AMERICA IN CRISIS: 12.31.22 - Theft Is Out of Control

 Theft Is Out of Control – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Stores across the U.S. are grappling with a huge uptick in shoplifting that could lead to higher prices and closed stores if the problem persists, said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.Most of the shoplifting is organized retail theft rather than petty theft. Most of the products targeted have a high resale value. Walmart is having to lock up a growing number of items that used to sit openly on shelves. In the store in my town, I’ve noticed a growing number of cameras from various allies.The first camera I noticed was in the baby food section. I couldn’t understand why people would steal this product, but Infinity formula sells well on ebay.com. Walmart isn’t the only big box retailer dealing with an uptick in theft. Last month, Target Chief Financial Officer Michael Fiddelke said shoplifting has jumped about 50%year over year, leading to more than $400 million in losses in this fiscal year alone. Many drugstore chains have had to cut their losses by closing hundreds of stores. Rite Aid is planning on closing 97 stores. The firm’s executive vice president of retail,Andre Persaud, said the day may come when all Rite Aid stores will be like a big vending machine with everything behind plexiglass to slow down thefts. One woman who owned a high-end clothing store had to close her Business after it was broken into 17 times. Burglaries in St. Louis went door-to-door breaking into nearly twodozen businesses. DB’s Sports Bar owner Justin Gibson said this is the fourth time DB’s has been broken into this year. “You’re taking food out of our mouths,” Gibson said. “It’s already hard times with inflation, and now we’re having to make these repairs constantly and hire extra security.We’re stretched very, very thin.” Package theft in some areas is so bad that people can’t have packages delivered to their homes. I’m lucky to live in an area where I’ve never had something stolen from mydoorstep. I recently watched a video where a guy did a funny prank on these thieves. He had a package next to his home on a long wire. When several thieves grabbed the box, he would chase after them, and they would be knocked to the ground when the lengthof the wire ran out. The liberal media, always ready to defend criminals, said that soaring inflation is what triggers the crime wave. Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at the Universityof Missouri-St. Louis, told Insider that property crime would jump this year as rising prices push consumers into the black market. The real problem is that many people have become extremely evil. They think they are entitled to take stuff that they didn’t purchase. One guy at Home Depot loaded up a cartwith three power washers and began walking out the door with them. When an 80-year-old employee tried to confront him, he just pushed him into a wall, which led to the worker’s death. A huge factor that is embodying thieves is the meltdown of our legal system. San Francisco encouraged theft by only having criminal prosecution of people who steal items worthmy than $900. So people boldly walk into a Walgreens, load their bags with items worth less than the new limit, and walk out of the store. One woman was robbed by a man who had been arrested 50 times in recent years. Another woman was brutally beaten overher purse. The man who attacked her was arrested and only given a $500 bail. I once watched a video of a man in Singapore demonstrating how much crime is related to culture. He was in a cafe and left his laptop on the table and went around a mall forabout half an hour. When he came back, the laptop was still there. Crime is very low in Singapore because people are taught it’s wrong. Fear can also be a motivator of morality. If you go to a gold jewelry shop in Saudi Arabia, the dealers will let you handle all the gold products. It’s well understood thatif you get caught trying to steal from the shop, they’ll cut your head off. The extreme criminal nature of American society is a strong indication that our nation is doomed. Unless we return to our moral foundation, we will die like a hundred otherempires that lost their soul. “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). -------------------------- 15 Facts Which Prove That A Massive Economic Meltdown Is Already Happening Right Now- by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/15-facts-that-prove-that-a-massive-economic-meltdown-is-already-happening-right-now/ Economic conditions just keep getting worse. As we prepare to enter 2023, we find ourselves in a high inflation environment at the same time that economic activity is reallyslowing down. And just like we witnessed in 2008, employers are conducting mass layoffs as a horrifying housing crash sweeps across the nation. Those that have been waiting for the U.S. economy to implode can stop waiting, because an economic implosion hasofficially arrived. The following are 15 facts that prove that a massive economic meltdown is already happening right now� #1 Existing home sales have now fallen for 10 consecutive months. #2 Existing home sales are down 35.4 percent over the last 12months. That is the largest year over year decline in existing home sales since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. #3 Homebuilder sentiment has now dropped for 12 consecutive months. #4 Home construction costs have risen more than 30 percent sincethe beginning of 2022. #5 The number of single-family housing unit permits has fallenfor nine months in a row. #6 The Empire State Manufacturing Index has plunged �to a readingof negative 11.2 in December�. That figure was way, way below expectations. #7 In November, we witnessed the largest decline in retail salesthat we have seen all year long. #8 Even the biggest names on Wall Street are starting to let workersgo. In fact, it is being reported that Goldman Sachs will soon lay off approximately 4,000 employees. #9 The Federal Reserve is admitting that the number of actualjobs in the United States has been overstated by over a million. #10 U.S. job cuts were 417 percent higher in November than theywere during the same month a year ago. #11 A recent Wall Street Journal survey found that approximatelytwo-thirds of all Americans expect the economy to get even worse next year. #12 A newly released Bloomberg survey has discovered that 70 percentof U.S. economists believe that a recession is coming in 2023. #13 Inflation continues to spiral wildly out of control. At thispoint, a head of lettuce now costs 11 dollars at one grocery store in California. #14 Overall, vegetable prices in the United States are more than80 percent higher than they were at this same time last year. #15 Thanks to the rapidly rising cost of living, 63 percent ofthe U.S. population is now living paycheck to paycheck. In a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve has been dramatically increasing interest rates. Those interest rate hikes are what has caused the housing market to crash, but Fed officials insist that such short-term pain is necessary in order to tame inflation. But meanwhile our politicians in Washington are busy creating more inflation by borrowing and spending money at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented in our entire history. This week, an abominable 1.7 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill is being rammed through Congress, but not a single member of Congress has read it. The bill is 4,155 pages long, and U.S. Senator Rand Paul just held a press briefing during which he wheeled it out on a trolley� After the grossly bloated $1.7 trillion Omnibus spending bill advanced in the Senate by a vote of 70-25, GOP Senator Rand Paul held a press briefing during which he wheeledin the �abomination� on a trolley and demanded to know how anyone would be able to read it before the end of the week. Paul, along with the only other dissenting Senate Republicans Mike Braun, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Rick Scott highlighted how ludicrous the fast tracking of the bill hasbeen. Unfortunately, this absurd spending bill has broad support on both sides of the aisle, and that just shows how broken Washington has become. Our system of government has failed time after time, and our politicians continue to spend money on some of the most ridiculous things imaginable. The following examples that were pulled out of the 1.7 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill were discovered by the Heritage Foundation� -$1.2 million for �LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers� -$1.2 million for �services for DACA recipients� (aka helping illegal aliens with taxpayer funds) at San Diego Community College. -$477k for the Equity Institute in RI to indoctrinate teachers with �antiracism virtual labs.� -$1 million for Zora�s House in Ohio, a �coworking and community space� for �women and gender-expansive people of color.� -$3 million for the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City. -$3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia. -$750k for the for �LGBT and Gender Non-Conforming housing� in Albany, New York. -$856k for the �LGBT Center� in New York. And have you noticed that our politicians often prefer to push these types of bills through just before major holidays when hardly anyone is paying attention? No matter who we send to Washington, the story remains the same. As long as our politicians are borrowing and spending trillions of dollars that we do not have, Fed officials won�t be able to win their war against inflation. The Fed can send interest rates into the stratosphere, but inflation will continue to remain high because our politicians insist on showering the nation with giant mountainsof cash. We should all be deeply, deeply offended by what is happening, but most Americans simply do not know enough to care. But once economic conditions get even worse than they were in 2008 and 2009, the majority of the U.S. population will become extremely angry. Of course things could have turned out much differently if we had made better decisions during the years leading up to this crisis. Unfortunately, we have run out of time to change course, and that means that a tremendous amount of pain is ahead for all of us. --------------------- Why Do So Many Bad Things Keep Happening to Us? - by Michael Snyder- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/why-do-so-many-bad-things-keep-happening-to-us/ I suppose that this is a fitting way to end the year. 2022 has been a year of war, plagues, natural disasters, shortages and severe economic troubles, but up until this monthwe had not been able to add �an apocalyptic winter storm� to the list yet. Unfortunately, what we have just been through over the last week definitely qualifies. A �monster storm� that covered almost the entire country at one point brought blizzard conditionsto much of the U.S. over the past several days. Temperatures dipped down to minus 50 degrees in some areas, and extremely high winds and heavy snow combined to create truly nightmarish conditions in certain cities. For example, we are being told that thiswas the �most devastating storm in Buffalo�s long storied history�� �We had to send specialized rescue crews to go get the rescuers,� Poloncarz told �CNN This Morning� Monday, adding it was the worst storm he could remember. �It was just horrendous,and it was horrendous for 24 hours in a row.� �We�re used to snow here, we can handle snow,� he said. �But with the wind, the blinding views � it was complete whiteouts � and the extreme cold, it was some of the worstconditions that any of us have ever seen.� The storm has drawn widespread comparisons to Buffalo�s famous blizzard of 1977. Poloncarz said in Monday�s news conference the current storm�s �ferocity � was worse thanthe blizzard of �77.� And in a news conference Sunday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called this storm the �most devastating storm in Buffalo�s long storied history.� Buffalo has had a lot of really bad storms over the years. But this one takes the cake. According to a local news report, Buffalo has already received about 4 feet of snow, and snow is going to continue to fall until the middle of the day on Tuesday� The blizzard began Friday, dumping nearly 4 feet of snow in the Buffalo area and making many roads impassable. The snow is still falling. Some parts of the county could see another 8 to 12 inches by 1 p.m. Tuesday. I have never seen anything quite like this. Of course I have been using that phrase a lot lately. So far, at least 27 people have been killed by the storm in Erie County, and the overall national death toll from the storm is up to 55. But both of those numbers will inevitably go much higher because right now there are countless drivers stranded in their vehicles on highways all over the United States. What part of �don�t drive during this storm� did people not understand? Many others are without power and are slowly freezing as they find themselves trapped inside their own homes by colossal mountains of snow. Those that are in need of rescue could use our prayers right about now. Sadly, it seems like whenever there is some sort of a major natural disaster in this country there are hordes of looters ready to take advantage of it. On Monday, the rampant looting that we just witnessed in Buffalo made headlines all over the globe� Videos posted online show brazen thieves taking advantage of the chaos, trudging over mounds of snow to get into abandoned storefronts � like a Dollar General where shelveswere overturned and items were scattered across the ground. Residents filmed some of the thieves as they entered the store and left with handfuls of items like paper towels and toilet paper, as one shameless woman even posted a FacebookLive of her and her friends grabbing items from the store. Others were filmed hauling televisions out of stores, and security footage caught one man breaking the glass of a liquor store door, where he allegedly stole $500 worth ofgoods. Zero Hedge has posted lots of videos of the vicious looting, and those videos are prime examples of just how far we have fallen as a society. As I have said so many times before, the thin veneer of civilization that we all depend upon on a daily basis is rapidly disappearing. If a truly horrific long-term disaster were to erupt that causes law and order to break down on a widespread basis, we will devolve into a �Mad Max society� very quickly. Speaking of crime, someone just attacked four more electrical substations in Washington state� Thousands of homes were left in the dark after four electrical substations in western Washington were vandalized on Christmas Day, local authorities said on Sunday, addingthat it was unknown if the incidents were connected. The attacks on Sunday cut power to more than 14,000 utility customers in south Pierce County, near Tacoma, the Pierce County Sheriff�s Office said. The burglaries were reported at two substations belonging to Tacoma Public Utilities and two belonging to Puget Sound Energy. In a previous article, I discussed the fact that the number of these attacks has reached an all-time record high this year, and they are happening all over the nation. Utility companies are going to have to start hiring 24 hour security to guard their equipment, because this is a problem that isn�t going to go away. And that will mean even higher utility bills for all of us. I truly wish that our society was not coming apart at the seams all around us. But this is where we are at, and denying reality is not going to make things any better. So why is our society in such bad shape? And why do so many bad things keep happening to us? The end of the year is often a time of self-reflection for individuals, and it should also be a time of self-reflection for our nation as a whole. Because if we stay on the path that we are currently on, the pain that we will experience in the years ahead will be far more severe than what we have been through already. Good decisions lead to good consequences. And bad decisions lead to bad consequences. Wake up America, because time is quickly slipping away. -----------------------------