Let me begin by saying that the vast majority of Amateur Radio people (Hams) that I know are NOT Sad Hams. Most of them are very helpful and good people. It’s sad that a few people are going to kill not just one hobby, but two.

My first real experience with a Sad Ham came as soon TW-01, Baseline Training Manual, came out. As a new author, I eagerly awaited reviews. After a few days of 5-star reviews, I got a 1-star from a Sad Ham. He said that despite all the great info in the rest of the book, he didn’t like my radio chapter (literally 10 pages) because I didn’t tell everyone to get a ham license and expensive radios. It was a taste of what was to come.

Dear Sad Hams – Proverbs has a message:

Listen to advice and accept discipline,
    and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

Proverbs 19:20

Most ham guys recommend getting a ham license to “learn about radio” and that’s commendable. However, they argue with my point that I have literally carried a radio every day of my professional life since I was 17 years old, so I know a thing or two about radio. Not the same, they say. Between the Marine Corps, the City of Grand Rapids, various private security contractors, and corporate security teams, I’ve used HF, VHF, UHF, and 800 Mhz trunked/frequency hopping radios of every type. Not enough they say. You don’t say “73s” at the end of your conversations, so you know next to nothing about radio, Sad Hams say.

Fast forward a bit, and GMRS is getting on the scene as a more widely used medium. People involved in preparedness specifically are gravitating to it as a middle-of-the-road solution. Here in Metro Detroit, we had a couple of repeaters and there was light traffic. We ran a ‘Prepper Net’ every week and a more general net every few weeks.

Well, the Sad Hams found out that there were people actually using and enjoying radio without being policed and guided by the “experts”, so they quickly ran out and got their GMRS licenses. No, Sad Hams, I REFUSE to call it a “TICKET” – get over it. They first asserted themselves by “advising” everyone of “proper” etiquette, like saying “73s” and endlessly calling for signal reports, rather than just holding conversations. They started screeching if you went 15 minutes and 1 second without shouting your call sign. They also asked you to repeat your call sign like 4 or 5 times. Don’t get me wrong, they can hear you just fine…. they are building that “when I tell you to do something, you just do it because I am the Ham guy” response.

Next, they put up another repeater and generously offered to link the repeaters, giving everyone extended range. Sounds good, right? Well, they linked the two repeaters that covered the most territory. Then, they immediately began holding “ham radio” conversations ALL DAY LONG. These guys tied up BOTH repeaters with conversations about types of coaxial cable, antenna heights, and all the things they are doing with their HAM radios, not GMRS. If you were a GMRS guy and wanted to call you buddy across town, you can’t because the same 4 guys are on BOTH channels, all day long. I swear to God, yesterday one of them even revealed that he had smuggled a radio into his HOSPITAL ROOM so that he could talk about his illness. If you are a GMRS user in Detroit, you heard it yesterday.

Let me explain to the self-appointed airwave police why GMRS is NOT the place for that. The amateur radio service, per the FCC, is for self-training, experimentation, emergency communications, and the RADIO HOBBY. The General Mobile Radio Service is for personal, family, and business communications. There is a MARKED difference here.

The rules that the Sad Hams LOVE to screech about prohibit interfering with other users and promoting the sharing of frequencies. Well, Amateur licensees have a much larger spectrum, including a HUGE chunk of UHF, 420 to 450 Mhz. GMRS is allotted only 22 channels in the 462/467 range, only EIGHT of which are allowed for repeater use. Let me be blunt:

IF YOU WANT TO HAVE HOBBY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO, DO IT ON AMATEUR RADIO AND LET OTHERS HAVE SOME SPECTRUM.

I’m not out of line here. The few Hams I’ve asked about this phenomenon say, “well, it’s because GMRS has gotten so popular”. OK, so you admit that you didn’t like other people talking without your supervision. You can’t say it’s because there weren’t any UHF Ham repeaters locally, there are DOZENS. The only reason is that you want exclusive control of the radio hobby. It’s annoying. You have HUGE amounts of radio spectrum to use, even in UHF, so why take over another service?

Whenever I mention my repeater to Hams, they immediately start screeching…”I don’t see your repeater listed on RepeaterBook or MyGMRS!!!” Yes, there’s a reason for that and it’s YOU. I’m not required to list it and I’m not required to let anyone else use it.

But, what can we do? Well, if you are a GMRS-Only licensed person with a repeater, lock down your repeater to permission only. I know it’s a pain, but we have to reclaim our own service. Only grant permission to people who agree to your terms…this is for personal communications, not “Ham-shack” talk. Advise users that it’s fine to use the repeater to make an initial contact, but if you are going to talk for more than a couple of messages, move the conversation to a simplex-direct channel. “But Joe, then I can’t talk to Bobby about his goiter surgery, and I can’t tell him what Marge and I had for dinner last night from 45 miles away.” That’s what you have a Ham license for, sorry.

GMRS was not meant to be Ham radio. It was meant to be a way for families, groups, or small businesses to communicate with each other. It was never meant to be “ham-lite”.

Now, if you feel tempted to leave me a 4-paragraph defense of why Hams MUST hold these conversations on GMRS to keep from clogging up Ham airwaves for “important” traffic, understand that YOU are exactly who I’m talking about. If you also feel that those lowly GMRS licensees need your supervision, YOU are the problem.

The real problem is this – Hams have long complained about a decline in their hobby. That decline is caused by the very few Sad Hams ruining the experience for everybody. Those same people are now intruding on a service that many people new to the radio hobby are just starting out in. When they excitedly turn on their new GMRS handhelds because Joe Dolio, Wyoming Survival, and NC Scout told them to check it out, they get quickly turned off by the insanely BORING conversations about wiring, the difference between the Yaesu XT-4378-AB and the Icom B-78T43G, various medical procedures planned, and why the Baofeng sucks. They give up. When they try to ask a simple question, they get back a 7-and-a-half-minute explanation of why their equipment sucks and the need to spend the house payment on the newest gadget and they get discouraged. They are killing two hobbies, both of which could really save lives.

It’s sad.

Sad Hams like to tell people to “Go back to CB!” – well, I say “Go back to Ham!”

Don’t let them discourage you. Set up your own network for your group or family and use it. Learn about it. When they try to pressure you to open up your repeater “for the good of all”, refuse. When they just break into your repeater (very easy to do), CLEARLY advise them that the repeater is PRIVATE and that they are NOT AUTHORIZED to use it. Two can play at their “rules enforcement” game. Their Ham license doesn’t authorize them to do whatever they want, and a GMRS license doesn’t mean you get to use everyone’s repeater without permission.

I wish it wasn’t this way. I wish that the Sad Hams were like the rest of the hams and glad to see new people enter the hobby. Those new people will work their way up to ham if they choose to, without your cajoling. Leave them alone while they learn.

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Donation – March 2023

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Banks are on dangerous ground, the Russo-Ukrainian War risks escalation, and China is expanding it’s challenges. What more could go wrong?

Well, the Manhattan DA claims he’s about to arrest Donald Trump. Rather than calling for calm, Donald Trump, as usual, decided to play right into their hands and call for protests to “take back our country” if he is arrested. For the record, if those protests do happen, the Feds will almost certainly charge him with Incitement to Riot, Solicitation to Riot, or Sedition, almost immediately.

While I feel that the odds of an actual arrest are low, I do feel that he will be indicted, and his base will protest. Prudence demands that you take certain steps. There is some Tactical Wisdom from the Ultimate Tactical Handbook on this:

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 22:3

Now, I don’t literally mean take refuge and hide in your home, I mean take steps to mitigate some of these risks.

First, the banking system internationally and the financial system are both at high risk and the measures that central banks are taking increase that risk. I recommend withdrawing enough cash to get you through one month of no access to cash. The first thing that happened with SVB and Signature Bank was depositors being denied access to their accounts. Keep a substantial amount of cash on hand to enable you to eat and fuel your vehicles.

That’s the second note, and one I make regularly: Make sure your vehicles are full and have a little extra gas stored. The Colonial Pipeline hack should have convinced you of this, as should the volatility in gas prices.

Again, while the likelihood is low, you should take some steps to prepare yourself for potential unrest after Tuesday. Is there a federal building along your route? Maybe plan an alternate route around it. You may very well support any protestors who show up, but I GUARANTEE you they will be outnumbered by counter-protestors from ANTIFA looking to do some damage. Also, the police and federal agencies are FAR more likely to use violence to disperse pro-Trump protestors. I know, it’s not right and it’s not fair, but it IS TRUE, so plan for it. Avoid those areas.

Check out and discuss alternate routes for all of your family members and discuss a solid communications plan, in the event of widespread unrest. I know, it’s very low likelihood, but failing to plan for it is inexcusable. Here’s a reminder:

if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head.

Ezekiel 33:4

The problem is that the Q folks and a lot of President Trump’s supporters are fervently so. In other words, they are willing to go to the mat, despite the fact that it will not benefit their cause.

I’ll be honest, as much as I say our side has to get out and do something, this isn’t the issue to go to the mat on. We saw how they treated the J6 protestors, and how President Trump has done literally NOTHING at all to support them. Protest the rising tyranny, but not the arrest or charging of Trump. The court system exists for Trump to have his day in court and plead his case. You getting beaten and locked up for protesting won’t help our cause, in fact, it will HURT our cause by giving them a reason to impose stricter tyranny.

This entire thing may even be engineered to cause exactly that response. Be careful.

On the other hand, protest things like new gun laws that infringe on your rights. Protest federal control over elections in violation of the Constitution. Protest Drag Queen events targeting children. Not the arrest of a single man who brings on most of his own issues.

Back to the topic at hand, also have enough shelf-stable food for two weeks, in the event you can’t get out into a grocery store because of unrest or issues. As the risk of global conflict goes up, so does the risk of a large-scale cyber-attack targeting our grid or financial sector.

If your group or family communication plan involves radios, make sure that all have a full battery and that everyone is carrying their radio at all times this week. I’ll be keeping one radio with me and another on my chest rig with a full battery. Also, maintain all battery banks at full power during the potential crisis. Resist the temptation to use them daily…while you have grid power, you should be using that to charge your devices and keep the battery back-ups full.

Monday is a good day to inventory and repack all Get-Home Bags. It’s time for a spring check-up and update anyways, so get them out and triple-check them. More importantly, after doing so, PUT THEM IN YOUR CAR.

You should have a “Minuteman” rig ready at a moment’s notice and it should be checked. This is your “The Threat is Coming Now” rig. As the name implies, during the frontier times, when word came of an Indian war-band or enemy patrol (French or whomever), all of the men grabbed their Minuteman gear and went to man the defenses of the neighborhood. This should be a chest-rig and belt type of set-up, and I would include my Patrol-EDC bag from the Baseline Training Manual. This should all be staged so that you can grab it and your defensive tools (long gun/pistol/knife) in less than 2 minutes and be ready to act. Mine is an ExUmbris belt and a UW Gear “Mini-Swamp Fox” chest rig. I toss my USMC FILBE Assault pack on with my 0241 Tactical Pack Cover (MARPAT, of course) and I’m ready for up to 72 hours of action unsupported.

For our South African friends, you should already by ready for this for tomorrow’s general strike by the EFF.

Subscribe to information sharing services like Forward Observer or Knightsbridge (I use both) to stay ahead of rumors with solid intelligence. Monitor local social media groups for indications of potential issues. This is a big one, because right now, I see a big trend of people saying, “I’ve stopped paying attention, it’s too depressing.” Listen, it is depressing, but sticking your head in the sand is NOT preparedness. You NEED to pay attention. Those who don’t are the ones who fall for rumors and take action based on unconfirmed things.

Another good source of solid breaking news is my Locals Community at tacticalwisdom.locals.com. You can support me there or below.

A good resource for how to vet information and avoid rumors is Dr. Perrodin’s book, The Velocity of Information. I was a contributor, and he did some serious research into the topic of Chaotic Information Flow. Highly recommended.

Friends, it’s a scary time. Reduce your stress by taking some basic preparedness actions, and by paying attention to what is going on around you.

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Donation – March 2023

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After the East Palestine train incident and the string of balloon shoot-downs, including one over Michigan, I was already working on upping my actual “walk out the door” preparedness. Then, this morning, I woke to text messages from the local police. They were advising residents that a Norfolk Southern train had derailed ON THE STREET OUR SUBDIVISION IS ON. Now, it’s about 3 miles south of us, but it’s close.

It really triggered the thinking. There is another rail line just 2 blocks from our front door. My adopted pseudo-kid, Watcher on the Web, has a rail line right outside his window.

I decided it was time to heed some Tactical Wisdom and put down some thoughts for all to share in from my thinking. Strap in, we’re going deep.

But first, a warning against normalcy bias:

While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:3

Living in such a modern and relatively secure society like the US, we all tend to think there will be some advance warning. Nothing can “surprise” us, right?

The people of Kenosha, Wisconsin disagree. The people of East Palestine, Ohio disagree. Things can happen in an instant.

Take the balloon incidents. By now, most of America has forgotten about them, because no damage was done, right? What if China was testing a delivery system? The Michigan Air National Guard pilots reported seeing strings hanging off the balloon before they shot it down over Lake Huron. What if it dropped whatever it was carrying?

In light of the train derailments, let’s look at my plans.

First, the derailment this morning, while it blocked two major roads, including the one my subdivision opens onto, it didn’t impact any of my routes out of the area, so that’s a good thing. Always have 4 route options (PACE – Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency). Since I work from home or in the field, heading up to the cabin 3 hours away wouldn’t have been a problem.

But what if I’d had to evacuate on foot in a chemical environment, possibly the second worse scenario (worst being doing so in an OPPOSED manner with hostile forces). In order to pull this off without contamination, I need a few extra items.

1. Tyvek Suit – This is the best option, available at Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, etc.
2. Rain poncho – You can, if you don’t have a Tyvek suit, cover yourself and your gear with a rain poncho. Government surplus models are large enough to cover you and your backpack. You need one for everyone.
3. Head covering – A Tyvek suit covers this, but you can put on any hat in a pinch.
4. Gloves – As I frequently mention, gloves go on at the onset of any WROL/Disaster situation.
5. Hand sanitizer/disinfectant – both for your skin and something for your gear.
6. Pack Cover – some type of waterproof pack cover to keep your backpack from getting contaminated.
7. Respirator/Gas Mask – Something to clean the air you breathe in a potentially chemical environment.
8. Boot covers – Again, Tyvek covers this. If you can’t find anything, take them off before entering any shelter area to prevent contamination.

Any of these things that you put on to travel outdoors exposed to chemicals or toxins, needs to be taken off before entering any shelter area outside the immediate hot zone.

In this type of environment, the types of survival food you have stored may either help or hinder your long-term survival. Many people have dehydrated foods or dry beans/grains (rice). Without a means to purify water or obtain known safe water, this food will be useless to you. In a chemical environment, boiling may not be enough. Activated charcoal filtration can help.

Something to consider is whether you will abide by a mandatory evacuation or not. Residents of East Palestine were threatened with charges of child endangerment. OK, I’ll send the kids to grandma’s house, but someone has to protect the rest of gear and food back at the house. Criminals like mandatory evacuations. The civilians are gone and the police are tied up manning checkpoints…it’s a burglar’s dream. Decide now if you will leave and then infiltrate back in or if you will leave someone behind in a “stay-behind” operation. You can also decide to bend the knee and do as your told, citizen. That’s not for me.

Understand that if you choose to violate an evacuation order, you’ll have to operate as if in a hostile-occupied zone. This is where those TW-02 Fieldcraft skills come in. There will be no watching TV or grilling outdoors. Have a communications plan and possibly plan a method of switching out adults protecting the house or your neighborhood. Police might patrol through in vehicles, but a full house-to-house search would be unlikely (and illegal) in all but the most severe of disasters. Remember, even if they have a warrant, you aren’t required to open the door for them.

Consider having plastic on hand to try and seal the doors and windows. Don’t forget about vents and other small openings. You won’t be airtight, but you can limit your exposure.

It’s a good idea to research your state’s emergency powers laws and know where you stand if you violate such a mandatory evacuation or even a curfew. Imagine a Moore-County level curfew. The power is out, and criminals are preying on homes with the police occupied. Is it worth the risk of arrest to have a few adults man a checkpoint at the subdivision entrance? Would your local police actually enforce the curfew?

If you do stay in violation of an order, live like the power is out. No lights, no open fires. Stay indoors during the day. Only move outside at night. Stay as quiet as possible.

The time to consider these things is now, not when the decision is forced on you. Research concealed routes into and out of your neighborhood (I have three selected). Walk them and become intimate with where you might hide yourself or stash things.

Decide on your security posture. Do you carry long guns or just sidearms? Open or concealed? Do you stage ammunition and non-lethal items near doors and windows? Where can I best protect the house from? Hint: The answer is probably outside. Decide if you want to remain hidden or make yourself known if a crew of burglars comes in to the area.

Don’t get me wrong, if the contamination or danger is too high, GO. Don’t stay. Just take ALL of your supplies with you when you do leave.

A word to my “bug-in at all costs” friends: RECONSIDER. Your death staying in an area too contaminated to survive is not helping anyone, least of all your family or your legacy. A strategic withdrawal is not a defeat. That also goes when 40 people have decided to besiege you – leave.

In your evacuation plans, consider your pets. Have “go bags” ready for them as well. Have some food and water for them, along with collapsible bowls for them to eat and drink out of. Consider, for dogs, a comfort item that smells like home. Know pet first aid and CPR. They are part of the family and you accepted responsibility for them. Know where you can go with them ahead of time.

Keep a substantial amount of cash in small bills on hand at home at all times for these emergencies. Gold and Silver as well. Remember to take this and your important documents with you, should you need to evacuate.

It’s getting crazier out there, plan and prepare.

A great source to help build survival stocks is BattlBox. I’ve been a customer for a year and have gotten lots of water filtration, emergency food, camping gear, and even a gas mask (yes, really) from them. Use my affiliate link: https://myrefl.ink/v/d72003e and then discount code: JOE-D-25 at check out for 25% off your first box.

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Donation – February 2023

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I’m convinced that the vast majority of Americans (and people in the West in general) are OK with literally anything, as long Netflix still works, and Amazon still delivers. This whole spy balloon saga just reinforced it.

Before I delve into normalcy bias and ways to avoid it, let me give you two pieces of Tactical Wisdom from the Ultimate Tactical Handbook that apply here. Yes, you can live through two verses and you might even learn something.

if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head.

Ezekiel 33:4

Pretty straightforward, right? There are warning signs and many of us keep trying to warn you. The Council on Future Conflict, the Privy Council, our friends at both Forward Observer and Knightsbridge, and me personally. But we can only “sound the trumpet”. It’s up to you (or whomever) to heed the warning. I can lead a horse to water….

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 22:3

The prudent thing to do is to take action when you see danger on the horizon.

Enter the balloon buffoonery. When a passenger on a commercial airliner saw it out the window, they told some people. Eventually it got to a local news reporter in Montana, who obtained video of it. When word spread, the Pentagon came out and admitted that they had been tracking it for DAYS. Here’s the deal: These people are charged with protecting you and me. They chose instead to not do that. This thing could have been carrying an EMP device, incendiary bombs (the Japanese used balloons to attack with these throughout WW2), or deadly pathogens. The point is that the DOD couldn’t be CERTAIN that it was safe.

When several of us pointed out these issues, we were roundly laughed at and argued with, saying that the “experts” had decided it was none of those things and was perfectly safe. Ask yourself this – how could they possibly know?

They decided to allow it to traverse our entire nation. China claimed it was off-course and harmless. I imagine it’s just a lucky coincidence that this wayward and off-course spy balloon traveled over our largest ICBM field, several critical bases, the TVA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and both Fort Bragg and Camp LeJeune. What a fortuitous wind it caught.

On a side note, they determined that it was not a danger, but once they shot it down (after it had completed its spy mission), they issued a warning to South Carolina beach residents to not touch the debris, BECAUSE IT COULD BE DANGEROUS.

But the problem isn’t just this balloon. The Ukraine War is getting out of hand, and Russia is starting to gain ground again. We have agreed to provide heavier armaments and Russia warned us against it. “LOL, let’s set up a no-fly zone too” say all the normalcy bias people. They can’t fathom that Russia can strike us here, and with our over-reliance on electrons, could alter all our lives in seconds by damaging the grid.

The same normalcy bias people think we can fight China to protect Taiwan. I’ll set aside the fact that we are not currently even capable of getting to the island fast enough to make a difference, but they envision us fighting a war against China that doesn’t touch them here. “It’s all fine bro, China wouldn’t dare. They need us.”. China dared last week with the balloon and WE DID NOTHING.

Now, I know, someone will leave me a comment that we did shoot it down, but shooting down after it completes it’s mission and leaves your country is NOT a win. China does NOT need us, in fact we DO need them for a steady supply of cheap goods and all that American farmland they own.

There are currently 2 Iranian ships in the South Atlantic for the first time ever. Venezuela held massive amphibious assault drills in the fall. China runs drills for invading Taiwan daily. Russia is inspecting their civil defense infrastructure. Thousands of South American, Chinese, Iranian, and Russian people illegally enter the US via our southern border – how many are military or paramilitary assets? Our enemies are preparing for wars of aggression and we’re holding diversity training.

We are seeing sabotage on our electrical grid and food supply.

Yet, the vast majority of Americans believe “it could never happen here” or “you’re just paranoid”. The rest of the world is preparing for a world war, and we’re holding Drag Queen ‘Family’ shows.

Normalcy bias is the tendency to think things are normal when they are not. Denying that something is happening when it is, because you’d rather not contemplate it. It’s the tendency to not take action, when you should.

Friends, I don’t want you to get paranoid, but I want you to face reality. We are on the road to world war, and we passed the last exit a long time ago.

We are also in the midst of a run up to civil conflict. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself why they put up a fence around the Capitol today for tomorrow’s State of the Union. Ask yourself why the FBI decided TODAY to arrest a pair of barely functioning people for plotting to attack the electrical grid in Baltimore (a predominantly black city) and calling them Neo-Nazis who want to start a race war. The entire case is, once again, built upon the use of several “confidential human sources” to catch two barely literate people. Mark my words, Joe Biden will mention this during the State of the Union and talk about the increasing “domestic terror threat”. There is no turning back here. The FBI and DHS have been setting this up for a long time with warnings about “attacks on the grid by right wing extremists”. For the record, a leftist site has detailed instructions on how to attack a power substation.

I implore you, heed the warnings laid out in front of you. You don’t have to take my word for it, but I do ask you to pay attention to it. I hear from a lot of people now, ” It’s gotten so bad that I stopped paying attention”. Listen, if you were worried about getting hit by a train and decided not to pay attention to the train whistle because it’s too scary, what’s going to happen? Pay attention, do some research, and take the basic steps to get ready.

Get 2 weeks of portable food. Get a means to purify water. Have a communications plan. Have a means to see to your own security.

Try to help your friends and neighbors get over their normalcy bias. It’s not political, just get them to understand the danger and take steps to mitigate the risk. A rising tide lifts all ships.

As a reminder, there is much more content over at tacticalwisdom.locals.com. There are other options there for supporting my work.

A great way to get preparedness gear is a BattlBox membership. I am an ambassador for them, so I do make a commission, but now through Valentines Day, they are offering 30% off your first box. Use my link: https://myrefl.ink/v/d72003e and then apply discount code LAUNCH-06H at checkout for 30% off.

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Donation – February 2023

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With us all already on edge from the Russo-Ukrainian War, an impending Chinese blockade on Taiwan, and potential riots over Memphis, the weekend was bad enough. Then, out of nowhere, an “unknown party” launched a series of drone strikes across central and northern Iran with absolutely no warning. The attacks went on all night and, despite what the Iranians say, caused a lot of damage.

Just what we needed!

⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Matthew 24:6-7

Now, I imagine if your name is Jesus and your Dad is God, it’s pretty easy to not be alarmed. For the rest of us, it’s a bit harder. But let’s talk about this: Are we hearing of wars and rumors of wars? Is nation rising against nation? Are there famines and earthquakes in various places?

I’m not saying the end is near, but it is time for some concern. How can we help ourselves to be “not alarmed” as Jesus told the Disciples? We can prepare, but more than that, we can PLAN.

Many people are into preparedness, but do they all plan? Stockpiling gear and ammunition is not planning. It’s one thing to have a group of friends, all preparing with some general plan to meet up, but if the lights went out today, what is the plan? Most people in preparedness assume there will be a 3-7 day build up to a complete collapse or that it will be a partial collapse with some communications ability remaining to facilitate that link up.

If you haven’t thought of this, now is the time. We’re going to give some solid pointers here, but you need to meet with your people and write this down. The Contacts and Notes Notebook, TW-03A, is a great place to document these plans and methods of contact. Under stress, you might not remember specifics. Having them written down is a good idea.

With our over-reliance on electricity, planning for the grid to go down will be a great first place to start, no matter why it goes down. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea all maintain a strong cyber capability that is a risk. The FBI tells us that those white supremacists (probably the FBI) are trying daily to take down the grid, and on the 26th, a bomb was found on a gas pipe in Pennsylvania. No matter what causes it, you need a plan NOW.

In TW-01 Baseline Training Manual, I point out that your first preparedness step should be developing a 14 day supply of PORTABLE emergency food. This should be long term storage food that needs either nothing else or just water to prepare. It should be something that can easily be carried in a backpack or bag. The above link to My Patriot Supply is to a 2 Week Supply of emergency food for $127. That’s a good start. The Dollar Tree is another good place to find low-cost individual sized portable food. Now, I’m not saying STOP at 2 weeks, I’m saying a 2-week supply is a minimum.

I keep a lot of dehydrated food on hand, as well as MRE’s (they’ve come a long way from the five fingers of death, IYKYK). You need to eat some of them every now and then to condition your GI system. Let me just tell you, that if you suddenly go to a week of eating just dehydrated foods, you are going to get diarrhea and put yourself at risk of dehydration. If you switch to MRE’s for a similar time period with no acclimatization, you will have the opposite problem. Train your body just as you would with anything else.

Keep this 14-day supply in a portable, ready-to-go fashion, so that you aren’t scrambling to pack. Do this even if you are planning on bugging in, something may happen that forces you to leave.

The next area to tend to is communications. I know, I talk about radios a lot, and everyone has a Baofeng that they took out of the box and saw how cool it looks on their chest rig, and that’s it. Get that radio out and PROGRAM it. Everyone in your group should have the radios programmed the same, so that you can say “go to 112” and everyone ends up on the same frequency. As a side note, ANTIFA and RevCom have started doing this, because we were intercepting their comms before (we still are). If you want to learn about it, invest in NC Scout’s book above.

Aside from just programming, you need a few more things in your protocol. Item one is calls signs. Using call signs instead of names gives a little security and authentication. Only your group will know your call signs. I have different call signs for different groups that identify me to them. I even have one with the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service for work-related communications on certain assignments. I have a funny one assigned to me by Steven Crowder’s dad, but we can’t talk about that. Assign them to members of your group (stay away from things like COBRA and ASSASSIN, please).

You need a “lights out” protocol where everyone knows to turn on their radios and get to a certain frequency. They shouldn’t all start shouting for each other over the air, just monitor a common channel. There should be an automatic schedule for network check-ins. For example, if the lights go out, everyone turns on their radio and monitors a GMRS channel (of course, everyone will have a license, FCC or Sad Ham Narc). Then, at 7PM, a network check-in will happen where everyone will report their status and local conditions. You can then decide what to do.

This requires you to have ‘mapped out’ your communications. This means seeing who can reach who. You might need to have someone closer relay traffic to or from someone farther away. Having your own repeater that you can run from say a vehicle battery is a plus. Learn where you can toss up a taller antenna. Understand that HOA rules might have to be broken by tossing up a larger antenna.

This whole plan only works if everyone carries a radio all the time.

Have “get home routes” preplanned. You should know the “I have to walk home” route of everyone in your group, in case a search needs to be mounted for someone. Also, as we learned at a meet up recently, two members of your group might work near each other. If they both have a radio, they can link up, and walk out of the area together, improving their ability to protect each other.

Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiates 4:12

Next, maintain a supply of cash. As people in Moore County, NC learned, the power being out means no ATMs, and no credit/debit card machines. Being the only person with cash in hand can get you food or gas when no one else can. On that note, I keep a siphon pump with a long hose in the car for just such an occasion. For metals, silver coins are far more spendable than gold.

The final point for today’s discussion is FILL UP YOU TANK. Uncertainty can lead to wild fluctuations in gas prices. Getting gas daily generally ends up costing you less than waiting until you MUST HAVE it. Also, if the power goes out overnight, you won’t be “just getting some tomorrow.” Make this an all-time discipline.

Thought of one more: Make sure all flashlights are charged or have fresh batteries.

BattlBox has now asked me to be an Ambassador and has given me a link that gets you 30% off your monthly plan: https://myrefl.ink/v/d72003e

There is much more content for supporters on Locals, as well as some more free content, so check us out at https://tacticalwisdom.locals.com

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Donation – January 2023

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As the SHOT Show winds down, I’m reflecting on our heritage and what the Founding Fathers would think of what we’ve become. I’m certain that they are disappointed and incredulous.

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Matthew 7:15

The worst part is that many of the alleged Second Amendment “Defenders” and “Supporters” at the SHOT Show aren’t what they claim to be. No, I’m not going to get into the very public display of ridiculousness by a certain well-known couple, that’s just part of their grift. What I’m talking about are the alleged “allies” and defenders who tell you that the Second Amendment, or any right, is not absolute.

You know who I’m talking about, the guys who say “Yeah, but the 2A isn’t absolute, you can’t have a tank or a rocket launcher” or “You can’t say that it’s hate speech”. If a “right” is NOT absolute, it’s a PERMISSION, rather than a right. Permissions can be limited or revoked, rights cannot. If something is truly a right, the government should have no ability to limit it. You might say that said right “shall not be infringed.”

So, when you hear people that claim to support the Second Amendment using limiting language, understand that they are not your allies. When they chime in that the Knight Protector of Kenosha shouldn’t have taken an AR to a protest, dismiss them as clowns. When they say that you don’t NEED a large magazine, a pistol brace, or a bayonet lug (especially a bayonet lug), dismiss them offhand. They aren’t supporting your rights.

Anyone who supports Red Flag laws is a danger. Yes, even if they are a former Navy SEAL who looks like a pirate. Red Flag laws not only violate the Second Amendment, they limit someone’s First Amendment right to free speech, and their Fifth Amendment right to due process. They also violate the 14th Amendment in that they “abridge” the rights of a US citizen by a state and deprive them of due process.

The same goes for the “allies” and “2A” guys who brag about the number of ATF tax stamps they bought to have full auto guns. Imagine bragging about how many times you’ve been extorted. Essentially, the federal government is creating a two-tiered right. the requirements are the same – there are no extra legal requirements, other than you paying a $200 fine for daring to exercise a right that they aren’t supposed to be able to infringe on.

The irony of this all is that the Second Amendment is the most strongly worded. It is the only one that specifically states “shall not be infringed”, despite it being the most infringed one.

Even more importantly, it preserves much more than the ability to own firearms. That’s the “Keep” part. It also guarantees you the right to “bear arms”. That means carry, and not just concealed. It means that we should, as my friend Justin at Fenix Ammunition says, “normalize carrying a slung AR to the grocery store”. It would end mass shootings almost overnight.

Our heritage is that of “Insurrectionists”. What those 55 men who signed the Declaration of Independence did was an act of sedition. The men at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge, Bunker Hill, and dozens of other places were conducting an insurrection. Taking an unguided tour in a building that was never supposed to be closed to the citizens is not.

So, why am I listing these out and what does this have to do with preparedness? Well, there is a war on by the administrative state to limit your ability to be self-sufficient. The war on the right to bear arms (which means WAY more than firearms) is an attempt to make you reliant upon the government for security. They want to be the only armed party on the field.

As I am writing this, we face food shortages in many categories. Most notably at the moment is eggs, and prices are skyrocketing, by design. As more and more Americans have begun looking into raising their own chickens, we are seeing news stories about the health risks of raising chickens and many cities and townships are enacting ordinances prohibiting it. This limits your ability to be self-sufficient and it is by design.

Remember the time around the 2020 election? The DHS mentioned that anyone interested in “being overly prepared” was an extremist. They pushed this so hard that Facebook put extremism warnings on Canning and Preserving groups. They would like to limit your self-sufficiency.

There is also a push to move away from cash and into credit/debit only transactions or central bank digital currencies. This is to make you reliant on the banking system and regulatory schemes. We are already seeing banks limit customer business or decline sales/accounts at unapproved businesses, like gun stores. Imagine what could happen if this gets fully implemented.

The whole point of this article is to convince you to let go of allies who would limit your ability to be self-sufficient in any area, whether it is food, security, or some other area. This nation was founded by self-sufficient men who were FIERCELY independent and the best way to honor that is be self-sufficient and give no ground to anyone who wants to limit your ability to do so.

The men who fought and died to establish this nation and then wrote her guiding documents never meant for you to live under the heel of such a massive regulatory administrative state. There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies and regulatory agencies with law enforcement units. They fought a war over this. Specifically mentioned in the Declaration was “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

 It is better for us to die in battle than to see the misfortunes of our nation

and of the sanctuary. 

1 Maccabees 3:59

Over at tacticalwisdom.locals.com, we are doing a review of the Maccabees. It’s a story from the Apocrypha (between the Old and New Testaments) in which we see an oppressor (the Greeks) trying to stamp out the Church and the followers of God. We are in a similar moment now. In Maccabees, Judas Maccabee leads a guerilla army to throw off the Greeks and restore Israel. Go and sign up over on Locals.

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Donation – January 2023

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Every week, we get closer and closer to a social credit system. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores, once called a right-wing conspiracy theory, are now an actual thing used to determine if businesses get loans. How long before it gets down to private citizens?

The US was founded on the principle that individual freedom, and thus privacy, were the paramount ideals. We have amendments that are alleged to protect us from unwarranted government intrusion into our private lives. We used to be able to transact business with whomever we chose, and it was a private matter.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

Now, we see banks announcing that they will no longer allow you to spend YOUR OWN MONEY at businesses they deem unworthy. We have seen banks deny funding to and decline transactions at gun shops. Ironically, they don’t decline them at marijuana shops or liquor stores, do they?

We used to be able to get around a lot of this by using services like PayPal and CashApp, but even now, the US government has demanded and gotten access (yes, I know it’s delayed, but it’s on the books) to all of your private transactions with these services.

Well, the next way we used to get around pervasive surveillance of our transactions was to use cash. Governments and banks are feverishly working to end that by trying to force you into cashless systems and central bank digital currencies. Resist that, my friends.

For those of you who deny this will happen, go to your bank without an appointment and try to withdraw $3,000. They will demand to know why and will likely limit you to $1,500 or $2,000. Rest assured, there is no law that they have to document your reason for wanting your own money until $10,000 (which is still ridiculous), but they will tell you they are “required” to ask. It’s your money, and they don’t want you to have it – you might spend it in a socially irresponsible manner.

On another note, police agencies all over the country are installing license plate readers at intersections and on their cars, and then driving through parking lots recording plates. Now, this is a violation of the 4th Amendment, but they get around it by saying that they aren’t storing the data, a third-party company is. Yes, but they can simply ask that company to provide a list of your movements. Defeat this, if you live in a rear license plate only state, by backing in everywhere you go. Park in hard to see places, always facing out of the spot and pointed towards the nearest exit.

Another surveillance overreach area is Ring or Google Home cameras. Officers are asking for consent to access your data through the service at neighborhood watch meetings to “prevent crime”, but once consent is given, the reason for them searching your video is irrelevant. Never hook these up to the internet, but if you do, read the agreement carefully. Many say that the video, once uploaded to the third party, is no longer yours.

We have also seen that the Moscow, Idaho suspect was caught (once again) using DNA that he sent to a DNA/Ancestry type service. While it seems like a good thing that a murderer was caught this way, you should realize that it means that if you ever use one of those services, your DNA is now in the public domain, meaning you no longer have a right to privacy in it. It’s searchable. Never use these services.

Our Constitution forbids the Federal AND the State Governments from ever passing an “ex post facto” law. This means that they cannot rule that something you did legally is now a crime. The biggest glaring example of this are the states passing assault weapon bans or magazine capacity limits. They are saying that if you don’t turn them in or register them, you are committing a crime. That makes these “ex post facto” laws, and therefore unconstitutional.

Unconstitutional or Constitutional mean nothing at all unless we decide to hold the State and Federal governments accountable for their illegal actions. If we just keep shrugging our shoulders and saying, “but what can we do”, the Constitution becomes a nice bunch of words on paper. Make your own decisions here. You have a choice on whether to comply with unlawful laws or not.

Stop accepting the growing surveillance state by opting out. Don’t hook up your cameras to the internet. Don’t give consent to anyone for anything. Never use DNA services.

The biggest one here, though, after reviewing hundreds of January 6th indictments chock full of Amazon and bank-supplied purchase information is to maintain cash on hand and use it to make purchases. Use cash or cash equivalents whenever you can.

Another reason to maintain good old cash is Moore County, NC. When the power went out, all the ATM’s and credit card processing machines immediately went offline. If you didn’t have cash when the grid went down, you had no way of getting any. Having cash, gold, or silver on hand could have helped. Research Goldbacks or spendable silver to have some on hand in spendable fashion.

Talk to your like-minded business partners and start building barter networks. In the coming troubles, one of two things will happen. Either the grid will go down and the dollar crashes with it, or the government will use mass surveillance of transactions to hunt those who dissent. Either way, having worked out a deal to fix a guy’s well pump in exchange for 6 chickens will help. Some associates and I have worked out security services with farmers in a certain area in exchange for meat and produce, should things go bad. A patrol visit earns a certain amount of food payment and escorting them to market earns even more. A similar deal was struck with a provider of fuels. Make the surveillance state irrelevant.

Another controversial opinion of mine comes up as we see increased mask usage all over the country. I know it seems counter-intuitive but stop fighting the mask. Wear that full face gaiter and DEFEAT FACIAL RECOGNITION.

Until we collectively stand up and say ENOUGH, the state and the big corporations will continue to erode your privacy and surveil you. Coincidentally, this is actual fascism.

Do everything that you can to limit their ability to control or monitor you. Be fiercely independent. I know, it’s far less convenient, but it’s worth it. For example, over the last few weeks, I’ve taken to leaving my phone in a Faraday bag when I leave the house. If I need it, I can still get it. First, it limits the pervasive tracking that goes on and second, it improves my situational awareness everywhere I go, because I’m not distracted by it. Be less of a slave to convenience. Some of you have noticed, because if I’m off social media for 4 hours in a row, I start getting DM’s and texts. By following this pattern now, I’m denying anyone who tries to track me the pattern of life data needed.

Turn off location access on all your apps or set it to “only when using the app”.

If you really want to upset Google, turn off all Google services on your Android tablet. It will send you nasty warnings every 3 minutes or so that the tablet won’t work properly unless you enable Google Play Services, which is where your advertising ID (surveillance tracker) is ran from. It’s somewhat amusing. But the tablet works just fine, other than the annoying notification.

Friends, things are bad and getting worse. Start working on detaching yourself from the surveillance state and reclaiming your freedom. Live as a rebel.

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As Peru devolves into civil war, tourists, including Americans, Canadians, and Europeans, found themselves stranded in a remote region that was experiencing a full Without Rule of Law situation. There was no law enforcement, and armed groups & protestors were on the roads. Some of these tourists were forced out of vehicles and had to hike.

This reminded me of our video on Get Home Bags the other day, and I wanted to cover some lessons learned from the situation at the Inca Citadel of Machu Picchu. The area is remote and very rugged. Trains are generally the way in which people move. While there is a road network, it is in very poor condition and rough.

Van loads of tourists trying to flee were stopped at roadblocks and forced out of vehicles. They chose to try and walk to the nearest train station, and some of these were 50 km hikes.

Most the people were hikers, so they were well-equipped and generally in shape, but 50 km is a long stretch in one hike. Also, while they were prepared for leisurely vacation hikes, none of them was prepared to conduct an escape and evasion drill against potentially hostile parties. Many of them were harassed and threatened at checkpoints and villages.

Let’s talk about the lessons learned.

The prudent see danger and take refuge;

the fool keeps going and pays the penalty.

Proverbs 22:3

First, look at the backpack in the top photo. Most modern hiking gear is in bright colors, to enable you to be found in the wilderness if you are lost. Tents and emergency gear are all the same way, bright. What if I’d rather not be seen? Also, these backpacks are generally expensive, marking you as someone with money. The lesson here is to keep a pack cover in your backpack. This can be black or earth tones, or even camouflage. Anything that reduces the high visibility of this gear. Pack covers take up almost no space and cost you zero weight. They are also generally waterproof, letting you serve two purposes. An oversized rain poncho in neutral tones can accomplish this as well.

The next item is hair color. In a country experiencing civil strife, outsiders or foreigners are automatically seen as a threat. In nations where 100% of the population has black hair, some type of head wrap or cover is in order. The Shemagh I mentioned before is a great tool.

As Stan pointed out earlier, the only people wearing “Patagonia” brand clothing in Patagonia are not FROM Patagonia. In other words, high end clothing brands in third world villages also mark you as an outsider. On your first day in any foreign nation, buy a few articles of local origin. For example, in Peru, wearing a poncho or blanket wrap is quite common. Picking one up ostensibly as a “souvenir” would also enable you to blend in in the event of trouble. In an absolute worst case, grab something from a local clothesline. Maybe Justin Trudeau is on to something….

Another way to address both brightly colored items and the high-end clothing brands is the Propper Packable Jacket I mentioned in the video. The come in Blue, Black, and Green, and having one you can toss over your other clothes makes you blend in quickly.

Let’s address routes. Groups walked along the road and along the railroad tracks. These are “natural lines of drift” meaning that you will find other humans along them. Both encountered angry locals at checkpoints. In a contested area, you want to avoid roadblocks and checkpoints, no matter which side mans them. People at them are in an excited state and generally keyed up for a confrontation, so it’s better to skirt them if you can. If you are just bee-bopping along the road without paying attention, you’d be obvious if you suddenly jumped off the road into the bush. Also, hostile parties might set ambushes along natural lines of drift.

The solution here is what we call “handrailing”. Even if I know that the road or railroad tracks travel to my destination, I’m not going to move directly on them. Move off into the forest or wild areas along them and keep them in sight. You’ll be safer, able to avoid checkpoints, and you can still use the feature to navigate by.

Since tourists who travel to Machu Picchu are generally hikers, I assume that they had water purification and basic survival gear with them. I would assume they had maps and compasses, but make sure that you always do, in case you have to plan and navigate on the run.

Something most people don’t realize is that US CB radio channels are used throughout the Western Hemisphere and mostly without any licensing needed, as are the FRS channels. Having a radio or two could enable you to send an advance party ahead to check out a route. Check the laws of anywhere you travel first, or buy cheap, blister-pack radios locally off the shelf whenever you travel. Having some comms is better than no comms.

The biggest failure of all here was awareness. Most people wait too long to leave a potentially dangerous situation, and this was no different. The unrest has been ongoing for over a week, and these people just decided to try and evacuate now. As I keep saying, leaving early can save your life. If you leave an area early, you can always come right back. The opposite, as these tourists found out, is almost never true.

Another awareness piece was not finding out if their destination was safe. These people hiked 50 km just to find out that not only was the train station closed, but protestors had welded the gates shut and dropped boulders on the tracks. Had they known this, they could have expended their energy going somewhere more productive.

A great tool for situational awareness is a world-band receiver. It’s essentially just a shortwave/HF receiver that you can carry in your pack. You can turn it on and receive news broadcasts and amateur radio from all over your region and the world. If this group had turned one on before leaving, they would have heard chatter about the closed train stations and airports and chosen a better route or decided to hold where they were until rescued.

Fortunately, these people eventually encountered the Peruvian tourism police, who got them together and then organized police-escorted convoys out of the area and some were evacuated by helicopter. This could have had a very different outcome.

Before traveling, think ahead. Always have some type of “Get Home” material with you, even on vacation. Buy local clothing almost immediately after arrival. Learn local customs (if you are moving on foot during siesta times, you mark yourself as different) and blend in. Most importantly, don’t go out of your way to stand out (The Ugly American). Learn a few local phrases.

Learn from the mistakes made in Machu Picchu.

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A few days ago, I shared the video of NYFD Lt. Alison Russo-Elling being murdered on the street. I lamented that no one stopped to help her or engage her attacker. She was walking to lunch when a man stabbed her 19 times, killing her. Multiple people drove by or walked by, without even slowing down. It was in broad daylight with a full view of the street.

Immediately, I had a bunch of guys chiming in with all the reasons why they wouldn’t get involved, “I’m not getting arrested”, “I have a job”, or “I have to take care of my family”. Let me share with you some Tactical Wisdom from Isaiah:

The Lord looked and was displeased
    that there was no justice.
 He saw that there was no one,
    he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;

Isaiah 59:15b-16a

That’s right; He was appalled that there was no one to intervene. Lest you think I’m applying this wrong, throughout Isaiah, God is observing Israel fall into debauchery, sexual immorality, violence, oppression, and mocking anyone who tried to oppose evil. Tell me that doesn’t sound like today’s world.

You see, we are SUPPOSED to protect each other. “But you don’t understand – my family counts on me.” Lt. Russo-Elling’s family counted on her. Do you believe that God thinks YOUR family is more important than hers? I’ll be brutally honest, everyone in my family knows EXACTLY what I’d do and is perfectly OK with whatever consequences happen, because PRINCIPLES MATTER. In fact, they would be offended if I didn’t act. I couldn’t live with myself if I allowed something like this to happen in my presence. And yes, I’d feel just as fine if I was thrown in prison for it. Jesus, Paul, and Peter were all imprisoned for doing the right thing, I’d be in good company.

I get it, it’s a scary time. Police departments are letting criminals go free and arresting those who lawfully resist. Does that mean that we should just surrender and allow lawlessness to increase? Do you suppose that your job will be around very long in the current trajectory? If law enforcement isn’t going to do it, we have to. And to be quite honest, God does NOT care one whit about your excuses. Let me give you a piece of Tactical Wisdom that illustrates that He doesn’t listen to excuses:

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

James 4:17

Oh, and if you want to try and say you didn’t know that you were supposed to help:

If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

Proverbs 24:12

Do I have your attention? What can we do?

First, you can start by GETTING INVOLVED. When you see something bad happening, at least make your presence known. When one person stands up, it encourages others to do so as well. If enough people just stand up, it can prevent something bad from happening. If you see someone hurt, follow the example of the Good Samaritan and help them.

Now, the worst comment I got was “She was dying anyway, I couldn’t have done anything”. First, bro, adjust your principles. What you can do, even if someone is clearly dying, is take their hand and let them know they are not dying alone. Pray with them. Have some empathy. Stop being a coward and making excuses for it. Sorry, you don’t come here to listen to platitudes, you come here for unabashed honesty.

Second, as I frequently point out, carry a first aid kit with you everywhere you go. If you think, “nah, I’m just running to the store, I don’t need that”, take a seat and let someone less lazy and more compassionate go.

You can also get trained in defending yourself and others. Yes, even if the police might arrest you, the law is on your side. Kyle was vindicated. Some things, also, are more important than the laws of man. I’ve already told you this, but:

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said,

We ought to obey God rather than men.

Acts 5:29

If you are able to, get a concealed carry permit and carry a defensive firearm. Carry a knife or other defensive tool. If you carry a gun to defend yourself, you should be willing to defend others. Principles matter. Your life is no more valuable than anyone else’s. On this point:

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Matthew 25:40

Brothers and Sisters, this applies to so much more than self-defense. This applies to the need to oppose the “Family Friendly Drag Shows”. This applies to opposing those who call us “Christo-Fascists”. This applies to opposing those who would deny others their rights based upon any factor including religion or political views. We must start taking a stand collectively, or, as Benjamin Franklin wisely warned, “we shall all hang separately.”

Another point to having principles over fear is this: You cannot on one hand complain about the injustices and rampant crime while on the other hand saying that you are unwilling to take literally ANY action for fear of arrest or losing your job. You have to either set aside your fear or stop whining. You cannot just wait for “someone” to save you. No one is coming. As God said to Gideon in Judges 6: “Am I not sending YOU?”

The Jan 6th arrests were intended to do exactly that – make you too afraid to do more than complain, and not too loudly.

Friends, go out and find your tribe. Set aside your fear and start standing up for your rights, our collective rights, and our freedoms. Start protecting each other. Stop shirking your responsibilities and passing them off to the police, who are NOT required to protect you. You are required to protect each other. Defy the tyrants and meet each other. Organize. Train.

On a related note, I just finished NC Scout’s “The Guerrilla’s Guide to the Baofeng Radio”. If you have one of these radios, pick up a copy today. It’s well-written and contains a wealth of material to unlock the full potential of the Baofeng. You’ll also learn how to develop a comms plan and all about communication security. Click that photo to order one.

This isn’t meant to scold, it’s meant to shake you out of complacency and get you to realize that if WE don’t collectively do something by standing on our Principles, WE will lose everything, even those things you thought you were preserving by cowering in the corner. That’s right, if we don’t do something to slow this descent, our jobs and our families will be taken from us eventually. You are re-living 1938. If you think that’s hyperbole, read about why Jews didn’t resist and went along with gun confiscation and forced relocation. And don’t tell me you’ll fight if they come for your guns…If you won’t protect a woman being murdered in front of you, you aren’t going to use those guns, ever.

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Normalcy Bias is a killer. No matter how bad things get, most people think that “it” can never happen here. The entire world is devolving into civil war or open conflict, yet folks in the West, and the US in particular, just believe that those are problems for “over there where those people live”.

Now, Ukraine opened a few eyes. Rather than seeing “other” people and exotic locations in conflict, suddenly we saw a war with Europeans getting wounded and killed, and there were McDonalds and Starbucks stores in the background. A shopping mall just like one in every city in America was struck early on. It was an eye opener, for about 3 weeks.

Then, what always happens, happened. When the war didn’t spiral out of control, everyone moved it to the back of their mind, where it’s an abstract idea of numbers. We talk casualties, money spent, and abstract ideas, but the nonstop coverage of neighborhoods like ours vanished from the media, because they’d prefer you not think that way. The stopped the war porn, because they want the war to keep going.

…then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head.

Ezekiel 33:4

Here, and over on the Council on Future Conflict, we’ve been trying to warn people that this is going to expand, along with the high potential for civil conflict within the US. I keep pointing out that we are on the verge of both a world war (which will be a collection of civil wars) and a Balkans-type conflict here, but everyone kind of nods and rolls their eyes, thinking “that could never happen here”.

Let’s do a thought experiment to expose that fallacy. Prior to March of 2020, would you have ever thought that the Governors of the United States would order you to stay in your homes and order nearly all businesses closed for most of a year? Take it a step further: Would you have ever imagined that we’d largely comply? I know, a bunch of you are going to say “BUT NOT IN MY COUNTY”….that’s not the point. It DID indeed happen.

Just this week alone, we are seeing Brazil, the 5th largest country in the world and 8th largest economy (largest exporter of beef, BTW) nearing a civil war over a contested election. We still don’t have results in the AZ Governor’s race nearly a month after the election. China is devolving into widespread rioting, as is Iran. The Netherlands has riots and is forcing 3000 farms to close (largest food supplier in Europe). The cake topper though: On Monday, NATO told Ukraine that the door to membership was open, which is a big red line for Russia. Tension is so high that Poland’s defense minister has said that the war will spread to Poland, which will involve us all.

So what, a lot of folks say. They say that we’ve had two world wars and they never impacted the US homeland. That will not be true in the next one. Extremely long range and hyper-accurate weapons mean that the US is indeed at risk. We are so reliant upon electricity and technology here that striking our electrical grid or cyber networks is pretty attractive target. If I was a strongman looking to make a move and the US is what holds me back, I’d be tempted to drop the grid in the US and make the US deploy her troops to maintain internal order rather than getting in the way of my plans. That, friends, is a REAL risk. If a guy like me figured it out sitting at his kitchen island while watching The Forbidden Kingdom, you can bet the world’s bad guys have figured it out.

Civil conflict in the US is actually getting worse, despite the decrease in actual riots. There is open talk of civil war on both sides. This morning, exactly as I predicted, the DHS has warned once again of the threat of domestic extremism. They mentioned attacks on Christmas events (without mentioning the words Black Hebrew Israelite), attacks on Jewish events (again, implying right wing, but the risk is BHI), and attacks related to the January 6th anniversary, which is not an actual threat.

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 22:3

All of this is building to high risk, but most people in America are just going about their lives with no thought towards preparation.

This is not hyperbole; we are on the verge of World War 3. More importantly, not a single one of the world’s powers is trying to do anything to forestall it. In fact, they seem to be doing everything they can do to accelerate the timeline. Remember all the war talk when the Ukraine fired two missiles into Poland? It’s gotten MORE tense sense then.

Friends, I urge you to take this all seriously. Make sure that your food storage and heating are taken care of. We have US utilities and energy suppliers warning of blackouts and unavailability of heating fuels as we approach the coldest time of the year. The food situation continues to get worse and a civil war in Brazil, where we get our fresh produce from in winter, will make that worse yet.

Once you’ve got food and heating handled, work on security. We work on security by developing networks, meeting like-minded folks (no, not everyone is a Fed), and training. Start walking distances carrying a load. Start acclimating yourselves to cold weather and switch your gear to cold weather gear.

The biggest thing you need to do is get over the normalcy bias and start gathering information. Update your Area Study (check out Mike Shelby’s new book here). Check out all your routes out of the area from home and work. Train walking with your Get Home Bag (yes, even in the cold and snow). Identify and track your local protest groups and agitators. Study the local police crime maps.

Friends, understand the risk and work to be more aware.

On a side note, we are hammering away on the First Aid Manual (TW-05). As a reminder, Tactical Wisdom books make great Christmas gifts. To get them on time, order from Amazon. Also, check our friend Brooke’s new merchandise store (click here)

Also, NC Scout has published The Guerilla’s Guide to the Baofeng, which will soon be available on his site. Pick up a copy, it will be worth it.

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Consider our world for a moment, as I did on Wednesday morning. Russia shows no signs of pulling out of Ukraine and is threatening the UK. China is becoming more and more bellicose in relation to Taiwan and the US. North Korea is off the chain (again). Iran is threatening both Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan at the same time. The US and Brazil are reeling from election fraud allegations. Citizens all over the world are protesting governments in my predicted “worldwide civil wars” scenario. On top of all that, we have out of control inflation and energy shortages. It’s a scary time.

Against this backdrop, I walked into my gear room to assess my readiness, and I was not impressed. Don’t get me wrong, I have everything I need. It’s just not in a state of “walk out the door readiness”. So, I’ll be embarking on that process and testing myself to see if I can get there in under 72 hours, to see if I can beat my 72 Hour Theory.

In fact – God told us to have a bug-out bag ready:

Gather up your belongings to leave the land,
    you who live under siege.

Jeremiah 10:17

Before we discuss those steps, I want to give a short history lesson on American Preparedness and discuss the roots of the “Minute-Men”, a key element in US History that should be our guide.

In the 1600s, as the Colonies were getting established, the British Governors had troops, but those were for protection of the Crown’s interests. The individual Colonies, with no established police forces, established militias. Militia didn’t have the negative connotation that it does today.

Generally, all men from 16-60 were required to serve in the militia. They met quarterly to train to defend their communities from Native American raids, bandits, and other colonial powers. You see, even if the French attacked, it would take weeks for British troops to arrive, so the local militia had to fight and hold the attackers.

As conflict became more common, the Governors ordered the militias to form special companies of the most fit, best trained, and most capable militiamen. These men would train every month instead of quarterly and would be required to be ready to respond to anywhere in their colony at “a moment’s notice”. They quickly became known as “Minute Companies” and “Minute Men”. The famous “Rogers Rangers” was one such company.

These men kept their gear packed and staged to go quickly. There was no police force to respond to a raided farm, just the Minute Men of the community. Eventually, as the tension rose between the Colonials and the British Government forces, these men trained even more, sometimes meeting 3-4 times a week.

The Minute Man concept is how we were able to field so many men so fast along the British GLOC (Ground Line of Communication) on their return to Boston the morning of April 19, 1775. The Minute Men arrived first and set a number of ambushes to slow the British allowing more men to arrive at Concord. The Colonials only had about 80 men at Lexington, but by time the British arrived in Concord, 400 men had gathered and by the end of the battle, 3,960 Minute Men had arrived.

It’s important to know that this concept didn’t die with our winning the War of Independence. In our expansion westward, pioneer communities did the same thing. The Mormon Nauvoo Legion was an expansion of this (side note – the Nauvoo fought the Federal Government and WON). During the Rhodesian Bush War, the “Agric-Alert” system was nothing more than a modernized “Minute-Man” system for responding to farm attacks.

As you can see, we have a heritage of being ready at a moment’s notice.

My first step was organizing all my radio equipment and charging all batteries. I’m guilty of only focusing on the radios I use daily, and yet I’ve added some equipment to the mix, so it needs to get organized, and triple checked. In conjunction with that, I decided to recharge my portable power supply and portable battery banks.

The next item will be winterizing my gear. The first snow fell today, so I need to swap out my mid-weight fall gear in all my bags with heavier winter gear layering options. It’s time to add the fourth season layer to my USMC Sleep System until March, because you don’t want to sleep outside in Michigan in a summer sleeping bag in December. On a side note, I may run a test by staying the night in a tarp shelter at my deer blind. It’s a ground blind of natural material, so tossing up a tarp lean to and rolling out my sleeping system is simple. It’s projected to be 16 degrees, so we’ll see.

Another winter change-over is on the camouflage patterns. I keep a camouflage jacket and a set of camouflage utilities in my full ruck. Now that the trees are down and there could be snow on any day, I’ll switch to MARPAT Desert and British Desert DPM. The browns and tans match the dead foliage and blend well with the snow. I’ll also add snow camo or white pack covers. I have a white poncho for use as a camouflage shelter in the winter that I’ll put in my ruck.

As I mentioned in my books, a camouflage poncho in your pack gives you a quick way to be camouflaged no matter what you are wearing. In the winter, I put a German snow camouflage poncho in the car. It’s white with grey splotches and pines needles on it – instant northern tier winter camo.

It’s a good time to rotate your food stocks, putting things that expire in the next 3 months in with your regular food. Remember to buy replacements. Being that it’s now wintertime, I replace my food in my packs with higher-calorie options.

With the world situation as it is, I’m going to do all of this and ensure that everything is stored in a fairly mobile status, so that I can move on much shorter notice.

A note about this though – high loft items like sleeping bags and down coats should not be kept compressed, like in a stuff sack, for more than 2 weeks at time. I generally only pack the sleeping system for periods of extremely high tensions, an imminent emergency, or for a trip. I can roll up and stuff it in the compression sack in under a minute, so I just store them together. I do the same with my ECWCS parka and insulated pants.

Go and check your gear and up your readiness. Remember to keep filling your car on a daily basis and keep your backup communications gear with you. Things are tough, and they are only going to get tougher.

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On Sunday night, the Brazilian run-off election got underway. Bolsonaro supporters were thrilled because Bolsonaro maintained a commanding lead all day. While it wasn’t a rout, he had it in the bag.

Something happened in those last few hours though. Lula made a surprising comeback in just one region. Although Bolsonaro won 6 of the 7 major regions, Lula’s lead in the single region was enough to push him over the top. Does this sound familiar? Oh, wait, this is from CNN, the “most trusted name in news”:

“According to the election authority’s final tally, Lula da Silva received the most votes in Brazilian history – more than 60 million votes“

CNN, 11/01/2022

What a miracle. But, when we pull back the curtain, we see that the CIA Director and the Secretary of Defense of the United States met with Lula in May of 2022. Among the very first world leaders to congratulate Lula was none other than Ice Cream Joe (well, his interns anyway).

Immediately after the election, where Lula had campaigned on releasing people from prison and reducing criminal penalties, despite a crime wave of epic proportions, Lula supporters took to the streets to celebrate. This is where our first lesson comes into play. These Lula supporters rushed out and begin beating, and in several cases, killing outright, anyone wearing a Bolsonaro shirt. They called them “Bolsonaristas”, which sounds suspiciously like “Trumpers”. They looted perceived Bolsonaro-supporting businesses and set fires.

The lesson is that this is where the rhetoric of “the other side is fascist” leads. It makes the opposition less than human and therefore encourages violence against them. I assure you, leftists here were watching this with anticipation. My advice is that when a rampaging crowd rushes out looking for victims, adopt a gray man attitude….lose the political shirts and righteous attitude. Yes, we all want to win and stand our ground, but if a mob of 200 overruns you and kills you, we lose in the long run. According to the Ultimate Tactical Handbook, a wise man chooses his battles:

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

Proverbs 21:23

This isn’t giving up; it’s picking winnable battles. For example, while the cities had rampages, the Bolsonaristas were busy organizing a truck blockade of the cities from the rural areas. As the time of this writing, there are 321 blockades in 26 different states, including blocking the road to Rio de Janeiro airport. These have remained peaceful, but the people are prepared to defend the roadblocks. On a side note, you can learn how to effectively run a roadblock in TW-03, Defensive Operations. The Tactical Wisdom for being ready to defend is found here:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18

Romans 12:18 is an often misunderstood and mis-quoted piece of Scripture. Many believe that this means that Christians must be peace-loving and non-violent AT ALL TIMES. On the contrary, it says to TRY to be peaceful, “as far as it depends on you” – in other words, don’t be the offensive party. Note the first four words, “If it is possible” – this implies that at times it is impossible, and you are NOT to just be peaceful then. I remind you of the Old Testament, “God is man of war”. As another reminder, when someone says “What Would Jesus Do”, using home-made weapons to drive out the enemy is not outside the realm of possibility. I also will point out that the Church began as a Resistance movement, meeting in secret and organizing while they were being hunted.

Back to Brazil, as the truckers and other groups are organizing, they are using cell-phone messaging apps to do that. The Supreme Court of Brazil, who did everything they could ensure that Lula won and that Bolsonaro was restricted, has announced that they may ban those apps in the country (the Canada plan). The lesson for us is the one we SHOULD have learned when the Feds used those same messaging apps to roll up anyone who was anywhere near Washington DC on January 6th – stop using apps to organize.

I know, some apps, like Wire, are very secure, but if the government just shuts it down, as they can do in an “emergency”, you have nothing. Radio, radio, radio. I keep telling you all that you need radio. Make sure yoru team has at least one Ham operator (non-SAD HAM Type) and that EVERYONE has a radio on unlicensed channels at a minimum.

While they can jam radios, it’s hard to do for long periods of time and all you have to do to defeat it is to be frequency-agile. They jam FRS? Switch to MURS. They jam MURS? Switch to CB, then back to FRS. In fact, your SOI (Signals operating instructions) should call for switching bands and frequencies on a regular basis anyway. NC Scout teaches classes on developing an SOI that I HIGHLY recommend. I learned a lot from him.

Since this protest is organized by truckers, I recommend that they use CB radio. You can “hide” your messaging by discussing delivering loads to various locations and the equipment is readily available. CB is used so much in commerce that jamming it would have negative economic effects.

As far as jamming, NC Scout and other like-minded Ham operators across the US, Mexico, and Canada supported the Cuban protestors last year when the Cuban government tried to jam amateur radio to stop organizing. While they were effective at stopping local voice and digital traffic, Ham operators in the US received and then relayed back into Cuba long-range digital traffic that was making it through the jamming. This allowed the protests to continue and organizers to talk via relays outside the jammed area.

Right now, develop plans with your group or loved ones on how to deal with the two biggest observations here:

1. People violently acting out their political hatred physically.
2. The government limiting your ability to organize online to resist.

The first one is easy, remain aware and monitor your local situation. Keep track of your people. Have a way to meet up for mutual defense and protection. Be less invested in “being right” and more invested in “picking the right battles”. Arguing and antagonizing isn’t going to change their minds but being ready to violently resist their attacks is. It may give them pause and cause them to step back from the brink. When we do step into the streets, it MUST BE as a mass, not as a collection of individuals to be picked off by the mob or the authorities.

The second one is a bit more nuanced, yet also easy. At the very least, everyone you know should have a handheld radio capable of license-free local security communications for a strongpoint you can defend as a group. At the other end, you could have an entire team of dedicated Ham radio operators who coordinate groups, conduct radio reconnaissance, and CAN (relax FCC, we’re talking Minecraft) conduct offensive electronic warfare. Consider one dedicated videographer as well to “get the story out”.

Friends, Brazil is giving us a free preview of what is to come. I know, many of you will say “that can’t happen here”, but it CAN. Brazil is NOT some backwater Third World Nation. Brazil is the 5th largest nation in the world, with a population of 217 million. It’s a member of the G20 and is considered upper-middle income by the World Bank. It has the 12th largest GDP in the world. When I mention these facts, people like to say “but the favelas”…I challenge that the favelas are no different than the projects in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, or Detroit.

It CAN happen here and it is already starting here.

Pay attention, plan, and be ready.

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When you go to US Marine Corps Boot Camp, after the first few weeks of Phase 1, if you survive, you get sent to Recruit Field Training Duty for Phase 2, or as I call it, THE FUN STUFF. At RFTD, you learn individual movement techniques, basic infantry tactics, and marksmanship.

During the 2 weeks of marksmanship training, the entire first week is done without firing a shot. It’s officially called Grass Week, but Marines have always called it “Snapping In”. Snapping In means practicing getting into the various field firing positions and applying the marksmanship fundamentals. It’s done for days on end before ever firing a shot because you need time to develop muscle memory and to stretch out muscle groups that most people have never used in that way.

As an example, after learning the intricacies of every firing position, you learn how to drop from standing into sitting position, or kneeling, or you learn to transition from prone to kneeling, and then standing (never go directly from prone to standing to fire if you want to live). You learn three different heights of kneeling positions, which are difficult to do at first, as well as at least two sitting positions. All require PRACTICE and STRETCHING.

OK, cool trip down memory lane, but what does that mean for me? I’m glad you asked.

Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

Psalm 144:1

In my book TW-02, Fieldcraft, I discuss all kinds of movement techniques. I point out that you need to practice on them to develop the flexibility and muscle memory to be able to do them when in a high stress environment. This requires you to do “snapping in”, doesn’t it? Start out with no gear and train on a movement technique like the low crawl. I don’t care how many times you’ve done it in your life, if you haven’t done it in the last two months, it’s going to hurt. You need to be “snapping in” on these skills regularly. Add your belt kit, then your backpack or ruck.

I teach my Tang Soo Do students that while commercials are playing during their favorite shows, they should spend the whole commercial break doing side kicks, roundhouse kicks, spinning back kicks, or whatever skill they need more work on. For us, as adults wanting better preparedness skills, we can do the same.

Be honest, when was the last time you laid on your belly, then rolled into a sitting position, shifted to kneeling, and then stood up, all slowly and quietly? If you’re like me, there was likely to be a few grunts and groans, and maybe even a pop or two. However, that’s a skill set that applies to observing and patrolling in a potentially hostile area. You should develop the physical skill.

Low crawling is overlooked. For the life of me, I don’t understand people doing fire and movement drills at training events where they do everything standing. That’s for the movies. I’ll be crawling and rolling below the bullets.

Even more importantly though, the low crawl is a SURVIVAL skill for more than simply combat. Imagine being a hurricane survivor but trapped under rubble. Those hours spent practicing and developing the muscles to move low by alternating elbows and knees could be the difference between life and death. Being skilled at keeping the butt down can keep you from getting trapped. Not only for GI Joe stuff, is it? Being adept at the skill of passing under wire on your back can also get you through a collapsed building. These skills can also help you rescue a trapped family member.

The same “snapping in” idea applies to other skills, too. When was the last time you practiced splinting a broken leg? It drives me crazy to see guys talking about spending hours doing dry firing or tactical reload drills, but then say they have done zero minutes of splinting extremities. No matter what extreme thing you’re preparing for, whether it’s weather, earthquakes, a Chinese invasion, or space aliens, you are least 100 times more likely to fall down and break or sprain something than you are to get into a gunfight, yet almost no training is done on those skills.

Side note: The “I train in cargo shorts” guys are these same people. When training in cargo shorts versus heavy duty outdoor pants, how likely are you to throw yourself down into the prone or a kneeling position? I know, you don’t like that part, but I’m a tough love guy. I want you to live.

I get a lot of push back from guys who say, “We’re bugging in, so I don’t need all that movement stuff.” I disagree: If you are tying yourself permanently to a fixed location, you need EVEN MORE skills at Fieldcraft because you’ll need to have OP’s and patrols out to defend that location. You can want to Little House on the Prairie Cosplay all you want, but people behaving badly will get WORSE exponentially, not better. And, with you tied to a fixed location, the odds of encountering them go up the longer you stay there.

The Snapping In concept also applies to testing out your planned gear loads and packs. I recently did a test in a hilly area I had never been in before and learned that I need to do more hill-walking (“snapping in” on hills) to be truly ready. My son and his friends took a backpacking trip and never “snapped in” with their loadouts before jumping on the trail. They regretted it at mile 3, because they were carrying WAY too much weight.

You can conduct “snapping in” on firefighting by using refillable water fire extinguishers or by contacting a fire suppression company about acquiring old, out-of-spec extinguishers. I’ve done this several times when I was conducting firefighting training for clients, and they gave us old units to use for training. If you’ve never used a fire extinguisher, there is a certain skill to it (PASS Point-Aim-Squeeze-Sweep).

You can take the Marine Corps’ Snapping In concept and use it to increase your readiness across the board. It works, US Marines are WELL KNOWN for their shooting ability, and it begins with snapping in.

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I’m a big fan of the Vikings TV Series. Yes, I know it’s not 100% historically accurate, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some Tactical Wisdom in it. In fact, the plot line from Season 1 is very instructive for the moment we find ourselves in and can guide you in getting ready.

Ragnar had defied Earl Haraldson and the Earl ordered surveillance on Ragnar and his war-band (sounds like the government watching a militia group, doesn’t it?). In fact, the Earl went so far as to insert an informant into Ragnar’s crew, Knut. Sounds pretty familiar. Well, the first lesson is that Ragnar assigned people to keep watch on the informant to limit the information he could gather and the damage he could do.

But the part that relates most to this article is that after Ragnar and his band fought off an attack by the Earl’s men, for the sake of argument let’s call them the Feds, Ragnar went into a period of training. He went out into the wilderness with minimal gear and spent days out hiking & camping and sitting solitary on a mountain peak nearby. Ragnar was toughening himself for the hardship to come. He tested himself and his ability to survive.

It served him well, because in short order, his hamlet was attacked by the Feds. Call it a “raid” if you will. A few quick notes here that apply. Bjorn, Ragnar’s son, was looking out and saw the raiding party as it arrived. Everyone should always be engaged in countersurveillance (looking for surveillance) as ANTIFA has been known to target folks, and with even canning is being labeled as extremist activity, watch for your neighbors watching you.

The next point was that as the attack unfolded, Lagertha and the non-combat team members (Aethelstan) armed themselves and protected those who couldn’t fight, like the children and elderly. That should be part of your team’s plan. Now, Lagertha was a warrior in her own right (even in real life), but her ROLE was protection of others. Have assigned roles, including someone to watch over and protect the less able of your group.

In the end, while Ragnar fought a delaying action against the raiders, Lagertha led the family out through a secret exit from their house and into the woods. She then led them to a pre-planned rally point. That’s some vital Tactical Wisdom…have a secret egress and a planned rally point. Clay Martin also recommends this in Concrete Jungle.

The final point is that after fighting a short delaying action, Ragnar himself fled and made his way to the rally point, stopping only to ambush his pursuers and conduct counter-tracking. This should also be a part of your plan. Now, I wouldn’t include the part where Ragnar jumps from a cliff into a fjord 100 feet below, that’s just not smart.

Ideas to implement these things can be found in TW-03, Defensive Operations.

After recovering Ragnar, the family moved to a pre-planned safe house, Floki’s house on the Fjord. Have pre-planned safe havens.

Now, when I sat down to write this, I had intended only to briefly mention Ragnar in passing, so let’s get back on track. Let’s start with Jeremiah’s warning to have a Bug Out Bag ready:

Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege.

Jeremiah 10:17

Why did Jeremiah give this warning? Because the people of Jerusalem had stopped following the right way and morality and were engaged in detestable practices like idolatry, sexual immorality, and perversion. Kind of like where we are today in our current environment. Jeremiah gave the warning because of this:

For this is what the LORD says: “At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured.”

Jeremiah 10:18

There are consequences for not opposing the nonsense in the world.

So what does all this have to do with preparedness? Glad you asked: Based upon Ragnar’s example and Jeremiahs warnings (you never thought I’d combine Vikings and the Bible, did you?), I decided to run a solo test and training event. I think that sharing it here will help you prepare and test yourself.

Before last weekend, unless I was meeting with a larger group, I had done all my testing on state land in some woods that I have spent time in for my entire life. Woods and fields I know intimately and can find every waterhole and good camping spot from memory. While that was fun, it wasn’t exactly realistic. I may not get to pick the ground. I could be 300 miles away when things go bad.

I decided to do a map study and pick a spot nestled between two peaks along a ridgeline in an area I had never camped or hunted in. The plan was to only take what would fit in my gear, including the ILBE Ruck and Assault pack, and my War Belt. I also packed the ExUmbris war belt for around camp, when I didn’t want to wear the full USMC War Belt.

When I arrived, I put everything on and began the foot movement. My first lesson was that I need to ruck more wearing the full ruck. While I ruck several days a week, I usually train in just my assault pack (Patrol/EDC loadout) or my Get Home Bag. There is a SIGNIFICANT weight difference. Also, I need to do more hills. In Michigan, despite what some folks who don’t live here think, there are significant hills and ridges in what is called the Central Highlands. Well, that’s where I was. After crossing three ridgelines (using good patrol movement techniques), my legs were on fire.

I stopped one terrain feature away from my planned overnight site, as good practices require. I stashed my ruck under a downed pine tree. Lesson two was that I hid it a little too well – it took some searching to find it again. I walked over the final ridge and stopped to observe the site (conducting an SLLS). After watching for a bit, I went down and conducted a quick site check as described in TW-02 Fieldcraft and TW-04 Scouting and Patrolling. I also did a quick clearance patrol 100 meters around the camp while getting my ruck.

After eventually retrieving the bag, I set up my USMC Combat II Tent. It’s similar to the USMC TCOP tent that I reviewed last month, but this one is (allegedly) for two people. The tent has a bit higher profile than TCOP but is still camouflaged and quick to set up. A cool feature of the Combat II is that there are straps that allow you to set up just the rain fly as a very solid camouflage rain-proof and light-blocking cover over an observation post or a fighting position. The rain fly is also reversible from Woodland Camo to Tan.

I made a quick dinner by boiling some water and pouring it into a pouch (Southern Survival Trail Chili is the BOMB). It got down to 32 degrees, but I was perfectly warm inside the tent with the USMC 3 season bag (I haven’t broken out the winter bag yet) and the ECWCS long johns. I had brought along a poncho liner for extra warmth, just in case, but I didn’t need it.

In the morning, before dawn, I got up, and took down the tent, stowing all gear, just like I would in a real-world situation. I ate my breakfast manning an OP looking towards the nearby motorcycle trail in my camouflage gear, and apparently I did pretty well, because a partridge walked right up to me before taking off in a flurry a feathers.

I spent the day setting up and taking down expedient shelters (hopefully I got enough usable video for YouTube videos) using a technique I learned from our friends at Von Stueben Training called the Royal Marine Rig. Click the link to learn this, I promise you’ll love it and I spent the next two days setting them up on all my gear.

I learned that it was harder than anticipated, so I must train more. Not only that, I must train more realistically.

The point of the report here is to encourage you to get out and train, as well as testing yourself, with the gear you own. It does you no good to own all that gear if you never get out and use it. Also, aside from the cost of gas, it cost me literally nothing to get out in the woods for 48 hours. I used only things I already had and camped on state land (no fees or permits required, no rules).

Don’t just gather gear and books – get out and train with them. Push yourself beyond your comfort level.

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Friend, I know it seems like the economy is crashing all over the world. I know your grocery bill that was $150 is now $245. I know gas is over double what it was before the election. I know that every petty dictator in the world is pushing their boundaries. More importantly, I know that political violence is up and there is open talk of a civil war, but it’s all going to be fine. As long as everyone stops rocking the boat, and stops trying to assert their rights, everything will just go back to normal. Ignore the last 400 years of historical evidence to the contrary.

This is literally what people are saying right now. This is called “normalcy bias” and it’s downright DANGEROUS. Normalcy Bias is why people wait too long to evacuate during hurricanes and fires, and its why people die when denying that a robbery or assault is happening. This 3,000-year-old Tactical Wisdom from the Bible proves it’s been going on forever:

then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head.

Ezekiel 33:4

Hoping for “cooler heads to prevail” is how world wars start. Hoping for people to “come to their senses” is how civil wars start.

Normalcy bias is what happened in the German Jewish community up to and even after November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht). They all thought that as long as they cooperated with the Federal authorities and kept quiet, they’d be left alone. Sound familiar? How did that work out in the end?

I want to address something. This week, an avowed Democrat man pursued, cornered, and killed an 18-year-old because he thought the kid was a “Republican Extremist”. The man is legit ANGRY that he had to post $50,000 bond, because he thinks the attack was justified. He practically bragged about it to the detectives who interviewed him.

More importantly, if you peruse Twitter or Facebook, the greater left as a whole agrees that this attack was justified. Why? Because the President of the United States said that MAGA Republicans are a clear and present danger to democracy. Those words are specifically used to justify violence. Pretending that there are NOT people out there who want to kill you is DANGEROUS. This is also exactly how the non-Jewish citizens of Germany generally felt about the Jews. We need to realize that violence IS coming, whether you want it or not.

But what can we do? We can prepare. We can be aware. We can stop hoping because hope is not a strategy.

If you hadn’t been stocking up on food when guys like Mike Shelby at Forward Observer, Bear at Bear Independent, NC Scout at Radio Contra, and all of us on the Council on Future Conflict told you to, get on it. It’s going to cost you A LOT more right now. You may need enough to get your family through the winter, given that South American nations will not be exporting food to the US this winter.

With another refinery fire (I’m sure it was a coincidence), gas prices have gone back up by a full dollar in Michigan in the last two days. Make sure that you fill your car each day to keep your tank full and overall cost down.

The next thing to finish is an Area Study. I know, it’s hard and there is a lot to cover, but you NEED to get it done. Now. Identify local agitators on all sides of the political spectrum and start monitoring their social media posts. Learn where crime is happening in your local area. Learn the areas in which groups come into conflict or where protests frequently occur. Develop escape routes.

On that note, earlier we mentioned the young man that was pursued and killed. A few months ago, I mentioned doing Urban Scouting hikes where you hike behind shopping centers, retail areas, and built-up areas in your local area. I’ve always recommended knowing where the emergency exits are everywhere you go, so we’re going to combine that with urban scouting.

Since this man specifically targeted and hunted the young man, you need to prepare for that possibility. Take a walk down the alley in places you frequent. Learn what it looks like where the emergency exits and back doors let you out. You need to know what your next step is once you get outside. As an example, one business I consulted for on active shooter response had an emergency exit that channeled employees into an area with a high fence. That’s dangerous. Know where the exits dump out at and plan your next steps.

Find areas near places you frequent that you could run to that vehicles cannot follow. What happened in the North Dakota incident was the kid got trapped in a dead-end alley. Know your local area. I get called a human GPS when working on protective details because I ALWAYS know the local street layout. It’s not from an inherent database in my head, I devote serious time to map studies of everywhere I go.

These are skills discussed by both Ferfal and Selco. These are authors who wrote books about their own true experiences in WROL situations. Ferfal writes about the Argentinian economic collapse and Selco survived the Balkan Wars. There are links to their books above.

Learn about downtown areas and business areas. Parking ramps are a counter-surveillance dream because you can enter on one street and exit on another. If you’re on foot, you can even hop the wall and exit wherever you want, making you harder to track. Learn what buildings have connecting walkways or which ones allow you to enter on one street and exit on another. These can help you avoid someone following you.

The next issue involves a raid by the FBI on a man named Mark Houck. Houck was conducting counseling outside of an abortion clinic in October 2021, when he was involved in an altercation with an abortion escort who yelled at Houck’s son. Houck pushed the man and he fell down. The local police declined to charge Houck and when the escort worker sued Houck, the judge dismissed the case because the man suffered NO INJURIES.

Here we are one year later, and the FBI showed up in body armor with rifles, surrounding the house and beating on the door. When Houck opened the door, the agents forced their way in and arrested him, refusing at first to show any warrant. Eventually, they showed an arrest warrant, charging Houck with a federal crime of assaulting an abortion worker, which is now apparently a federal felony. Houck is facing 11 years in prison for what is a simple assault in every jurisdiction.

It’s important to note that a Federal Arrest Warrant does NOT authorize them to force entry into a structure. The only way in which they can is if they saw a suspect flee into the building. The VAST majority of federal arrest warrants are handled by the agents calling the suspect and advising them of the warrant and then arranging a surrender. In other cases, they conduct surveillance until the suspect is driving and conduct a vehicle stop, which is far safer than a house raid. This man, according to his wife, had NO prior notice that the FBI was even looking into the case.

We need to understand the moment we are in. Justice has become entirely one sided. That tyrannical government everyone worries about IS HERE. You need to understand that, and stop pretending, like the meme at the top says, that everything is fine. We need to be getting vocal, we need to be making our voices heard.

I know, it’s scary. I’m scared…several people I know have been arrested or had subpoenas served. I very prominently led the security details for several “Stop the Steal” personalities. It’s a scary time. That’s the point, though. That’s WHY the FBI is doing this. They couldn’t care less about Mark Houck – his raid was directed at YOU. And by saying, “But I can’t risk arrest, so I can’t speak out” or “I can’t intervene in the lawlessness in my town because they’ll sue me or arrest me”, you are playing into their hand and giving them what they want. For the record, the Jews who were quiet and cooperated were taken last, but they were indeed also taken. They also didn’t say or do anything over fears of arrest or financial ruin. They got both anyway.

Carry a first aid kit with you everywhere you go. Crime is getting rampant (we’ll talk about that later this week) and political violence is getting worse, so carry one to treat yourself or others just in case. It does you no good at home. We are into preparedness for THIS MOMENT, not something down the road.

A few posts ago, we discussed the lives saved by AMRRON members carrying their radios and calling for help after a vehicle accident. Rolling power outages are happening and cyber-attacks are up, so make sure that everyone in your preparedness group not only knows the radio communications plan but is carrying their radio everywhere. Just toss the radio in the backpack or car.

These cases both illustrate, once again, the need to always have a body-worn camera available. I’m not saying wear it non-stop (although I keep mine on my backpack strap) but have it available. Being able to start recording at the beginning of an incident without tying up your phone or your hands is a GOOD THING. Besides, the FBI is now just walking up to people and taking their phones, so having a recording device that is NOT YOUR PHONE has become vital. On that note, as I mentioned last week, secure your phone and data and stop saving your secure messages on the device. Delete them if they are truly secure. Stop backing up your photos to cloud storage…. They’re not yours anymore when you do that.

Friends, things are bad and getting worse. We are already in a slow-moving collapse and World War 3 has already started. Prepare NOW and start operating as if you are in a hostile environment because you may not get time to ramp up later. As the Boy Scouts used to say, “Be Prepared”.

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As you all know by now, I advocate a low-tech to no-tech approach. Mostly, this is because we can’t rely on having the ability to connect to a network, or to even charge and power our devices. Being low-to-no tech keeps us able to function.

Recently, however, a couple of events have me leaning even farther from technology. While it’s a great tool for us all to chat and learn, it’s also a tether to the world’s largest surveillance system. I’ll illustrate in a bit how seemingly innocuous things can link you to thought crimes in the New America. The first event was attending NC Scout’s (www.brushbeater.org) SIGINT course, where he taught how pattern of life data is collected via the web. The second is reading the indictments of the J6 defendants, and especially the newer ones, being charged on very shaky grounds.

Let’s face it, everyone was worried about being microchipped, yet they are never more than 3 feet from their phone. You don’t need to be microchipped; you are VOLUNTARILY submitting to tracking. Don’t come at me with “but I turned location tracking off”; I’ve told you repeatedly and Tucker Carlson showed you on his show about how that only turns off the tracking YOU CAN SEE. Google and Apple still can track you and do.

They all, including Alexa, listen constantly. I’ve had people tell me, “but I’ve muted it.” Yes, you muted the sound you can hear. The other thing I get from people is “It only listens after I tell it to”….Well, smart guy, it wouldn’t know that you said “Hey Alexa/Google/Siri” unless IT WAS ALREADY LISTENING. Those recordings can be, and have been, subpoenaed and used as evidence.

The best thing you can do to defeat this threat is to throw away your cell phone. We all know that’s not going to happen, so I offer a solution. Don’t take your phone places you don’t want to be tracked to, and leave your phone in the car when having conversations you don’t want anyone to hear. The biggest pushback I hear is “but if you’re not doing anything wrong, why do you care?” Two reasons, the first is that our system is NOT based on the premise that we should be surveilled in case we commit a crime. The second is that free speech can, and has been, interpreted as seditious conspiracy. The entire debacle that is the Michigan Whitmer plot was really nothing more than a bunch of drunken campfire conversations that got steered in the wrong direction.

Another option comes from our friends at SLNT. I have a SLNT Faraday Dry Bag (see above). This bag is 2.5 liters, just big enough to store my phone and a tablet. Not only does it protect against EMP and is waterproof, it stops all RF signals. I have tested it out thoroughly and it’s a solid product. Even cooler is that after having a discussion with the folks at SLNT, they told me that anyone who clicks my affiliate link below the picture will get 10% off their purchase, and the bag is only $49.95.

Let’s talk tactical use here. If you drive to a location for a “mutual aid group” meeting, then drop your phone in the bag at the meeting location, and then pull it out after the meeting, all you did was alert folks that you did something interesting at that location, and that they should ping all phones that were in that area. A better idea is to keep the bag in the car, and drive to a logical location like a shopping mall or movie theater and put the phone in the bag there. Then go to your meeting elsewhere, drive back, and take the phone out of the bag in that same lot. There, it looks like you went shopping or to a movie. Tradecraft is important.

In a Post-WROL situation, just keeping any tech that you have inside of a Faraday dry bag is smart idea. I have several friends who keep “WROL Tablets” that have hundreds of manuals and files, plus maps stored on them. You can recharge the tablet from a solar panel. Personally, though, I recommend not using an Android Tablet for this. If you do, never connect it to your home Wi-Fi and use generic log in data. Needless to say, for security reasons, I’d never use a cell-enabled tablet for anything secure.

The second thing that happened was reading the FBI criminal complaints. The FBI obtained purchase histories from people who made Amazon purchases and were at the January 6th event. They listed as evidence of seditious conspiracy things like buying a “black tactical backpack”, purchases of “Baofeng Radios”, and “black Under Armor face mask”.

I know, Amazon is so easy to buy from and you can’t beat their turnaround time. But they are turning over your data the second they are asked. I get it, I sell the majority of my books there and I even use Amazon Affiliate Links here, because it is the way we buy now, but understand that there is also a time and a place for cash purchases.

Let me clarify, before someone gets this twisted: I don’t advocate what happened on January 6th, and in fact, I told people that they shouldn’t go, because it was a terrible idea and a trap. My opposition to going was because I KNEW that the government would do EXACTLY what they are doing. Some of those people I warned (including one prominent one) are under indictment now. Don’t take the bait.

That being said, if you ARE going to do dumb things, don’t order all your supplies via Amazon, fly commercial to the area, and then register at a hotel down the street. Don’t carry your phone around. This isn’t hard. This is how we targeted folks in the sandbox. It’s called patterning.

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t bring up some Tactical Wisdom and some history to illustrate the point, so here we go.

Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.

Luke 20:20

The use of informants isn’t new, and even this account of spies deployed against Jesus is several thousand years after Jezebel used spies to entrap Naboth so that he would be executed and she could take his land. The more a nation relies on informants and undercover operations, the more tyrannical it is.

One of the grievances that the Colonials had against the Crown that led to the American Revolution was this gem:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

That sounds pretty similar to arresting people all over the US and dragging them to Washington DC for detention, and then delaying the trials.

I will leave you with this piece of the Declaration to close us out, presented without comment:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us

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When I talk about food shortages, a lot of folks roll their eyes and call me alarmist. They say, “Yes, but this is AMERICA. It can’t happen here.” Ok, let’s talk about that.

As I type this, around 290 thousand Ohioans are in the dark and without power on the hottest day of the year so far. They are without power ON PURPOSE. ON PURPOSE. The power authority turned it off on purpose to prevent strain on the grid. Meanwhile, the poorest and most disadvantaged in Columbus, OH are in the dark, hot, and hungry. There was a shooting today at a cooling center that left 1 dead and 2 wounded. How many old people are dying with no money to get gasoline to leave, and no air conditioning?

And it’s being done ON PURPOSE.

We talk a lot about normalcy bias here, which is the tendency to deny that something is happening because “it can’t happen here”. Prior to 2020, could you ever imagine a situation in which the entire nation was shut down and ordered to stay home, and told that they must provide documents and reasons for moving about? No, you couldn’t, but it happened anyway.

I have a piece of Scripture here that sums this up:

Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves.

Ezekiel 33:5

We are facing a series of crises all at the same time, which are all coming to a head at the same time. Rising gas prices, a war which cannot be contained, increasing civil tensions, electrical grid issues, incompetent governance, and a looming food shortage are all happening at the same time. A man whose opinion I value said this – we could weather any one of these at any time, but we cannot weather them all at once.

Heed the warning. Farmers are all over the internet warning about looming food shortages due to drought, fertilizer unavailability, rising feed costs, and rising diesel prices. Many of us are out on Twitter and Facebook sharing photos of the grocery stores and gas stations. Even the US government is finally admitting that we will have food shortages.

Make no mistake, I am in NO WAY saying that America will not have food. We will always have food, because God has provided us with some of the most fertile land on earth. The problem is that the food will be priced so high that the middle class won’t be able to afford it. Yes, I said the middle class because the lower-class will always be given government subsidies.

Couple this with the expected civil unrest anticipated with the Roe V Wade SCOTUS decision and you have the perfect storm for a bloody, hot, hungry, and dark summer & fall in the US. Yes, it can happen here.

“But this is America”, people say. Jerusalem was God’s Chosen City, and it was destroyed countless times. Here is a piece of Tactical Wisdom for those who say “But this is America, it can’t happen here.”:

for riches do not endure forever,
    and a crown is not secure for all generations.

Proverbs 27:24

Every single time you go to the store, buy a few extra cans of food, or maybe buy the full limit on pasta. If nothing happens and I am wrong, then you will still eventually eat the food. If I’m right, and you didn’t, you’ll be in a bad spot.

Learn how to acclimate yourself to the weather. Instead of having the thermostat set at 66, set it to 75 or 80. In the winter, lower it a bit. This way, your system isn’t shocked by the weather. Humans are actually very weather resistant, or truthfully, we used to be. The advent of heating and cooling has caused us to live our entire lives in an artificial bubble of 66-70 degrees. Vary that by 5 degrees and modern people get very uncomfortable. Spend more time outdoors.

Start walking now. If gas prices continue to climb, you will be walking no matter what, because gas stations won’t even be able to buy gas to sell to you. Start acclimating yourself to using your feet.

Learn to defend yourself. I can’t tell you what that looks like for you, but I live a martial lifestyle. I have trained in martial arts, knives, sticks, and firearms. Decide what you need to learn and get after it. You need to be able to defend yourself when hungry and angry people come looking for food, and they WILL.

Build community. Get to know your neighbors. Find like-minded people (church is great for this) and start organizing (The Baseline Training Manual has tips for this). Start seeking out those with skills you might need (radio/medical).

Take a “Stop The Bleed” or First Aid class. First aid skills are the preparedness skills you will use the most and you can start using them TODAY. Learn CPR and how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator – It’s easy).

Check on your elderly neighbors and family. Those on a fixed income are being hit the hardest with no relief in sight. Make sure they are OK and offer to drive them to appointments or the store. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

As we close this out, I want to mention a special opportunity for our readers. LiteBand is launching a new line of headbands and the owner, Randall Coe, has made a special offer for our readers. If you make a pledge to the Kickstarter campaign to fund this (see below), you can email a screen shot of your confirmation to info@liteband.com, mentioning that you heard about the project here, Randall will send a spare alkaline battery pack to run the LiteBand with regular batteries, in addition to the included rechargeable battery. I have two LiteBands and I supported this project at the CAMO level because I know Randall stands behind his stuff (I had an issue with my first one and Randall went above & beyond to fix it). Check out the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/multi-beam-liteband/multi-beam-comfortable-lightweight-illumination-near-or-far?ref=project_build

Get over the normalcy bias and PREPARE!

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If you watched The Last Kingdom, you know about Uthred Ragnarson. Uthred was trusted by both the Saxons and the Northmen, because they both knew him to be a man of principles and a man of his word. Once Uthred swore an oath, you could consider it done. In fact, the only time he went against his brother Ragnar was because his principles meant more to him than family, and he couldn’t allow a woman (Princess Aethelflaed) to be harmed by men lacking principles.

You may be wondering what this has to do with anything, but bear with me….

The only time Uthred directly betrayed King Alfred was when the good King pushed him too far and demanded too much. The King kept altering his agreement with Uthred and Uthred’s men to the point that Uthred would take no more. Sound familiar?

The same day that the new Disinformation Governance Board, or “DGB” (KGB), was formed with a radical partisan at its helm, I was reading in Isaiah. Almost immediately, this piece of Tactical Wisdom was thrown in my face:

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees.

Isaiah 10:1

Make no mistake, establishing the DGB within a law enforcement agency was an oppressive decree.

Around here, I get asked almost daily, “When is someone going to do something?”. I myself frequently remind everyone of Patrick Henry’s famous speech (delivered in a church, I might add). On that same day, while pondering all of this, this came to me from the Ultimate Tactical Handbook as well:

If you do not stand firm in your faith,
    you will not stand at all.

Isaiah 7:9b

What does my faith tell me? It tells me that I am never to deny Christ’s existence, yet I am continually told that we may have to in this country, and that while I’m at it, I will also have to apologize for believing in Him, because some time in history, someone did something bad in His name. Standing firm means I will not. I must not.

A narrative is spreading that Christianity is a risk of extremism. The same people pushing that nonsense are also claiming that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is some type of Christian Crusade, and therefore evil. That’s utter nonsense, but it is spreading.

We were forced to stop going to church for a year, and those who stood firm in their faith were arrested and charged. Many Christians, speaking out against what appears to be growing authoritarianism in the US, have been threatened with arrest or actually arrested. We were told in the Bible that we would face persecution for following Jesus and The Way, and here we are. What advice was given in the Bible for when that happens? Was the Bible wisdom “Sit back down and keep quiet” or “Go along to get along”? No. It was this Tactical Wisdom:

So then, those who suffer according to God’s Will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

1 Peter 4:19

But we aren’t. We are meekly watching this nation and the world hurtle towards disaster.

The stock market is crashing. Food supplies are dwindling and appear to be intentionally being hampered. Supply chains are broken. The US Defense Department is emptying the armories as fast as it can to arm Ukraine, while we can’t re-arm to protect our own nation. All of this while actual evil groups are spreading civil disorder and rioting across the nation, almost completely unopposed by the police.

What can, NO, what SHOULD we do?

As people of principle, we need to stand up and say NO MORE. If only some do, those ones will be crushed by the increasingly oppressive government. If we all do, we can turn the tide.

If we continue down this course and things come completely off the rails, I urge those of us into preparedness to retain our principles and rebuild under those principles, which happen to be enshrined in our Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence. These documents were inspired by God, and the Founding Fathers said that right in them.

Fans, I’m no Patrick Henry, but I say this: With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, I pledge to you my Life, my Fortune and my sacred Honor. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Isaiah 6:8

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Just like the lyrics to ‘Pride In The Name of Love” by U2, “Early Morning, April 4, a shot rings out….”, a tragedy occurred the morning of April 4 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Just after 8 AM, a GRPD officer stopped a vehicle driven by Patrick Lyoya for improper plates. Lyoya would fail to provide ID, then run and eventually fight the officer.

The video clearly shows Lyoya take the taser from the officer before the officer shoots and tragically kills Lyoya. This article isn’t about the shooting, but if you want a very serious breakdown of every step of the incident, check out our new YouTube channel, which can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/user/jdolio.

The focus of this article is, as always, preparedness. We would be remiss if we didn’t note that the weather is warming up, and the US has a critical mid-term election coming in the fall. A reminder from the Ultimate Tactical Handbook is in order:

A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.

The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

Proverbs 27:12 (NLT)

When the shooting first happened, I predicted that the terrible optics of an officer shooting a black man in the back of the head would lead to protests and give the incident the longevity that certain groups were looking for to re-invigorate their agenda. Within hours, Ben Crump and all the usual suspects were en route to Grand Rapids.

As soon as the police department released the video, the “execution of an unarmed prisoner” narrative began running wild, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Inflammatory comments led to scenes like this:

Never mind that the imagery is not rooted in reality (remember “Hands up, don’t shoot), it fit the narrative. I warned immediately that violent