If you have got family and friends that you would like to visit before things start getting really crazy, you should do so within the next couple of months, because these are the last days of “normal life” in America.  The website where I have posted this article is called “End of the American Dream“, but perhaps I should have entitled it “The End of America” because that is essentially what we are heading for. MORE

“Off the chart” lightening strikes detected over DC by the DC Lightening Map Array, defeaning thunder from stroms described as the “scariest” witnesses could ever recall with “continuous lightening, pounding rain and roaring winds.”  MORE

While all Californians are under mandatory water restrictions, CBS2 News cameras went undercover and found some federal facilities may be wasting water for hours at a time. MORE

Some 276 “sanctuary cities,” nearly 50 percent more than previously revealed, released over 8,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records or facing charges free despite federal requests that they be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation, according to an explosive new report. MORE

ALMOLOYA DE JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, broke out of a high-security prison on Saturday night for the second time, escaping in a tunnel built right under his cell, and heaping embarrassment on President Enrique Pena Nieto. MORE

His speeches can blend biblical fury with apocalyptic doom. Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.” He does not simply argue that systemic “greed for money” is a bad thing. He calls it a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.” MORE

On Wednesday, the Army is scheduled to begin two months of training exercises across the American Southwest. If the past is a reasonable guide, some on the outer reaches of the far right are bound to recycle warnings that martial law is at hand. Conspiracy theorists were singularly imaginative after these war games, code-named Jade Helm 15, were announced. MORE

As severe drought grips parts of the Western United States, a below average flow of water is expected to enter Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two biggest reservoirs of the Colorado River Basin. MORE

Sounds serious.

The federal agency overseeing water and power is in the market for 52,000 rounds of ammunition for its officers at Hoover Dam and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, raising questions about weapons for nonmilitary purposes. MORE

BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Army Sgt. Patrick Hart decided a decade ago that he would not serve in the war in Iraq, he expected to follow the same path as thousands of American war resisters during the Vietnam era and take refuge across the border. MORE

Mexican community evacuated after volcanic explosion

Dozens of Russian troops ‘flee unit, fearing Ukraine deployment’

Mount Raung erupts in East Java, Indonesia (12 photos)

It’s not completely over yet. But a group of treacherous and cowardly Republican politicians are standing in the way. A new fight is on, and everyone’s help is needed.

Prominent pro-family figures, some GOP presidential candidates, and hundreds across the country are pressing Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to formally file for an appeal hearing on the US Supreme Court’s 5-4 “gay marriage” ruling handed down on June 26. MORE