Michigan

The Best Places To Live In All 50 U.S. States

We live at a time when Americans are packing up and moving with increasing frequency. Some are moving for new opportunities, some are moving in anticipation of what is coming, and others are moving just because they are bored. As the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News, I am frequently asked to give my opinion about a potential move. Of course I often don’t know what to say, because often factors that I don’t fully understand are involved in the decision. For example, someone may be moving somewhere truly horrible for a wonderful new job, or complex family relationships are precipitating a move. But there are some general principles that I share with people, and I will be sharing some of them with you in this article.

If you do a Google search, you will find that most lists of “best places to live” focus on major cities, but often the best place to live within a certain geographic area is far away from a major population center. And obviously my choices have a lot more to do with quality of life and sustainability during the coming crisis years than with things like “employment opportunities” or “entertainment options”.

With all that being said, here are my choices for the best places to live in all 50 U.S. states…

Alabama – The coast is always tempting if you like the water, but we have all seen what hurricanes have done to the area around Mobile. If I had to choose some place to live in the state, I think that I would focus up north near the Tennessee border. There are more fresh water resources up north, and the Huntsville economy has been doing relatively well in recent years.

Alaska – I have always had a fondness for Juneau, but would probably rule it out for practical reasons. It is quite isolated and it is way too close to the water. In the years to come it will pay to be away from the ocean and from the major volcanoes, and so somewhere around Anchorage would probably be my choice.

Arizona – Even though my good friend John Shorey may disagree, I actually don’t like Arizona much at all. Phoenix is way too overcrowded, Tucson is way too hot, and Sedona is way too crazy. If I had to live in Arizona, I would definitely find somewhere with water, because water resources are going to be at a premium during the years ahead.

Arkansas – Even though Wal-Mart is headquartered there, northwest Arkansas is a lovely area. Once you get away from Fayetteville there are lots of open areas, and fresh water is fairly abundant. Crime is relatively low, but there is some around. The key is to find a good community.

California – Unless you must do so for work or you feel directly called by God to go there, it is probably not a good idea to move to California. If I had to choose anywhere in the state, it would probably be the far northern area away from the coast. For much more on why you shouldn’t move to California, please see my recent article entitled “Why Are So Many People Moving Out Of California?”

Colorado – Many years ago I considered a move to Colorado, and I am so glad that I was talked out of it. The quality of life in the Denver area is continually deteriorating, and more people just keep on moving in from other states. I am told that Colorado Springs and Fort Collins are still fairly nice, but I wouldn’t be eager to move to either location. If you must go to Colorado, try to find somewhere rural that has easy access to fresh water.

Connecticut – I actually applied to go to law school at Yale, but I was turned down. I really would have loved to live up there, although I hear that New Haven is riddled with crime. Considering the times that we are moving into, I would try to get inland as far as possible, and so I would probably look at any of the small towns north of Hartford.

Delaware – It is right along the ocean, it is riddled with crime, and it is best known for producing Joe Biden. You probably do not want to move to Delaware if you can avoid it.

Florida – After being rejected by Yale, I was accepted by the University of Florida law school and I had four wonderful years there. So I have to admit that I am partial to Gainesville, although there are some wonderful places in the panhandle as well. Unfortunately for Florida, most of the state is either below, at or just above sea level, and that means that it is extremely vulnerable to potential tsunamis. And crime has become a growing problem in the urban areas, and so that is a major factor to look at when considering a move into the Sunshine State.

Georgia – In Georgia you will want to stay far away from the madhouse that Atlanta has become, and you will want to stay far away from the Atlantic Ocean. It would be tempting to look at Augusta, but I would probably choose one of the small towns near the northern border.

Hawaii – I think that nearly all of us have dreamed of living in Hawaii at one point or another. Unfortunately, these are volcanic islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and one of them is erupting right now. So while it might be tempting to consider a move to Hawaii, for practical reasons you should probably cross it off the list.

Idaho – People up here tend to get upset when I encourage my readers to consider coming to Idaho. But of course there are good areas of Idaho and there are bad areas of Idaho, and more crazy people from liberal states such as California move in with each passing day. If you want relatively moderate weather, stunning scenery, low crime and a low population density, I would commend north Idaho. Unfortunately there are not many employment opportunities up here, and so don’t count on finding a good job after you move. You will want to have your source of income squared away before you arrive.

Illinois – You can probably guess what I am going to say. Chicago has become one of the most violent cities in North America, and that is really saying something considering what is going on in Mexico right now. Today, approximately 125,000 gang members live in the city of Chicago, and they outnumber the police by more than 10 to 1. If you must live in Illinois, you probably want to stay as far away from Chicago as you can.

Indiana – In general, the further south you go in the state the better. Fort Wayne and Gary are hellholes, Indianapolis is better, and the small towns that stretch across southern Indiana are probably the best choices of all in the state. I would avoid Evansville and focus more on the eastern part of the state, but the truth is that the whole region is in potential earthquake territory.

Iowa – Iowa is actually very nice. It is flat, it is cold, and there are way too many crazy liberals there, but other than that it is quite nice. I would probably avoid Des Moines and focus on finding a rural community with easy access to fresh water.

Kansas – Kansas is nice too, but the big problem in Kansas is not enough rain. The current drought is getting really bad, and it looks like Dust Bowl conditions are rapidly returning to the state. So for that reason alone, I would probably avoid Kansas.

Kentucky – Beautiful scenery, but it is hard to ignore the crushing poverty and the out of control opioid crisis. If I was moving to Kentucky, I would focus on the far eastern portion of the state so that I could get as far away from the New Madrid fault zone as possible.

Louisiana – They have good food, but they are also a potential epicenter for natural disasters in the years ahead. We all saw what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans, the Mississippi River is prone to major flooding, and one day the state is going to be on the receiving end of the aftermath of a massive New Madrid earthquake. So it is probably not a state that would be high on my list of places to live.

Maine – Thanks to very liberal immigration policies, the character of towns all along the Maine coast has greatly changed in recent years. There are still some towns up north that are very nice, but be prepared if you move to one of them, because it gets bitterly, bitterly cold in the winter.

Maryland – Much of western Maryland is actually very, very lovely, but not much else good can be said for the rest of the state. If you must live in Maryland, you will want to stay far away from the shore, far away from Washington D.C. and you certainly won’t want to be anywhere near the drug-infested hellhole that is called Baltimore. So that doesn’t leave much else except for western Maryland, but like I said, western Maryland is actually very, very lovely.

Massachusetts – If John Adams could see us now he would be absolutely horrified by what we have done to his state. If I had to choose somewhere to live, I would focus on the small towns west of Interstate 91. They tend to be a bit less liberal than the rest of the state, but I wouldn’t count on meeting too many true conservatives there either.

Michigan – If I had to live in Michigan, the choice would be easy. I would definitely focus my search on the upper peninsula, because I would want to be as far away from Detroit, Flint and the other major population centers as possible. In reality, the upper peninsula of Michigan is much more like Wisconsin than Michigan, and that is a good thing. But if you move there you will need to prepare for some of the most bitter winters that you have ever encountered.

Minnesota – Speaking of bitter winters, Minnesota can be a very tough place to live. Both of my parents were born in Minnesota, and I have been there many times. Coming from Scandinavian roots, the bitter winters didn’t bother my parents too much, but they never passed that trait on to me. If you can survive the winters, the giant mosquitos and the machete-wielding terrorists, you will probably do okay. There are plenty of small, rural communities scattered throughout the state, and plenty of fresh water.

Mississippi – If you can find somewhere in the state away from the coast, away from the Mississippi and that isn’t being crushed by rising poverty and rising crime, you will probably do okay for a while. But once again, I am deeply concerned about how this state will do when the New Madrid fault finally rips wide open.

Missouri – One of the worst cities in the entire country (St. Louis) dominates the eastern part of the state, the western part of the state is going to be deeply affected by the ongoing drought out west, but I actually love the southern part of the state. I really love Branson and the surrounding areas, and I just wish that it wasn’t so close to the New Madrid fault zone.

Montana – There are a lot of people moving to Montana, and many of them don’t seem to be able to handle the bitter cold during the winter that well. Western Montana is definitely superior to eastern Montana, but the entire state features a low population density and plenty of fresh water resources.

Nebraska – For the Democrats, this is “flyover country”, but the truth is that it is part of the heartland of America. Like neighboring Kansas, Dust Bowl conditions are going to be an increasing concern, and so it will probably be best to avoid Nebraska unless necessary.

Nevada – Las Vegas dominates the region, and much of the rest of the state is a giant desert. It is not a bad place overall, but the lack of water in the state is a major concern. Someday the population of Las Vegas will need to be greatly reduced due to a lack of water, and the same thing will probably be true for other cities as well.

New Hampshire – Once you get away from the major population centers, New Hampshire is actually quite lovely. And the population tends to be less liberal than New England as a whole. But without a doubt it gets bitterly cold in the winter, and there aren’t many employment opportunities in the rural areas.

New Jersey – It wants to be known as “the garden state”, but most of us know it as “the armpit of America”. It is overcrowded, the government is a giant mess, and crime is out of control. Camden is a microcosm for what is happening to America as a whole, and it is not a pretty picture. You will want to avoid New Jersey if at all possible.

New Mexico – The state can be summed up in three “D’s” – drought, drugs and decay. The liberals are rapidly taking over here, and the consequences are quite predictable. And as Dust Bowl conditions intensify, it will not be a place that anyone wants to be.

New York – The state isn’t all bad. Yes, New York City is the epicenter for so much that is wrong with our society, but many areas of upstate New York are quite nice. I would definitely stay north of Interstate 90, and I would focus on rural communities that have easy access to fresh water.

North Carolina – There are some very good reasons why so many people are moving to North Carolina. The weather is moderate, the economy has been doing relatively well, there are plenty of open spaces, and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. Just stay away from the coastline and the major population centers and you will probably be just fine.

North Dakota – Nestled between Minnesota and Montana, this is a state that is for extremely hearty individuals. But if you can stand the cold and the snow, you will find that this is actually one of the most freedom-loving states in the entire nation, and it has an abundance of natural resources.

Ohio – Cleveland is a nightmare, Cincinnati is not much better, but Columbus is actually fairly nice. It is technically considered to be part of the New Madrid fault zone, so that is a huge negative, but it does get plenty of rain and it has easy access to lots of fresh water resources.

Oklahoma – This is a state that can never seem to get a break. It was doing a lot better in recent years, but now Dust Bowl conditions are starting to return once again. It is also in the very heart of “tornado alley”, and that is a huge factor working against it as well. I wish that I could commend some area of the state but I really can’t.

Oregon – Much of western Oregon is very similar to California (or worse), but once you get east of Interstate 5 you will start running into a lot of good people. Some areas of eastern Oregon are actually quite magnificent, and there are lots of high quality small towns if you need a place to hide.

Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh is to be avoided and Philly is a nightmare, but much of the rest of the state is actually very nice. I would just try to stay away from the major population centers and focus my search on rural communities with each access to fresh water.

Rhode Island – I was actually born in Rhode Island, but that doesn’t mean that I am going to commend it to anyone. It is our smallest state, and so there isn’t a lot of room to get away from the major population centers. Unless you must be there, it is probably best to find somewhere else to live.

South Carolina – Many of the positives that can be said for North Carolina can also be said for South Carolina. Just make sure that you are far, far away from the coast and from the major population centers and you will probably be just fine.

South Dakota – I actually like South Dakota more than North Dakota. The weather is not quite as bitterly cold, the economy is a little more vibrant thanks to the tourists, and Rapid City and Sioux Falls are both decent. It is far enough north that the drought is not affecting it too much so far, although that could change at any time.

Tennessee – You will want to stay away from Memphis and the west end of the state entirely. If you are considering moving there, you will want to look at Knoxville and the Smoky Mountains to the east. That whole region is teeming with natural resources and has a very low population density.

Texas – There are a lot of wonderful conservative people in Texas, but incoming transplants from California are trying to change things as rapidly as possible. The major cities are way too overcrowded, crime is increasing due to illegal immigration and the drought is becoming a major problem. But millions of good people love Texas, and it is easy to understand why. It has got a great culture, and there are so many good communities down there.

Utah – The south is being heavily affected by the drought, and so that is a major concern. Up north, Salt Lake City is doing quite well, but if you aren’t a Mormon you may find it difficult to fit in. As with all of these states, I would strongly recommend visiting before making a permanent decision to move there.

Vermont – So many of the exact same things that were said about New Hampshire could also be said about Vermont. I would be half-tempted to move there myself for the great natural beauty, but unfortunately the liberals are making a complete mess of the state.

Virginia – I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, and I must admit that Charlottesville is one of my all-time favorite places in the entire country. Unfortunately, Charlottesville’s good name has been dragged through the mud, and that is a terrible shame. For the years ahead, I would want to be as far away from D.C. and Richmond as possible, and so I would focus on Roanoke and points west of there.

Washington – The western half of the state is dominated by the liberal bastion of Seattle, and the eastern half of the state is dominated by “Spo-caine”. Trust me, you don’t want to cheap out on a hotel when you are staying in “Spo-caine” because you could end up in a drug-infested hellhole that doesn’t look like it has had any maintenance for 20 years. Yes, there are some areas of northeastern Washington that are very good, but you will want to choose your community carefully.

West Virginia – If West Virginia did not have such crippling poverty and was not one of the national epicenters for our exploding opioid crisis, I am sure that we would be able to say some really good things about the state. Unfortunately, the state just seems to spiral further and further downhill with each passing year.

Wisconsin – Most of the liberals are either in Madison or in Milwaukee, and so finding a spot up north would definitely be preferable. Once again, it is bitterly cold in this state for much of the year, but if you can handle that a rural community in Wisconsin with easy access to fresh water is not a horrible choice.

Wyoming – There is so much good that can be said for Wyoming. It is very conservative, the population density is extremely low, there is no state income tax, and there is so much great natural beauty. But it is very, very windy there. The wind never seems to stop and it cuts through you like a knife, and this is particularly agonizing during the winter.

Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

The University Of Michigan Has 93 Full-Time “Diversity Staff Members” That Are Paid Ridiculously Well To Promote “Inclusiveness”

How many full-time staff members does a college need to promote “diversity”?

Well, at the University of Michigan the answer is 93…

1. The University of Michigan currently employs a diversity staff of nearly 100 (93) full-time diversity administrators, officers, directors, vice-provosts, deans, consultants, specialists, investigators, managers, executive assistants, administrative assistants, analysts, and coordinators.

2. More than one-quarter (26) of these “diversicrats” earn annual salaries of more than $100,000, and the total payroll for this small army is $8.4 million. When you add to cash salaries an estimated 32.45% for UM’s very generous fringe benefit package for the average employee in this group (retirement, health care, dental insurance, life insurance, long-term disability, paid leave, paid vacation, social security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, etc.) the total employee compensation for this group tops $11 million per year. And of course that doesn’t count the cost of office space, telephones, computers and printers, printing, postage, programs, training, or travel expenses.

The chief diversity officer at the school earns 396,000 dollars a year, and that is more than the president of the United States makes.

The moral of the story is that it definitely pays to be politically correct in America in 2018…

Mega-mosque being forced on Christian community

A city of 130,000 people in southeastern Michigan is under the gun of Islamic pressure following its denial of a mega-mosque in a residential neighborhood populated largely by Christian refugees who fled Islamic persecution in Iraq.

Sterling Heights already has two mosques, but a third, the American Islamic Community Center, applied for a permit and was rejected after it was determined its proposed use was incompatible with the residential area. Too much traffic, too little parking, the city planning commission decided by a 9-0 vote against the mosque in September 2015.

But in December, the mosque sued the city and the Obama Justice Department joined in, claiming the real reason the mosque was denied was because the city was caving to anti-Muslim bigotry in the community. Now, a settlement deal is headed to the Sterling Heights City Council on Tuesday evening. If the council votes to sign the deal, it could be very costly for the city.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Man gets $128 ticket for warming up his car — in his own driveway

A Michigan man is fuming after he left his car running in a driveway — and got a ticket.

“Every person warms up their car,” Nick Taylor tells WDIV. “We live in Michigan!”

Taylor, 24, left the car idling unlocked at his girlfriend’s house on a frigid morning last week. When he returned a few minutes later, he spied the $128 ticket for leaving a vehicle unattended. Taylor posted a photo of the ticket on his Facebook page and railed against the “dip—-” Roseville police officer who left it there for “wasting the taxpayer’s money.” (He later “retracted” the insult.)

(Read the rest of the story here…)

The Mysterious Case Of Jill Stein’s Surging Recount Costs

Just yesterday we noted that Jill Stein was acting on behalf of Hillary Clinton to raise money for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. As we noted then, we continue to be astonished by the amount of money flowing into the fundraising campaign and would love to see which of Hillary’s mega donors have spent the most on the effort…somehow we suspect this isn’t just a “grassroots organizing” effort as Stein described it.

So, in less than 1 day, Jill Stein raised over $3mm, which is more than the $2mm needed to force a recount in Wisconsin. While she attributed the accomplishment to “the power of grassroots organizing,” we would tend to be a little more skeptical and would love to see exactly where those donations came from. Then again, maybe we’re wrong and there really are just that many disaffected snowflakes out there willing to blow their money on an extreme long shot.

But, today a new mystery has emerged in Stein’s fundraising efforts. Apparently, the more money she raises the more expensive the recount effort becomes.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Election Not Over? Money Is Being Raised To Challenge The Election Results In Wisconsin, Michigan And Pennsylvania

Just when you thought it was safe to celebrate Trump’s victory, the left is hatching a plan to try to steal the election right from under his nose. A group composed of “prominent computer scientists” and “election lawyers” is urgently asking the Clinton campaign to challenge the election results in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. They claim that there is “persuasive evidence” that the election results in those states were “manipulated or hacked”, and they are pushing Clinton to file formal challenges to those results while there is still time to do so. As I write this article, the final result in Michigan could still go either way, and if Hillary Clinton does end up winning Michigan all she would have to do would be to flip the results in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to become the next president of the United States.

Many on the left are absolutely incensed that Donald Trump is going to be the next president even though it looks like Hillary Clinton is going to win the popular vote by a very wide margin. In fact, as I write this article Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote has expanded to more than 1.8 million votes.

After all of the votes have been counted, it is entirely possible that Hillary Clinton may finish more than 2 million votes ahead of Donald Trump.

In a desperate bid to try to salvage the election, an attempt is being made to push for recounts in the key swing states that Clinton lost. This is being talked about all over the mainstream media today, but it was first reported by New York Magazine…

Hillary Clinton is being urged by a group of prominent computer scientists and election lawyers to call for a recount in three swing states won by Donald Trump, New York has learned. The group, which includes voting-rights attorney John Bonifaz and J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, believes they’ve found persuasive evidence that results in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been manipulated or hacked. The group is so far not speaking on the record about their findings and is focused on lobbying the Clinton team in private.

Last Thursday, the activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to make their case, according to a source briefed on the call. The academics presented findings showing that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots. Based on this statistical analysis, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000.

The race in Michigan is even closer, and the truth is that Clinton may be able to close the gap of about 11,000 votes there without a recount.

In Pennsylvania, the gap is currently about 68,000 votes, and so that would present much more of a challenge for the Clinton campaign.

At this point it is questionable whether Hillary Clinton is willing to formally request recounts in those states before the deadlines arrive, but she doesn’t have to be the one to do it.

In fact, according to MSN another presidential candidate is already raising the money needed to submit her own requests for recounts in those key battleground states…

Jill Stein, the Green party’s presidential candidate, is prepared to request recounts of the election result in several key battleground states, her campaign said on Wednesday.

Stein launched an online fundraising page seeking donations toward a $2m fund she said was needed to request reviews of the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Stein said she was acting due to “compelling evidence of voting anomalies” and that data analysis had indicated “significant discrepancies in vote totals”.

But if Stein wants to do something, she needs to act very quickly.

The deadline to officially file for a recount in Wisconsin is Friday, in Pennsylvania it is Monday, and in Michigan it is next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, six former Bernie Sanders supporters are engaged in a last ditch effort to use the Electoral College to deny Trump the presidency on December 19th. Just like the attempt to recount the votes in key battleground states, this plan is not likely to work either, but right now it is receiving a lot of attention from the mainstream media. The following comes from a Daily Caller article entitled “Sanders Electors Vow To Vote Against Clinton In Wild Attempt To Keep Trump From White House“…

The group asserts that in order to succeed in their goal, they would have to convince 37 Republican electors to vote against Trump, a number the groups understands is unlikely. The ultimate goal, the group says, is to reduce the overall faith the average american voter has in the electoral college system.

Until the actual votes are tallied, it will be very difficult for either Democrats or Republicans to ascertain just how effective the movement is, because there is no organized whip effort to gauge how many electors intend to vote they way they are instructed.

There is no remedy for a faithless elector.

It is extremely unlikely that 37 Republican electors would betray Trump at this point.

What is far more likely is that these former Bernie Sanders supporters will bring enough attention to “faithless electors” that it will cause an even bigger push to abolish the Electoral College.

But because it would require changing the Constitution in order to abolish the Electoral College, it is something that is not likely to happen any time soon.

Ultimately, all of these last minute moves by the left seem destined to fail, and there doesn’t seem to be anything that they can do at this point to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.

And the truth is that so many of the things that I warn are coming to America in my new book are far more likely to happen if Trump is in the White House rather than if a Democrat is residing there.

We have reached a critical moment in U.S. history, and right now optimism about the future of this country among conservatives is off the charts.

But is that optimism justified?

We shall see, but without a doubt this optimism is not shared by Democrats, and many on the left are preparing to fight against Trump every step of the way.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Detroit Was Once The Greatest Manufacturing City In The World But Now It Is A Global Joke

In 1960, the city of Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city that the world had ever seen. Nearly two million people lived there, and it had the highest per capita income in the United States. That may be hard to believe, because today it actually has one of the lowest per capita incomes of all of our major cities. Over the decades more than a million people have left the city, and thousands of abandoned homes have been torn down. But there are still tens of thousands of abandoned dwellings that remain standing, and some have sold for as little as one dollar in recent years. Once Detroit was the envy of the entire planet, but now it has become a global joke and in other countries they love to do news stories about “the ruins of Detroit” to show how rapidly America is rotting and decaying. Sadly, Detroit is far from alone, because there are other formerly great manufacturing cities that have declined just as fast as Detroit has.

Earlier today, I came across a video that contains footage that someone recently captured as they drove through the city of Detroit at night. To say that the footage is disturbing would be a tremendous understatement…

It has become known as a mecca of violent crime and poverty, and now a viral video is giving an unpleasant view of Detroit after dark.

The clip, called Driving through Detroit at night, was filmed by a woman who was a passenger in a car going around the Motor City and was posted to Twitter at the weekend.

It shows terrifying scenes of gangs gathered on the sidewalk, prostitutes lifting up their skirts and dancing, and even a man being run over by a car on purpose.

I would have liked to share the video with you all, but it is just way too graphic. There really are prostitutes lifting up their skirts in the video, and a man really is hit by a vehicle. If you want to watch it for yourself, it is very easy to find on YouTube. But please be warned that children should not be watching this.

If you live in a peaceful rural or suburban setting, the kind of behavior displayed in this video may seem very foreign to you. In America today, it is way too easy to allow our televisions to define reality for us. But the warped view of reality that we get through our televisions is nothing like the real world. The real world is cold, cruel and very unforgiving.

If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, the real world will eat you alive.

In the city of Detroit today, close to half the population is functionally illiterate, and one survey found that 60 percent of all children in the city are living in poverty. It has been reported that 40 percent of the street lights do not work, and as you can see from the video it is a very frightening place to be after dark.

And don’t count on the police to help you. The size of the police force in Detroit has been reduced by about 40 percent over the years, and it has been estimated that it takes the Detroit police an average of 58 minutes to respond to a call.

If it was just one major city where all of these things were happening, that would be bad enough.

Sadly, the truth is that what is happening in Detroit is happening all over the nation. In fact, St. Louis and Memphis now have higher gun crime rates than Detroit does…

The listing places St Louis above the notoriously dangerous Detroit which has topped the list in previous years thanks to the city’s high gun crime rate.

Detroit is now listed as third after Memphis, Tennessee which had 84.2 violent crimes per 10,000 residents.

Birmingham, Alabama comes in fourth place with 82.8 violent crimes per 10,000 residents while Rockford, Illinois was fifth with a rate of 76.3.

Earlier this month, we saw how a major city such as Milwaukee can erupt in flames in just a matter of hours. And in Chicago, some of the major gangs have agreed to use automatic weapons and sniper fire in their battle against the police.

A spirit of chaos and violence has descended on America, and things are going to get much worse during the months and years to come.

Meanwhile, crime continues to rise in our smaller cities and in our suburbs as well. For a moment, I want you to consider a short excerpt from a recent Bloomberg article entitled “Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy“…

The call log on the store stretches 126 pages, documenting more than 5,000 trips over the past five years. Last year police were called to the store and three other Tulsa Walmarts just under 2,000 times. By comparison, they were called to the city’s four Target stores about 300 times. Most of the calls to the northeast Supercenter were for shoplifting, but there’s no shortage of more serious crimes, including five armed robberies so far this year, a murder suspect who killed himself with a gunshot to the head in the parking lot last year, and, in 2014, a group of men who got into a parking lot shootout that killed one and seriously injured two others.

Police reports from dozens of stores suggest the number of petty crimes committed on Walmart properties nationwide this year will be in the hundreds of thousands.

Did you catch that?

This Bloomberg report says that there will be “hundreds of thousands” of crimes just committed at Wal-Mart stores alone this year.

If people are behaving like this while times are still relatively stable and relatively good, what would things look like during a real crisis?

Many people openly wonder what happened to Detroit, but it really isn’t much of a mystery at all.

Over the decades, our politicians have stood idly by as tens of thousands of businesses and millions of good paying jobs have left the country. Our economic infrastructure has been absolutely gutted, and as a result formerly great manufacturing cities have become rotting, decaying hellholes.

And it certainly doesn’t help that voters in many of these cities have willingly chosen to put radical leftists into power time after time.

Unfortunately, it appears that the nation as a whole is about to hand the keys to the White House to a radical leftist that has a violent temper that is absolutely legendary. If she gets into power, that might just be the final nail in our coffin.

What has already happened to Detroit is slowly happening to the entire country, but we never seem to learn from our past mistakes.

So now we will suffer the consequences for our very foolish decisions, and it will not be pretty.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

ISIS Plot To Shoot Up A Detroit Megachurch Revealed As ‘Christianophobia’ Spreads Across America

If you are a Christian, you better brace yourself for great persecution. It has gotten very little attention from the mainstream media, but federal authorities have uncovered an ISIS plot to “shoot up” a Detroit megachurch. 21-year-old Khalil Abu-Rayyan of Dearborn Heights, Michigan told authorities that he actually intended to take a gun into a very large church in Detroit that can seat up to 6,000 people and start killing Christians. He has been charged with supporting the Islamic States and with “illegally having a firearm while using a controlled substance”. Abu-Rayyan actually admitted that since he can’t be part of the jihad in the Middle East, that he would “do my jihad over here”. As I have warned so many times before, ISIS terrorists are already here, and what we have seen so far is just the beginning.

I can’t understand why this story is not headlines news all over America. If Khalil Abu-Rayyan had succeeded in conducting the megachurch attack that he was planning, hundreds of Christians could have potentially been killed. The people that go to that church might not ever know just how close they actually came to being slaughtered…

“I tried to shoot up a church one day,” Abu-Rayyan is quoted as saying in court records. “I don’t know the name of it, but it’s close to my job. It’s one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Ya, I had it planned out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading. But my dad searched my car one day, and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going to wear.”

Investigators didn’t name the church Abu-Rayyan allegedly eyed, but claim the property covers about two blocks less than half a mile from his work and can accommodate up to 6,000 members. He allegedly purchased a gun and told an undercover FBI employee that attacking a church would be “easy.”

“A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church,” the affidavit quotes him as saying. “Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”

These comments show us precisely what these terrorists want.

They want to create fear, and they want to get as much media attention as possible.

Terrorists like Khalil Abu-Rayyan do not fear death, because they have been promised that they will go to a wonderful paradise where they will be showered with attention by virgins when they die. In fact, many of them seem quite eager to receive a one-way ticket to their sex-fueled religious fantasy.

Unfortunately, mainstream media outlets in both the United States and Europe purposely downplay the hatred that these Islamic radicals have for ordinary Christians, because they don’t want to make Muslim immigrants look bad. That is why the mainstream media almost entirely ignored the fact that the main target of the San Bernardino shootings was a Messianic Christian, and that is why the mainstream media is burying this current story about Khalil Abu-Rayyan.

If a Christian baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay wedding, that is front page news, but if a Muslim admits to planning to shoot up a church of several thousand people that is a non-event according to the media.

This anti-Christian bias is growing stronger with each passing year, and it has now become institutionalized in our society in so many ways. A recent article by Selwyn Duke highlighted some examples of this phenomenon that we have recently witnessed…

A student is punished for refusing to “stomp on Jesus,” a Christian baker faces a year in jail for refusing to cater faux marriages, two men are arrested for reading the Bible aloud near a government building, a school “purges” Christian works from its library. Critics asserting the existence of an institutional anti-Christian bias, and a resultant war on the faith, have often been labeled paranoid. But now two University of North Texas sociologists have produced research showing that just such an agenda exists — among America’s most powerful people.

The two sociologists that he was referring to are Professor George Yancey and Professor David Williamson, and they shared their research in a newly published book entitled “So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?” The Christian Post interviewed Yancey about this new book and the following is an excerpt from that interview…

In the minds of many of the respondents Christians are ignorant, intolerant and stupid individuals who are unable to think for themselves. The general image they have of Christians is that they are a backward, non-critical thinking, child-like people who do not like science and want to interfere with the lives of everyone else.

But even worse, they see ordinary Christians as having been manipulated by evil Christian leaders and will vote in whatever way those leaders want. They believe that those leaders are trying to set up a theocracy to force everybody to accept their Christian beliefs. So, for some with Christianophobia, this is a struggle for our society and our ability to move toward a progressive society. Christians are often seen as the great evil force that blocks our society from achieving this progressive paradise.

If you are a “liberal”, it is quite likely that this is how you view Christians.

Many non-religious liberals consider evangelical Christianity to be the biggest “problem” that America is facing today, and some of the potential solutions that liberal activists are advocating for this “problem” are quite chilling.

During their research, Yancey and Williamson personally interviewed a number of “cultural progressive activists”, and the following are a few examples of what some of them said should be done to “the Christian right”…

“I want them all to die in a fire.” (Male, aged 26-35 with Doctorate).

“They should be eradicated without hesitation or remorse. Their only purpose is to damage and inflict their fundamentalist virus onto everyone they come in contact with.” (Female, aged 66-75 with Master’s degree).

“They make me a believer in eugenics…. They pollute good air…. I would be in favor of establishing a state for them…. If not, then sterilize them so they can’t breed more.” (Male, aged 46-55 with Master’s degree).

So what makes a liberal activist that wants to “eradicate” Christians that much different from an Islamic terrorist that wants to achieve the same goal?

Of course radical Islamic terrorists are probably more likely to use violent means to achieve their goal right now, but what would happen if our government became dominated by people that think like the liberal activists quoted above?

And don’t think that it can’t happen. When radical leftists took power in the Soviet Union, they killed countless numbers of Christians. When radical leftists took power in China, they killed countless numbers of Christians. And when radical leftists took power in Nazi Germany, they intended to completely eradicate Biblical Christianity.

On December 15th, 1941 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the following statement: “To Hitler, the church…is a monstrosity to be destroyed by every means.”

Most Christians today don’t realize just how much Hitler hated our faith. But if you do the deep research, you will find some absolutely incredible things. In a previous article, I included the following information which was originally uncovered by author Bruce Walker, the author of “The Swastika Against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity“…

The Nazi tract Gott und Volk was distributed in 1941, and it describes the life cycle of German youth in the future, who would: “With parties and gifts the youth will be led painlessly from one faith to the other and will grow up without ever having heard of the Sermon on the Mount or the Golden Rule, to say nothing of the Ten Commandments… The education of the youth is to be confined primarily by the teacher, the officer, and the leaders of the party. The priests will die out. They have estranged the youth from the Volk. Into their places will step the leaders. Not deputies of God. But anyway the best Germans. And how shall we train our children? Thus, as though they had never heard of Christianity!”

We like to think that we are so much better than Nazi Germany, but the truth is that the exact same spirit is at work today.

Americans have been trained to want a society that has completely sanitized all references to the Bible and to the Christian faith from the public arena.

Our children are being raised in public schools that are specifically modeled after the German system. If you doubt this, just look it up. Prayer has been banned, and if you try to read a Bible during school hours it can get you suspended.

We may not call ourselves Nazis, but in so many ways we are just like them.

And the hatred toward Christianity in this country just continues to grow every time a comedian makes jokes about our faith and every time Christians are portrayed as stupid, evil or crazy in our movies and television shows.

Christians over in the Middle East are being crucified and are having their heads cut off, and of course the persecution of Christians in the western world is not even worth comparing to that at this point.

But all over the world hatred for Biblical Christianity is on the rise, and great persecution is coming.

The half-hearted, lukewarm religion that passes for Christianity in so many of our churches today has got to go, because that kind of faith is simply not going to cut it during the times that we are moving into.

It has already got to be settled in our hearts that we are willing to lay down our lives for what we believe, because someday that is precisely the choice that many of us may be forced to make.

Michigan Now Has a Fake City to Test Self-Driving Cars

Autonomous vehicles promise great things: fewer accidents, less congested roads, and freeing up hours each day for erstwhile drivers. But as with any new robot technology, self-driving cars also face an anxious public concerned about software-fueled road fatalities.

Testing has been hitherto limited to selected areas in California and the Nevada highways, far away from densely populated cities that are too complex for the cars to safely navigate. Soon, however, the new technology will have a chance to cut its teeth navigating in an urban environment—it just won’t be real.

This week, Mcity, a 32-acre testing ground for self-driving cars, opened for business. The facility provides a detailed simulation of urban and suburban environments—intersections, sidewalks, traffic signals, and moveable building facades but also graffiti-stained road signs, faded lane markings, and more—all in a human-free paper town.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Massive Dirty Bomb Exercise Set For June: “We Are Clearly Seeing An Undeniable Buildup To A So Far Unknown Event”

A massive simulated dirty bomb attack exercise is set to take place at the end of June in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Operation Northern Exposure will include over 1,000 Michigan National Guard soldiers and will be the first time in history that local authorities have worked with the National Guard.

According to WoodTV.com, the drill will use a city landfill as the site for the simulated dirty bomb attack and a middle school for the “decontamination center.”

“The public may notice more military vehicles in the area, as well as helicopters bringing crews to and from the sites, but the general public won’t be impacted. Local officials said traffic in the area won’t be affected.”

Hoping to quell any public fears, Kent County Emergency Management Director Lieutenant Jack Stewart told WoodTV that, “It’s all off the beaten path. There are no public highways involved other than transportation to the site and away from the site.”

“They are even taking utility workers and getting them involved in what they are calling a dirty bomb scenario, or a nuclear radiation type of scenario,” reported Dahboo777 in a recent YouTube report on the training.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Michigan, Texas, Mississippi, California, Idaho And Washington All Jolted By Significant Earthquakes

Did you know that Michigan was just hit by the worst earthquake that state has seen in more than 60 years? In recent days, there has been a series of alarming earthquakes all over the United States. Of course none of these earthquakes was anything like the massively powerful quake that just crippled the entire nation of Nepal, but many are concerned that these earthquakes could be a sign of what is to come. All over the planet, seismic activity is increasing. In fact, I recently wrote about how the number of volcanoes erupting right now is greater than the 20th century’s average for an entire year. At the same time, the surface of the sun has become very, very quiet. As you will see in this article, there are scientists that link the two. It is believed that times of very low solar activity have something to do with a rise in seismic activity, and there is one scientist that is claiming that solar activity is declining faster “than at any time in the last 9300 years” right now. So what does this mean for the future of our planet?

Before we get to that, let’s review some of the very unusual earthquake activity in the U.S. that we have been witnessing lately. As I mentioned above, the state of Michigan was just hit by the worst earthquake that it has seen in more than 60 years…

If you thought you felt an earthquake on Saturday — you did. And it was one of the strongest quakes ever experienced in Michigan. Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey, said an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 and a depth of focus of 5.9 km was measured around 12:23 p.m. about nine miles southeast of Kalamazoo, near Galesburg. Dozens of residents in several different regions beyond Kalamazoo — from Mount Pleasant and Sterling Heights to Lansing and even as far as Cleveland, Ohio — called the WWJ Newsroom and reported feeling a rumble and the ground shake for between five and 10 seconds.

If that was all that happened, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But at the same time, unusual earthquakes are striking all over the country. For instance, check out what just happened in Texas…

North Texas was rattled once again with an earthquake early Sunday morning.

The USGS confirmed that the 3.2 magnitude earthquake struck about two miles north-northeast of Irving at about 10:11 a.m.

NBC 5 viewers reported feeling the earthquake in Irving, Dallas and here at the NBC 5 studios in Fort Worth near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

This follows a string of earthquakes in the area just last month.

And nobody really ever thinks of Mississippi as a place for earthquakes, and yet the state was just hit by two of them. According to the USGS, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake and a magnitude 3.2 earthquake shook up the residents of Canton, Mississippi over the weekend.

In addition, on Sunday morning Los Angeles was hit by a magnitude 3.8 earthquake…

A shallow magnitude 3.8 earthquake was reported Sunday morning one mile from View Park-Windsor Hills, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 4:07 a.m. PDT at a depth of 5.6 miles.

The quake was classified by the USGS as “light” but was felt over a wide area of the L.A. basin.

Not to be outdone, the Bay area in northern California was hit by a magnitude 4.0 earthquake on Sunday afternoon…

A 4.0 magnitude earthquake rattled San Francisco Bay Area residents Sunday afternoon.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake hit about one mile south of the city of Concord.

Of course it is not really a great surprise for California to get earthquakes. The state had been fairly quiet for several decades, but everyone knows that it is just a matter of time before “the big one” comes. Could these mid-size quakes be a sign that the region is starting to wake up?

Meanwhile, sizable quakes are also being reported in regions of the country that are not typically known for seismic activity. In fact, northern Idaho was jolted by two substantial earthquakes on Thursday night…

Two earthquakes — a magnitude 4.1 and a 4.2 — jolted north Idaho on Thursday night, with residents from northeastern Washington to northwestern Montana saying they felt the tremors.

It is fairly easy for scientists to explain the earthquakes in California. But what is with the quakes in Michigan, Mississippi and Idaho? Something very unusual appears to be happening.

At the same time, volcanic activity is rising all over the planet. In fact, scientists believe that a submarine volcano off the northwest coast of the United States may have just erupted…

More than 80 scientists from around the world gathered in Seattle last week to discuss a thrilling development: For the first time, seafloor instruments were providing a real-time look at the most active, submarine volcano off the Northwest coast — and all signs indicated it might erupt soon. But even the researchers most closely monitoring Axial Seamount were stunned by what happened next. Beginning Thursday, April 23 — the day after the workshop ended — the new sensors recorded 8,000 small earthquakes in a 24-hour period. The volcano’s caldera, which had been swelling rapidly from an influx of magma, collapsed like a deflated balloon. “All the alarm bells were going off,” said Oregon State University volcanologist Bill Chadwick, who along with a colleague predicted last year that the volcano would erupt in 2015. “It was very exciting.”

And one of the largest volcanoes in Hawaii is spewing lava for the first time in more than 30 years…

For the first time in more than 30 years, lava is flowing on the floor of Halema’uma’u crater in Hawaii.

Kilauea volcano’s volatile lava lake spilled over the rim of a deep vent within Halema’uma’u crater several times overnight, lapping onto the edges of the vent like an overflowing pool.

So what is causing all of this to happen?

Well, could you believe that it is because the sun is being too quiet right now?

For a long time, scientists have known that there is a link between activity on the sun and seismic activity on our planet…

A 1967 study published in the Earth and Planetary Science journal, stated: “Solar activity, as indicated by sunspots, radio noise and geomagnetic indices, plays a significant but by no means exclusive role in the triggering of earthquakes.”

A 1998 report by a scientist from the Beijing Astronomical Observatory… “Earthquakes occur frequently around the minimum years of solar activity.”

As reported on NewScientist.com and numerous other science sites, including Space.com, the sun has recently entered into its lowest (minimum) actively levels in four centuries, coinciding with an increase in global seismic activity. “Solar activity is declining very fast at the moment,” Mike Lockwood, professor of space environmental physics at Reading University, UK, told New Scientist. “We estimate faster than at any time in the last 9300 years.”

Very interesting.

So why aren’t we hearing anything about this in the mainstream media?

In recent years, the sun has become extremely quiet, and now things have gone to a whole new level. In fact, it is being projected that we could shortly see a sun that is “completely blank”…

Everyone knows that high solar activity has a profound effect on the space around Earth. Less well known is that *low* solar activity can be equally transformative. This week, the sun is plunging into a quiet state with almost no sunspots. Only a few dark cores are peppering the face of the sun, and they are so small you might have trouble finding them in this April 30th image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory: Almost no sunspots = almost no solar activity. The sun’s X-ray output has flatlined, and NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 1% chance of strong flares in the next 24 hours. If the sunspot number continues to drop, the sun could become completely blank.

If we have indeed entered a time of decreased solar activity, that could mean that seismic activity on our planet will continue to increase.

This is something that I have been warning about for a long time. I believe that we are going to see enormous natural disasters both inside the United States and all over the planet during the next few years. I believe that at some point we are going to see natural disasters that are so dramatic that they will literally change the geography of nations.

So what do you think? Do you believe that we have entered a time of increased seismic activity? Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…

(Originally posted on End of the American Dream)

Federal ruling makes it illegal to kill wolves attacking livestock in Michigan

A federal court judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to immediately return wolves in the Great Lakes region to the federal endangered species list, making it illegal for Michigan citizens to kill wolves attacking livestock or dogs.

Under endangered species status, wolves may be killed only in the immediate defense of human life.

Two state laws allowing livestock or dog owners to kill wolves in the act of depredation are suspended by the ruling.

Additionally, lethal control permits previously issued by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to livestock farmers to address ongoing conflicts with wolves are no longer valid; permit holders have been contacted regarding this change.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Detroit man fights 30,000 dollar child support bill for kid that is not his

The State of Michigan is ordering a Detroit man to pay tens of thousands of dollars, or go to prison. The reason? He owes back child support for a child that everyone agrees is not his.

“I feel like I’m standing in front of a brick wall with nowhere to go,” said Carnell Alexander.

He says he learned about the paternity case against him during a traffic stop in Detroit in the early 90s. The officer told him he is a deadbeat dad, there was a warrant out for his arrest.

“I knew I didn’t have a child, so I was kind of blown back,” said Alexander.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Michigan Forces Farmer to Dump 248 Gallons of Organic Milk and Break 1200 Free Range Eggs

While Americans in the nearby city of Detroit face life in third world conditions, unable to even afford running water, the state of Michigan decided to direct its resources towards cracking down on a small food co-op in Standish for having the utter audacity to provide milk, butter, cream and eggs to people who bought shares in the organic dairy.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture must be so proud of their deeds, after they forced Joe and Brenda Golimbieski, the owners of Hill High Dairy and Jenny Samuelson, the owner of My Family Co-op, to dump out 248 gallons of milk, to break 100 dozen eggs, and to destroy an undisclosed amount of fresh cream, butter and cheese.

According to a post on the Hill High Dairy page on Facebook, the agents from the MDA stood over the family, watching as the food was destroyed.

100 dozen eggs… Each egg had to be broken. 248 gallons dumped in a sprayer that had to be witnessed by MDA being dumped and sprayed on the field.

Here are pictures of the destruction of this food from Hill High Dairy page – if you’re on Facebook, please go and give them a “like” to show your support.

According to the owners of the dairy, the MDA threatened to arrest the co-op owner, Jenny Samuelson, for “selling food without a license.” However, the farm is a co-op, where people must buy shares. The MDA, however, said that the co-op contracts were invalid, and therefore, instead of being shared, the food was being sold. Because co-op members had paid for their shares, technically the MDA stole food that belonged not just to the Golimbieski family, but to every single member of that co-op.

One member wrote angrily:

This is such a shame! I paid for these products and this is what happened!!!! They are all criminals!!! Government stealing all our food! I paid just so that Jenny and the farmers didn’t have to carry the burden all on their own!!!! A crying shame. Shame on Michigans Department of Agriculture! Criminals everyone on u!!!!

Looking at the website and Facebook page, all I see are happy, well-treated animals, actually roaming around in fields. How is it that Michigan approves of the horrific conditions in its state’s factory farms, where animals are tortured, drugged, and crammed into cages for the entirety of their miserable lives, but raising animals humanely and naturally is considered “dangerous”?

What is wrong with the world when REAL farming is treated like a crime and fresh food is treated like the crystal meth?

I’ll tell you what’s wrong – big corporations do not want us to have options. They want a monopoly and they are working hard to destroy our other choices. Big Agri clearly has many good friends in the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Clearly the “Department of Agriculture” really means the “Department of Big Agri”. They aren’t there to support small farmers or people who wish to be self-sufficient. They are there to lock down the market for corporate farms. (Like Dean Foods, who also owns Horizon Organics – read more about the way this company does business – they own up to 90% of the corporate milk business in the state, according to an article on The Complete Patient )

David Gumpert, a raw milk advocate and owner of the site The Complete Patient wrote:

The government-sponsored dump of nearly $5,000 of milk, eggs, butter, and cream from Michigan’s My Family Co-Op yesterday carried a very clear and powerful political message to all Americans: We control your food and we don’t like you buying your food outside the corporate food system. Every now and then, we are going to remind you of what bad children you are being by taking your food and throwing it in the garbage. In fact, we are going to do more than remind you, we are going to completely humiliate you by preventing you from even feeding it to farm animals and instead forcing it to be disposed of in a landfill or dumpster…

…If you think I am exaggerating the intent of what is going on here, ask yourself this question: When was the last time you saw government agents seize and condemn food from a place like Foster Farms or Taco Bell or Del Monte or Kellogg’s or Trade Joe’s when their food has been found to contain pathogens, or made people sick? There’s been not even a suggestion that food at My Family Co-Op contained pathogens or made anyone sick. (Read the rest of Mr. Gumpert’s excellent essay on the subject)

The state of Michigan appears in the news again and again for infringing upon the liberty of its residents to choose what they wish to consume. Recently, they took away the “right to farm” from ordinary people, rescinding a law that had been on the books for years. Before that, Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources destroyed a farmer’s heritage pigs, calling them an “invasive species.”

This horrible visual of a farmer destroying fresh food while an “agent” stands over him to make certain that it’s inedible will stick with me. It’s like a scene from a movie, where the vanquishing enemy goes “scorched earth” on the denizens of the area they have conquered, ruining their crops, stealing their food stores, and most of all, making certain that they know they’ve been defeated.

Except it’s not a movie. It’s life in America. The barbarians are members of the government, and it is our own farms that are under siege.

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

(Originally posted at The Organic Prepper)