Important Takeaways:
- Inflation may be rapidly cooling, but there’s one area that continues to eat away at Americans’ budgets: Stubbornly high food prices.
- Rising food costs were one contributor to the hotter-than-expected inflation report on Tuesday, with food prices rising 0.4% in January from December, a faster pace than the overall 0.3% rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
- The CPI, a basket of goods and services typically bought by Americans, measures two types of food purchases, groceries and “food away from home,” or restaurant and other prepared meals. Both are rising, but restaurant prices are increasing at a faster pace, jumping 5.1% on an annual basis compared with a 1.2% increase in grocery costs.
- Any increase in food prices may be especially painful to American consumers, given that supermarket prices are now 25% higher than in January 2020, while inflation has increased 19% over that same time. That means even though grocery costs are now rising at a slower pace than in the depth of the pandemic’s inflationary spike, the same shopping basket still costs more than a month or a year ago, a fact that has soured many consumers on the economy.
- The reason for inflation’s stubborn hold on food prices can be linked to a number of issues, from higher labor costs at manufacturers that trickle down to consumers, to record-low cattle numbers that are driving up the cost of beef and steak.
- But some policy experts see other issues at work: Corporations, they claim, are increasing prices simply because they can. President Joe Biden last month warned that companies are “ripping people off” with a combination of price gouging, “greedflation” and shrinkflation.
- In fact, five types of food have been responsible for 30% of grocery inflation in recent years… They are beef and veal; poultry; non-frozen, non-carbonated juices and drinks; fresh fruits and vegetables; and snacks.
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Important Takeaways:
- US homelessness up 12% to highest reported level as rents soar and coronavirus pandemic aid lapses
- The United States experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday.
- About 653,000 people were homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. The total in the January count represents an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier.
- The latest estimate indicates that people becoming homeless for the first time were behind much of the increase.
- Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, a federal agency, said “The most significant causes are the shortage of affordable homes and the high cost of housing that have left many Americans living paycheck to paycheck and one crisis away from homelessness,” Olivet said.
- Within the overall rise, homelessness among individuals rose by nearly 11%, among veterans by 7.4% and among families with children by 15.5%.
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Important Takeaways:
- Dozens of Chinese migrants spotted entering US illegally in California border town of Jacumba and say they’re here to ‘take the money’ along with others from Syria and Turkey
- Shocking images and video taken in California this weekend show Chinese migrants lined up at the border town of Jacumba and telling reporters shamelessly how they’re here to ‘take the money’.
- Dozens and dozens, possibly up to hundreds of migrants, crossed the international boundary, according to Griff Jenkins of Fox News, who recorded the footage.
- ‘This is one of the largest groups of Chinese I have ever come across and there were […] two groups at the same time crossing in Jacumba, CA,’ the correspondent tweeted last week.
- More than 150 Chinese nationals a day are sneaking into the US illegally since October, according to startling new US Customs and Border Protection statistics
- When asked why he’d come to America, one young man from Guangzhou replied: ‘To take the money’
- Others arriving in Jacumba had come from Turkey and Syria. Border Patrol Agents previously warned Washington lawmakers that it is impossible for them to vet everyone who enters the country because the numbers are so out of control
- The 2023 fiscal year reportedly saw over 37,000 Chinese migrants encountered at the border – with a staggering 20,000 more since October, when the 2024 fiscal year began.
- The Chinese surge is part of a historic and overwhelming wave of migrants across the Southern Border of the country since 2021.
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Important Takeaways:
- The first human patient implanted with a brain-chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startup’s founder, Elon Musk, said late on Monday.
- “Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of. Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking,” Musk said in a Spaces event on the social media platform X.
- The firm successfully implanted a chip on its first human patient last month, after receiving approval for human trial recruitment in September.
- The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink has said, adding that the initial goal was to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts.
- Musk has grand ambitions for Neuralink, saying it would facilitate speedy surgical insertions of its chip devices to treat conditions like obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia.
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Important Takeaways:
- American Totalitarian “Crypto Dollar” May Come Before the Election
- Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) threaten to replace the cash we use with programmable, trackable, and censorable tokens controlled by governments. Your financial choices could be suppressed, and privacy eliminated. Based on what I’ve learned and experienced directly, this could happen before the 2024 election. The best way to stop it is through direct action, not through politics.
- This is why I believe a CBDC might be rolled out in the United States before the 2024 Presidential election.
- 1/ President Biden has Authorized the Exploration of a CBDC, and There Isn’t any Real Resistance in Congress.
- US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been leading the battle against CBDCs in the United States Senate. In 2023, he introduced a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC. Alarmingly, Cruz informed me that the bill is dead in the water and that the votes aren’t there in the US Senate to block a CBDC. He also expressed concern that the Federal Reserve might attempt to act unilaterally and bypass Congress by introducing a CBDC.
- He further suggested that if a CBDC is not introduced this term, it is very possible that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) could become the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which would oversee the push for a CBDC. Warren has recently expressed her enthusiastic support for and advocacy for CBDCs.
- 2/ The Technology for a US CBDC has Already Been Developed and Could be Deployed Quickly.
- The exploration of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) through projects like Project Hamilton, Project Cedar, and the Regulated Liability Network (RLN) raises significant concerns over privacy, autonomy, and the consolidation of power within the hands of a few centralized entities. These pilots, while technically impressive, venture into dangerous territory, potentially undermining individual freedoms and enabling unprecedented levels of surveillance and control by governments and globalist organizations.
- 3/ Most Americans are Unaware of What CBDCs are and Could be Easily Manipulated in an Emergency.
- The CBDC issue is flying under the radar intentionally, and will likely not receive mainstream attention until after an emergency so that people will make a fight-or-flight decision out of fear.
- 4/ In Recent History, Emergencies Have Driven Major Legislation That Strips Us of Our Rights.
- Winston Churchill stated, “Never let a good crisis go to waste” and the US Congress and Senate have not missed this opportunity to use an emergency to strip US citizens of their freedoms.
- In fact, there are some in Congress today, such as Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi, whose eagerness to pass monumental bills under the guise of urgency spans across various administrations and crises. All three, along with many others, voted for the Patriot Act, TARP, and the CARES Act.
- The Patriot Act, rushed into law just 45 days post-9/11, expanded the surveillance state to Orwellian proportions, making a mockery of privacy and due process.
- TARP, a knee-jerk reaction to the financial meltdown of 2008, saw billions of taxpayer dollars funneled into the coffers of the very institutions whose greed-fueled incompetence necessitated the bailout, all within 18 days.
- The CARES Act, enacted in a 16-day frenzy as Covid-19 gripped the nation, not only crushed small businesses to the benefit of large, multinational corporations but also opened floodgates for potential misuse of funds and expanded the surveillance state, all under the convenient veil of emergency.
- Following this trend, we could see a CBDC passed in under two weeks.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hanging out with the new meme king of East Oakland, ‘where life is worthless’
- A Prius hanging out of a dumpster. Stripped-down cars. Burning trash cans. These are some of the East Oakland sights set to a new catchphrase that’s blowing up on social media: “Oakland, California, … donde la vida no vale nada.”
- Even cops, government officials, firefighters and kids are repeating the catchphrase on social media and on the streets of the Town.
- It’s all because of Gregorio Ramon, who coined the saying in videos on his Instagram… and TikTok… accounts documenting crime and mayhem in the East Bay city. Since mid-2022, Ramon has been capturing footage of everything from police chases to cars on fire and the boarded-up Denny’s that closed last month due to public safety concerns.
- In every video, he says, “Oakland, California, … donde la vida no vale nada, donde la cuidad nos tiene abandonados.” The phrase translates to English as, “Oakland, California, … where life is worthless, where the city has abandoned us.
- Ramon said, “I said it because it is the reality of what we are living,” the 47-year-old East Oakland resident said. “Oakland, California, where life is worthless. Where someone can drive 100 mph, kill a 60-year-old man walking in the street and try to flee. Like nothing. It’s like just another day.”
- Ramon’s postings precede a recent order by Gov. Gavin Newsom sending 120 CHP officers to Oakland to battle rising crime in early February.
- The temporary “surge,” as state officials described it, lasted from Feb. 5 to 9 with 71 suspects arrested, 145 stolen vehicles recovered and four “crime-linked” firearms seized, according to the Governor’s Office.
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Important Takeaways:
- 3 Existential Threats That We Are Facing Right Now Which Could Potentially Result In Millions Of Dead Americans
- In recent years, there has been one enormous crisis after another. We live at a time of major wars, global pestilences and billion-dollar natural disasters.
- Today, our scientists are taking some of the deadliest diseases ever known to humanity and are purposely trying to make them “more infectious”. Here is just one example…
- [Daily Mail report] The US government is spending $1million of American taxpayer money to fund experiments on dangerous bird flu viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists.
- According to the CDC, bird flu has a death rate of more than 50 percent in humans.
- And these researchers want to make it “more infectious”?
- And the head of the WHO is warning that the timing of the next great global outbreak is “a matter of when, not if”…
- [Brietbart reports] At the World Government Summit, held in Dubai from February 12-14, Ghebreyesus told attendees his previous predictions came to fruition in the form of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Now, the W.H.O. director believes a new pandemic, for which the international community is ill-prepared, is on the horizon.
- Renewing urgent calls for a global pandemic treaty to be agreed upon by May, Ghebreyesus dismissed suspicions of the treaty being a W.H.O. power-grab and called it “mission critical for humanity.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Zombie fires smolder in Canada under layers of snow amid fears the thaw will bring another smog-filled summer to the US
- Zombie fires have been smoldering under layers of snow in Canada as the remnants of last year’s massive wildfires remain in the area.
- The zombie fires, or flameless, slow-burning fires that occur under the earth’s surface, have triggered fears that the thaw will bring another smog-filled summer to the US.
- Firefighter and scientist Sonja Leverkus said that as she drove in a snowstorm in November in her small town in British Columbia, she noticed that instead of the snow being white, it was a blue-grey color from the smoke.
- ‘I’ve never experienced a snowstorm that smelled like smoke,’ Leverkus said.
- Now, those fears could spark another wave of smog and haze down to the US like much of the East Coast experienced in the summer of 2023.
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Important Takeaways:
- Nuclear Threat: Russia Will Drop ‘Entire Arsenal’ on London, Washington if it Doesn’t Win Ukraine War
- Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, who was also formerly the Prime Minister and President of Russia in service to Vladimir Putin, has threatened Western capitals with the “entire strategic arsenal” of Russian nuclear weapons. Medvedev, for whom absolutely no slight is too small to necessitate a nuclear response, was speaking of Ukraine’s hope to retake its U.N.-recognized national territory which in some cases have been occupied by Russia for very close to ten years.
- Russia has amended its constitution and now considers those areas — Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia — to be full parts of the Russian Republic. Attempting to push the borders back to where they were before will invite a massive retaliation, Medvedev said in his latest threat on Sunday, making clear he sees the Western states aiding Ukraine with arms as legitimate targets.
- He said: “Attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing. To a global war with Western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state. In Kiev, Berlin, London, Washington.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel sets date for Rafah offensive in ultimatum for Hamas: War cabinet member warns onslaught will begin in three weeks unless all hostages are released
- Israel has threatened to invade Gaza’s Rafah by the start of Ramadan if Hamas does not return the remaining hostages in a dark ultimatum condemned by international observers.
- The United States and other governments, as well as the United Nations, have issued increasingly urgent appeals to Israel to call off its planned offensive on Rafah, where three-quarters of the displaced Palestinian population has fled.
- Some 1.2 million people are now taking shelter in sprawling tent encampments without access to adequate food, water or medicine in the city that used to be home to just 250,000.
- But the Israeli government says the city on the Egypt border is the last remaining stronghold in Gaza of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
- ‘The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,’ Benny Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.
- ‘Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages and the civilians of Gaza can celebrate the feast of Ramadan,’ added Gantz, a member of the three-person war cabinet.
- Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, is expected to begin around March 10.
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