The once-fringe act of doomsday prepping is evolving into a booming $2.46 billion industry, tapping into a societal pulse of self-reliance amidst a world of uncertainties.

Whether driven by the aftershocks of a post-COVID-19 environment, supply-chain disruptions, natural calamities, or geopolitical tensions, the narrative of disaster preparedness is shifting from the outskirts of society to mainstream households.

When I was growing up, I never once heard the words “prepper” or “prepping”.

But now a very large portion of the population is actively preparing for the collapse of society.

According to numbers that come from FEMA, approximately 20 million Americans have prepared well enough to be able to be on their own for at least a month…

According to an analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data, some 20 million Americans can withstand a full month of self-reliance. Within that number, there are those who identify as part of “preppers” communities online, which include enthusiasts stocking up on years’ worth of supplies or building bunkers.

Of course being prepared to survive for one month is not going to be nearly good enough to survive what is eventually coming.

But at least it is something.

These days, even Costco is marketing to preppers…

Amid Costo’s already stocked shelves of oversized jars of peanut butter and 12-pack macaroni and cheeses, there’s a hardcore new addition that is lighting up social media: The Readywise 150 Serving Emergency Food Bucket. For $100, the bucket includes 80 dinners, 30 breakfasts, and 40 energy drinks with a shelf life of—prepare yourself for this—25 long years.

“In a world where unpredictability has become a constant,” reads the description, “our assortment takes on a vital role in emergency preparedness. Imagine the sudden onset of severe weather, the challenges of unexpected job transitions, or the unsettling thought of food shortages.”

In addition to selling emergency food buckets, Costco has also become “a huge seller of gold and silver bars and coins”…

The wholesale club is also a huge seller of gold and silver bars and coins, which are extremely popular among those who are concerned about a breakdown of the financial system. (A one-ounce silver coin is currently worth about $30.)

Needless to say, it isn’t just Costco that has embraced this trend.

These days, many local supermarkets carry emergency food right on their store shelves. And I think that is a great thing.

But for what we are eventually going to be going through, you are going to need a whole lot more than just food.

If you really want to be well prepared, you should consider everything that you will need if there is no power and you can no longer get anything from the stores because supply chains have completely broken down.

I have shared a list of 50 basic things that I believe that everyone should be stockpiling in a couple of my books, and today I would like to share that list with all of you…

1. A Conventional Generator And A Solar Generator
2. A Berkey Water Filter
3. A Rainwater Collection System If You Do Not Have A Natural Supply Of Water Near Your Home
4. A Large Emergency Medical Kit
5. Rice
6. Pasta
7. Canned Soup
8. Canned Vegetables
9. Canned Fruit
10. Canned Chicken
11. Jars Of Peanut Butter
12. Salt
13. Sugar
14. Powdered Milk
15. Bags Of Flour
16. Yeast
17. Lots Of Extra Coffee (If You Drink It)
18. Buckets Of Long-Term Storable Food
19. Lots Of Extra Vitamins
20. Lighters Or Matches
21. Candles
22. Flashlights Or Lanterns
23. Plenty Of Wood To Burn
24. Extra Blankets
25. Extra Sleeping Bags
26. Ammunition
27. Extra Fans If You Live In A Hot Climate
28. Hand Sanitizer
29. Toilet Paper
30. Extra Soap And Shampoo
31. Extra Toothpaste
32. Extra Razors
33. Bottles Of Bleach
34. A Battery-Powered Radio
35. Extra Batteries
36. Solar Chargers
37. Trash Bags
38. Tarps
39. A Pocket Knife
40. A Hammer
41. An Axe
42. A Shovel
43. Work Gloves
44. Lots Of Warm Socks
45. Seeds For A Garden
46. Canning Jars
47. Extra Supplies For Your Pets
48. A Substantial Emergency Supply Of Cash
49. Bibles For Every Member Of Your Family
50. A “Bug Out Bag” For Every Member Of Your Family

There are some important points that I want to make about this list.

First of all, this is not a comprehensive list.  It is simply a starting point. Second, preparation is going to look different for everyone.  Your unique circumstances will dictate what “getting prepared” looks like for you. Third, you will not need your emergency food and supplies yet.

You will not need them tomorrow. You will not need them next week. You will not need them next month. But the day is most certainly coming when you will need them.

If you wait until then to get prepared, you will be out of luck. Getting sufficiently prepared for what is approaching takes an enormous amount of time, effort and energy. But it will be worth it.

We are moving into times of immense societal chaos.  This election is going to tear our country apart, vast numbers of people will die during the wars and famines that are ahead of us, it is just a matter of time before the next global pandemic strikes, and if you live long enough you are going to get to witness cataclysmic natural disasters that are beyond anything that Hollywood has ever dreamed up.

Right now, we are still only in the very early stages of this “perfect storm”, but I fully expect global events to start moving very, very rapidly in the coming months.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

August is the quietest month – to mangle TS Eliot’s verse – or so news editors used to think. Politicians go on holiday, governments shut down, people head for the hills or the beach. Not much happens. Not so this August. The world this month is experiencing an extraordinary peaking of volatility, instability and insecurity, unprecedented in recent times. It’s scary, it’s shocking, it’s a wild ride.

Sudden revolutions, wars current and imminent, terrible crimes, high-stakes feuding, famines, cost of living crunches, violent riots and unfathomable market panics come not as single spies but in battalions. In a world where mutual destruction, steeped in cruelty and despair, is a favoured human pastime, grim vistas of Eliot’s The Waste Land beckon anew.

He is right.

But just because things have been crazy lately does not mean that we are living in the end times.

If we really are living in the end times, there are certain very specific signs that we should be seeing.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus discussed some of those signs…

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Of course there have been wars, famines, pestilences and natural disasters all throughout human history.

If we really are living in the end times, all of these elements should be occurring simultaneously, and the intensity of each element should be at a very high level.

Let’s talk about war first.  According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, there were 56 active military conflicts in the world last year.  That was the highest number that we have witnessed since World War II…

Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia… and so on. There are up to 56 active conflicts in the world, the highest number since World War II. Moreover, these carry an increasingly international component, with 92 countries involved in wars outside their borders. These are data from the latest Global Peace Index produced annually by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), a think tank that analyzes everything from military investment and the cost of violence to military laws and deaths in combat in 163 states and territories.

As I write this, there is a tremendous amount of speculation all over the globe about “World War III”.  The conflict in the Middle East is on the verge of being transformed into an “all-out war”, it is probably only a matter of time before the U.S. is dragged into the war in Ukraine and we find ourselves directly fighting with Russia, and the moment that China invades Taiwan we will be at war with the Chinese.

We are most certainly living during a time of wars and rumors of wars, and the hot phase of “World War III” will truly be unlike anything we have ever seen before.

All throughout history, famine has accompanied war. Right now, we are facing a global food crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  In Sudan, endless war has created a famine that is truly horrifying.  At this moment, it is being projected that millions of Sudanese citizens will die in the months ahead…

After 15 months of fighting in that country between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), experts in food insecurity estimate that almost 26 million people (no, that is not a misprint!), or more than half of Sudan’s population, could suffer from malnutrition by September. Eight and a half million of those human beings could face acute malnutrition. Worse yet, if the war continues on its present path, millions will die of hunger and disease in just the coming months (and few people in our world may even notice).

How would you feel if you had to watch your family slowly die of starvation?

According to Timmo Gaasbeek of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2.5 million people in Sudan could perish “by the time crops are harvested in September”…

Gaasbeek warned, however, that soup kitchens can fill only so many gaping holes in a system shattered by wartime destruction, displacement, and crop failure. His institute estimates that at current rates of food sharing, 2.5 million people could die of hunger and disease by the time crops are harvested in September. In other words, a shocking 10–20 percent of the Sudanese in the hardest-hit areas could die—mortality rates similar to ones suffered during horrendous famines in parts of Nigeria in 1969, Ethiopia in 1984, and Somalia in 1992.

September is next month!

But most Americans don’t even realize that this is happening because our big news networks only want to talk about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Reuters has reported that hunger is so bad in some parts of Sudan that people are literally making meals out of balls of dirt just so that they will have something to fill their stomachs…

Garang Achien Akok is one of the thousands of new arrivals in the area. Akok, his wife and their five children abandoned their home in the southern region of Kordofan after Arab militiamen on camels stormed their village and torched their hut, he said.

Akok, 41, reached Al Lait in December, but has no work and can’t feed the family. At times, they go two or three days without eating. When that happens, Akok said, he watches helplessly as his wife and children dig holes in the ground with a stick, slide their hands in and grab some soil. Then they roll the soil into a ball, put it in their mouths and swallow it with water.

Meanwhile, supplies of food all over the world just keep getting tighter and tighter.

CNN has admitted that we are facing “the worst food crisis in modern history”, but the truth is that this is just the beginning.

Once nuclear weapons are used, everything will change.

One study that was conducted a few years ago determined that three to four years after an all-out nuclear war global food production would have dropped by about 90 percent…

Using climate, crop and fishery models, researchers found that the climatic impacts of soot from nuclear war would peak in the first few years but last for about a decade.

In the worst-case scenario, when 150 Tg of soot is unleashed, the global average calorie production from crops would decline by about 90% just three to four years after the nuclear war, the study found.

That same study concluded that approximately 360 million people would be directly killed during an all-out nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, and over 5 billion people would die from starvation in the aftermath…

The largest scenario examined, a week-long war involving 4,400 weapons and 150 Tg, or 330.6 billion pounds, of soot – such as one that would occur between the U.S., its allies and Russia – would kill 360 million people directly – and more than 5 billion from starvation, the study said. The density of the soot would reduce global temperatures by more than 58ºF.

What would our world look like if 5 billion people were simultaneously dying from starvation? That is something to think about.

If we really are living in the end times, we should also be experiencing major pestilences.

Needless to say, the COVID crisis killed millions of people and it is still with us. Over the past few years, the bird flu has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of chickens and turkeys all over the globe, and now the bird flu has jumped into mammals. Are we next?

We better hope not, because the World Health Organization says that over 50 percent of the humans that have caught H5N1 since 2003 have ended up dead. In 2022, a Monkeypox plague rapidly spread all over the planet, and it created a lot of fear.

Now a far deadlier version that reportedly spreads more easily among humans is spreading in central Africa, and the World Health Organization is extremely concerned about this.

And I certainly don’t want to leave out dengue fever.  So far this year, there have been more than 10 million cases in North America and South America combined…

In the Americas alone, almost 10.4 million suspected cases of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, were reported to the World Health Organization in 2024 as of the first week of July, an increase of 232% compared with the same period the year before.

Peru is a case in point. When torrential rains started to fall there in 2023, a record-breaking dengue epidemic exploded shortly afterward. The case count is estimated at well over 100,000 so far this year.

If you have ever had a severe case of dengue fever, you will never forget it.

It is known as “breakbone fever”, because many of those that develop severe cases literally feel like their bones are breaking…

Because some patients feel as if their bones are breaking, the virus has an ominous nickname: “breakbone fever.”

What about natural disasters?

Are we seeing a lot of those?

It is being reported that last year the number of “billion dollar disasters” established a brand new all-time record high…

The planet was besieged by a record 63 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 57 set in 2020, said insurance broker Gallagher Re in its annual report issued January 17. The total damage wrought by weather disasters in 2023 was $301 billion, with an unusually high 57% of that total being insured damages.

Meanwhile, the ground under our feet is shaking with alarming regularity.

Last week, I wrote an article about the strange seismic activity that we have been witnessing on the west coast, on the east coast, under the Great Lakes and down in Texas.

On the other side of the world, all of the recent shaking in Japan has created a tremendous amount of panic.  People are feverishly hoarding food because they are so concerned about the possibility of a “megaquake”…

Authorities in Japan urged people to avoid hoarding as anxiety over a possible megaquake triggered a spike Saturday in demand for disaster kits and daily necessities.

In its first such advisory, the weather agency said a huge earthquake was more likely in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.1 jolt in the south on Thursday which left 14 people injured.

At a Tokyo supermarket on Saturday, a sign was put up apologising to customers for shortages of certain products it attributed to “quake-related media reports”.

I am entirely convinced that everything that we have been through so far is just the beginning.

We are still only in the very early chapters of this “perfect storm”, and if I am right there is a tremendous amount of death and destruction ahead of us.

Most people don’t want to hear that.

Most people just want to hear that everything is going to be wonderful.

But if we really are living in the end times, global events will play out just as the Bible says that they will.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Join us as we delve into the mysterious origins of Nimrod in the Bible. Discover how his insatiable thirst for power and open defiance against God set the stage for the rise of Babel and the scattering of nations.

Unravel the striking parallels between Nimrod’s reign and the prophesied reign of the Antichrist. From his establishment of the first kingdom to his zealous promotion of pagan worship, we’ll uncover the chilling similarities that have led many scholars to view Nimrod as an ancient archetype of the final enemy of God.

Brace yourself for a mind-bending exploration that spans centuries, connecting the dots between Biblical accounts, extra-biblical sources, and End Times prophecies. Is it mere coincidence, or is there a deeper spiritual significance to Nimrod’s rebellion that echoes through the ages?

Discover the truth about this enigmatic figure and the role he may have played in foreshadowing the ultimate clash between good and evil. Don’t miss this riveting exposé on Nimrod – the original prototype of the Antichrist?

I will get to that later in this article, but first I wanted to talk a bit about the upcoming red heifer sacrifice.

According to the Temple Institute, a red heifer cannot be used in such a sacrifice until its third year has begun…

As for the time the red heifer may be used for this commandment –  the Sages state that it is valid when it reaches maturity, i.e. from the beginning of its third year. [13] From this age and onward the red heifer is valid without age limitations. Though, ideally, one should not wait till it passes the age of four, lest it grows hairs of colors that deem it invalid. [14]

The red heifers that were brought over from Texas in 2022 are now old enough to qualify.

And every day that passes, there is a risk that they will grow hairs that are not red and be disqualified. So the clock is ticking.

Those involved in this project have already spent more than a half million dollars, and if all of the heifers they brought over end up being disqualified they will have to go back to square one.

I think that they would like to conduct a red heifer sacrifice during this current year on the Hebrew calendar, and we shall see if they are able to pull that off or not.

But even if a red heifer is sacrificed, that does not mean that a Temple will be built right away.

In fact, we have been repeatedly told that sacrifices could potentially begin long before a new Temple is constructed.  For example, the following comes directly from the official website of the Temple Institute…

No, the Temple Institute is not building the Temple offsite. We are building a stone altar offsite so that when the opportunity arrives we can move it to its proper location on the Mount. The Divine service, including the offerings can begin before the building of the Temple itself, once the altar is built and standing in its proper place.

I believe that the Temple Institute intends to start conducting sacrifices and offerings very shortly after priests are made ritually clean by the ashes of a red heifer. And that will cause a major stir.

Interestingly, according to Jewish tradition the sacrifice of the tenth red heifer is going to coincide with the Messianic age…

In recounting this historical record in his commentary to the Mishna, the great Maimonides ends with the enigmatic statement: “… and the tenth red heifer will be accomplished by the king, the Messiah; may he be revealed speedily, Amen, May it be G-d’s will.”

With this amazing statement, Maimonides recounts an ancient tradition – that the tenth red heifer is associated with the Messianic era. Does this perhaps mean that the appearance of a red heifer in these waning end times is an indication, a forerunner of the appearance of the Messiah himself, who will officiate at its preparation?

If there has been no red heifer for the past 2,000 years, perhaps it is because the time was not right; Israel was far from being ready. But now… what could it mean for the times we live in, to have the means for purification so close at hand? With the words of Maimonides in mind, we cannot help but wonder and pray: If there are now red heifers… is ours the era that will need them?

So I find it quite noteworthy that we could see the tenth red heifer sacrificed very close to the end of the sixth millennium of human history as we await the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But I believe that an event even bigger than the sacrifice of the tenth red heifer is coming.

When the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant is finally announced, it will be the biggest archaeological bombshell in all of human history.

On the official website of the Temple Institute, they publicly acknowledge that they know exactly where it is located…

While some claim to have evidence that the ark is in Ethiopia, and of course, moviegoers were treated to a fanciful version of the story in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” in reality, the expression “lost” ark is not an accurate description for the Jewish people’s point of view – because we have always known exactly where it is. So the Ark is “Hidden,” and hidden quite well, but it is not lost.

Tradition records that even as King Solomon built the First Temple, he already knew, through Divine inspiration, that eventually it would be destroyed. Thus Solomon, the wisest of all men, oversaw the construction of a vast system of labyrinths, mazes, chambers and corridors underneath the Temple Mount complex. He commanded that a special place be built in the bowels of the earth, where the sacred vessels of the Temple could be hidden in case of approaching danger. Midrashic tradition teaches that King Josiah of Israel, who lived about forty years before the destruction of the First Temple, commanded the Levites to hide the Ark, together with the original menorah and several other items*, in this secret hiding place which Solomon had prepared.

This location is recorded in our sources, and today, there are those who know exactly where this chamber is. And we know that the ark is still there, undisturbed, and waiting for the day when it will be revealed. An attempt was made some few years ago to excavate towards the direction of this chamber. This resulted in widespread Moslem unrest and rioting. They stand a great deal to lose if the Ark is revealed – for it will prove to the whole world that there really was a Holy Temple, and thus, that the Jews really do have a claim to the Temple Mount. (The official position of the Islamic Wakf, the body that governs over the Temple Mount, is that there never was a Holy Temple, and that the Jews have no rights whatsoever to the place).

When the Ark is revealed to the whole world, it will completely shock the entire planet.

During a recent show, Glenn Beck speculated about what might happen once everyone gets to see the Ark…

Well, it still exists. And this is just my opinion. That’s all it is, just an opinion.

I tend to believe that if it does exist, and it’s going to be revealed.

Then it probably will coincide with the Messianic age, with the Messiah’s return.

And I think that would probably be more likely. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who would be very, very excited to be — to have an opportunity. To find it, look for it. And if they could, bring it out.

And that would cause World War III, most likely.

There are a lot of “scholars” out there that believe that Moses never existed.

And there are a lot of “scholars” out there that believe that either the Ark of the Covenant never existed or that it was just a very simple box or basket.

Once the Ark of the Covenant is unveiled, it will “confirm” that Moses and the Ark of the Covenant really existed just like the Bible says.

And it will also “confirm” that God really did make a covenant with the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai.

For those that are interested, I get even deeper into all of this in my latest book entitled “Chaos”.

The physical representation of the covenant that God made with the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai has always been the Ark of the Covenant.

And when it is finally revealed to the world, everything will change.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

While the mainstream media is endlessly focused on political drama, our world is being deeply troubled by war, economic problems, food shortages, nightmarish pestilences and terrifying natural disasters.  But as bad as things are at this moment, I am entirely convinced that they are about to get a whole lot worse.

I would like to start by talking about war.  The IDF is preparing to conduct an operation in Rafah, and that could cause the entire Middle East to erupt in flames.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pledging that his forces will eventually move in no matter how negotiations for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas go.  Meanwhile, we just learned that Israel has just conducted airstrikes on the outskirts of Damascus…

Israeli aircraft have reportedly attacked a location on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus late Thursday (local), a security source told Reuters.

While there has been no immediate confirmation via Syrian state media, widely circulating images have emerged on social media showing plumes of smoke rising high over buildings which were struck.

It is just a matter of time before all-out war erupts in the region.

Speaking of all-out war, French President Emmanuel Macron is warning that French troops could be sent to Ukraine if Russian forces break through the Ukrainian front lines…

Emmanuel Macron has said he would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin’s forces break through the front lines – further raising the risk of NATO forces clashing with Russia’s armies.

In an interview published today, the French president said the issue of sending troops would ‘legitimately’ arise if Kyiv and president Volodymyr Zelensky made such a request.

The Economist said Macron gave the interview after delivering a keynote speech last week where he declared that Europe is ‘mortal’ and could ‘die’ partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Those that have been following the war closely know that the Russians are already breaking through the front lines in several areas along the eastern front.

So will Macron make good on his threat? If so, that will put us literally one step away from nuclear conflict.

All throughout history, large scale wars have been accompanied by famine. For now, we still have plenty of food to eat in the western world, but it is a far different story in the poorest areas of the planet.

For example, the famine in Sudan has become so severe that some people are literally eating dirt…

There is so little food in some areas of Sudan that people are taking extreme measures to survive.

In the Al Lait refugee camp, they are eating dirt.

I was stunned when I read that.

If you were hungry enough, would you fill your stomach with dirt?

Apparently, some desperately hungry people are rolling dirt into a ball and swallowing it with water…

Akok, 41, reached Al Lait in December, but has no work and can’t feed the family. At times, they go two or three days without eating. When that happens, Akok said, he watches helplessly as his wife and children dig holes in the ground with a stick, slide their hands in and grab some soil. Then they roll the soil into a ball, put it in their mouths and swallow it with water.

“I keep telling them not to do it, but it’s hunger,” he said. “There is nothing I can do.”

In my latest book I have an entire chapter about the emerging global famine.  What we are witnessing now is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what is eventually coming.

I have also been warning that frightening pestilences will break out all over the globe, and right now we are witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever in South America.

At this point, more than four million cases of dengue fever have been registered in Brazil alone so far this year…

Brazil surpassed 4 million cases of dengue fever registered this year, according to an update from the Ministry of Health’s Arbovirus Monitoring Panel this Monday. In total, 4,127,571 probable cases of the disease were reported across the country in the first four months of 2024.

As for dengue deaths, 1,937 have been confirmed and 2,345 are under investigation. The incidence rate of the disease in the country is 2,032.7 cases for each group of 100,000 population.

And Peru has just declared a nationwide health emergency because cases of dengue fever are rising so rapidly in that nation…

The Peruvian government’s cabinet approved the motion to declare a health emergency on Monday, Vasquez told journalists, hours after he said a dengue outbreak was “imminent.”

“There are 20 regions (out of 25) that will be declared in a health emergency due to dengue,” Vasquez said in an earlier interview on local radio station RPP.

Here in North America, H5N1 has been killing cows, cats, chickens and turkeys.

Now authorities are desperately hoping that it does not make the jump to humans.  For much more on this, please see my recent article entitled “The Strain Of The Bird Flu That Is Killing Cats In Texas Is Causing ‘Brain Hemorrhaging’ And ‘Blindness’”.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the unusual natural disasters that we have been experiencing lately.

In 2024, southern California has been getting shaken on a regular basis.  Yesterday, it was hit by a magnitude 4.1 earthquake…

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 has struck near Corona in Riverside County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS says the quake struck at 1:49 p.m. just 5.3 miles from Corona. It was originally reported as a 4.5 magnitude but was ultimately reduced to a 4.1.

Overall, there have been 748 earthquakes in California and Nevada within the past seven days.

It is just a matter of time before “the Big One” strikes, but at this stage most of those living in the region have stopped listening to such warnings.

The east coast has also been experiencing unusual seismic activity.

On the first day of this month, New Jersey was shaken by a magnitude 2.6 earthquake…

A magnitude 2.6 aftershock has rattled New Jersey on the first day of May after a dramatic earthquake shook parts of the east coast in early April.

The Garden State has been rocked by more than 150 aftershocks since the initial 4.8 magnitude earthquake which centered near Lebanon on the morning of April 5.

More than 42 million people from New York to Connecticut and Philadelphia felt the first quake, and New Jersey residents have been plagued by tremors ever since.

Normally, the east coast if very, very quiet.

So what we are seeing right now is definitely quite unusual.

The middle of the nation has not been left out either.

In recent days we have seen tornado after tornado rock the center of the country.

For example, one area of Nebraska was just hit by a tornado that had wind speeds of up to 165 miles per hour…

Nebraska brothers tell a terrifying tale of feeling a tornado pull their home apart, sucking them out and tossing them with debris.

“Ok, I’m cool to leave for work,” Roger Slatten thought to himself Saturday afternoon after Elkhorn, Nebraska’s tornado sirens went silent. But they sounded again. A strong EF-3 tornado was bearing down on the Omaha suburb with 165 mph winds.

His friend called him in the car and said, “Get back home, It’s going crazy.” Roger called his brother Royce and told him to rush home. They planned to get the two dogs and all shelter in the basement.

When will people finally start waking up?

What we are experiencing is not even close to normal.

It seems like almost every new day brings us yet another new crisis or disaster to deal with, and I have a feeling that the pace of events is only going to escalate as this year continues to roll along.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

“Israel is going to pound Gaza into gravel, there’s no doubt about that. A ground invasion will meet far more resistance than the Israelis seem to expect, but Israel controls the air and Gaza is a fixed target with limited territory. The problem for them is not the Palestinians, but the multiple war fronts that will open up if they do what I think they are about to do (attempted sanitization). Lebanon, Iran and Syria will immediately engage and Israel will not be able to fight them all…”

So far, both Lebanon and Iran have directly engaged Israeli military forces and civilian targets. Syrian militias are also declaring they will once again start attacking US military bases in the region. In my article ‘World War III Is Now Inevitable – Here’s Why It Can’t Be Avoided’ published on April 5^th I noted that:

“I warned months ago…that the war in Gaza would expand into a multi-front conflict that would probably include Iran. I also warned that it would be to Israel’s benefit if Iran entered the war because this would eventually force the US to become directly involved. To be sure, Iran has already been engaging in proxy attacks on Israel through Lebanon, but Israel’s attack on the Iranian “embassy” or diplomatic station in Syria basically ensures that Iran will now directly commit to strikes on Israeli targets.”

Iran did indeed commit to a large scale missile and drone based attack on Israel, a situation which has had some curious consequences. Of course, US naval forces aided Israel’s Iron Dome in shooting down the majority of drones and missiles sent by Iran. However, even though there are several videos showing that some cruise missiles hit their targets, the Israelis have been reticent to admit that any damage was done.

I suspect it’s because the cruise missiles struck military targets instead of civilian targets and Israel doesn’t want to release any information on what was hit. Iran’s drones were likely meant to act as decoys for anti-air defenses. They are much cheaper than the missiles used by Israel and the US to shoot them down.

Whether or not these strikes had any real affect on Israeli offensive capabilities we’ll probably never know. What we do know is that Israel’s counter-strike was much smaller than most analysts expected. Does this mean that the tit-for-tat is over and both sides are going hands-off? That would probably be the smart decisions, but no, that’s not what’s happening here.

Israel’s limited response was likely due to a lack of clarity on how much the US government under Biden is willing to participate in the war during an election year. What we will see in the next six months is a steady escalation towards winter, followed by new bombardments with far more extensive destruction than we recently witnessed. In other words, spring is just the dress rehearsal for what will happen in winter.

Here are the most probable scenarios as 2024 rolls forward…

Air Strikes On Iran

I have little doubt that Israel will commit to extensive aerial strikes on Iran this year or very early in 2025, and we’ll see very quickly if Russian air defense technology sold to the Iranians is effective or ineffective. Iran’s drone program may be useful in helping to even the playing field against Israeli fighter jets, but then again, the technology gap could be extensive.

The Israeli public position will be that their strikes are focused on taking down any existing Iranian nuclear labs. There is no solid evidence that Iran has made much headway in developing nukes (they might have dirty bombs), but the notion of nukes is more than enough in terms of public relations and justification for the war.

Iran Blocks The Strait Of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz would be at the top of the list of primary targets for Iran. It is the narrowest point of access to the Persian Gulf and oversees the passage of around 25%-30% of the world’s total oil exports. Blocking it is relatively easy – All Iran has to do is sink a few tankers into the shallow waters or destroy enemy ships passing through, creating a barrier that will make transport of oil impossible.

This would also make naval operations for Israel or the US difficult. Clearing obstructions would take time and expose forces to Iranian artillery which can be fired from up to 450 miles away. Once artillery is locked in on a narrow point or pasage, nothing is going to get through. As we’ve seen in Ukraine, a blanket of artillery fire is essentially unstoppable.

Anti-ship missiles wouldn’t even be necessary and would probably prove less effective, unless they are hypersonic. Iran can also utilize its small fleet of diesel submarines to deploy naval mines in the strait.

Once the Hormuz is disrupted and global oil shipments slow down the US military will join the war if they haven’t done so already.

Israeli Attack Leads To Ground War With Iran/Lebanon

A ground war between Iran and Israel is inevitable if the tit-for-tat continues, and much of it will be fought (at least in the beginning) in Lebanon and perhaps Syria. Iran has a mutual defense pact with both countries and Lebanon is generally a proxy for Iranian defense policy.

Iran will have active troops or proxy forces in all of these regions, not to mention the Houthis in Yemen striking ships in the Red Sea. There are questions in terms of how Iraq will respond to this situation, but there’s not a lot of love between the current government and Israel or the US.

The Iraq government did not initially condemn the attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7^th and has voiced support for the Palestinians in Gaza. It’s unlikely that they would willingly allow the use of their territory for projecting an offensive against Iran. The use of Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti territory is possible for invasion IF the US gets involved, and the Persian Gulf would be a primary point of attack. But, both the US and Israel lack enough regional bases needed to project large scale ground forces into Iran (keep in mind that bases in Afghanistan are now gone).

Turkey is another staging ground for US forces but they certainly don’t like Israel, meaningTurkey is going to be off limits. Like Iraq, I think it will be difficult to convince Turkey, a vocal defender of Gaza, to support an invasion force or exploit their border for operations.

What about Pakistan? No, not a chance. It’s important to remember that many of these nations have worked with the US in the past, but they have angry populations to deal with. Support for an attack on Iran could lead to civil unrest at home.

The war would mostly be fought by air and by sea with US and Israel seeking to dominate the Persian Gulf. A lot of the ground fighting will be done in neighboring countries. A direct invasion of Iran would be an exhaustive affair with mountain terrain that must be reached by going through allied territories.

Can it be done? Yes. Could the US and Israel/allies win? Yes, as long as the goal is destruction and not occupation. Would it be costly? Absolutely. Far too costly to be acceptable to the western public these days, and a war that would require extensive military recruitment or a draft which Americans in particular will not tolerate.

Gas Prices Skyrocket

Think gas prices are high now? Just wait until 25% of the world oil exports are locked out of the market for months at a time. We might see double the prices at the pump; perhaps even triple, and that’s not counting the inflationary conditions already ongoing in the west.

This would be a disaster for the economy as energy prices affect EVERYTHING else. Costs on the shelf will climb right along with oil.

Military Draft And Attacks On Liberty Activists

Below the surface, there are many benefits to expanding the war in the Middle East for the globalists. War can be blamed for the inflationary collapse they created. War can be used as an excuse to implement even more aggressive censorship standards in Europe and the US. War can be used to create a military draft which will trigger great unrest in the US and some parts of the EU. War could invariably be used to rationalize martial law. And, it could even be used to stall or disrupt elections.

At bottom, the war in Ukraine, the war in the Middle East and the many other regional wars that will probably erupt in the next few years have a cumulative effect that causes confusion and chaos. All that is needed is a short period of disarray and a lot of economic panic and the public may even forget who created the mess in the first place Liberty activists caught in the middle of these events will take action to defend their freedoms, and I have no doubt we will be accused of “aiding foreign enemies” or working as “agents of the Russians, Iranians, etc.”

Russian Involvement And World War

Given that NATO has seen fit to engage in a proxy war in Ukraine it makes sense that Russia would return the favor and engage in a proxy war in Iran. Don’t be surprised to see a lot of discussion in the media in the coming months about Russian “advisers” in Iran as well as Russian weaponry. Russia already has military bases in Syria and defense agreements with Iran. It would appear that the US and allies are being set on a collision course with Russia that will lead to direct kinetic interactions.

At this stage world war will already be well underway. Russia and the US may never actually try to strike each other’s territory and nuclear exchange makes little sense for anyone (especially the globalists who would lose their financial and surveillance empire in the blink of an eye) but they will be fighting each other in regional wars in multiple spots across the globe. It seems to me that this process has already been set in motion, and once the avalanche starts, it’s very hard to stop.

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Prophecy expert Jeff Kinley, author of “God’s Grand Finale” and the coming book, “The End of the World According to Jesus of Nazareth,” weighed in on these dynamics, offering an explainer about what the Bible actually says — and why it matters. “Jesus and Matthew 24 list a ton of signs that will precursor [Christ’s] Second Coming, and it basically mirrors the Book of Revelation — the first half of Revelation,” Kinley said. “And in those signs you have … things like wars, you have rumors of wars, you have famines … earthquakes, and then Jesus said, ‘All these things are merely the beginnings of birth pangs.'”

The author went on to say he believes Christ is talking about the Tribulation period, a time during the end of days some Christians believe will be characterized by God’s judgment. As far as what’s happening in the world today, Kinley believes its a “ramping up to Revelation.” “It’s like when you’re watching a baseball game or a football game,” he said. “You’re watching the quarterback, you’re watching the pitcher, you’re watching where the ball is, essentially.”

Kinley continued, “Well, where the ball is prophetically is Israel, and, so, if you want to know really kind of put your finger on the pulse of what’s going on prophetically, you need to look at Israel.” Anyone looking at Israel right now can see the nation is locked in a great battle against Hamas, Hezbollah, and, more broadly, Iran. Kinley said focusing on this dispute — and region — is essential if Christians want to truly understand what’s happening.

“All eyes should be on Israel, because the Bible says that God is going to bring … the global narrative in the end times back to Israel, back to Jerusalem,” he said. “And all the things that are taking place were prophesied — these foreshadows were prophesied many thousands of years ago.” Kinley said the Bible predicts that nations will come against Israel in the last days, and pondered whether what’s unfolding right now is the “preseason to the actual events that Christ and others” predicted would one day take form.

Sometimes, a financial crash can cause short-term suffering. However, there have also been times throughout history when financial collapse had worse outcomes. (h/t to AskAPrepper.com)

While humanity has yet to witness a crash that was serious enough to destabilize the government and society in North America, with the fragile nature of financial systems, it is something that may happen soon.

If you ever experience a financial crash that is severe enough to cause country-wide hyperinflation, unemployment and the collapse of the banking sector, you may have to resort to the barter system to acquire the goods and services that your family needs to survive.

If you’re worried about a scenario like this, start preparing and stock up on items that you can use for bartering after a financial crash.

Alcohol

There are almost 15 million people who suffer from alcohol use disorder in the United States. And even those who do not have a compulsion to drink alcohol will be likely to trade goods for a bottle of spirits to calm their nerves in times of hardship.

If you don’t drink alcohol, having a few bottles of liquor and wine for bartering may still offer some benefits after SHTF.

Ammo

After a severe financial crisis, law enforcement could be overwhelmed and even ineffective. This would cause a true survival situation where crime becomes rampant.

In a wide-scale disaster scenario where the rule of law becomes non-existent, ammo will be as good as, or even more valuable, than money.

Stock up on a surplus of common calibers specifically for bartering. If you’re not sure what to get, stock up on ammo for handguns and small game calibers. You might also want to stockpile air gun ammo.

Antibiotics

When you’re trying to resume normal life after a severe economic downturn, access to medical care will become limited. Unfortunately, common infections could also pose serious threats.

Having a supply of antibiotics can be a lifesaver for those facing bacterial illnesses and are without access to healthcare services.

Try to stockpile commonly used antibiotics, such as amoxicillin or ciprofloxacin, to meet the needs of your neighbors after SHTF.

Batteries

Once the supply of batteries on store shelves is depleted, non-preppers will be desperate to acquire all the standard sizes of alkaline batteries and power banks to charge their smartphones and other small devices that charge via USB.

If you have a reliable source of off-grid power on your homestead, you can offer to charge devices and battery banks in exchange for other items that you need.

Bottled water

All humans need clean drinking water to survive, but you don’t want to risk your safety and stockpile by giving other people access to your stored water supply after a disaster.

Get two or three cases of bottled water so you have items specifically for bartering purposes.

Chocolate and candy

Many people have a sweet tooth. And while sweets aren’t an immediate need during an emergency, once the financial system has collapsed, there will still be many people who crave chocolate and candy.

Feminine hygiene products

Women will still need feminine hygiene products after a financial crash.

And even if there is no serious grid-down situation, the cost of feminine hygiene products may still increase, so people will be willing to barter with you.

Flashlights

If a financial crisis is severe enough that people need to resort to the barter system, there’s a chance that people will not be able to pay the electric bill or that power will be shut off.

When this happens, people will want to trade with you if you have flashlights.

Try buying packages of several flashlights for less than the price of the included batteries. Products like these are great for bartering because they are cheap and disposable.

Over-the-counter medication

If manufacturing issues can cause supply issues for several months, things might be worse after a financial crisis.

Like antibiotics, many people will need over-the-counter (OTC) medication after a financial crisis or collapse after supply chain disruptions and price increases affect the local supply.

Stock up on these OTC meds so you have a variety of items to trade with:

• Cold and flu medicines
• Diarrhea and constipation medicines and laxatives
• Headache and nausea medicines
• Pain and fever medicines
• Saline solutions
• Skin and allergy medicines
• Sleeping pills
• Wound care medications, like burn cream or antibacterial ointments

Protein bars

Rising food costs may leave non-preppers scrambling for calorie-dense food sources.

Stock up on several cases of protein bars, cereal bars and fruit bars for bartering during a financial crisis. (Related: Emergency food prep: Stock up on manuka honey, a must-have survival food and barter item.)

Radios

After a large-scale financial crash threatens to destabilize the communications grid or forces people to scale back their spending on phone and internet services, you still need to stay in touch with friends and family.

Stock up on radios that operate on the two-meter and 70-centimeter amateur bands. You can also get cheaper shortwave receivers for use as barter items. These items will be popular among those who are desperate for reliable comms.

Tobacco/vape

Like alcohol, there are a lot of people who smoke or vape. After the SHTF and the country dealing with a financial crash, these people will eagerly be trading to get cigarettes or e-cigs.

Stock up on cigarettes and some vape juice so you can trade with them.

Toilet paper and paper towels

During the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the country witnessed demand for one surprising product: Toilet paper.

At the height of the pandemic, toilet paper and other paper products flew off of store shelves. Even if you don’t experience a financial crash, you should always have a good supply of these products, with an additional supply for bartering.

The current monetary system started as the barter systems that humans used for the years that pre-dated the invention of the modern currency that humans use today.

And while humans have been trading goods and services for money, if the currency collapses, society will go back to bartering. As a prepper, it’s best to stock up on bartering supplies like food, medication and ammo so you can trade for supplies after SHTF.

Go to Health Ranger Store to find more prepping products that can be used for bartering. Watch this video to learn more about organic black beans, and why you should have them in your prepper stockpile.

Read more tips and sound off with your own at the Late Prepper Substack.

More related stories:

• HRS SOLUTIONS: Stock up on organic non-fat milk powder, a long-lasting source of essential nutrients.
• SHTF bartering must-haves: 13 Things that will be in demand after an EMP attack.
• Sensible prepper rules to follow when building your emergency stockpile.
• Survival beverages that are a must for your pantry.

Sources include:

• AskAPrepper.com
• PrimalSurvivor.net
• Brighteon.com

The scenario that I just described is exactly what we see in the Book of Revelation.

In Revelation chapter 6, the black horse of famine immediately follows the red horse of war…

4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Right now, we are literally teetering on the brink of such a disaster.

According to the UN’s World Food Program, we are dealing with “a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions” right now…

Conflict, economic shocks, climate change and soaring prices for food and fertilizer are all combining in a perfect storm to create a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions. Right now, in some of the hungriest places around the world, there just isn’t enough food to feed the population.

They are not talking about a “perfect storm” that is coming someday.

They are talking about a “perfect storm” that is already here.

Last year, more than 3 billion people could not afford to eat a healthy diet…

Worldwide, more than 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet, according to the report. That’s 42% of the world’s population, and a significant increase over pre-COVID levels.

Why aren’t we hearing more about this?

Just because our families aren’t facing severe hunger yet does not mean that we shouldn’t be paying attention.

According to an article that was posted by the New York Times, the number of countries that are “at risk of famine” just continues to grow…

The list of countries at risk of famine now includes Afghanistan, Syria and Mali. Humanitarian observers also worry that North Korea may be nearing a famine.

That same New York Times article pointed out that things are particularly dire in eastern Africa…

About 90 million people are facing severe hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. These countries, unfortunately, have their own histories of severe food shortages, but the world has never witnessed all of these countries descending toward mass starvation at the same time.

I am not the one that used the term “mass starvation” to describe what is happening in eastern Africa.

This is the New York Times that we are talking about.

Even they are admitting that this crisis has started to spiral out of control.

Here in the United States, there is still enough food to go around, but supplies of food have been getting tighter.

According to the Farm Bureau, the U.S. actually lost more than 140,000 farms during one recent five year period…

Between 2017 and 2022, the number of farms in the U.S. declined by 141,733 or 7%, according to USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, released on Feb. 13. Acres operated by farm operations during the same timeframe declined by 20.1 million (2.2%), a loss equivalent to an area about the size of Maine.

And the size of the U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been in 73 years…

Not many ranchers active today will remember the last time the U.S. cattle industry was this small. On January 1, 2024, the All Cattle and Calves inventory was 87.15 million head, the smallest total inventory since 1951. The All Cattle and Calves inventory is 1.9 percent smaller year over year and is the fifth consecutive year of declining cattle inventories, a total decrease of 7.65 million head or 8.1 percent since the most recent peak in 2019. The 2023 calf crop was 33.6 million head, down 2.5 percent year over year and the smallest calf crop since 2014.

Meanwhile, the bird flu continues to spread all over the country, and this has pushed up egg prices dramatically in recent months…

Data from the United States Department of Agriculture shows that Grade A egg prices per dozen jumped 40% from $2.13 to $3 between November and February.

Of course just about everything has been getting a lot more expensive since Joe Biden entered the White House.

Here are some more examples…

Boneless chicken breast has increased in price 26%, from $3.26 per pound in January 2021 to $4.11 per pound in February 2024.

White bread per pound is 30% more expensive, up to $2.01 per pound in February vs. $1.55 per pound in January 2021.

And white sugar has increased cost per pound from $0.68 to $0.98 in the last three years, a 44% increase.

I always warned my readers that the way that the global food crisis would initially manifest itself in the United States would be through much higher food prices.

And now I believe we are reaching a tipping point for certain commodities.

Just look at what is happening to cocoa prices.  They just continue to shoot up at an exponential rate…

May ICE NY cocoa (CCK24) today is up +381 (+5.42%), and May ICE London cocoa #7 (CAK24) is up +377 (+6.55%).

The May NY and London cocoa futures contracts today both rallied sharply to new contract highs on continued concern about tight cocoa supplies from West Africa.

Lower cocoa production in the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer, is a major bullish factor for cocoa prices. Monday’s government data showed Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.22 MMT of cocoa to ports from October 1 to March 10, down -29% from the same time last year. The Ivory Coast cocoa regulator said last Thursday it expects the Ivory Coast mid-crop, which officially starts in April and is the smaller of two annual harvests, to fall -33% to 400,000 MT from 600,000 MT last year. Trader Ecom Agroindustrial projects Ivory Coast 2023/24 cocoa production, which ends in September, will fall -21.5% y/y to an 8-year low of 1.75 MMT.

I know that I have said it before, but I will say it again.

If you love chocolate, stock up now while you still can.

The same thing could be said for many other food items as well.

During a recent interview with Fox News, prepping expert James Nelson explained that most Americans are woefully unprepared for any sort of a major supply chain disruption…

Nelson calculated that if a freezer goes out, people will only have that food for three days. If the power goes out, Americans are now reduced to five days of food in their homes. A local suburban or urban area will also have about two weeks of food and has generators if the power goes out, but when people are dependent on storefronts, they will quickly be emptied out.

“In the event of even a temporary supply chain collapse, most homes are within two weeks of being entirely dependent on handouts from a government entity or non-government organization,” Nelson said.

“Anybody who doesn’t have 3 to 6 months of basic staples and food within your home, and the ability to grow a garden. Then what’s your plan? I mean, these are not weird concepts to talk about,” he added.

He is right.

Our world is rapidly approaching a time of unparalleled chaos, and most of the population is completely and utterly unprepared for it.

If you plan to get prepared, now is the time.

Because it appears that the black horse of famine is getting ready to ride, and it won’t be too long before it finally gets released.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have all sold big chunks of shares in their own companies. How come?

Bezos is way out in front after offloading 50 million shares of Amazon in just nine trading days this month, pocketing an estimated $8.5 billion.

Zuckerberg cashed in almost 1.8 million shares of his social-media empire for more than $400 million in the last two months of 2023.

JPMorgan’s Dimon joined the club this month, jettisoning about 822,000 shares of the bank he leads for about $150 million.

If these men believe that the U.S. economy is going to thrive and their companies will continue to grow, it would make sense to just sit back and let their portfolios increase in value.

But instead they have all determined that this is a perfect time to sell.

And I can definitely understand that.  Over the past year, the stocks of all three companies have soared to unprecedented heights…

Meta stock has soared by 186% over the past year, JPMorgan is up nearly 30%, and Amazon has surged close to 90%. All three companies are trading close to record highs.

These men didn’t become filthy rich by being stupid, and selling at the peak of the bubble certainly wouldn’t be stupid.

But is that the only reason why these billionaires are feverishly liquidating shares?

In recent weeks, much has been made of the fact that Zuckerberg and his wife are constructing an absolutely massive survivalist compound in Hawaii.  The following comes from Time Magazine…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, plan to build a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter on their Hawaii ranch with its own energy and food supplies, according to a Wired investigation published earlier this month.

The plan is that the shelter’s door will be made of metal and filled in with concrete—common in bunkers and bomb shelters, the news outlet reported in its extensive article citing planning documents and interviews.

So why is Zuckerberg going to such effort?

Does he know something that the rest of us do not?

Yes, it is true that Zuckerberg has always been more than a little bit eccentric.

But many other ultra-wealthy individuals are also preparing for doom.  In fact, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel both seem to be extremely alarmed about the times that are approaching…

To keep himself safe, Altman keeps a stash of the usual Doomsday prepper fare including antibiotics and water as well as some more unusual goods. He told the founders of the startup Shypmate, per the New Yorker: “I try not to think about it too much. But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defence Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”

He also said he and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel have an “arrangement” to flee to one of Thiel’s luxury properties in New Zealand in the event the End of the World comes about.

Why would Sam Altman need guns and gas masks?

And why would he need potassium iodide?

Exactly what does he expect to happen?

Other billionaires are going to even greater extremes.

Al Corbi, the founder and president of Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments, says that he is currently working on an “island fortress” for one client that will have a very deep moat around it filled with highly flammable liquid…

Corbi — who worked on the palatial 27-floor, $4.8 billion Mumbai residence of business mogul Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries — reveals to THR that his most spectacular project, due to be completed in 2025, is an island fortress created on a 200-acre property in the U.S., with cutting-edge tactical systems.

“The shelter can withstand a blast one mile from ground zero,” says Corbi. “But that was almost incidental. The client [a business mogul] was saying, ‘I want to make sure that no one can get to my family,’ so we wound up literally building a 30-foot-deep lake [around the compound] skimmed with a lighter-than-water flammable liquid that can transform into a ring of fire. The only access to the island is a swing bridge.”

I have to admit, that sounds pretty cool.

I just hope that they have figured out how to keep the fire from escaping the moat.

The property will also have “water cannons that can take down parachuters”…

Also at Corbi’s project, “there are water cannons that can take down parachuters, Apache helicopters, whatever’s coming your way 500 feet in the air,” he says. “Then we took all the dirt removed for the lake to literally build a mountain as natural fortification around the property. And we cut a tunnel through with flame-throwers, gassing systems, a steel wall that closes midway that could stop a 16-wheeler going 80 miles an hour, and bollards at both ends.”

Okay, so I have a question.

Why go to so much trouble?

If life is going to continue more or less like it has for the past few decades, why waste so much money?

Obviously the client that is paying for this island fortress is envisioning that the world is going to go mad.

And I agree with that assessment.

In fact, I believe that the most chaotic chapters in all of human history are ahead of us.

The billionaires that I have discussed in this article would not see eye to eye with me on all of the specifics, but they are certainly preparing for apocalyptic times too.

What about you?

Have you been getting prepared for what is coming?

I hope so, because the clock is ticking…

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.