(Bugout.news) The headlines last Friday on The Drudge Report should have been quite frightening to any American who gives a damn about their country and who is truly interested in seeing it thrive once more. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue, by the way, but unfortunately it seems to have turned into one.

Eight years ago a little-known U.S. senator from Illinois bested the most well-known name in the Democratic Party for its 2008 presidential nomination; at the time, Barack Obama was running largely on a platform in which he blamed President George W. Bush’s administration for the Great Recession and the destruction of wealth it caused.

It worked. That, and a false promise of “healthcare reform” propelled Obama into the White House, and he handily won reelection over a hapless GOP opponent from Massachusetts who couldn’t get out of his own way.

Now, after nearly eight years of Obama’s policies, to say that the U.S. economy is anything but moribund and on life support is to be so intentionally disingenuous, or completely clueless, it should defy belief.

Record citizenship renunciations in the Age of Obama. Record number of Americans (about one-third!) no longer in the workforce because they can’t find decent-paying jobs. And why not? Because job creation has slowed to a fraction of what is needed to actually grow the economy, which, as another headline indicates, is practically non-existent.

The blame for all of this cannot be laid only at the front steps of the White House. Congress’ refusal to exert its own authority to influence many of Obama’s policies has hurt the nation as well, so there is plenty of blame to go around.

But you know what? At this point blaming someone is meaningless because it really doesn’t matter. There will be plenty of time for discussing that later. In the meantime, it appears that the die has been cast; the death spiral of the U.S. economy has begun, and it will be enjoined by death spirals of other developed countries as well, to include China and Russia.

And what ensues is, quite frankly, not going to be pretty.

Already we’re seeing signs of how concerns over slowing economic activity and growth are manifesting. In terms of Russia and China, both appear to be outsourcing those concerns with military aggression and expansionism. Both nations are corrupt and authoritarian (yes, in many ways the U.S. is too, but not quite as bad as these other two – for now), and both have restive populations concerned about how they’re going to make their way in an era of slow (or no) growth. Militarism and nationalism are old tricks used by crumbling regimes in modern history to take the public’s mind off their own economic misery at home. It works for a time, but the end result is never good; the world either winds up in war, or the major countries convulse into revolution. Believe it or not, that is more likely to happen in Russia, a nation full of nuclear weapons, but China – especially among its Uighur and Mongolian ethnic groups – is not beyond civil unrest and disorder.

In the U.S., meanwhile, throw a contentious presidential election into an already steaming cauldron of economic discontent and what you have is a powder keg that needs but a small spark to explode.

And this summer, at some point, it will. Some are saying the eruption comes when Republicans gather in Cleveland, Ohio, to nominate billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump to be their 2016 presidential candidate. A hugely polarizing figure, Trump nevertheless seems to be on a glide path now to the nomination after his last two remaining opponents, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, dropped out last week.

Hillary Clinton, who appears likely to win the Democratic nomination despite the fact that the FBI is all over her for using an unsecured private email server while serving as Obama’s secretary of state, is equally polarizing to those on the right, but as evidenced thus far, it’s only the Left-wing revolutionary types using mostly rent-a-mobs who are disrupting Trump campaign events, with promises to continue doing so throughout the summer.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy will continue to tank throughout the summer as well, and so will those of other great powers. Job creation in America, such as it is, will be tepid. And of the jobs being created, most will allow earners to barely get by.

Fear and loathing, jealously, frustration, anger, depression, hopelessness – all of these base emotions are being fomented and then preyed upon by the same master manipulators who have always been behind the scenes pulling the strings. By keeping the population riled up and distracted, they empower themselves. But this time, they may have created a monster they ultimately will be unable to control.

What’s coming may be unstoppable. What you do between now and then to prepare, however, is entirely in your hands. It’s valuable time. Don’t waste it.

More:

• The weather-related chaos in D.C. proves once again why most of American society will collapse in a widespread crisis
• How growing inequality and widening income gaps will lead to social unrest and chaos
• The world’s elite getting more nervous by the day as more resort to building survival bunkers

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