Interesting, I looked it up and it seems to have come from a perfect storm of winter wheat crops being damaged by frost events along with persistent drought conditions especially in prairie states like NE and KS.

Anecdotally it seems that the grassland areas of interior USA are getting more frequent and persistent droughts. The early 2020s were bone dry every summer.

Yes, it seems obvious that the populace - apart from the Musks and Trumps of the world - see little possibility for a better life for their hypothetical children than they had, having experienced the ongoing crises of the 21st century, and therefore make the choice to not bring them into the world.

I think it’s baked into the cake at this point since there is little chance of a resolution for the Hormuz situation. The empire seriously underestimated Iran’s resolve, and agency for that matter.

Domestically there is going to be trouble too. From where I sit it appears that the MAGA coalition is fragmenting - farmers and working class supporters feel betrayed for example. And there are whispers that Trump is being blackmailed by foreign governments, took part in various disgusting acts, etc.

The US regime appears to be oblivious because they believe their own propaganda now despite wildly inaccurate numbers on both inflation and unemployment for years. They seem to actually believe the economy is doing well because they are richer than they’ve ever been. But the conditions on the street are closer to revolution than I have ever seen in my life. E.g. I see “86 47” graffiti around and so on, everyone’s pissed off and complaining about being broke, etc.

Needless to say, I’m very concerned about the next decade.

People are really going out of their way not to see the demand destruction phenomenon for what it is. My experience is that older people think the economy is doing great because they all had explosions in their asset values over recent years. The youth on the other hand complain about being broke and finding it difficult to keep up with basic living costs. There is a total breakdown in communication between these two groups.

Over the course of the past 3-4 years, I saw a steady escalation of military activity in my area. Choppers, planes, convoys, all of it. Often I would observe training exercises and the like. The whole thing gave me a sense of foreboding. In hindsight, it seems very obvious that foreign military adventures have been planned for some time.

I am not sure why Iran was picked as the first domino to fall, or why they chose to do this now, but it seems like we reached some kind of red line for the Empire and they felt it was do or die.

I think about this often. Here in the USA there are countless concrete structures that are coming near to the end of their lives. This includes many residential dwellings. I expect to see a lot more bridge collapses, building failures, etc in the not too distant future - say, the next 1-2 decades.

Yes - I had to work during Uni and it was hellish. By the end, I came very close to burnout (but not failure, although I did have to cut corners at times to keep my head above water).

I think America is eventually headed for a major crisis probably touched off by the bond markets as was the case in the early 1980s. It will get skittish once we have the dynamic of the Fed easing short term rates again in the face of high inflation. But rates shooting to the moon won’t make the situation better unless they spark a deep, deflationary recession.

America’s fiscal situation is abominable. One of the things I’ve been tracking is CMS (Medicare/Medicaid), and to say that’s unsustainable is very polite. It was fairly recently only 20% funded and since this summer, judging from the MTS, it’s at about 13% now. The medical-industrial complex is collapsing because of these absurd cost increases and it has hardly been noticed in the mainstream.

Damn, the next 10 years give me an uneasy feeling. There’s going to be such a temptation to take us to war to distract from hard times here. And a lot of people are in a warlike mood too…

This was the stormiest summer I can remember since I was a kid. Very erratic weather patterns and high heat/humidity. This is in the Upper Midwest. By contrast the summers before - 2nd half of 20 & all 21/22/23 were summers of absolutely parched drought. We have had wild swings in this part of the world owing to increasing climate instability.

Huge proliferations of wildflowers along with the moist conditions.

There seem to be ongoing crackdowns on homelessness and various kinds of unlawful behavior such as speeding, drunk driving, etc - there is a very strong feeling of a police state again after a lax period during and after Covid.

Hello, I was a regular reader of all the Collapse communities going back to Reddit. I was mightily distressed when Lemm.ee shut down. Glad you’ve collected the small lifeboat remnants of that community here again!