Israel’s anticipated big ‘retaliation’ has begun, apparently, after major airstrikes were felt in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Large smoke clouds were seen above a suburb in southern neighborhoods, sparking momentary panic and a large emergency response amid reported casualties.

An Israeli military statement quickly owned up to the attack: “The IDF targeted in Beirut the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and killed many Israeli civilians,” a translated statement said.

The destruction is large in scale, and took place at around 8pm local time, still within daylight hours just before nightfall.

Earlier, a weekend missile attack from Lebanon (widely blamed on Hezbollah) killed 12 young people playing on a soccer field in the occupied Golan town of Majdal Shams.

Foreign Minister Katz told a state broadcaster over the weekend, “There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines.” And soon after that, the country’s war cabinet authorized the military to retaliate.

Massive Damage to the Building which was Struck just now by an Israeli Airstrike within the Haret Hreik Neighborhood in the Suburbs of Beirut. pic.twitter.com/DOB8dku3HH

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 30, 2024

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has announced just after the Tuesday Beirut strikes, “Hezbollah crossed the Red Line.”

Harrowing footage of the strike aftermath points to large-scale casualties given it is a densely-packed civilian area…

The Israeli regime has bombed the capital of Lebanon leaving Beirut in a state of emergency: if threats mean anything Tel Aviv should brace itself pic.twitter.com/RKC6T0sOfV

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) July 30, 2024

Given already there have long been fears of ‘all-out’ war in Lebanon, oil jumped on news of the attack.

Israel is quickly signaling that this was a ‘limited’ attack and that it doesn’t seek full war in Lebanon. “At the moment, there are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines,” the IDF said.

Bloomberg’s live blog has cited Rosalind Mathieson, the outlet’s news director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, who comments:

There are signs Israel was aiming for an action that sent a message without triggering a full blown war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Netanyahu has also been opening the door to fresh talks for a cease-fire with Hamas on Gaza – and that wouldn’t be possible if Israel is engaged in a ground conflict with Hezbollah.

Several Israeli news outlets reported earlier this week that the government was seeking a “limited but significant” action that sends a strong message to Hezbollah but ensures the situation doesn’t spiral out of control.

More footage showing the large scale of the aerial bombing…

BREAKING REPORTS: ISRAEL HAS BOMBED BEIRUT

Beirut has been Hezbollah’s red line pic.twitter.com/VTSViPCJ3w

— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) July 30, 2024

Many regional analysts believe that a broader war in Lebanon will draw in Iran-backed groups and actors across the region, eventually leading to an open war between Tehran and Tel Aviv. Hezbollah sources are meanwhile denying that Israel killed the senior commander that was targeted on Tuesday.

developing…

Despite a recent influx of more Western weapons, including some of the first US-made F-16 fighter jets having arrived in Kiev, Russian forces have made significant gains in the Donbas, specifically in the region west of Avidiivka, several media outlets have reported. 

Currently, Ukrainian troops are being encircled in the Pokrovsk direction, war maps show. Russia has further seized the entire Novoselivka Persha settlement, after a string of tactical successes over months of the new Kharkiv offensive.

The Washington Post in fresh reporting documents that “The reinvasion of the Kharkiv region, while yielding limited gains, nonetheless diverted Ukrainian resources. Oleksandr, 30, a battalion commander of the 47th brigade, fighting near Ocheretyne, said that Ukrainian forces are struggling and that Putin’s prize increasingly seems within Russia’s reach.”

The same Ukrainian commander told the outlet, “This strategy is clever: You try to concentrate the strength of your enemy in one direction and then distract them at another.” He added of Russian forces, “Their first objective is to destroy us” and “the second is to push us so that they can get more leverage for peace talks and get more from us. They are almost at the point of capturing the Donetsk region.”

WaPo admits that this soon may see the Zelensky forced to negotiate or else quickly lose more territory as the Russians eye capturing the key transit point of the city of Pokrovsk. The publication also underscores a somewhat distracted Washington, referencing “a shortage of soldiers and as election turmoil in the United States.”

NEW: Russian forces recently made confirmed advances NE of Kharkiv City in Vovchansk, near Avdiivka, and SW of Donetsk City.

Ukrainian drones struck Russian energy and utility infrastructure in Oryol, Voronezh, and Belgorod oblasts on the night of July 28 to 29. 🧵(1/6) pic.twitter.com/nLu7JyQp30

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) July 30, 2024

Other major publications like The New York Times have confirmed a similar trend: Russia is identifying weakened and badly organized Ukrainian units to punch through front lines at a rapid pace, thus exploiting the ongoing severe manpower problems.

“Russian forces are now only a dozen miles from Pokrovsk after Moscow’s troops pushed along a railway line and advanced about three miles toward the city, according to open-source maps of the battlefield based on combat footage and satellite imagery,” writes NYT. “The Russian progress contrasts sharply with the slow but steady gains that Moscow had made so far this year in the Donetsk region, sometimes measured in only a few hundred yards a week.”

“Military analysts say the swift gains reflect Moscow’s improved ability to exploit cracks in Ukrainian defensive lines, which have been thinned by manpower shortages and strained by relentless Russian attacks along a more than 600-mile front,” the report continues.

A key question remains: even should Zelensky desire to negotiate with Moscow at this point, will he be able to?

Nazified extremists like Azov are useful as motivated killers for warfare, but a frankenstein’s monster when you need to switch to ceasefire/peace mode. Azov way too big now (and just one of many extreme-right military formations) to put back in the bottlehttps://t.co/zMjziZ5C3c

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) July 30, 2024

Again, despite efforts of Western supporters to rush new weapons systems to Kiev, it’s ultimately the manpower problem in the face of far superior Russian numbers that’s making all the difference.

As of Monday, the German government announced it has sent Ukraine eight more Leopard 1 A5 tanks, ammunition, anti-aircraft guns, and other equipment.

Authored by Savannah Fortis via CoinTelegraph.com,

Nine years ago on July 30, the Ethereum network launched, sparking a revolution in the decentralized space. 

In 2015 Vitalik Buterin and a team of visionary developers introduced the concept of smart contracts via Ethereum, which forever changed the blockchain landscape by enabling decentralized applications (dApps) to be built on its platform.

Unlike Bitcoin, which primarily served as a digital currency until the advent of Bitcoin Ordinals, Ethereum was designed as a versatile, programmable blockchain. This allows developers to create and deploy a wide array of DApps that extend far beyond financial transactions.

Over the past nine years, Ethereum has grown from this ambitious project idea to a cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem, influencing countless innovations in finance, supply chain management, gaming, and beyond. It has fostered a vibrant community of developers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts who continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with blockchain technology.

To commemorate this milestone, we spoke with several key executives involved in the Ethereum ecosystem to share nine key insights on Ethereum’s past achievements, current challenges, and future potential.

1. Scalability challenges in emerging markets

Ethereum, being the largest blockchain with a total value locked (TVL) of nearly $60 billion, has been the ultimate example of needing to evolve in order to scale and host the amount of activity that it currently does. 

Despite the network’s many attempts to lower fees over the years, Dominic Schwenter, the chief operating officer of the layer-2 platform Lisk, highlights the pressing issue of such fees being a problem for the future of Ethereum’s scalability in emerging markets (EMs).

“What we want to avoid is a situation in which EMs wouldn’t be able to benefit from the fantastic ecosystem the Ethereum network provides.”

He said with improvements in L2 solutions, Ethereum could become a “cornerstone of the global digital economy,” significantly benefiting these regions. Both Ethereum and L2 addresses have surged by 127% in the last year, signaling that there is an increased amount of activity. 

This could, if given the right attention, domino into the needed improvements hinted to by Schewenter.

2. Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA)

Schwenter also emphasized the benefits of tokenizing Real World Assets for EMs.

“RWA allows for increased access to capital in regions where access to traditional financial services is usually limited.”

By lowering transaction costs and enhancing liquidity, tokenization of RWAs promotes financial inclusion.

This would allow EMs to take a giant step towards an optimal hybrid financial system, connecting them to the rest of the world in the best possible way, while transforming industries and empowering individuals worldwide.

3. Stablecoins for financial inclusion

Amanda Cassatt, the founder and CEO of Serotonin and former marketing head at Consensys, reflected on the role of stablecoins in achieving what she called Ethereum’s original goal of “banking the unbanked.”

She has witnessed the impact of stablecoins in emerging markets like the Philippines, where they play major roles in facilitating everyday transactions.

“In early Ethereum days I would’ve been surprised to hear about the degree of stablecoin adoption. Lots of us assumed that one day crypto would be used regularly for payments, but at the time, the idea was a floating token like BTC or ETH.”

“Stablecoins make a ton of sense,” she said and predicted that they will become “even more important.”

4. Institutional crypto adoption

Cassatt pointed out Ethereum’s role in helping encourage the evolution of institutional crypto adoption, noting the shift from private blockchains to public blockchains.

“The whole idea of ‘blockchain without crypto’ which was a trendy way to predict institutional adoption is gone now. To the degree institutions are adopting blockchain, it’s because they’re adopting crypto.”

“It’s a great idea,” she said and encouraged that “more should consider it for balance sheets.” This could even look like investing in assets like ETFs, which just saw a historic entrance of the ETH ETF to the market on July 23.

5. Ethereum as a settlement layer

Matt Katz, the co-founder and CEO of Caldera, observed that Ethereum has evolved from an application development platform to a robust settlement and data availability layer for numerous rollups. 

“These scaling advancements will open doors to mass-market applications in areas such as decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), gaming, and social platforms.”

Katz attributes this evolution to be largely facilitated by optimistic and ZK-proofs, which allow applications to securely “rent” Ethereum’s security affordably.

6. Distribution and infrastructure investment

Cassatt also shed light on the investment trends within the Ethereum ecosystem, pointing back to when Ethereum first gained success, venture capitalists (VCs) invested heavily in layer-1 and layer-2 solutions rather than applications built on Ethereum.

“The risk/reward profile of infrastructure investment lures VCs and attracts builders who want VC backing.”

Cassatt said the next era needs to focus on proving that applications can be successful and return capital. She highlights the importance of distribution, citing the Telegram and TON ecosystem as a promising area.

“Telegram is poised to become the non-government-controlled version of WeChat, with fully integrated self-sovereign wallets and the ability to bring significant activity on-chain,” she explains. As regulation becomes clearer, Cassatt said she expects more companies with actual distribution to enter the crypto space, driving industry growth.

7. Simplifying user experience with account abstraction

Charles Wayn, the co-founder of Galxe, said he is particularly excited about the development of account abstraction, which simplifies the user experience and allows more flexible transaction models.

“This means easier wallet management, enhanced security, and the ability to execute more complex transactions seamlessly,” he explains. He sees this innovation as one that will make Ethereum more accessible and user-friendly for a broader audience.

 8.Commitment to open source and decentralization

Karl Floersch, the co-founder of Optimism and CEO of OP Labs, stressed the importance of driving forward open source standards and public goods for the ecosystem.

“A lot of the crypto narrative internally revolves around vigorous competition between large players, but there is so little discourse on how effectively we are building open source software to drive us towards a more and more open internet.”

He pointed to a quote from Vitalik Buterin in which he said, “We are not here to just create isolated tools and games, but rather build holistically toward a more free and open society and economy, where the different parts — technological, social and economic — fit into each other.”

Floersch believes there is too much “zero sum” competition in the current market, and emphasized the need for economic alignment, through programs like retroactive public goods funding, to keep the vision of a decentralized internet alive.

9. Ethereum at a Crossroads

The Optimism co-founder said he’d love to see Ethereum reach the vision of the world computer in both technical capabilities and social and economic capabilities.

However, he said in order to reach that two things need to happen, the first being an open source tech stack that is decentralized without sacrificing UX, along with sufficient funding for open protocols that benefit the ecosystem at large.

“If we get these two things right, then it won’t be about where Ethereum will be in 10 years, but instead what a vibrant ecosystem the internet will become.”

Wes Levitt, the head of strategy at Theta Labs, also sees Ethereum at a pivotal moment. While it has been a pioneer in expanding crypto’s scope beyond Bitcoin, it faces competition from other Layer 1 blockchains like Solana.

“The next year or so will tell us how the story ends,” Levitt states. He believes that Ethereum’s ability to maintain its market cap dominance, especially with the launch of new ETFs, will be crucial in solidifying its position in the crypto ecosystem.

In today’s episode of why polls are generally bullshit – a new survey of voters from Harvard-Harris has Donald Trump beating Kamala Harris 48-45, despite yet another egregious oversampling of roughly 25% Democrats which was then ‘weighted to the US general adult population’ – that still resulted in a Democrat oversample.

Now imagine if the poll wasn’t ridiculously skewed and oversampled to Democrats:

Republican respondents: 654
Democrat respondents: 883 https://t.co/eB4iV282EO pic.twitter.com/WMzfcll4H3

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2024

This, despite the fact that Gallup has national party identification at +6 Republicans/Republican leaning independents.

And the fact that Gallup has party ID at R+6 makes this even more ridiculous ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/HQacaUFmZw

— Biden Illegal Invader Rape & Murder Tracker (@jimispod59) July 30, 2024

Oddly, we couldn’t find any polls which oversampled Republicans.

When we pointed out the oversample on X, the ‘weighted’ crowd suggested that ‘this is how any survey works.’

And the weighting is how the survey creators can goalseek any outcome they want. Which is why every single poll is massively oversampled to dems

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2024

Except, again, it isn’t an accurate reflection of US voters whatsoever, and their ‘weighting’ of such a vast disparity between those polled and reality means we’re trusting them to be honest with their black box.

25% more dem’s polled?

— Marcel J (@isit1984yet) July 30, 2024

Now, imagine if the same poll was accurately sampled at +6R.

Meanwhile, here’s an overview of major polls of Trump vs. Harris via Statista.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Facebook wrongly censored a photograph of former President Donald Trump raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt, a company official said.

Facebook users shared screenshots showing that when they posted the photograph, they were told they had shared an “altered photo.”

“Independent fact-checkers reviewed a similar photo and said it was altered in a way that could mislead people,” the message stated.

“Facebook determined your post has the same altered photo and added a notice to the post.”

Users were also told that people who share false information might see their posts ranked lower in Facebook’s feed “so other people are less likely to see them.”

People took to social media platform X, a Facebook competitor, to complain about being warned despite sharing a legitimate photo without alteration.

Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman, acknowledged in an X post that the photo was being wrongly censored.

“This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the Secret Service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo,” she wrote.

“This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake.”

Facebook and other Meta-owned properties use a third-party fact-checking network that enables the company to “take action and reduce the spread of problematic content across our apps,” Meta says on its website.

Some conservatives said that the censorship should prompt lawmakers to question Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta.

“He needs to be dragged in front of Congress to answer for this,” Chaya Raichik, who runs the Libs of TikTok account, wrote on the account.

The photograph in question, taken shortly after former President Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, shows the former president raising a fist as he’s surrounded closely by Secret Service agents. None of the agents are smiling.

Soon after it was taken, the former president was ushered into an armored vehicle and transported away from the scene.

Bullets fired by Thomas Crooks, 20, also hit three others, according to authorities. One of them, Corey Comperatore, was killed. The other two were treated at a hospital and later released.

Meta’s artificial intelligence, meanwhile, has been telling some users that the assassination attempt was fictional, according to screenshots shared online.

“We know people have been seeing incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date information on this topic,“ a Meta spokesperson told news outlets in a statement. ”We’re in the process of implementing a fix to provide more up-to-date responses for inquiries, and it is possible people may continue to see inaccurate responses in the meantime.”

Heading into today’s JOLTS number we were expecting much of last month’s unexpected surge – which as we noted last month was the result of a bizarre spike in government job openings – to be revised away, and for the June print to drop from the revised May print.

Expect big drop in JOLTS job openings as last month’s surge in government job openings is revised away https://t.co/0SkQxgdckL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2024

In retrospect, that’s what happened if perhaps not to the extent we had expected. As shown in the chart below, according to the BLS, in June the total number of job openings did drop by 46K from an upward revised 8.230 million to 8.184 million, where the number of government workers was indeed revised lower, however, the ultimate drop was not as big as we, or the street, had expected and it printed above the consensus estimate of 8.00 million.

A quick look at the breakdown shows that while private jobs saw another broad drop in openings across private sectors…

… it was almost fully offset by the relentless surge in government job openings. Yes, while May was indeed revised lower, June saw another jump in government job openings, surging to a near record 1.094 million, driven by a 118K spike in State and Local job openings.

Putting it all together, while private sector job openings plunged to a level seen back in late 2018, government job openings are just shy of a record high!

Ignoring the data manipulation, in the context of the broader jobs report, in June the number of job openings was 1.373 million more than the number of unemployed workers (which the BLS reported was 6.811 million), down from last month’s 1.581 million and the lowest since the summer of 2021.

Said otherwise, in April the number of job openings to unemployed dropped to just 1.24, a sharp slide from the March print of 1.30, the lowest level since June 2021 and now officially back to pre-covid levels.

But wait there’s more: confirming that if one ignores the clearly manipulated jump in government job openings (“quick, let’s hire a ton more TSA agents and deep state apparatchiks to make it seems that Kamalanomics is working”), a quick look at the number of quits – an indicator closely associated with labor market strength as it shows workers are confident they can find a better wage elsewhere – showed a plunge in June, dropping by 121K, the most since July 2023, to just 3.282 million, the lowest since August 2020!

Finally, the piece de resistance was the number of actual hires, which in June also tumbled to just 5341, down a massive 314K in one month, the biggest monthly drop since February 2023…

… dragging the total to just 5.3 million, the lowest level since the depts of the covid lockdowns.

Finally, no matter what the “data” shows, let’s not forget that it is all just estimated, and it is safe to say that the real number of job openings remains still far lower since half of it – or some 70% to be specific – is guesswork. As the BLS itself admits, while the response rate to most of its various labor (and other) surveys has collapsed in recent years, nothing is as bad as the JOLTS report where the actual response rate remains near a record low 33%

In other words, more than two thirds, or 70% of the final number of job openings, is estimated!

And at a time when it is critical for Biden, pardon Kamala, to still maintain the illusion that at least the labor market remains strong when everything else in the economy is crashing and burning, we’ll let readers decide if the near record number of government job openings at a time when hiring and quitting are both crashing, is an accurate reflection of a strong labor market, or is merely a reflection of a debt-funded deep state gone full tilt. We’ll know the answer on Friday.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A Rasmussen poll has found that a majority of Americans want Joe Biden to resign the presidency with immediate effect.

The poll found that 76 percent of likely voters approve of Biden stepping down from seeking another term, with just 18 percent of voters not approving of the decision.

However, the poll also reveals that 52 percent of Americans also believe that Biden is not capable of finishing his term and needs to go now, even though that would mean president Kamala.

Voters overwhelmingly approve of President Joe Biden’s decision not to continue running for a second term, and a majority also agree that he should resign from office now.

More At Rasmussen Reports:https://t.co/rPNxyiFaFf pic.twitter.com/p2Otf6pLoN

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) July 28, 2024

Respondents were also asked “Will Joe Biden be remembered by most Americans as a great president, a good president, a bad president, or the worst president ever?”

The most popular response was “the worst president ever,” with 29 percent selecting this option. That is almost a third of Americans.

A further 21 percent said he would be remembered as a bad president, meaning half of respondents view his presidency as one of the worst in history.

Meanwhile, whoever is in charge of Biden’s X account still doesn’t understand how angry Americans are at the absolute state Biden has left the country in.

Whoever is writing these tweets, desist. It’s beyond embarrassing. https://t.co/5nWzpRHif7

— David Vance (@DVATW) July 28, 2024

Joey, you promised to restore the soul of the nation. You didn’t and now the world is ending. Thanks for nothing.

— Burt Macklin (@BurtMaclin_FBI) July 28, 2024

You haven’t given a damn thing to this nation.

You have parasitically lived off of taxpayers your entire adult life. You’ve only taken from this nation.

— Axiomatic Enemy of the State (@DeTocqueville14) July 28, 2024

I am not grateful.

I am mad that you destroyed whatever you touched as president.

— Real Defender🇺🇸 (@real_defender) July 28, 2024

Biden still hasn’t even said why he dropped out. His staff are adamant it isn’t due to poor health.

In a related story, the president still hasn’t told us exactly why he stepped down from the campaign.

And in another related story, this President has been on vacation for 40% of this presidency. https://t.co/D9wRCQzzce

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) July 28, 2024

So what is it then?

I’m sorry your party chased you from the White House over your stutter. Monsters. https://t.co/3aeyW20FQg

— NeverTweet (@LOLNeverTweet) July 28, 2024

Once again we’re left asking this week, where is Biden?

But you’re not even running the country https://t.co/NMNvUTNfa3

— The Average American (@TAAtoday) July 28, 2024

Jill Biden, Ed.D. is allegedly in Paris, France right now.

When was this photo taken?

— Jenny (@Jenny_IDLYITW) July 28, 2024

Joe Biden was pushed out of the nomination.

He got railroaded by the big party bosses.

Now, he is rarely seen, and we don’t even know who is running things in this country.

— Cryptid Politics (pro-DeSantis) 🇺🇸🐊 (@CryptidPolitics) July 28, 2024

He was last seen boarding a helicopter to go to Delaware AGAIN in an Olympics jacket with his crackhead son.

Joe Biden wins the Gold Medal for wearing an Olympics jacket and barely making it to his vacation helicopter without falling down. pic.twitter.com/06a40wpM8P

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) July 26, 2024

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

For the eighth month in the last nine, the headline Conference Board Consumer Confidence print was revised lower in June (dramatically so)…

Source: Bloomberg

That June revision from 100.4 to 97.8 then allowed the headline to ‘beat’ in July at 100.3 (which is still down from the original June print) but flat at post-COVID lows. Notably the Present Situation tumbled to its lowest since April 2021…

Source: Bloomberg

The overall trend in the labor market indicator remains weaker…

Source: Bloomberg

…and Purchase plans for homes, cars, and appliances all plunged…

Source: Bloomberg

Just remind us again how exactly ‘confidence’ can be revised lower?

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

For many years, I’ve described a period that I envisaged to be in the future, in which much of what was considered “normal” would change dramatically.

The borders of some countries would change. The types of governments that ruled over them would change. In some cases, they would morph slowly into new entities; in others they would change suddenly.

Much of the wealth in the world would change hands. Enormous fortunes would be made by a few, whilst the life savings of countless others would be lost.

Large numbers of people would be on the move. Many would be refugees, hoping to escape poverty and/or oppressive governments. Others would be opportunists – those who look for the positives in periods of global upset.

Above all, this would be a period of change.

For most people, this would one day be looked back upon as previous generations looked back on the World Wars or the Great Depression – a time of devastation, in which many people lost all or most of what they had had.

But for some, especially those who foresaw the change, this period would one day be looked back upon as the time when their fortunes changed dramatically for the better.

Until recently, those who have predicted this dramatic change have been largely derided as “doom-and-gloomers” or “end-of-the-world crackpots.”

And it has been difficult to argue against this view, as regardless of how accurately we might have described what was headed our way, it was impossible to put a date on the onset of the crisis.

I became convinced of its eventuality in 1999, due to economic and political developments that would result in collapse at some point.

But the speed at which this would occur, and what governments and others would do to delay the eventuality, could not be known in advance. The best I could do was to repeatedly advise that significant events would increase in velocity and magnitude the closer we came to the collapse.

At that time, significant events were occurring once or twice a year. Since then, the frequency has increased until, today, significant events are occurring almost daily.

For those who have been following this line of thinking, the basic premise is that the governments of the world, often acting in concert with the major banks and industries, have sought to expand their wealth and power in such a way that, at some point, socio-economic collapse would inevitably occur.

And they’ve succeeded marvelously. For decades, they’ve dramatically increased their positions but have reached the point at which the bill for the big party must be paid, and they have no intention of paying it. It will be passed to the hoi polloi, who will soon realise that it will break many of them.

And they’ll be hopping mad.

So, how should this moment be handled? Historically, the most effective means by which those who have caused the problem can not only get away with it, but profit even more from the collapse, is to create a distraction to take focus away from themselves as the guilty parties.

As any magician knows, there’s no real magic. The trick is achieved through illusion. For a simple magic trick, a small distraction is needed. For a more elaborate trick to be pulled off, a larger distraction is necessary.

But for a worldwide socio-economic collapse to be pulled off, whilst the magicians remain in place to benefit from it, a major distraction is necessary.

In fact, if at all possible, multiple distractions should be employed.

Beginning in the early months of 2020, a virus has spread across the globe.

This virus is familiar to science: It’s a mutation of the coronavirus, which has been around for sixty years or more. It’s a common virus, carrying with it relatively predictable symptoms and a relatively predictable outcome for those who contract it.

Actual deaths are few and will occur mostly in those who are old and infirm or whose immune systems are already compromised.

But from the start, this virus was treated as a plague that would decimate the population. Almost immediately, the death figures were greatly exaggerated. The US government even went so far as to award thousands of dollars to hospitals for each death that they attributed to the virus.

Whole countries have been locked down, with millions of people losing their means of employment. In every case, essential freedoms have been removed from all citizens.

At the same time, the death of a minor criminal at the hands of police sparked off a riot in a seemingly unrelated event.

But, courtesy of the media, the riots quickly spread across the US in forty of the fifty states. Incredibly, many mayors and governors stated that the rioters were justified in their unlawful actions and ordered police to stand down, exacerbating the riots.

To make matters worse, it soon became apparent that many of the rioters were bussed into cities, paid to cause as much destruction as possible. The funding for such groups has since been traced to plutocrats who created the problem in the first place.

In some locations, entire hotels in upper-class neighbourhoods have been taken over by state governments to house homeless people, including the criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes.

These events have become so widespread that whole neighbourhoods are emptying out of residents.

The upset and confusion increases each day, and the average person is now afraid to turn on the news each evening.

We’re witnessing a sleight of hand of epic proportions.

We’ve entered the crisis period. From here on in, wealth will be extracted from the populace on a wholesale level. In addition, “inalienable rights” are already becoming a thing of the past.

The uncertainty that the average person is finding himself in is not an illusion, but nor is it an accident.

Those who imagine that the Powers That Be exist to help them in their troubles will be the ones who are most dramatically damaged by this manufactured uncertainty, for they will live in the false hope that the very people who created the problem will come to their aid and save them.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, just as those who are abused often turn to their abuser for protection, we shall see a populace that seeks salvation through a government upon which they bestow more power than before, not less.

*  *  *

The truth is, we’re on the cusp of a economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

In early premarket trading on Monday, CNBC published a note titled “Jim Cramer calls the bottom in CrowdStrike stock after global IT outage fallout.“ 

By late evening, CNBC’s Phil Lebeau reported that Delta Air Lines hired top attorney David Boies to sue CrowdStrike and Microsoft for damages stemming from the global IT outage that sparked nationwide travel disruptions for days. 

This report from Lebeau sent CrowdStrike shares lower in the premarket on Tuesday, down about 4.5% to the $247 handle, below Cramer’s ‘buy—buy—buy’ level. 

Here’s more from CNBC:

While no suit has been filed, Delta plans to seek compensation from Microsoft and CrowdStrike, Lebeau reported. Delta hasn’t responded to a request for comment.

The outages cost Delta an estimated $350 million to $500 million. Delta is dealing with over 176,000 refund or reimbursement requests after almost 7,000 flights were canceled.

According to insurer Parametrix, US Fortune 500 companies, excluding Microsoft, are expected to incur $5.4 billion in financial losses due to CrowdStrike’s faulty update, which caused the ‘blue screen of death‘ and paralyzed millions of computers in the US and worldwide.

Parametrix wrote last week that insured losses from IT outages in the US will total around $540 million to $1.08 billion for the Fortune 500 companies. 

Parametrix CEO Jonatan Hatzor told Reuters that the outage could be one of “the biggest accumulation event we ever saw in cyber insurance, adding, “This event traveled very fast and was very global.” 

Hatzor said financial losses worldwide could total $15 billion, and global insured losses will be as much as $3 billion. 

Will Delta initiate the wave of expected lawsuits from companies severely affected by Microsoft and CrowdStrike’s IT outage? If so, this could continue to pressure shares lower.