufacturing, can provide recipients with a clear path to employment. Soft Skills Development: Teaching essential skills like communication, teamwork, and time management can help recipients succeed in the workplace. Mentorship Programs: Pairing recipients with experienced professionals can provide guidance, support, and valuable networking opportunities. The Importance of Work Requirements Work requirements are not about punishing recipients, but about empowering them to take control of their lives. By requiring able-bodied recipients to work or engage in work-related activities, we can: Foster a Sense of Purpose: Work gives individuals a sense of direction and fulfillment, essential for mental and emotional well-being. Build Skills and Experience: Work requirements can help recipients develop valuable skills and gain experience, making them more competitive in the job market. Encourage Entrepreneurship: By providing resources and support, we can encourage recipients to start their own businesses, fostering innovation and job creation. Work to Streamline Benefits Administration A streamlined benefits administration system can reduce bureaucracy, increase efficiency, and improve outcomes. By: Consolidating Benefits: Simplifying and consolidating benefits into a single, easy-to-navigate system can reduce confusion and frustration. Digital Access: Providing online access to benefits and services can increase accessibility and convenience. Case Management: Assigning a single point of contact to help recipients navigate the system can improve outcomes and reduce costs. Incentivizing Self-Improvement Incentives can play a powerful role in encouraging recipients to pursue education, job training, and work. By offering rewards for meeting milestones and achieving goals, we can: Encourage Education: Incentives can encourage recipients to pursue higher education or vocational training. Promote Workforce Participation: Incentives can encourage recipients to enter the workforce or start their own businesses. Foster a Culture of Self-Improvement: Incentives can encourage recipients to take ownership of their lives, pursuing opportunities for growth and development. We Can Break the Cycle of Dependency The cycle of dependency will be broken when we recognize the inherent value of every individual and their capacity for greatness. By providing a supportive environment, empowering education, and incentivizing self-improvement, we can: Foster a Culture of Self-Sufficiency: Encourage recipients to take ownership of their lives, pursuing opportunities for growth and development. Unlock Human Potential: Empower recipients to reach their full potential, contributing to society in meaningful ways. Create a Brighter Future: Build a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, regardless of background or circumstance. In this new era of welfare reform, we’ll witness the transformative power of human resilience, creativity, and determination. We’ll see families thrive, communities flourish, and a nation reborn. As we embark on this transformative journey, we’ll shatter the cycle of dependency, ignite a beacon of hope, and forge a brighter future — one where every individual can thrive, contribute, and shine. Together, we can create a welfare system that truly works — for everyone. READ MORE: America on Welfare A Conservative Plan to Replace the Progressive Welfare State in 2024 The post We Need Welfare Reform That Works appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

It’s the middle of the night. Your child is tugging on their ear and crying inconsolably. It’s an ear infection. If you’ve ever had to deal with that situation, you’re thankful for the antibiotic amoxicillin. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), amoxicillin is the most widely prescribed antibiotic in the United States, and one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. This type of “warfare” would open a new front in how a country such as China could impact America and its citizens. It is used to treat a variety of bacterial infections in adults and children, and in its generic form is an inexpensive yet effective option for millions of patients. Unfortunately, amoxicillin also has the potential to become a weapon for America’s main geo-political foe, China. Data from the International Trade Center (ITC) show that the majority of global exports of antibiotics originate in China. This isn’t biological warfare in the traditional sense, but a new way for China to pressure and possibly harm the United States. It is pharmacological warfare. A recent Wall Street Journal article decried the lack of American generic drugmakers and highlighted the production of amoxicillin as a prime example. USAntibiotics is the only generic manufacturer in the United States currently producing amoxicillin and the company is in dire financial straits. USAntibiotics can’t make enough money to cover its costs because overseas competitors produce and sell their products at rock-bottom prices. Reducing the cost of prescription drugs is a key effort in helping to control healthcare costs. But the supply problem is exacerbated when hospital buying groups and drug wholesalers consider price alone when making buying decisions. While this is an example of the free market at work, it is also a dangerous symptom of a bigger problem. China plays a significant role in the supply chains of many American companies due to its low-cost structure and cheap labor. It may not be a significant issue for the manufacture of iPhones or consumer goods because these items are ultimately owned by U.S. companies. But when it comes to supplying a critical drug like amoxicillin, it becomes more problematic. The American public is already aware of the threat posed by fentanyl made in China and entering the country through Mexico. While fentanyl represents a threat, what would happen if China decided to constrain the supply of amoxicillin or increase its price dramatically because of trade disagreements or as a geo-political tactic? This type of “warfare” would open a new front in how a country such as China could impact America and its citizens. Using a widely prescribed drug compound like amoxicillin as a “weapon” against the United States and its people would represent pharmacological warfare and an issue of national security. When considering how to defend against a situation like the one described above, prevention — or prophylaxis, to keep with the pharmaceutical analogy — represents the best approach. Providing financial incentives for generic drug manufacturers based in the United States, reducing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory burden for approval of generic drug production, and sourcing alternative international suppliers are appropriate tactics. Unless proactive steps are taken to prevent critical medicines from becoming weaponized by adversaries of the United States, patients like the toddler suffering from an ear infection will literally feel the pain. READ MORE from Richard D. Kocur: Making Big Pharma an Offer It Can’t Refuse SEC Just Made Business Riskier With Woke Demands The post China’s Potential for Pharmacological Warfare appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Since the fall of 1917, when Lenin seized power in Russia, the evils of communism have been exposed by courageous witnesses, some of whom emerged from “penal” and forced labor camps that Alexander Solzhenitsyn described as the essence of communism. She referred to her camp as a “hellhole of a place where even animals will turn faces away.” Solzhenitsyn, one of those witnesses, made the word “Gulag” famous. His three-volume literary masterpiece The Gulag Archipelago will forever stand as a searing indictment of communism in power. Now, a witness has emerged from Communist China’s genocidal campaign against its political dissidents — in this case practitioners of Falun Gong. Cheng Pei Ming, according to an article in The Diplomat, is “the first known survivor of China’s state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting campaign.” His recent testimony at a press conference in Washington, D.C., writes Tasnim Nazeer, “offered a rare and disturbing glimpse into the horrors faced by prisoners of conscience in China.” Cheng Pei Ming suffered torture at Harbin and Daqing prisons between 1999 and 2004. He described the torture as “very systematic,” part physical and part mental. He was tortured because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, a form of Buddhist spirituality that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views as a threat to its totalitarian rule. He also received several medical “operations,” including an open chest surgery that left a 35 centimeter incision on his left side and back. Scheduled for yet another surgery, Cheng escaped and made his way to a United Nations refugee camp in Thailand. Nazeer writes that after nine years of evading Chinese authorities, he made it to the United States in 2020, where medical tests discovered that parts of his liver and lung “had been surgically removed.” He was a victim of China’s organ harvesting program. Nazeer notes that David Matas, a human rights attorney who has extensively researched this aspect of Chinese communism, estimates that more than 100,000 people per year have been killed via organ harvesting. China’s organ harvesting program has also been used against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, according to hearings conducted by the Tom Lantos Human rights Commission. As long ago as 1995, Amnesty International noted evidence of organ harvesting from prisoners who were subject the the death penalty in China. Nazeer quotes attorney Matas: “forced organ harvesting isn’t just a human rights violation — its a crime against humanity. It’s happening on a scale that is almost unimaginable.” The CCP Gulag It has been many years since Harry Wu told the world about the CCP’s forced labor camp system in Laogai: The Chinese Gulag and Bitter Winds: A Memoir of My Years in China’s Gulag. Harry Wu was a witness to tell the world that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire did not end communism’s evil. North Korea, too, has Gulag-like forced labor camps that the United Nations has called a human rights abuse “without any parallel in the contemporary world.” In 2011, Kim Young Soon, a survivor of the North Korean gulag camps, gave her witness in testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. She was a political prisoner for nine years who saw “many dead bodies” of prisoners who fell short of work goals. She referred to her camp as a “hellhole of a place where even animals will turn faces away.” For those nine years and afterward, Kim said, she “lived a life of tears of blood and extreme hardship.” The witness of Cheng Pei Ming is in the tradition of Solzhenitsyn, Armando Vallardes, a survivor of Castro’s political prisons in Cuba, Doan Van Toai, who emerged from the hell of the Vietnamese gulag, and other survivors of communism. There were gulags in communist Romania, communist East Germany, communist Bulgaria, communist Cambodia. Cheng Pei Ming is the latest witness to remind us that communism and evil are synonymous. READ MORE from Francis P. Sempa: This is No ‘Honeymoon.’ The Media and Harris Are Allies. Paul Nitze: A Career of Thinking About the Unthinkable The post A Witness Emerges From Another Communist Gulag appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Is it possible that Jesus specifically warned us about the times that we are living in nearly 2,000 years ago?  You may have noticed that global events have started to spiral out of control lately.  Normally, the summer is a period when things are relatively quiet.  As far as the news industry  is concerned, August is supposed to be the quietest month of all because so much of the world is on vacation.  But that definitely has not been the case in 2024.  According to journalist Simon Tisdall, in recent weeks we have been experiencing a “peaking of volatility, instability and insecurity, unprecedented in recent times”… August is the quietest month – to mangle TS Eliot’s verse – or so news editors used to think. Politicians go on holiday, governments shut down, people head for the hills or the beach. Not much happens. Not so this August. The world this month is experiencing an extraordinary peaking of volatility, instability and insecurity, unprecedented in recent times. It’s scary, it’s shocking, it’s a wild ride. Sudden revolutions, wars current and imminent, terrible crimes, high-stakes feuding, famines, cost of living crunches, violent riots and unfathomable market panics come not as single spies but in battalions. In a world where mutual destruction, steeped in cruelty and despair, is a favoured human pastime, grim vistas of Eliot’s The Waste Land beckon anew. He is right. But just because things have been crazy lately does not mean that we are living in the end times. If we really are living in the end times, there are certain very specific signs that we should be seeing. In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus discussed some of those signs… 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. Of course there have been wars, famines, pestilences and natural disasters all throughout human history. If we really are living in the end times, all of these elements should be occurring simultaneously, and the intensity of each element should be at a very high level. Let’s talk about war first.  According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, there were 56 active military conflicts in the world last year.  That was the highest number that we have witnessed since World War II… Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia… and so on. There are up to 56 active conflicts in the world, the highest number since World War II. Moreover, these carry an increasingly international component, with 92 countries involved in wars outside their borders. These are data from the latest Global Peace Index produced annually by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), a think tank that analyzes everything from military investment and the cost of violence to military laws and deaths in combat in 163 states and territories. As I write this, there is a tremendous amount of speculation all over the globe about “World War III”.  The conflict in the Middle East is on the verge of being transformed into an “all-out war”, it is probably only a matter of time before the U.S. is dragged into the war in Ukraine and we find ourselves directly fighting with Russia, and the moment that China invades Taiwan we will be at war with the Chinese. We are most certainly living during a time of wars and rumors of wars, and the hot phase of “World War III” will truly be unlike anything we have ever seen before. All throughout history, famine has accompanied war. Right now, we are facing a global food crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  In Sudan, endless war has created a famine that is truly horrifying.  At this moment, it is being projected that millions of Sudanese citizens will die in the months ahead… After 15 months of fighting in that country between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), experts in food insecurity estimate that almost 26 million people (no, that is not a misprint!), or more than half of Sudan’s population, could suffer from malnutrition by September. Eight and a half million of those human beings could face acute malnutrition. Worse yet, if the war continues on its present path, millions will die of hunger and disease in just the coming months (and few people in our world may even notice). How would you feel if you had to watch your family slowly die of starvation? According to Timmo Gaasbeek of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2.5 million people in Sudan could perish “by the time crops are harvested in September”… Gaasbeek warned, however, that soup kitchens can fill only so many gaping holes in a system shattered by wartime destruction, displacement, and crop failure. His institute estimates that at current rates of food sharing, 2.5 million people could die of hunger and disease by the time crops are harvested in September. In other words, a shocking 10–20 percent of the Sudanese in the hardest-hit areas could die—mortality rates similar to ones suffered during horrendous famines in parts of Nigeria in 1969, Ethiopia in 1984, and Somalia in 1992. September is next month! But most Americans don’t even realize that this is happening because our big news networks only want to talk about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Reuters has reported that hunger is so bad in some parts of Sudan that people are literally making meals out of balls of dirt just so that they will have something to fill their stomachs… Garang Achien Akok is one of the thousands of new arrivals in the area. Akok, his wife and their five children abandoned their home in the southern region of Kordofan after Arab militiamen on camels stormed their village and torched their hut, he said. Akok, 41, reached Al Lait in December, but has no work and can’t feed the family. At times, they go two or three days without eating. When that happens, Akok said, he watches helplessly as his wife and children dig holes in the ground with a stick, slide their hands in and grab some soil. Then they roll the soil into a ball, put it in their mouths and swallow it with water. Meanwhile, supplies of food all over the world just keep getting tighter and tighter. CNN has admitted that we are facing “the worst food crisis in modern history”, but the truth is that this is just the beginning. Once nuclear weapons are used, everything will change. One study that was conducted a few years ago determined that three to four years after an all-out nuclear war global food production would have dropped by about 90 percent… Using climate, crop and fishery models, researchers found that the climatic impacts of soot from nuclear war would peak in the first few years but last for about a decade. In the worst-case scenario, when 150 Tg of soot is unleashed, the global average calorie production from crops would decline by about 90% just three to four years after the nuclear war, the study found. That same study concluded that approximately 360 million people would be directly killed during an all-out nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, and over 5 billion people would die from starvation in the aftermath… The largest scenario examined, a week-long war involving 4,400 weapons and 150 Tg, or 330.6 billion pounds, of soot – such as one that would occur between the U.S., its allies and Russia – would kill 360 million people directly – and more than 5 billion from starvation, the study said. The density of the soot would reduce global temperatures by more than 58ºF. What would our world look like if 5 billion people were simultaneously dying from starvation? That is something to think about. If we really are living in the end times, we should also be experiencing major pestilences. Needless to say, the COVID crisis killed millions of people and it is still with us. Over the past few years, the bird flu has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of chickens and turkeys all over the globe, and now the bird flu has jumped into mammals. Are we next? We better hope not, because the World Health Organization says that over 50 percent of the humans that have caught H5N1 since 2003 have ended up dead. In 2022, a Monkeypox plague rapidly spread all over the planet, and it created a lot of fear. Now a far deadlier version that reportedly spreads more easily among humans is spreading in central Africa, and the World Health Organization is extremely concerned about this. And I certainly don’t want to leave out dengue fever.  So far this year, there have been more than 10 million cases in North America and South America combined… In the Americas alone, almost 10.4 million suspected cases of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, were reported to the World Health Organization in 2024 as of the first week of July, an increase of 232% compared with the same period the year before. Peru is a case in point. When torrential rains started to fall there in 2023, a record-breaking dengue epidemic exploded shortly afterward. The case count is estimated at well over 100,000 so far this year. If you have ever had a severe case of dengue fever, you will never forget it. It is known as “breakbone fever”, because many of those that develop severe cases literally feel like their bones are breaking… Because some patients feel as if their bones are breaking, the virus has an ominous nickname: “breakbone fever.” What about natural disasters? Are we seeing a lot of those? It is being reported that last year the number of “billion dollar disasters” established a brand new all-time record high… The planet was besieged by a record 63 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 57 set in 2020, said insurance broker Gallagher Re in its annual report issued January 17. The total damage wrought by weather disasters in 2023 was $301 billion, with an unusually high 57% of that total being insured damages. Meanwhile, the ground under our feet is shaking with alarming regularity. Last week, I wrote an article about the strange seismic activity that we have been witnessing on the west coast, on the east coast, under the Great Lakes and down in Texas. On the other side of the world, all of the recent shaking in Japan has created a tremendous amount of panic.  People are feverishly hoarding food because they are so concerned about the possibility of a “megaquake”… Authorities in Japan urged people to avoid hoarding as anxiety over a possible megaquake triggered a spike Saturday in demand for disaster kits and daily necessities. In its first such advisory, the weather agency said a huge earthquake was more likely in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.1 jolt in the south on Thursday which left 14 people injured. At a Tokyo supermarket on Saturday, a sign was put up apologising to customers for shortages of certain products it attributed to “quake-related media reports”. I am entirely convinced that everything that we have been through so far is just the beginning. We are still only in the very early chapters of this “perfect storm”, and if I am right there is a tremendous amount of death and destruction ahead of us. Most people don’t want to hear that. Most people just want to hear that everything is going to be wonderful. But if we really are living in the end times, global events will play out just as the Bible says that they will. Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” 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 “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “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 post We Really Are Living In The End Times appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

from The Jimmy Dore Show: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

from The National Pulse: Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has reported a hacking incident involving some of its high-level communications. The campaign attributed the breach to “foreign sources hostile to the United States” and referred to a recent Microsoft report on a hacking attempt by Iranian actors targeting a high-ranking official within a presidential campaign. POLITICO revealed […]

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team has collected all the required signatures to get on the ballot in every state. “We have all the signatures we need to get on the ballot in every state! This incredible achievement happened because of our more than 100,000 extraordinary volunteers. Their commitment, their heart, and their tireless devotion made this possible – and fuels our grassroots movement each and every day,” RFK Jr. said. “The work that Team Kennedy’s volunteers do across this country is the most inspiring and heartening thing I’ve seen in my lifetime. I truly mean that. Each and every one of you: thank you,” he added. WATCH: BIG NEWS: We have all the signatures we need to get on the ballot in every state! This incredible achievement happened because of our more than 100,000 extraordinary volunteers. Their commitment, their heart, and their tireless devotion made this possible – and fuels our… pic.twitter.com/4aHXXKRPgS — Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 11, 2024 “Right now we have enough signatures to be on all 50 states,” RFK Jr. told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto. Fox News reports: He continued, “We’ve handed most of them in, some of the states are not yet certified, but we’re gonna be on the ballot in all 50 states, for sure.” Cavuto questioned why Kennedy is only officially registered on the ballot in approximately eight states so far — the independent candidate said that the hold-up was due to state governments. “A lot of the states, Neil, don’t certify until mid-August. So, we’ve turned in our signatures, the signatures have been accepted, and they’re gonna be certified.” “It’s just the states [holding] it up — nobody can get on the ballot. Nobody can be on more ballots than we are now,” Kennedy said. “As I told @JesseBWatters yesterday, I now have enough petition signatures to get me on the ballot in all 50 states. A million Americans (at a minimum) want to see my name next to Donald J. Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s this November, but yet again the DNC is trying to foil the will of the people,” RFK Jr. said. WATCH: As I told @JesseBWatters yesterday, I now have enough petition signatures to get me on the ballot in all 50 states. A million Americans (at a minimum) want to see my name next to Donald J. Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s this November, but yet again the DNC is trying to foil the will… pic.twitter.com/mVimuYuKfG — Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 9, 2024 From The Hill: According to a ballot access tracker from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Kennedy is confirmed to have ballot access in 15 states, including the key swing states of Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. “A lotta the states, Neil, don’t certify until mid-August. So… we’ve turned in our signatures, the signatures have been accepted and they’re gonna be certified,” Kennedy said. In an average of national polls from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Kennedy is far behind Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee former President Trump. The average finds Harris currently at 46.7 percent support, Trump at 43.5 percent support and Kennedy at 3.4 percent support.

Elon Musk announced further details for his interview with Donald Trump on Monday, August 12th. “Live conversation on ? with @realDonaldTrump & me at 8pm ET tomorrow,” Musk said Sunday evening. “This is unscripted with no limits on subject matter, so should be highly entertaining! If you have specific questions & comments, post them under the chat,” he added. This is unscripted with no limits on subject matter, so should be highly entertaining! If you have specific questions & comments, post them under the chat. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2024 X users reacted to Musk’s announcement: May possibly become the most viewed conversation of all time! https://t.co/NZtCUQkDaW — Jimmy Corsetti (@BrightInsight6) August 12, 2024 I predict ? will set a new record number of users ever tomorrow during Elon Musk's live interview with Donald Trump. https://t.co/k6VtFVeyjI pic.twitter.com/ti00j1uCKL — TaraBull (@TaraBull808) August 12, 2024 Gonna break the internet https://t.co/kM35L0LGl4 — Travis Fitzwater (@travisfitzwater) August 12, 2024 I’m so ready https://t.co/u8lR1y06B0 pic.twitter.com/KiNNbk9Bgk — Jonsey (@joneslillycal) August 12, 2024 This will be https://t.co/glUaZgxtWE — Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) August 12, 2024 “President Trump is asking you to like this post. President Trump will be interviewed by Elon Musk on Monday at 8 pm Eastern. Like this post to be notified when the interview begins. IT WILL BE THE INTERVIEW OF THE CENTURY! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Team Trump wrote on X. President Trump is asking you to like this post. President Trump will be interviewed by Elon Musk on Monday at 8 pm Eastern. Like this post to be notified when the interview begins. IT WILL BE THE INTERVIEW OF THE CENTURY! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!#TrumpOnX pic.twitter.com/fdyHsF4JX3 — Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 11, 2024 * Image from Team Trump X Post * WATCH: “ON MONDAY NIGHT I’LL BE DOING A MAJOR INTERVIEW WITH ELON MUSK — Details to follow!” Trump said earlier this week. In an interview with Lex Fridman, Elon Musk explained why he endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. [WATCH] Elon Musk Explains Why He Endorsed Donald Trump For President “What’s your philosophy behind that endorsement? What do you hope Donald Trump does for the future of this country and for the future of humanity?” Fridman asked. “I thought Trump displayed courage under fire, objectively. He just got shot. He’s got blood streaming down his face, and he’s fist pumping, saying ‘fight.’ That’s impressive. You can’t feign bravery in a situation like that,” Musk said. “I think you want someone who is strong and courageous to represent the country,” he continued. “But on balance, and certainly at the time, it was a choice of Biden. Poor guy has trouble climbing a flight of stairs, and the other one is fist pumping after getting shot. This is no comparison. I mean who do you want dealing with some of the toughest people and other world leaders who are pretty tough themselves?” Musk explained. “I think we want a secure border. We don’t have a secure border,” he noted. “We want safe and clean cities,” he added. “I think we want to reduce the amount of spending we’re, at least, slow down the spending because we’re currently spending at a rate that is bankrupting the country,” he continued. “I think we’ve got to reduce the size of government, we’ve got to reduce the spending, and we’ve got to live within our means,” he said. WATCH: Elon Musk Reveals 7 Reasons Why He’s Voting for Donald Trump 1. @ElonMusk was astounded when Trump fist-pumped and shouted, “Fight!” shortly after getting shot in the face. “You can't feign bravery in a situation like that,” he said. 2. Musk seeks a leader “who is… pic.twitter.com/x63hBAmJx7 — The Vigilant Fox ? (@VigilantFox) August 3, 2024 “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk previously said. I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024