It isn’t often Bill “Mr. I Know What’s Best For The Entire World” Gates comes up with an idea that we aren’t immediately skeptical of, but his recent pledge to promote next generation nuclear power sounds to us to be a common sense solution to multiple problems we’ll be facing in coming years. 

Gates is pledging billions of dollars to promote nuclear through startup TerraPower LLC, OilPrice.com wrote this week. And it looks like that number could grow. 

Gates recently told Bloomberg: “I put in over a billion, and I’ll put in billions more.”

OilPrice.com notes that nuclear power is gaining global traction as a key player in decarbonization strategies. In addition to TerraPower, companies like Sam Altman-led Oklo are also focused on modernizing nuclear with small modular reactors. 

Advocates emphasize its immense clean energy potential, proven technology, and existing infrastructure. Although not renewable, nuclear energy emits zero carbon and could help meet global emissions targets.

As we have been noting for months, urgency for clean energy has intensified due to the tech sector, especially Artificial Intelligence, consuming massive amounts of energy. This surge in demand has reversed the trend, with developed countries now experiencing faster energy demand growth than developing nations.

The IT industry currently accounts for about 2% of global CO2 emissions, according to Science Alert in 2023. Gartner predicts the AI sector alone will consume 3.5% of global electricity by 2030 without significant changes.

In response, tech giants are seeking carbon-free energy sources, with many turning to nuclear power. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s TerraPower aims to supply nuclear energy for Microsoft’s AI needs and is developing safer, less controversial reactors using liquid sodium coolant, which reduces water usage and may recycle spent nuclear fuel, addressing hazardous waste concerns.

Recall, at the start of April, we penned a lengthy report for premium subs discussing why artificial intelligence data centers, the electrification of the economy, and onshoring trends will result in a major upgrade of the nation’s power grid. We followed the note up on Monday with a report titled Everyone Is Piling Into The “Next AI Trade.” 

In May, Larry Fink jumped on the trade: “I do believe to properly um build out AI. We’re talking about trillions of dollars of investing. So data centers today could be as much as 200 megahertz – and they’re now talking about data centers being one gigawatt. That powers a city.”

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Before Cazenovia College in Upstate New York closed in May 2023 because of decreasing enrollment and financial problems, students were given a list of comparable schools in the same region with similar tuition fees, major courses of study, financial aid availability, and athletic programs.

One of the schools on that list, Wells College, shut down one year later for the same reasons—low enrollment (354 students) and financial problems.

“It’s pretty crazy when that happens with two schools in two years,” Carter Matus, who transferred to Elmira College from Cazenovia College, said. Some of his classmates had considered Wells but chose different schools.

“Luckily they didn’t have to go through this again,” he said.

What Mr. Matus went through was a brief but “semi-stressful” episode of finding another small higher learning institution at about the same costs that would accept his credits and allow him to continue playing varsity baseball. He changed his major from art to business and still maintains his custom trade and proprietorship, Art by Carter J. Matus.

“It’s been an OK experience,” he told The Epoch Times on June 25, “but I do miss being closer to a city [Syracuse].

“If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have stayed in Florida.”

These are uncertain times for upstate colleges. Along with Wells, the College of Saint Rose in Albany and St. John’s University Staten Island campus also graduated their final classes in May. Medaille College in Buffalo shut its doors last summer. Clinton County Community College survived only by closing its campus and using space at neighboring SUNY Plattsburgh. And several other schools, private and public, made deep budget cuts.

The decline is not limited to the Empire State.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college and university enrollment has decreased by about 1.5 million students, or 7.4 percent, in the past decade.

Notable closings in other parts of the country this year include Notre Dame College in Ohio, Birmingham Southern University in Alabama, University of Saint Katherine in California, and Hodges University in Florida.

The main reason is that, with declining birth rates, there won’t be enough students for every school, according to Adam Kissel, visiting fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

College and university decision makers across the nation must have known about this population trend 20 years ago, he said, yet too few of those representing private schools had conversations about merging or sharing services to survive.

“Too many colleges have their heads in the sand,” Mr. Kissel said.

Other Contributing Factors

Mr. Kissel added that there are a number of other factors contributing to these enrollment trends and the likelihood of more campus closings.

Americans are increasingly questioning whether a college degree is worth the money at a time when interest is rising in vocational trades and career and technical education programs, which involve smaller commitments of time and money.

“You hear about the massive student debt, and a lot of them [prospective students] are saying, ‘I could go into plumbing or electrical work,’“ Mr. Kissel said. ”Why would I need a bachelor’s for that?”

There are also cultural changes across U.S. campuses. The college culture of drinking and partying isn’t as attractive as it used to be. As students become more serious about their courses of study when they realize the cost of attending colleges and universities, there’s also a growing distaste for progressive ideologies that have become commonplace in higher education, Mr. Kissel said.

In 2022, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported that 80 percent of school faculty identified themselves as politically liberal. In September 2023, Inside Higher Education published an opinion piece, “Higher Ed Can’t Afford its Left-Wing Bias Problem.”

“Students ask themselves if they want to be in that environment,” Mr. Kissel said. “Many people no longer trust colleges to educate students well.”

The “final jolt” was the much delayed release of the 2024–2025 federal student aid (FAFSA) application, which affected $1.8 billion in federal student aid and caused some students to not apply for college who otherwise would have. Mr. Kissel said this debacle will cause many more struggling higher learning institutions to close in 2025.

Depending on the state and type of school, the total cost of annual tuition, room and board, and fees across the nation this past academic year ranged from $11,000 to more than $80,000, according to the College Board. However, the net cost that students pay after scholarships and work-study initiatives might be a fraction of that.

National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) Senior Policy Analyst Andrew Smalley estimates that the number of higher education institutions that closed in the United States this year was as high as “one a week,” though that would include even the smallest of online certificate or degree programs that don’t have a campus.

Mr. Smalley, speaking during NCSL’s June 16 podcast “Making Higher Education Accountable,” said data still support that college graduates earn more than high school graduates, by an average of $30,000 a year.

Mr. Smalley said the pressing concern is that fewer than 20 percent of students who attend an institution that closes will actually finish a degree or certificate program at another school.

“This is a huge derailer for students, and there’s a lot states can consider around financial monitoring, mergers, consolidations, and closure procedures should an institution close,“ he said. ”And states are really considering how to think about those challenges, and what they can do to support students earning their credential or degree from those institutions.”

Much like the students who were displaced by the recent closings of New York state colleges and universities, faculty and staff members also had to become mobile and flexible if they wanted to continue their passion for education.

David Rufo was a childhood education professor at Cazenovia College before the announced closing. He had hoped to obtain tenure and thought he’d finally found the perfect fit in a tight-knit community with plenty of academic freedom following prior jobs at Syracuse University and Fordham University in New York City.

Within a matter of weeks, Mr. Rufo secured a tenure-track teaching position at Utica University. The move increased his commute from two minutes to one hour, but the trade-off is job security in an institution where enrollment is growing and more support staff are there to help him with research and publications.

“Both places seemed to really appreciate innovation,” Mr. Rufo told The Epoch Times on June 25. “Cazenovia was really rewarding, but this has been rewarding so far as well. New challenges can be part of the experience.”

By Ellie Cameron of The College Fix

As universities nationwide scale back diversity, equity and inclusion policies, Arizona’s flagship public institution is preparing to implement a new mandate for students — two courses with a DEI emphasis as a graduation requirement.

Through the two courses, students will focus on themes of diversity, power, equity, privilege, oppression and marginalization, learn “how historical and contemporary populations have experienced inequality,” and “theorize how to create a more equitable society,” the university’s website states.

“…Classes with the Diversity & Equity Attribute will focus on issues such as racism, classism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, colonialism, transphobia, xenophobia, and other structured inequities,” the university states.

The DEI mandate is part of a general education curriculum update at the University of Arizona and takes effect in fall 2026. In the meantime, it has prompted criticisms from a high-profile conservative think tank in the state.

Students “will be forced to take courses with academically unserious content that adds nothing to their education,” Timothy Minella, a researcher with the Goldwater Institute, told The College Fix.

Minella authored the institute’s report criticizing the DEI mandate. Published this month, it argues “general education programs were originally intended to help students gain knowledge and skills essential for thoughtful citizenship and successful careers.”

But the new DEI requirements “instead promote politically activist ideologies to a captive audience of students, who must complete the programs in order to receive a degree,” it adds.

Susan Miller-Cochran, professor of English and executive director of UA’s general education, said the courses are in response to an Arizona Board of Regents policy “to contribute to a society that values ‘equality under the law, diversity, inclusion, and constructive dialogue through civil discourse.’”

She said she strongly disagrees with the institute’s report.

“It’s about reflection and theorization. Understanding theories about diversity and equity, and to cultivate habits of mind that help to meet the requirements that the Arizona Board of Regents gave us in their general education policy,” she told The College Fix in a telephone interview.

The Goldwater report was the result of a wide-ranging public records act request from last fall, and it picks apart several courses that meet the DEI focus after obtaining about 1,000 pages of syllabi.

Among the classes it highlights is one that requires students to “live like a bug” in “ENTO 160D1: Busy Bees and Fancy Fleas: How Insects Shaped Human History.” In one assignment, students will create “tissue paper wings” to understand the experience of “immigrants” or people “from a different social class.”

Minella told The Fix that UA students “could graduate having ‘lived like a bug,’ but without learning about the Constitution, the Civil War, or landmark Supreme Court cases.”

“This isn’t just bad policy. It’s a blatant violation of a clear directive to educate students in American civics from the Arizona Board of Regents, the body that oversees Arizona public universities,” he said via email.

Another DEI class highlighted in the report is an anthropology one called “Race, Ethnicity, and the American Dream.”

“Racism is deeply embedded in US history, society, and institutions. It is systemic,” the syllabus states. “You’ll learn [in] this unit that racism is a system of advantage, and disadvantage, based on race. White people hold unearned privilege while people of color have not had equal access to the ‘American Dream.’”

Another DEI class includes “Constructions of Gender,” where students have the opportunity to participate in a “Safe Zone Training” through the campus LGBTQ center for extra credit.

Minella called the courses “emblematic of the broader academic failings” of the DEI requirement.

Mieczyslaw Zak, a spokesman for the university, said Minella did not discuss the courses with UA scholars and his report misses the mark.

“The goal is absolutely not activism,” he told The Fix. “The goal is understanding, so that students can develop their own perspective and decide how they want to move forward.”

Zak and Miller-Cochran also said they disagree the general education requirement runs afoul of Board of Regents policy. They said the regents acknowledged their curriculum policy does not provide a specific list of courses, and leaves the decision to the state universities.

Asked about the entomology course highlighted in the Goldwater report, Miller-Cochran said “I’m not an entomologist.”

By Julie LIttman of RestaurantDive

• Miracle Restaurant Group, a 25-unit Arby’s franchisee, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 20, according to court filings.

• The company, which has been an Arby’s operator since 2005, has restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, Donald Moore, manager and member of Miracle Restaurant Group, said in a court filing.

• In addition to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the operator cited inflationary pressures, negative same-store sales, an inability to sell underperforming locations and the failure of the IRS to timely refund over $3 million to the company as part of Employee Retention Tax Credits as reasons for filing for bankruptcy protections, Moore said.

This isn’t the first time the chain has filed for Chapter 11. In 2010, the company operated over 60 stores, but filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, leading to closures of a number of stores. Creditors were paid in full under its restructuring plan, Moore said in the court filing. 

Economic conditions appear to be more dynamic this time around for the operator. Negative same-store sales compressed profit margins that have not helped cover fixed costs. Price increases also couldn’t adequately compensate for a rise in labor and commodity expenses, resulting in an erosion of its cash position, Moore said. 

Restaurants developed over the last three years also have had disappointing store sales.

“The negative same store sales and lower than anticipated sales from newer stores have resulted in certain stores that operate at extremely low or (at times) negative cash flow on a weekly and monthly basis,” Moore said. 

To help offset its declining financial situation, the operator approached its landlords and Arby’s for relief, but the responses were not enough to keep the franchisee from bankruptcy, Moore said. 

Miracle also tried to sell some of its Texas and Chicago-land area locations, but has not been able to secure offers. Moore said overall declines in Arby’s systemwide same-store sales and low sales to fixed cost ratios of certain Miracle restaurants contributed to the bankruptcy. Last September, it sold three stores in Indiana and used those proceeds to pay down debt. 

As part of its bankruptcy filing, the operator plans to sell seven Texas stores, eight Illinois stores and two Indiana stores and to focus on operating its Louisiana and Mississippi stores leaving it with eight remaining locations, Moore said. Miracle has retained Peak Franchise Capital to advise in marketing the sale of these restaurants. 

The company said it has 200 to 999 estimated number of creditors, $1 million to $10 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities in a court filing. 

Bankruptcies have been on the rise among QSR franchisees. Since the start of 2023, franchisees of Burger King, CKE, McDonald’s, Popeyes, Subway and Wendy’s have sought bankruptcy protection. Operators have been under increased financial pressure due to rising labor and food costs, difficulty raising capital to fund expansions or remodels to help drive sales and falling consumer traffic, among other factors.

Authored by Roger L. Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

When I was a kid in New York, the 96th Street library was a focal point of my life. Even though I was perpetually losing my library card and amassing fines for overdue books I didn’t want my parents to know about, it (as well as the movie theaters on 86th) was my home away from home.

It had also, I was given to understand, served the same function for the young James Baldwin (although Wikipedia cites the 135th Street library in Harlem) and other esteemed writers of the past and had a history of spawning authors, something even then I dreamed of being.

It was also a place for stimulating the mind as only books can.

According to its website, the 96th is currently undergoing a rehab. Simultaneously, I was interested to read, a new library here in my present hometown—six years now—of Nashville is opening.

From Axios Nashville: “Musical performances, a puppet show and appearances from Nashville political leaders marked the long-awaited grand opening of the Donelson library branch Monday.”

But wait, as they say, there’s more: “The new 24,000-square-foot library has three dedicated spaces to host community events, six study rooms, artwork by local artists and a mobile kitchen on wheels sponsored by the Stones River Woman’s Club.”

They also do vehicle registrations. Seriously. No word on a bowling alley.

The local official who has been sponsoring this project for years said: “Libraries are not about just going to check out a book. They’re modern multimedia centers and places for all kinds of community programming.”

I disagree. Libraries should be primarily about the one thing that is among the most sorely missed in contemporary society—books, books, books, and more books.

Now, I have to admit something: Though I am an author now working on his 15th book, I have rarely been in a library in recent years, except to give an occasional talk to promote my work.

This aversion began several years ago when we had a second home in the Seattle area. I watched with interest, even excitement, as a new city library was erected. Designed by highly regarded Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, it was certainly stylistically cutting edge, utilizing all sorts of geometric shapes and colors.

But when I first entered the new edifice shortly after opening, what seemed to dominate the building, beyond the trendy architecture—you could barely see any bookshelves—were computer banks. Seated at those banks were, largely, the homeless. What they had up on their screens wasn’t Dostoevsky.

Not to overly disparage the well-meaning local official quoted above, but the one thing libraries should not be is a “modern multimedia center.” We, especially our children, get enough of that virtually everywhere else. In fact, we can hardly escape it. Nor should libraries be centers of  “community programming” that invite their use for ideological or lifestyle purposes that are inherently exclusionist. (These last have become all too common, with librarians too often the culprits.)

Libraries should be what they were always intended to be, what the first ones were—temples of books.

I assume that those who are expanding the concept of a library are doing so, in their minds, to induce people to read books. My guess is they are unwittingly doing the reverse. They are implying that reading a book is not sufficient unto itself, virtually the opposite of the truth.

Reading a book is the point. It is the brain’s best food, no matter the topic, since the days of the Bible and even before. That is the message a library should deliver.

What reading a book does for us as nothing else is create a mind-meld with the author or authors and, especially when it is good, allows us, whether fictionally or non-fictionally, to examine its subject in all its complexities and draw sophisticated conclusions. In short, we grow from the experience.

Largely because of the internet and the ADHD that it so often causes, people are losing the attention span it takes to read a book through. Though I write them myself, I read fewer than I did at 25 when there were no computers or cell phones to distract me. Has this technology rotted my brain? I think, to some degree, yes.

Having noticed this, I am making an effort to put away the phone—the latest from Ukraine can wait—and read some of a book every night. I don’t always succeed, but I’m trying. I recommend this, if you’re not already doing so. You will find it is also an antidote to the stress of these times.

Meanwhile, I wish we could get some help in this by making libraries what they used to be—monuments to books and therefore public inspirations for a lifetime of learning.

Roger Simon’s latest book is “American Refugees: The Untold Story of the Mass Migration from Blue States to Red States.” He is currently working on a novel.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Nike shares are down over 11% after-hours following an ugly earnings picture that saw Q4 revenues disappoint and more notably, a sizable cut in guidance for the first half of this fiscal year.

Building on a slew of reports that suggest pain is finally hitting the consumer’s wallet, Nike’s revenue for Q4 fell 1.7% YoY to $12.61 billion (notably below the $12.86 billion consensus estimate).

• Direct Revenue (via the company’s website, app and stores) $5.1 billion, -7.3% y/y, well below the estimate of $5.68 billion

• Wholesale revenue $7.1 billion, +6% y/y, estimate $6.6 billion

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal said the underperformance at Nike’s own sales channels “comes by surprise and is a reason for concern, as the activewear giant could be turning its core shoppers away due to lack of newness.”

She added that the performance in wholesale, which beat estimates, is a “positive indicator for its revived and existing wholesale relationships.”

Geographically, Asia was steady while European revenues fell. North America saw the biggest disappointment to expectations:

• North America revenue $5.28 billion, -1.4% y/y, weaker than the estimated $5.44 billion

• EMEA revenue $3.29 billion, -1.7% y/y, estimate $3.31 billion

• Greater China rev. $1.86 billion, +2.9% y/y, estimate $1.83 billion

• Asia Pacific & Latin America rev. $1.71 billion, +0.5% y/y, estimate $1.74 billion

Across the product-lines, footwear and most notably ‘Chuck Taylor’ brand Converse saw revenues plunge…

• Converse revenue $480 million, -18% y/y, estimate $545.6 million

• Footwear revenue $8.24 billion, -3.6% y/y, estimate $8.64 billion

• Apparel revenue $3.32 billion, +2.8% y/y, estimate $3.25 billion

• Equipment revenue $578 million, +34% y/y, estimate $446.4 million

But then, during the earnings calls, Nike management said that it sees 1Q revenue down about 10% (dramatically worse than the 3% decline consensus had expected).

This comes after Nike said in March that it expected revenue to fall by a low-single-digit percentage in the first half of its fiscal year.

“A comeback at this scale takes time,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said during the company’s call with analysts.

He added the company is transitioning its product lineup to reignite consumer interest. 

NKE shares are trading down almost 12% in the after hours, almost back to COVID lockdown levels…

…almost back to COVID lockdown levels…

Nike Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe is cutting $2 billion in costs and slashing 2% of the workforce, with layoffs recently hitting the company’s European headquarters near Amsterdam and its Boston-based Converse brand.

“We are taking our near-term challenges head-on, while making continued progress in the areas that matter most to NIKE’s future – serving the athlete through performance innovation, moving at the pace of the consumer and growing the complete marketplace,” said John Donahoe, President & CEO, NIKE, Inc.

“I’m confident that our teams are lining up our competitive advantages to create greater impact for our business.”

If Americans can’t afford a new set of sneakers – despite the record number of jobs that Joe Biden has ‘created’, then maybe, just maybe, those jobs weren’t as ‘created’ or ‘well paid’ as some would like you to believe… and maybe, just maybe, the sentiment signals and poll numbers are true about the state of the economy, no matter what all those Nobel laureate economists would prefer that you think.

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

In 2020 at the onset of the covid pandemic scare and right before the lockdowns I’ll never forget going on a grocery run on a Friday afternoon only to find near empty roads and near empty stores. The few other people shopping had a glassy stare in their eyes, like they were dazed or shell-shocked. For me and those I know that prep, it was just another day; for those that hadn’t prepped it was a nightmare of uncertainty.

In Montana we didn’t pay much heed to the lockdowns after the first month.  In three months everything was basically back to normal except for the mask mandates which most people ignored. With more data available on the virus it was clear that the chance of death was greatly exaggerated. What scared us far more was the pervasive talk of vaccine passports in 2021. The proposed state and federal restrictions on people that refused to take the jab were familiar – This was the beginning of full blown tyranny unless we stood firm.

In the meantime there was a public rush to buy up as many necessities as they could afford. And of course, the covid stimulus measures helped to trigger a stagflationary crisis that had already been building in the US for many years.

In the face of so many potential threats, preppers were still well protected. If vaccine passports became the norm and access to public places was blocked then we had food storage to get us through for a long time to come. If the buying panic and inflation led to a supply chain disaster then we were ready, along with the guns and ammo and training needed to keep what we had. If a fight was coming then we had the means to defend ourselves.

I have long been convinced that it was the prepper factor that caused the government to rethink their strategy of perpetual medical lockdowns and give up on vaccine passports. Recent surveys show that over 30% of the adult population of the US is involved in prepping.  We’re an unknown element, something they can’t predict, a possible monkey-wrench in the gears of the machine.

With our own supplies we are not dependent on the system to keep us alive, and the harder they push the more we are compelled to organize into an even greater obstacle. Just as NATO sanctions have pushed Russia, China and the BRICS closer together, openly authoritarian policies in the west during covid have pushed liberty movement people together. The establishment backed away because they had to.

That’s why I have to laugh whenever I see some idiot online say: “What’s the point of prepping when nothing ever happens?”

These people must have been living under a rock since 2020. 

We just dodged one of the biggest Orwellian bullets in our nation’s history with the defeat of the pandemic mandates. Or, maybe they don’t realize that the pandemic was just the beginning.

If that’s the case then it pains me to remind everyone that nothing has fundamentally changed. Yes, we beat back the mandates but all the same elites are still in power, all the same globalist institutions that exploited covid to create a panic still exist, and the event has acted as a domino in a chain leading to other crises. Here’s just a few reasons why you’re definitely going to need your survival preps in the next few years…

The Stagflation Crisis That Wouldn’t Die

The stagflationary problem is persistent despite all the media claims that it’s under control. Readers familiar with my economic analysis know that I predicted stagflation several years ago as the inevitable outcome of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing and near-zero interest rates (See my article published in 2018 titled ‘Stagflationary Crisis: Understanding The Cause Of America’s Ongoing Collapse’ for reference). I also predicted the Catch-22 problem of rate hikes vs inflation and debt (read my my article from 2021 titled ‘The Fed’s Catch-22 Taper Is A Weapon, Not A Policy Error’). And when I said a couple years ago that the Fed wasn’t going to return to rate cuts for some time, I was right about that too.

Given this track record, trust me when I say that stagflation is here to stay. Any move to cut rates will automatically trigger an even worse resurgence of inflation and the fed will be forced to hike once again. And, high interest rates will continue to create a national debt crisis as debt payments skyrocket.

In other words, the economic situation is getting exponentially worse with each passing year. The US National debt was $28 trillion in 2021; by the end of 2024 it will be well over $35 trillion.  That’s $7 trillion added in four-years time.  There is already breakage in the system, but that’s nothing compared to what we face in the next four years. Any preparedness items you buy today should be considered an investment, because there’s no doubt all of those items will be far more expensive or harder to find in the future.

Political Riots Are Assured

Recent campus protests over Gaza (and the riots in France over gains by conservatives in government) have reminded people that they shouldn’t get too comfortable with the fading influence of BLM. The same leftists that rode the wave of racial division back in 2020 are going out and finding new causes to co-opt. They’re looking for any excuse to riot, even if it has nothing to do with them personally.

With the 2024 election incoming we all know civil unrest will be the norm once again no matter who ends up in the White House. With riots follow the threat of looting, property destruction, political violence and even martial law. Then there is the public reaction to those circumstances, including the possibility of civil war. Don’t assume the country will calm down after the election. In fact, assume the opposite.

The War In Ukraine Is About To Become A World War

Again, I have mentioned in multiple articles the danger of western involvement in the war in Ukraine including the danger of a wider world war should NATO directly enter the fray. As I write this, France is pressing for “military advisers” to go to Ukraine to train recruits, which is exactly what the US did in Vietnam right before we officially went to war.

Multiple NATO countries have also given Ukraine the green light to use long range NATO missiles against targets deep in Russia. If you are an avid student of history you know as I do that this only goes one way.

That’s probably why officials in the US and in Europe are suddenly talking about draft procedures and forced conscription laws in order to shore up their ranks. How many people will actually submit to a draft? I don’t know, but I do know this is not the kind of talk that governments engage in when their goal is diplomacy. It’s the kind of talk they engage in when they’re getting ready to antagonize the enemy.

A larger war with Russia comes with a host of difficulties that would take me too many pages to cover here. To summarize, war with Russia means war with China, war with North Korea, war with Iran and most of the Middle East, tragic supply chain disruptions, the end of the dollar’s world reserve status and a good chance of a limited (false flag) or regional nuclear exchange.

I have serious doubts that global nuclear war is on the table because the establishment has nothing to gain and everything to lose from it. However, a war between East and West is more than enough to cause absolute havoc in every nation on the planet.

The War Over Gaza Is Quickly Leading To A War For The Middle East

I’m not going to cheer for either side in this conflict. My concern is America and Americans. That said, it’s clear that actions on both sides are forcing the war to expand well beyond Gaza. Recent Israeli strikes on Syria and scuffles with Egyptian troops are concerning. Lebanon is highly involved and Iran has already traded missiles with Israel. Israel has stated their offensive will continue through at least the end of 2024, and now they may be shifting to all out war on Lebanon.

In terms of how this all affects the US or Europe, the immediate consequence will be a shut down of oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. That’s 30% or more of the world’s oil trade slowed down or eliminated. Energy prices will explode along with prices on everything else. The price of all the goods you buy daily is affected by the price of oil.

Agriculture, for example, relies heavily on fuel and oil based fertilizers. This means high oil prices will trigger high food prices, and food supplies will be key in the next few years.

Prepping Isn’t A Hobby, It’s A Duty

Frankly, preparedness should be a social mainstay – An integral part of American life. It’s not a hobby, it’s a duty. The more prepared people there are the safer every American will be. Most prepared people don’t panic because there’s no need. And people who don’t panic are less likely to harm others out of fear and desperation.

Think of food storage like a big battery. A battery is energy storage for later when you need it. Think about how much time and work and energy goes into growing just one month of food for your family. Isn’t it far better to store all that work in long term foods so that you don’t have to worry about it later during the worst of conditions? Every bucket of stored food is a battery that saves you precious time and labor.

Growing food and living sustainably is great in peacetime or in the middle of a large, well organized community. Growing food at the onset of a national crisis in a place where too many people are unprepared is almost impossible. If a breakdown occurs then your best bet is to hunker down, work with family, friends and neighbors, and live on your preps until there is a large enough community in place to securely restart agriculture again.

There are too many variables right now around the world that can cause catastrophe, and even events on the other side of the globe can cause serious problems for you at home. I see very little chance of the situation improving in the next few years and a very high chance of things spiraling out of control. Take your prepping seriously, even when oblivious naysayers claim “nothing’s going to happen.” Those will be the same people crying for help before long, and you don’t want to share their fate.

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One survival food company, Prepper All-Naturals, has proactively dropped prices to allow Americans to stock up ahead of projected hikes in beef prices. Their 25-year shelf life steaks currently come at a 25% discount with promo code “invest25”.

With Israel-Hezbollah tensions soaring and the US and European countries urging both sides against an all-out war, the US Embassy in Beirut has issued a new travel advisory warning American citizens to stay away from Lebanon. “We remind US citizens to strongly reconsider travel to Lebanon,” said the fresh notice which follows prior similar alerts. It warned in particular about travel to the south of Lebanon and in border areas with Syria, and to also avoid refugee settlements.

In the event of a “sudden outbreaks of violence and armed conflict” the Lebanese government nor the US Embassy can ensure US citizens’ safety, the notice warned further. Some European countries have issued similar alerts, with the Netherlands and Germany being the latest to warn their nationals to evacuate the country.

Throughout more than eight months of war, both sides have kept the engagement ‘limited’ – but the last weeks have seen bigger and bigger tit-for-tat strikes conducted along the border. Israeli attacks are also reaching deeper into Lebanon, and are occurring more frequently.

But the Pentagon clearly believes a big escalation is imminent, and has moved assets off the coast in preparation for a potential emergency evacuation of Americans in the event of all-out war:

The Pentagon is moving U.S. military assets closer to Israel and Lebanon to be ready to evacuate Americans as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, according to three U.S. defense officials and a former U.S. official familiar with the plans.

The USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship, and Marines from the 24th Expeditionary Unit, which is special operations capable, moved into the Mediterranean on Wednesday to join the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill and another ship in their amphibious ready group, according to the Marine Corps. The Wasp will operate in the eastern Mediterranean to be ready for a Military Assisted Departure and other missions, the officials said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military (IDF) is conducting major drills along its northern border with Lebanon, in some significant signaling just days after the Netanyahu government approved potential war plans against Hezbollah.

The drills which simulate combat began last week, with the IDF only now publishing videos and photos of the exercises, which also feature scenarios of a bigger offensive.

The IDF said the drills are for “responding to various threats with the cooperation of the infantry, armor and fire forces” – at a moment there continues to be daily Hezbollah drone and rocket launches into northern Israel.

Israeli troops carried out exercises this past week simulating fighting in Lebanon, which the military says is part of the Northern Command’s efforts to increase readiness amid heightened tensions on the northern border.

The Golani Brigade’s 12th Brigade, which has been… pic.twitter.com/ldzT1SRLxP

— War Watch (@WarWatchs) June 27, 2024

IDF forces also practiced combat scenarios “in a tangled terrain that simulates combat on a northern route, progress along a mountain route and the use of gradual fire,” the statement said further.

Among the units present for the drill included the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, which strongly points to Israel gearing up for a major invasion of south Lebanon.

In a surprise development, the United States and Israel are currently in negotiations to send eight Patriot air defense systems from Israel to Kiev. Ukraine has for months been eyeing Israel’s retired Patriots, but they still could be needed by Tel Aviv given the country is on the brink of full-blown war with Hezbollah along its northern border and possible bigger confrontation with Iran.

“It would be logical if Israel would give us their Patriot systems, because it would help us—in particular—to destroy Iranian drones used by Russia,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, said in early May.

It would be a risky venture given Israel-Russia strained ties have for years been in a delicate balance over Syria policy. Israeli jets have attacked Syria with regularity, but Russia – despite having an airbase and large military presence in the country – has sat back and not intervened so long as the targets are ‘Iran-linked’.

Ukraine and the US are now trying to present to Israel that arming Ukraine is in its long-term security interests. Israel has so far avoided doing so on a significant level, other than transferring non-lethal equipment.

The FT writes, “But US officials have sought to convince Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that Russia’s increasingly close ties with Iran, particularly in the field of military co-operation, are a more pressing concern.”

Ukraine currently has at least four patriot batteries and has been essentially begging its Western partners for more. If they are sent from Israel, it’s likely Washington would offer some further incentive to Tel Aviv. FT continues:

Washington gives Israel about $3.8bn annually in military support, and by April had released an additional $14bn in emergency funds for its ally since the war with Hamas broke out.

“It would be fortuitous if these older Patriot missiles were put to good use in another theatre before they aged out,” said Tom Karako, head of the missile defence project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, “especially given the levels of US military aid to Israel”.

But again if an expanded war with Hezbollah and potentially Iran opens, Israel will need everything it possesses in terms of an air defense – especially given the hundreds of thousands of missiles believed to be in Hezbollah’s arsenal – which are by and large far more sophisticated than Hamas rockets.

Below: the Iranian-made Shahed 136 “kamikaze drone” loitering munition used in Ukraine by Russia:

Recommended reading this weekend: in-depth study of the Iranian-made Shahed 136 “kamikaze drone”/loitering munition and its use in Ukraine by Russia.https://t.co/82TGilpQp1 pic.twitter.com/xp0d1w1qmL

— Ulrike Franke (@RikeFranke) September 9, 2023

One week ago, a Biden administration statement revealed that it is pausing all shipments of Patriot interceptor missiles to foreign countries and redirecting them to Ukraine. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the “difficult but necessary decision” of prioritizing the delivery of Patriot and NASAM missiles to Ukraine has been made, thus revealing the level of desperation amid the Russian aerial onslaught.