Month: August 2024

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Cubans continue to flee a worsening economy in record numbers while the elderly have been left behind, fighting to survive on the communist regime’s $10 monthly pension and a critical lack of basic supplies.

Food, power, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical shortages have ignited persistent protests this year and driven Cuba’s ongoing exodus of working-age adults.

The result has been nothing short of devastating for the country’s retirees.

“It’s a nightmare in every direction. This is an SOS. Cuba is about to collapse in a fatal way,” said Ramon Saul Sanchez, a long-time anti-Cuban regime activist and president of the Democracy Movement in Miami.

“People can’t really imagine, especially from outside, making elderly people live in such inhumane conditions,” Sanchez told The Epoch Times.

“Because of the deterioration of the economy and the lack of interest of the Cuban regime, they aren’t helping those who need it,” he said. “Retirement pension maybe allows you to buy a dozen eggs a month. That’s it.”

With one of the oldest populations in Latin America, Cuba ranks high in its number of citizens older than 65 years, according to the Cuban Research Institute and Florida International University report.

The report noted the number of elderly dependents for every 100 working-age adults could soon reach 28 with the soaring volume of migrant outflows that began in 2022 expedited the problem.

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 425,000 illegal immigrant Cubans during fiscal years 2022 and 2023, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

An additional nearly 200,000 have been arrested in fiscal year 2024 through July.

These numbers have eclipsed previous large-scale migrations from Cuba to the United States, including the 1965–1973 Freedom Flights (approximately 300,000 Cubans) and the 1980 Mariel Boatlift (about 125,000 Cubans).

Plummeting birth rates have also fueled the acceleration of Cuba’s aging population for decades.

The trend became noticeable in the 1980s, but Cuba has been below replacement birth rates since 1978, according to an analysis published in the journal JSTOR.

The study authors stated that fertility rates climbed past 30 births per thousand citizens for several years following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

However, once the initial optimism of the communist regime faded, that rate declined by the late 1960s.

As of 1980, Cuba’s birth rate plummeted to a historic low of 14 per thousand.

As of 2024, the site Macrotrends observed Cuba’s birth rate now stands at just over nine per thousand.

In 2023, the deputy head of Cuba’s state-run National Office of Statistics and Information, Juan Carlos Alfonso Frag, appeared on the television program “Mesa Redonda” to address concerns over Cuba’s aging population.

Frag said the country has endured low fertility and high mortality rates for four years straight.

Meanwhile, relatives of Cubans living on the island say the lack of food and medical supplies is creating daily survival challenges for their loved ones.

Living on as little as $10 a month from their government pension, Sanchez explained that people who are too old to work often lack proper medication and nutrition.

Sanchez said the country’s communist party isn’t interested in helping its most vulnerable citizens, many of whom are former supporters of Castro’s revolution or even worked for the communist party.

Sanchez said Cuba’s entrenched regime now complains it doesn’t have enough money to pay out the pensions, claiming the country’s finances are too tight.

“People are dying. Elderly people are fainting in the streets from a lack of nutrition,” he said.

The daily survival fight for Cuba’s older residents is personal for Sanchez.

Sending Help

Of retirement age himself, Sanchez has a close friend to whom he has sent medical equipment and other supplies on many occasions.

Most recently he shipped health care items after his friend broke a leg.

Even the most basic medical supplies are scarce in Cuba.

Sanchez described the situation his friend dealt with upon arriving at a hospital with his leg broken in three places.

“They took a used cast they had propped up in the corner and put it around the knee. Then they put a piece of clothing to hold it in place and sent him home.”

When the leg didn’t heal, Sanchez’s friend was told by a doctor he’d need surgery.

“I had to send him everything for them [doctors] to do the surgery,“ Sanchez said with a heavy sigh. ”I’m literally talking about everything you need to do surgery.”

Without an urgent care package of antibiotics, bandages, stitches, and even anesthetics, Sanchez said his friend’s surgery wouldn’t have been possible.

Like so many, most of his friend’s family have either left the island or passed away.

Sanchez said his organization helps hundreds of Cubans in the same situation. Some have families in the United States that can ship supplies, but others are trapped and have no lifeline at all.

“We get calls like this every single day,” he said.

Author, co-founder, and spokesperson for the Cuban Democratic Directorate, Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, confirmed this.

“There is a severe shortage of medication because the regime is bankrupted and has no credit anywhere in the world,” he told The Epoch Times via text.

Boronat said the elderly are now paying a disproportionate price for years of economic mismanagement at the hands of Cuba’s regime.

This is especially concerning in healthcare, given the higher number of medical conditions that afflict the elderly.

In response to the mounting crisis, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel fired economic minister Alejandro Gil Fernández in March.

This is underscored by multiple reports of health care worker and water shortages at Cuban hospitals.

Read the rest here…

Authored by Jennifer Sweenie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A study out of the University of Reading has found that a poor-quality diet may be associated with changes in the brain structure that are linked to depression and anxiety. This research provides new insights into the connection between what we eat and our mental well-being.

While the authors did not find a direct association between brain changes and anxiety or depression, they did see an increase in rumination, a common risk factor of the two.

What the Study Found

The study is the first to examine the relationship between diet quality and brain neurochemistry in humans. Thirty adults were divided into two groups based on whether they followed a high- or low-quality diet. Participants in both groups were similar in age, gender, education, income, and caloric and macronutrient intake.

The quality of the diet was defined by adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Participants reported how frequently they ate 130 different food items, their consumption frequency, and food intake habits. Screening questionnaires were administered to assess current depression, anxiety, and rumination levels. Whole brain MRI scans measured prefrontal cortex metabolite concentrations and gray matter volume.

The study found that participants in the low-quality diet group had lower levels of GABA, higher levels of glutamate, and reduced gray matter volume in the brain—markers commonly seen in depression and anxiety. Those in the high-quality diet group had balanced levels of GABA and glutamate and a larger volume of gray matter in the brain.

GABA and glutamate are neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit signals between nerve cells and regulate various processes in the brain and body, such as mood, sleep, and cognition. Gray matter in the brain is involved in memory and emotions.

The researchers noted a trending relationship between increased rumination and decreased frontal gray matter volume. The researchers also observed a correlation between increased glutamate concentrations and increased rumination. Rumination is a major risk factor for anxiety and depression.

A 2019 animal study published in Food & Function showed that a diet high in sugar and saturated fat can decrease the number of parvalbumin interneurons (which contain and release GABA).

Poor-quality diets can also influence glucose and raise blood sugar and insulin levels. Studies show that high blood sugar may raise glutamate levels and subsequently lower the production and release of GABA.

Additionally, high-fat and high-cholesterol diets can also alter cell membranes, which can affect the release of neurotransmitters. A mouse study published in Nutritional Neuroscience in 2019 found that changes to the gut microbiome due to a poor diet are associated with depression-like behaviors. The mice were less social and exhibited a preference for sucrose, or table sugar.

Specifically, a reduction in good bacteria resulting from a diet rich in saturated fats is believed to influence the processes responsible for producing GABA and glutamate.

GABA and glutamate also play a significant role in regulating appetite and food intake. Decreased GABA or elevated glutamate levels may affect inhibitory control and could contribute to unhealthy food choices and overeating.

The Diet and Mental Health Connection

Andreas Michaelides, chief of psychology at Noom, told The Epoch Times in an email, “GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning it reduces neuronal excitability and helps calm the brain. When GABA levels are stable and adequate, they help reduce anxious thoughts by calming the brain.”

Michaelides explained that glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that heightens neuronal activity and is involved in learning and memory. Excessive glutamate activity can injure or kill neurons and damage the brain.

“The balance between GABA and glutamate is crucial for healthy brain function,” said Michaelides. “When we have low levels of GABA, we have increased anxiety and depression.”

Concerning glutamate levels, “certain symptoms and conditions, including anxiety, insomnia, and headaches, may indicate excessive glutamate activity,” he said.

How to Optimize Mental Health With Diet

Removing common culprits from your diet that disrupt neurotransmitter balance may support mental health and well-being.

“Certain foods can lower GABA levels or interfere with its natural function. Those foods are processed foods, alcohol and caffeine,” said Michaelides.

“Diets high in processed foods, refined sugars, and excessive protein can increase glutamate levels, these foods either directly contain glutamate or promote its production,” he added.

Processed foods and sugary snacks and beverages are also high in trans fats and refined sugars.

“These foods can cause inflammation and have been linked to higher rates of depression and anxiety. They can disrupt brain function and mood stability,” said Michaelides.

Rapid blood sugar fluctuations may also lead to mood swings and anxiety, with consistent consumption contributing to long-term mood instability.

It’s also best to limit alcohol consumption. Michaelides said, “Alcohol is a depressant that can disrupt neurotransmitter balance, leading to increased anxiety and depression over time.”

Excessive amounts of caffeine are also best avoided, as they can interfere with sleep and exacerbate anxiety.

When it comes to what to include in your diet to support mental health, appropriate protein intake is key.

“To have healthy neurotransmitter production, you must have proper protein intake,” said Michaelides.

When our bodies digest proteins, they are broken down into smaller molecules called amino acids. Amino acids make up neurotransmitters.

“In short, ensuring a varied protein intake supports optimal neurotransmitter function and mental health,” he said.

Sources of high-quality protein from fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel come with an added mental health boost. These high-quality proteins are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation and support neurotransmitter production, which is linked to lower risks of depression and improved cognitive function.

Other foods to add to your diet for a mental health boost include leafy green vegetables for their folate content. Michaelides noted that a folate deficiency is associated with a higher risk of depression.

Berries offer a boost in antioxidants and “protect the brain from oxidative stress, a factor linked to mental health disorders,” he added.

Nuts and seeds are excellent sources of magnesium, and sufficient magnesium intake is linked to reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression, he said.

Michaelides also recommends fermented foods such as kimchi and yogurt. “They promote a healthy gut microbiome, which can influence brain chemistry and improve mood,” he said.

Who needs Trump for an all-out trade war between the West and China.

Taking a page out of Europe’s playbook, Canada will impose staggering new tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, aluminum and steel, lining up behind western allies and taking steps to protect domestic manufacturers.

Speaking in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was gathered with the rest of his cabinet for a series of meetings about the economy and foreign relations Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled the new policy which consists of a 100% levy on electric cars and 25% on steel and aluminum. The EV tariff will take effect Oct. 1 and will also include certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses and delivery vans. It will be added to an existing 6.1% tariff that applies to Chinese EVs, the government said in a news release.

The levies on aluminum and steel will come into place Oct. 15. The government released an initial list of goods on Monday and the public will have a chance to comment before it is finalized on Oct. 1.

Turdeau’s (sic) government is also launching a new 30-day consultation on other sectors, including batteries and battery parts, semiconductors, solar products and critical minerals.

“We are transforming Canada’s automotive sector to be a global leader in building the vehicles of tomorrow,” the prime minister told reporters in Halifax. “But actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace, compromising the security of our critical industries and displacing dedicated Canadian autos and metal workers.”

Canada, an export-driven economy that relies heavily on trade with the US, has been closely watching moves by the Biden administration to erect a much higher tariff wall against Chinese EVs, batteries, solar cells, steel and other products. Canada’s auto sector is heavily integrated with that of its closest neighbor: The vast majority of its light vehicle production, amounting to just 1.5 million units last year, is exported to the US.

Turdeau’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has been one of the most prominent voices in favor of a harder approach to Chinese vehicle exports, and becoming a closer trade ally with the US. In June, she announced a public consultation on possible measures to make it more difficult for Chinese companies to sell electric vehicles in the Canadian market. During an interview with Bloomberg News in July, she said the tariffs consultation might go beyond electric cars.

The government also announced Monday that it will limit eligibility for electric vehicle incentives to products made in countries that have negotiated free-trade agreements with Canada. It will review the new levies within a year of them coming into effect.

We previously reported that the European Union also announced proposed new tariffs on electric vehicles important from China, though at lower levels than the US and now Canada are proposing. Products made by SAIC Motor Corp. face additional duties of 36.3%, while Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and BYD Co. each face tariffs of 19.3% and 17%, respectively, according to a draft decision released last week. Tesla Inc. will see an extra 9% charge on Chinese-made vehicles.

Chinese leaders plan to raise the issue of tariffs when US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan visits this week, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Sullivan is due to meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and may also meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

And now we wait to see what China’s tat will be to Canada’s tit: Beijing previously retaliated against Canada when it restricted imports of Canadian canola seed for three years, a move seen as retribution for a decision by Canada authorities to arrest Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a US extradition warrant. Meng returned to China in 2021.  

The value of Chinese electric vehicles imported by Canada surged to C$2.2 billion ($1.6 billion) last year, from less than C$100 million in 2022, according to data from Statistics Canada. The number of cars arriving from China at the port of Vancouver jumped after Tesla started shipping Model Y vehicles there from its Shanghai factory.

However, the Canadian government’s main concern isn’t Tesla, but the prospect of cheap cars made by Chinese automakers eventually becoming available. As Bloomberg reports, BYD informed the Canadian government in July that it intends to lobby lawmakers and officials about its plans to enter the country.

Trudeau also faced political and industry pressure. The Canadian auto sector had been pushing him to hike tariffs to protect domestic jobs and wages, arguing that China’s EVs are cheaper due to much weaker labor standards. The government has also bet big on automakers and manufacturers from democratic allies: the government has agreed to to multibillion-dollar subsidies for electric vehicle plants or battery factories for Stellantis NV, Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co., among others.  

Steel and aluminum producers in Canada have also publicly and repeatedly urged the government to restrict China’s access, saying that Xi’s industrial policy allows the Asian powerhouse to unfairly flood foreign markets, putting local jobs at risk.

Authored by Makai Allbert via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As Mohamed  Elmasry, emeritus professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, watched his 11 and 10-year-old grandchildren tapping away on their smartphones, he posed a simple question: “What’s one-third of nine?”

Instead of taking a moment to think, they immediately opened their calculator apps, he writes in his book “iMind Artificial and Real Intelligence.”

Later, fresh from a family vacation in Cuba, he asked them to name the island’s capital. Once again, their fingers flew to their devices, “Googling” the answer rather than recalling their recent experience.

With 60 percent of the global population—and 97 percent of those under 30—using smartphones, technology has inadvertently become an extension of our thinking process.

However, everything comes at a cost. Cognitive outsourcing, which involves relying on external systems to collect or process information, may increase one’s risk of cognitive decline.

Habitual GPS (global positioning system) use, for example, has been linked to a significant decrease in spatial memory, reducing one’s ability to navigate independently. As AI applications such as ChatGPT become a household norm—with 55 percent of Americans reporting regular AI use—recent studies found it is resulting in impaired critical thinking skills, dependency, loss of decision-making, and laziness.

Experts emphasize cultivating and prioritizing innate human skills that technology cannot replicate.

Neglected Real Intelligence

Referring to his grandkids and their overreliance on technology, Elmasry explains that they are far from “stupid.”

The problem is they are not using their real intelligence.

They, and the rest of their generation, have grown accustomed to using apps and digital devices—unconsciously defaulting to internet search engines such as Google rather than thinking it through.

Just as physical muscles atrophy without use, so too do our cognitive abilities weaken when we let technology think for us.

A telling case is now called the “Google effect,” or digital amnesia, as shown in a 2011 study from Columbia University.

Betsy Sparrow and colleagues at Columbia found that individuals tend to easily forget information that is readily available on the Internet.

Their findings showed that people are more likely to remember things they think are not available online. They are also better at recalling where to find information on the Internet than recalling the information itself.

A 2021 study further tested the effects of Googling and found that participants who relied on search engines such as Google performed worse on learning assessments and memory recall than those who did not search online.

The study also showed that Googlers often had higher confidence that they had “mastered” the study material, indicating an overestimation in learning and ignorance of their learning deficit. Their overconfidence might be the result of having an “illusion of knowledge” bias—accessing information through search engines creates a false sense of personal expertise and diminishes people’s effort to learn.

Overreliance on technology is part of the problem, but having it around may be just as harmful. A study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research discovered that “the mere presence” of a smartphone reduced “available cognitive capacity”—even if the phone was off or placed in a bag.

This “brain drain” effect likely occurs because the presence of a smartphone taps into our cognitive resources, subtly allocating our attention and making it harder to concentrate fully on the task at hand, researchers say. Excessive tech use does not only impair our cognition, clinicians and researchers have also noticed it being linked to impaired social intelligence—the innate aspects that make us human.

Becoming Machine-Like

In the United States, children aged 8 to 12 typically spend 4 to 6 hours a day on screens, while teenagers may spend up to 9 hours daily on screens. Further, 44 percent of teenagers feel anxious, and 39 percent feel lonely without their phones.

Excessive screen time reduces social interactions and emotional intelligence and has been linked to autistic-like symptoms, with longer durations of screen use correlated with more severe symptoms.

Dr. Jason Liu, a medical doctor who also has a doctorate in neuroscience, is a research scientist and founding president of the Mind-Body Science Institute International. Liu told The Epoch Times he is particularly concerned about children’s use of digital media.

He said he has observed irregularities in his young patients who spend excessive time in the digital world—noticing their mechanical speech, lack of emotional expression, poor eye contact, and difficulty forming genuine human connections. Many exhibit ADHD symptoms, responding with detachment and struggling with emotional fragility.

“We should not let technology replace our human nature,” said Liu.

Corroborating Liu’s observations, a JAMA study followed about 3,000 adolescents with no prior ADHD symptoms over 24 months and found that a higher frequency of modern digital media use was associated with significantly higher odds of developing ADHD symptoms.

As early as 1988, scientists introduced the concept of the “Internet Paradox,” a phenomenon in which the Internet, despite being a “social tool,” leads to antisocial behavior.

Observing 73 households during their first years online, researchers noted that increased Internet use was associated with reduced communication with family members, smaller social circles, and heightened depression and loneliness.

However, a three-year follow-up found that most of the adverse effects dissipated. The researcher explained this through a “rich get richer” model, where introverts experienced more negative effects from the Internet, while extroverts, with stronger social networks, benefited more and became more engaged in online communities, mitigating negative impacts.

Manuel Garcia-Garcia, global lead of neuroscience at Ipsos, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, told The Epoch Times that human-to-human connections are vital for building deeper connections, while digital communication tools facilitate connectivity, they can lead to superficial interactions and impede social cues.

Supporting Liu’s observation of patients becoming “machine-like,” a Facebook emotional contagion experiment, conducted on nearly 700,000 users, manipulated news feeds to show more positive or negative posts. Users exposed to more positive content posted more positive updates, while those seeing more negative content posted more negative updates.

This demonstrated that technology can nudge human behavior in subtle yet systematic ways. This nudging, according to experts, can make our actions and emotions predictable, similar to programmed responses.

The Eureka Moment

“Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe,” stated theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.

While the most advanced technologies, including AI, may appear sophisticated, they are incommensurate with the human mind.

“AI is very smart, but not really,” Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, professor of psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Epoch Times. “It’s a machine algorithm that’s really good at predicting the next word. Full stop.”

The human brain is constructed developmentally, and it’s “not just given to us like a computer is in a box,” Hirsh-Pasek said. Our environment and experiences shape the intricate web of neural connections, 100 billion neurons interconnected by 100 trillion synapses.

Human learning thrives on meaning, emotion, and social interaction. Hirsh-Pasek notes that computer systems like AI are indifferent to these elements. Machines only “learn” with the data they are fed, optimizing for the best possible output.

A cornerstone of human intelligence is the ability to learn through our senses, said Jessica Russo, a clinical psychologist, in an interview with The Epoch Times. When we interact with our environment, we process a large amount of data from what we see, hear, taste, and touch.

AI systems cannot go beyond the information they have been given, and they, therefore, cannot truly produce anything new, Hirsh-Pasek said.

“[AI] is an exquisitely good synthesizer. It’s not an exquisitely good thinker,” she said.

Humans, however, can.

Read the rest here…

A massive coordinated terror attack on several locations in southwestern Pakistan has left at least 70 dead over a 24-hour period of terror which started Sunday night.

The attacks were the work of a separatist group called the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility. It started with bombings and gunfire targeting a national military camp in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, which left at least one soldier dead.

In the same area, gunmen stormed four police stations, setting vehicles on fire. By morning, a key bridge in the area was also attacked and destroyed. But the situation escalated when militants attacked a major highway in a town called Bela. They intercepted traffic and then proceeded to execute people, reports say.

Several groups of BLA gunmen went on a rampage, and other motorways were targeted as well, seemingly at random, though authorities say in some instances the attackers were seeking to kill individuals of specific ethnic groups.

“Vehicles travelling to and from Punjab were inspected, and individuals from Punjab were identified and shot,” a regional report indicates.

Many of the reported dead are the militants themselves, amid a heavy police and military response. A list of some of the major attacks are as follows:

The country’s military said 14 soldiers and police, as well as 21 militants, were killed in fighting after the largest of the attacks, which targeted vehicles on a major highway in Bela, a town in Lasbela district.

In a separate attack in Musakhel district, local officials said at least 23 civilians were killed after attackers determined they were from Punjab, with 35 vehicles set ablaze.

And in Kalat, 10 people were reported to have been killed – five police and five civilians – after a police post and a highway were attacked.

In some places, the dead and wounded are still being accounted for, with recovered bodies being examined for identification.

#International l At least 40 people killed in two separate targetted attacks by Baloch gunmen. 23 passengers from #Pakistan‘s Punjab killed in Musakhel district, 11 others killed in Kalat, including 5 civilians & 6 security personnel.#Balochistan #Violence #Terrorist #Terrorism pic.twitter.com/kk8R9BV20D

— Lokmat Times Nagpur (@LokmatTimes_ngp) August 26, 2024

The New York Times describes of the horrific moment where summary executions of civilians were carried out on a random highway:

The deadliest single attack in the campaign so far unfolded in Musakhel, a district in Baluchistan, officials said, when armed men stopped traffic on a highway and demanded that passengers on buses and trucks show them their identity cards, officials said.

The gunmen forced some of the passengers out of the vehicles, and then shot and killed them, officials said. Nearly all of the victims were from Punjab Province, officials said, and the gunmen set at least 10 buses and trucks ablaze before fleeing the area.

While the region has witnessed long-running, internecine violence, Monday marks one of the worst and most gruesome attacks in the modern history of Pakistan given the random nature of the attacks on civilians. As a result, there is growing anger among the populace at the major intelligence and security failure.

Pakistan’s Balochistan province was hit by a coordinated attack from militant separatists who hit police stations, railway lines, and highways in a killing spree that has so far claimed at least 51 lives. https://t.co/PLcLHxbLi4 pic.twitter.com/SAbooXn9yL

— DW News (@dwnews) August 26, 2024

“No form of terrorism is acceptable in the country,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said in addressing the nation. “Our fight against terrorism will continue until the complete elimination of the scourge.”

The southwest region has witnessed separatist and radical Islamic terrorist organizations for years waging a long-running insurgency against the government and its foreign partners, accusing Islamabad of exploiting the population of the region.

Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

Amidst all the talk about the Federal Reserve’s high interest-rate policy to combat its many years of monetary expansion and debasement, some people advocate the restoration of the monetary system on which the United States was founded — one in which, they say, the dollar was “backed by gold.”

But there is one great big flaw in that idea: Under America’s founding monetary system, the dollar never was “backed by gold.” Instead, the official money of the nation for more than 125 years was gold coins and silver coins. Those coins didn’t back anything because they constituted the nation’s official money itself.

The Framers wanted nothing to do with paper money. They knew that historically paper money had been the way that governments had plundered and looted people through monetary expansion — that is, inflation of the paper-money supply. By printing up ever-increasing amounts of paper money to fund its operations, the government’s inflation of the money supply would cause the value of everyone’s money to fall. That decrease in value would be reflected in rising prices of the things that money would buy.

At the time the Constitution was being proposed, Americans themselves had just recently experienced the ravages of inflation with the paper money that the Revolutionary Congress had issued during the Revolution. The basic unit of money during that time was called the Continental. The Revolutionary Congress printed so many Continentals that the value of everyone’s money dropped to near zero. A popular refrain became “Not worth a Continental.”

Thus, the Framers wanted to come up with a monetary system that prevented government officials from debasing the value of people’s money. They knew that a paper-money system would not be likely to accomplish that goal. So, they came up with a system in which the official money of the country would be gold coins and silver coins. They knew that government officials could not print up vast quantities of gold coins and silver coins, like they could do with paper money.

The Constitution called into existence a government of limited powers. Its powers were limited to those powers that were enumerated in the Constitution. If a power wasn’t enumerated, it could not be exercised.

Thus, the Constitution granted the federal government the power to coin money. Obviously, paper cannot be coined. On the other hand, gold and silver can be coined.

During that time, paper money was known as “bills of credit.” The Constitution did not grant the federal government the power to issue “bills of credit” or paper money. Therefore, the federal government could not issue paper money. Since it was empowered only to coin money, the government issued gold coins and silver coins as the official money of the United States. That went on for more than 125 years.

Under the Constitution, the states were in a different position. They had the inherent powers of government that had characterized governments throughout history — the traditional “police powers” to provide for the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the people. However, there was an exception to such powers — if the Constitution prohibited the states from exercising a particular power, they were precluded from doing so.

That’s what the Constitution did with respect to the states’ monetary powers. States were expressly prohibited from issuing “bills of credit” or paper money. They were also expressly prohibited from making anything but gold and silver legal tender.

1907 $20 gold coin.

The Constitution also empowered the federal government to borrow money. That meant the government could issue bills, notes, and bonds. But even though the bills would oftentimes circulate in payment of goods and services, everyone understood that they were promises to pay money, not money itself. The money these instruments of indebtedness promised to pay was gold coins and silver coins, the official money that had been established by the Constitution.

The principle was the same with respect to bills, notes, and bonds issued by state governments. They were all promises to pay gold coins and silver coins, not paper money “backed by gold.”

This gold-coin/silver-coin monetary system turned out to be the finest monetary system in history, one in which the federal government did not plunder and loot people through inflation for more than 125 years.

The stability of this monetary system was one of the major contributing factors in the tremendous increase in the standard of living of the American people, especially by the time of the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.

It all came to an end in the 1930s, when the Franklin Roosevelt administration decreed an end to America’s gold-coin/silver-coin system and replaced it with an irredeemable paper-money system.

What was amazing is that FDR did this without even the semblance of a constitutional amendment and, just as bad, that the Supreme Court let him get away with it.

The result has been the same as it has been throughout history — the plundering and looting of people through monetary debasement.

Is the solution to implement a monetary system in which the dollar is “backed by gold”? No! As the Nobel Prize-winning libertarian economist Friedrich Hayek proposed, the solution is to separate money and the state. That means the repeal of legal-tender laws, the abolition of the Federal Reserve, and the end of all governmental involvement in money.

Let the free market decide the concept of money. The free market produces the best of everything. It would produce a monetary system that would be even better than the gold-coin/silver-coin system on which our nation was founded and which lasted for more than a century.

Shanghai-based business and financial media outlet Yicai reported on Monday that International Business Machines (IBM) plans to shut down its research and development division in China, impacting over 1,000 employees. This comes as China’s economic slowdown gathers pace and US companies are increasingly exiting the world’s second-largest economy, opting for ‘friend-shoring’ or ‘reshoring’ to secure supply chains amid vast uncertainty with deteriorating Sino-US relations. 

Yicai explained that the IBM China Development Lab and IBM China System Lab would be wound down, and over 1,000 employees would be cut. 

Here’s more from the Shanghai-based media outlet:

China was once IBM’s most well-established regional market outside of the United States, and the R&D division’s shuttering marks a significant turning point in the firm’s 40 years in China. IBM shut its China Research Lab in January 2021, whose main product was Watson, a computer system launched in 2011 that can answer questions raised in natural language.

“I’ve served IBM for several decades, and the shutdown of its Chinese R&D division is a pity,” one IBM employee commented.

“The R&D division’s closure will only impact testers, who are not responsible for R&D in the strict sense,” a person who worked in many US software companies told Yicai. “IBM actually moved its entire R&D division to the US years ago.”

“IBM will adjust its operation based on needs,” IBM China said. “These changes will not impact our ability to support customers in China.”

IBM’s move to shutter its R&D facilities in China should be seen as part of a broader trend of ‘friend-shoring’ or ‘reshoring,’ in which US companies move toward friendlier, more stable environments amid deteriorating US-Sino relations.

In recent years, Apple’s move to diversify its production from China to India and elsewhere only suggests that this trend will continue through the end of the decade. Companies exiting China are turning to the Americas, such as the US and Mexico, India, Japan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, and Japan. 

The major shift out of China by Western companies, plus the nation’s property crisis and demographic winter, only suggests that the growth rates of 8, 9, 10, and 11% might never be achieved in this decade, and 2, 3, and 4% growth rates are the new normal. These growth rates might be even lower in the next decade. 

Authored by Colonel Douglas Macgregor (ret.) via TheAmericanConservative.com,

The Republican and Democratic National Conventions, always heavy on glamor and light on substance, are over. It’s time to move beyond sloganeering and address reality.

In the United States, the price of food is up 21 percent in three years. Thirty-year mortgage rates were 3.7 percent; they are now 7 percent. Rents are skyrocketing, car loan delinquencies are rising and, last year, there were at least 150,000 reports of American children going missing in what is becoming a child-trafficking emergency.

Millions of Americans think that our society is experiencing a moral collapse. Divorce is widespread, single parents struggle to raise children, drug abuse is rampant, suicide rates are high, and the rule of law is collapsing across the country.

Is it really a surprise that Americans doubt their institutions, their courts, even the leadership of their own armed forces? Americans feel disconnected from their collective, national identity. Shamed into isolation and self-hatred under the oppressive weight of mass-media, pop-culture, and official deceit, Americans feel helpless to stop their freefall into nihilism—the belief in nothing, not justice or beauty, no divine influence, just nothing.  

Americans feel like their homeland is being transformed into a wasteland. More and more Americans think that taxation without representation is the norm in all 50 states, not just in DC. Voting for one or another of the major parties, Democrats or Republicans, does little to arrest the nation’s descent into chaos.

What does Washington’s ruling political class of so-called Democrats and Republicans, hereafter referred to as the Uniparty, think?

Frankly, the Uniparty does not care.

While American wages declined, and jobs dried up Washington’s ruling political class grew rich from insider deals and cronyism. Since January 2021, America’s 750 billionaires have increased their wealth by $1.5 trillion. Like the political figures the billionaires pick to run the government, including 5,000 political appointees, they have no “skin in the game.”

The Uniparty celebrates trashy, degenerate events like the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Paris. Americans who object to the degradation of Christianity and Western values and beliefs are dismissed as bigots, extremists, or White Christian Nationalists.

Americans want to know what is happening to their country. Americans want to know why they are living in a world where the ugly pretend to be beautiful and the beautiful are being brainwashed to think that they are ugly.

Part of the answer is that the politics of identity are no longer just a campaign strategy. They are now a reality, a permanent feature of America’s political landscape.

Why else would General C.Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, complain that the U.S. Armed Forces have too many white pilots? Anyone who thinks that the federal programs for diversity, inclusion, and equity are sincere and mean anything other than hatred for our country and the generations of Americans that fought and died for it is extremely naive. It’s like suggesting the Ku Klux Klan was pro-civil rights in the 1960s.

Thanks to open borders, a system of “one ballot, one vote” is replacing “one citizen, one vote.” Thanks to this system of institutionalized fraud, Americans can expect the Uniparty’s new crop of illegal foreign “voters,” a mix of future dependents, lawbreakers, low-skilled workers, to show up on November 5 and vote to decide America’s future. These are also the masses of foreigners, with no ties to our society, that the ruling class wants to staff our armed forces.

Why would the Uniparty inflict this damage on the American People?

The Uniparty knows that, without common identity or kinship, democracy is replaced with tribal anarchy, a societal condition that leads to nihilism, drug abuse, criminality, and worse.  

The goal is painfully obvious. It is the denationalization of the United States, the fundamental destruction of national identity and the social cohesion that supports it. The process involves the conversion of Americans into an amorphous mass of sedated consumers. The transformation of the U. S. Armed Forces into mercenary military formations staffed by illegal migrants is an enormously important step in the direction of denationalization.

After all, before Americans won their independence, their national identity rested on the shoulders of the Continental Army. If General Washington could hold the Continental Army together despite fearful odds, our country and its governing body—congress—existed.  The Continental Army was, and today’s Armed Forces still are, the repository of American national Identity.

The Uniparty rejects these charges. Instead, the Uniparty tells us how fortunate we are to welcome tens of millions of foreigners into our country where they will enhance our culture, society and way of life. Really, how many “Rs” are there in “fat chance?”

Meanwhile, the Uniparty promotes the sexualization of children in our public school systems. Naturally, the Uniparty pretends to care for the workingman or woman, and it promises everything to everyone for nothing in perpetuity—tuition-free college, free health care, free housing, free everything. The Uniparty is giving non-paying, illegal immigrants access to our healthcare system.

How the Uniparty will pay for these things is a question no one answers. Servicing the national debt on an annual basis already involves a sum larger than the defense budget. Are the presidential candidates aware? Do they care? For the Uniparty, none of these concerns matters. The daily life of the Uniparty is about self-enrichment, sensual pleasure, and social prestige. The Uniparty motto is “When in doubt, print more money.” 

Equally troubling is the Uniparty’s enthusiasm for war. In fact, the Uniparty sees enormous benefit to war, even to the point of turning over control of the U.S. Armed Forces to the direction of a foreign power for use in a major war that will escalate to involve other nuclear-armed powers.

But Americans are not stupid.

Americans know that open borders are not a net benefit, and they know that modern war is not a game or an event that occurs only on foreign soil. The new, emerging constellation of potential adversaries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East is no longer a loose collection of hapless opponents without armies, air forces, navies, air defenses, or persistent surveillance from seabed to space.  

President Abraham Lincoln was right: “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

The time for Americans to halt the destruction is upon us.

The question is whether Americans will remain bystanders or intervene to save the Republic.

Corn prices in Chicago slid to a four-year low on Monday following a bearish crop yield outlook that forecasted record highs for the US by the end of the harvest season. While this is favorable news for consumers, it spells continued disaster for farmers, whose incomes are expected to plummet this year due to declining agricultural prices and rising expenses. 

The Pro Farmer Crop Tour projected a record corn yield of 181 bushels on average per acre nationwide. If this forecast comes to fruition, then this would be a record high. The forecast also sees production of around 15 million bushels, similar to the USDA’s estimates. 

Adam Davis, chief investment officer at Farrer Capital, told Bloomberg that corn prices could be nearing a bottom, with most negative factors already priced in. He noted, “It’s likely that US farmers might hold onto supplies to push up prices, adding, “Pro Farmer just confirmed what we already knew.”

Late last week, Brian Grete, leader of the eastern leg of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour, which completed the four-day crop survey, told Bloomberg, “There are big yields out there, both corn and beans.” 

Pro Farmer Tour 2024, south central Nebraska sweet corn edition. @PVseed planted May 22. Pivot irrigated. #Pftour24 pic.twitter.com/vdMEV2GfiR

— Laura Farms (@laurafarms_) August 20, 2024

“Ironically, many American farmers aren’t celebrating the bumper crops. Mega-harvests are creating a host of challenges, as the ample inventories pushed soybean and corn futures to the lowest since 2020 last week,” Bloomberg added. 

Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade slid under $4 a bushel in recent weeks, nearing early 2020 lows. Prices have been halved since peaking around $8 in April 2022. Money managers have increased bearish bets on the grain to the most in three weeks.  

Other grains, such as soybeans and wheat, have been pressured lower with corn over bumper harvest outlooks. 

Meanwhile, USDA warned earlier this year that projected farm incomes were expected to crash 26% this year, the largest drop since 2006. 

With small farms in total collapse, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week that his support for former President Trump would include making America’s small farms great again. 

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Are you getting prepared?  Right now, millions of Americans are stockpiling food and supplies in anticipation of what they believe is coming.  People are on edge due to the approaching election, the rapidly escalating war in the Middle East, the alarming natural disasters that we have been witnessing all around the world, and the potential for another great global pandemic. 

In all my years, I have never seen more concern about the next 12 months as I am seeing at this moment. 

There is a growing consensus that major history changing events are about to happen, and there are lots and lots of people that want to be well prepared. 

In fact, Newsweek has reported that “doomsday prepping” has become a 2.46 billion dollar industry…

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.

Secondly, preparation is going to look different for everyone.  Your unique circumstances will dictate what “getting prepared” looks like for you.

Thirdly, 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.