According to Wikipedia: Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.

Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with only a few being categorized as permissive. Jurisdictions that regulate access to firearms typically restrict access to only certain categories of firearms and then to restrict the categories of persons who will be granted a license to have access to a firearm. In some countries, such as the United States, gun control may be legislated at either a federal level or a local state level.

Many Prepper and survivalist web sites contain an abundance of material about the likelihood of gun confiscation in the aftermath of a major disaster. The general premise is that government agencies and/or military units will be going door to door after a declaration of martial law to forcibly deprive you of weapons and ammunition. You resist – you die, or end up in a prison cell on the back side of some undocumented FEMA camp in the middle of nowhere; or so the theory goes.

Unfortunately, the distinction between local or regional disasters, such as a hurricane or earthquake, and a wider SHTF or “end of the world as we know it” event, are rarely made. In any historic disaster that you can name, government has always continued to function at both the state and federal levels. A varied collection of mostly nameless bureaucratic agencies have always been able to respond to a recognized need. The degree to which they were timely in their response, or even effective, is not an issue. The point is that a constituted and functional government (the people who you think you elected), were responding to a recognized need because they had a political motivation or statutory obligation to do so.

Most frequently cited in Prepper articles is the warning that gun confiscation is an inevitable consequence of a declaration of martial law. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, law enforcement personnel were, in fact, going door to door to confiscate firearms. There were numerous highly qualified Search and Rescue teams that refused to go to New Orleans because they were not allowed to carry firearms for their own protection.

If the entire system were to suddenly go sideways, what is the probability of an enforceable martial law declaration, followed by gun confiscation? For example, if a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) event took out the entire national power grid could you realistically expect an army platoon to break through your front door in search of firearms, ammo and surplus food? I think not.

In order for martial law to be effective, you must first have a means of declaring it to the general populace. Second, you must have a means of enforcing it. The absence of either factor renders the declaration a moot point. Even without a means of communication, citizens will realize that a major catastrophe has happened. If there are no lights on at city hall, it won’t take a genius to figure out that civilization has gone south. Without a means of communication (TV, radio, Internet, posters on telephone poles, etc.) there is no way the general populace would know that martial law has been declared.

Second, if the command and control communications infrastructure has been disabled, government will have no ability to issue notifications or orders to law enforcement agencies (federal, state, county or local). By using the term “infrastructure,” I refer to computer based network communications, the ability to transmit communiqués via radio, the ability to contact and muster enforcement personnel, and essential coordination of resources. Stated a bit more directly, Fort Bliss will not dispatch a battalion of troops from the 1st Armored Division to Albuquerque, New Mexico (a distance of 225 air miles) to confiscate your firearms. They won’t be doing it in Humvees, M1-A1 tanks or Blackhawk helicopters. And they most assuredly won’t be on foot.

Finally, the enforcement of martial law (including gun confiscation) presupposes that county and local law enforcement personnel will be willing to carry it out on a national scale. It is one thing to suppress looters and arsonists, but requiring the military or state/county law enforcement to confiscate 350 million legally owned firearms is an entirely different proposition; especially if they are faced with determined resistance. Importantly, there are an increasing number of county sheriffs across the U.S. that have gone on record to refuse cooperation with federal initiatives that would lead to gun confiscation.

Doing house to house searches – whether vacant or occupied – is a very time-consuming and labor intensive process; not to mention the risks involved. Based on national averages, patrol officers number about 2 per 1,000 residents across the country. In rural communities, that number may be as low as one per thousand. In crime ravaged cities like Chicago, Washington DC and Baltimore, it can exceed four per thousand. When you consider housing and population density in urban areas, gun confiscation would be a daunting task to assign to any police force.

Excluding overseas deployments, the number of active duty Army and Marines in the contiguous U.S. is significantly less than 500,000. That is less than 1.5% of the entire population. The number of Army/Marine personnel that would be trained and equipped to deprive you of your personal defense weapons would actually be less than one per 10,000 population. Within a matter of days, every state-side military installation will be in the same situation that you will face: No gasoline, no diesel or jet fuel for vehicles or aircraft, no resupply for commissaries or mess halls, and no direction from the federal or state branches of government. They will be eating MREs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If the grid is down for you, it will be down for them, too. If you don’t have fuel, or if the semiconductor circuits in your vehicle have been fried, do you think the military will escape a similar fate? You can think of it as an ‘equal opportunity’ form of calamity.

A More Probable Scenario

In my view, the disintegration of government and the abandonment of Constitutional rule of law would rapidly lead to a collapse of civil order. Without a functioning government, looting, arson and home invasions would erupt within hours – if not minutes – in major population centers. Any form of effective law enforcement (civil or military) would quickly evaporate. Instead, as the realization that civilization as we know it has come to an end, local communities and individuals would institute their own versions of martial law, but in a distinctly reverse manner.

The important distinction is that communities would be relying on citizen’s firearms to prevent being overwhelmed by refugees and looters. In other words, if you are inside the compound or town limits, and have possession of a firearm, you will be a defensive asset to the community. Moreover, local law enforcement will likely be aiding your collective defense. The enemy will be on the outside of the barricade.

In a total SHTF scenario, I believe that you are far more likely to be engaged in defending your family, property or survival community from raiders than you would be from government-backed confiscators of your weapons. The more tangible danger is from a still-functioning government that has abandoned Constitutional rule of law.

In the summer of 2020, from Minnesota to London, a global protest movement erupted in response to incidents of racial profiling and police brutality against Black Americans. As illustrated by Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama in 1965, the Kent State Massacre in 1970, the MOVE Bombing in Philadelphia in 1985, Ferguson in 2014, and the many more countless deaths of Black people at the hands of police, this form of violence and discrimination is not new to the United States. But what has steadily evolved over time is the militarization of both federal and local law enforcement, from the increasing use of military-grade equipment in police raids and protest response to the use of tactics borrowed from military operations abroad. This blog outlines some of the key programs and dynamics contributing to the militarization of US law enforcement and its impact on civilian harm.

Police Militarization Defined

In this post, we define police militarization as the influence of military equipment, tactics, and mindset on domestic law enforcement. This phenomenon exists in at least three distinct areas:

1. Transfer of military equipment to domestic law enforcement agencies;
2. Regular flow of personnel from the military to local law enforcement agencies; and
3. Adoption of military tactics by law enforcement.

A recent paper published by Brown University scholar Jessica Katzenstein notes that while militarization has always been a feature of US law enforcement – starting as early as militarized slave patrols and colonial militias – the US response to 9/11 has significantly exacerbated police militarization. Although certain military attributes like discipline and a clear chain of command may contribute to improved accountability and professionalism in law enforcement, militarization also blurs the lines between military and law enforcement in ways that can increase the risk of civilian harm.

Key Factors Contributing to the Police Militarization Pipeline and Impacts on Civilians

Equipment

Law enforcement agencies can purchase military grade equipment directly from private companies, a costly route for most departments whose funding comes from local taxes. As an alternative, several federal government programs allow the free transfer of military equipment to local agencies. These include:

Department of Defense 1033 Program: Created to support “War on Drugs” counter-drug and counter-terrorism policies in the 1990s, the 1033 Program allows federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to loan or purchase excess or obsolete military equipment and weaponry as well as office supplies. The program, administered by the Defense Logistics Agency in the Department of Defense, has provided equipment free of charge to 8,200 agencies throughout the United States in 49 states and 4 territories valued at approximately $7.4 billion.

The 1033 Program recently made headlines, as scenes of police in riot gear and tanks quelling protests during the 2020 George Floyd demonstrations led many to wonder why police appeared equipped for war and not protest, and how locally-funded agencies could afford military grade equipment. The 1033 Program is the most heavily criticized of the three equipment transfer programs. During a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the 1033 Program in 2017, a fake law enforcement agency was able to obtain $1.2 million in equipment, including simulated rifles and simulated pipe bombs. Senator Brian Schatz proposed a failed amendment to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to scrap the 1033 Program entirely; however, the Senate instead approved an amendment to codify the Obama administration’s policy of restricting the resale of tracked, armored vehicles and drones. Critics of the program suggest this measure is more symbolic than impactful, as the Department of Defense says it does not actually supply these particular items to local police agencies.

Department of Defense 1122 Program: Established by section 1122 of the 2014 NDAA, the 1122 Program allows local enforcement agencies to purchase new military equipment at the same discounted price enjoyed by federal agencies for the purposes of counter-drug, emergency response, and homeland security activities. Because the 1122 Program is not a grant or transfer program, it is not monitored for compliance.

Homeland Security Grant Program: This program consists of three grants administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program, intended to help local agencies prepare for and prevent terrorism incidents, can be used to purchase advanced equipment like helicopters, but not weapons. Funds from this program can also be used to transport 1033 Program equipment. The program provides $1 billion to law enforcement agencies annually.

Proponents of these equipment transfer programs often cite natural disasters or terrorism to justify the programs’ utility. However, these programs also militarize domestic law enforcement and have been shown to contribute to civilian harm. For example, a 2017 study found that, “when controlling for civilian demographics, violent crime rates, and rates of drug use, 1033 Program transfers correlated with increased police killings of civilians.” Military equipment has also played a prominent role in the excessive use of force by law enforcement in responses to civilian protests, as seen in Ferguson in 2014, Standing Rock in 2016, and the many racial justice protests of 2020; and has been used by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contributing to the militarization of the US border and facilitating harsh immigration enforcement.

Personnel

A significant number of military service members go on to domestic law enforcement upon leaving the military, a phenomenon that may contribute to police militarization through mindset, background, and training. For example, research by Jessica Katzenstein notes that approximately 19 to 28 percent of law enforcement officers are military veterans, while only about 7 percent of the general population in the United States has served in the military. CBP reports about one third of its force as military veterans. Oftentimes, law enforcement is seen as an attractive option for military veterans due to its familiar organizational structure and emphasis on discipline, which allows them to apply certain skills gained in the military. Law enforcement also actively recruits from the veteran population; for example, CBP’s website cites a “military community culture.”

The disproportionate number of former military service members in law enforcement can contribute to a militarized culture and mindset and present unique challenges to citizen-officer relations, in large part because the police and the military play different roles in American society. The military is tasked with using force to protect the homeland from foreign threats, while police are meant to serve as a civil force tasked with keeping communities safe. As a result, this personnel transfer may contribute to increased use of force and resulting harm by law enforcement. For example, a case study by the Marshall Project suggests that veterans working as law enforcement officers are more likely to discharge their weapons than non-veteran officers.

Mindset, Tactics, & Training

Militarized law enforcement responses are often characterized by a war mindset: to galvanize the public, political leaders often use war as a metaphor for the need to act on a domestic problem or issue, as seen in terms like “War on Drugs” and “Global War on Terror” – both of which coincided with policies that contributed significantly to the militarization of domestic law enforcement. Most recently, in calls with governors regarding responses to the 2020 George Floyd protests, then-acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper said governors must “dominate the battlespace” to quell protests, while the media compared the streets of DC to scenes from US counterinsurgency operations in places like Kabul and Baghdad.

Beyond militarized rhetoric, the adoption of military tactics and training by law enforcement agencies also contributes to increased militarization and civilian harm. These include:Counterinsurgency Tactics: Dating back to the 19th century, modern counterinsurgency tactics were developed to combat guerilla warfare during the US occupation of the Philippines by dispatching small elite units, normally at night, to surround, search, and destroy combatants. Sociology Professor at The University of Chicago, Julian Go, details how search and destroy tactics from this period were adapted on indigenous populations, specifically the Sioux in the Great Plains region during the 1800s. Common tactics also included the surveillance of targeted communities and recruitment of informants.

Many modern police tactics have been adapted from foreign wars for domestic use. For example, former service members like Orlando Wilson, known as the father of law enforcement ethics, returned from enforcing martial law in Germany after World War II and wrote the most widely-used police administration textbook. After Wilson revolutionized the Chicago Police Department in the 1960s, his tactics played a key role in the 1969 assassination of Fred Hampton, a Black Panther and labor rights activist, by the Chicago police. Drugged by a police informant, Hampton was asleep with his pregnant girlfriend when the police raided his home and fired into the home 99 times, initially killing one person, before fatally shooting an already wounded Hampton inside his home. These continued to be common tactics utilized to dismantle civil rights and Black resistance organizations.

The adoption of counterinsurgency tactics in the form of small elite units, community surveillance, and confidential informants has resulted in a militarized approach, facilitated civilian harm by law enforcement, and contributed to the significant degradation of police-community relations.SWAT Teams & No-Knock Raids: Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) police units, adapted from small unit tactics discussed above, have often been deployed to combat the “War on Drugs.” According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 62 percent of SWAT raids between 2011 to 2012 were drug raids, and 72 percent involved executing a search warrant. A component of these raids is often no-knock warrants, which allow law enforcement to enter a property without immediate notification of residents, for example by knocking. During such raids, units generally arrive heavily-armed (often through the 1033 and other programs discussed above) in armored personnel carriers – colloquially known as tanks – and enter homes using flash grenades to disorient occupants. As the ACLU notes, these raids are particularly dangerous because half of households in the United States own a gun. New York Times reporter Kevin Sacks estimates that, at minimum, 94 people, including two police officers, were killed in SWAT raids from 2010-2016. The actual number is unknowable since there is no national database for excessive use of force incidents.

The dangers of these raids made headlines most recently in the killing of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police gunfire during the execution of a botched SWAT search warrant. In another case in 2014, police in Cornelia, Georgia were searching for a suspect accused of buying $50 worth of drugs. In the resulting no-knock raid – executed in a home where the suspect did not live – the flash grenade set off by police landed in the crib of 19-month old Bounkham ‘Bou Bou’ Phonesavanh, creating a hole in the baby’s chest and injuring his face. Critics of no-knock raids also cite fourth amendment rights to be secure against unlawful search and seizure, which such raids may violate.K-9 Units: Today, law enforcement uses canine (K-9) units for drug and bomb searches, captures of fleeing suspects, evidence location, and public relations initiatives. As Tyler D. Parry outlines in The Washington Post, the use of K-9s was first introduced in the American context to track, capture, and kill indigenous people in the Americas as early as the 1490s by Spanish colonizers, and later by “slave patrols” to track, capture, and sometimes kill people escaping enslavement throughout the American continents. K-9s were later used by the British military during World War II to search and find survivors in debris from German air raids, and by Nazi Germany to patrol Nazi concentration camps. The modern use of K-9 units for law enforcement was brought to the United States in 1954 by an ex-marine dog trainer in Dearborn Michigan and first deployed in Baltimore City in 1956.

Since canines cannot exercise judgement and are trained for maximum aggression, their use can endanger civilians and expose police departments to excessive use of force claims. A 2006 study by general surgeon Dr. Peter C. Meade found that police dog bites resulted in higher rates of hospitalization and surgery than domestic dog bites, and that the majority of police dog bite victims are Black and Hispanic. K-9 units have been involved in a number of recent incidents of excessive use of force and civilian harm, including attacks on Black protesters in California’s Bay Area this past summer, the 2019 killing by police of Elijah McClain in Colorado, and the August 2020 use of a K-9 against Jeffrey Ryans in an incident that led the Salt Lake City police to suspend its K-9 program.

Militarized Law Enforcement at the Federal Level

The law enforcement response to the racial justice protests of 2020 demonstrated the significant militarization of federal law enforcement responses in addition to the militarization of local police units. Notable examples include:

Use of the National Guard

During the summer of 2020, President Trump repeatedly threatened to send in the military to quell racial justice protests in some cities. During this time, 17,000 National Guard members were deployed in 24 jurisdictions to support local law enforcement responding to protests. The National Guard was involved in at least one lethal use of force incident and used to violently remove protests from Lafayette Square in Washington, DC using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons. In a particularly egregious example of militarized law enforcement, the Guard also used a low-flying military helicopter to intimidate and disperse protesters, a technique borrowed from overseas counterinsurgency operations.

Deputization of Federal Agents

Expanding on a 2002 authority initially used to help increase security on federal property (40 U.S.C. § 1315), then-acting DHS Secretary Wolf deputized federal law enforcement agents to patrol federal property in Portland, Oregon, where unidentifiable federal agents without name badges or insignia were accused of using excessive force and unlawfully detaining protesters. Wearing camouflage, gas masks, and tactical gear, and armed with flash and chemical smoke grenades, acoustic weapons, and other military-grade equipment, the agents’ response had the appearance of a military intervention. These agents were later identified as ICE, CBP, and US Federal Marshal Services agents. When asked, Secretary Wolf stated that DHS has the authority to pursue and arrest individuals that commit crimes on federal property even if suspects are no longer on federal grounds. However, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper expressed concerns that the militarized response may be confused with a military crackdown, and Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman noted in a press conference that “we want a system where people can tell the difference.”

CIVIC has condemned the US government’s militarized response to demonstrations and urged security forces responding to protests to protect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, limit the use of force, and comply with international human rights standards. As CIVIC’s Executive Director Federico Borello has said, “Terms such as ‘battlespace’, ‘urban warfare’, and ‘insurrection’ have no place in a government’s policy for managing public safety during protests and demonstrations… The public is not an armed opposition group.” As an alternative, CIVIC calls on state and federal authorities to de-escalate and de-militarize law enforcement responses and engage with communities on their concerns and needs to ensure they receive the accountability and protection they 

When the Black Death struck Europe in the Middle Ages, the fundamental values that held society together broke down. Husbands and wives abandoned each other and mothers abandoned their children. This void of ethics that overtook the population is described in Boccaccio’s Decameron, considered a masterpiece of Italian prose and a documentary of life during that time. The book describes the sense of hopelessness that spread throughout the world, because it did not matter what stature one held in life or what one did or did not do to avoid the disease, all were subject to its lethality. Some implored their God in vain while others pursued a carpe diem spirit in an attempt to grab the last bit of pleasure from life when they were able. The common explanation for the indiscriminate devastation wrought by the Black Plague was God’s punishment for human wrongdoing. Nothing in human behavior has changed since then and I believe the ecological overshoot that man finds himself in today, manifested most prominently as climate chaos amongst a myriad of other threats, will cause humans to question the futility of life and their existence just as did those victims of the bubonic plague. A recent study has found that climate chaos is indeed worsening neurological diseases and mental health disorders. Another study found that people are denying climate change as a form of self-deception necessary to maintain their psychological health. 

Since those Dark Ages, mankind has developed the ability to accurately track and predict our own demise. Vast networks of satellites and other data monitoring tools are informing us that the planet is becoming increasingly more inhospitable for the vast majority of life on Earth, yet we plod onward, ignoring another plea by the world’s scientists. A reassessment of the Limits to Growth Study and its World3 model using different calibrations was done 6 months ago and the results are the same, which is to say that humanity is still following business-as-usual and heading for collapse within the next two decades:

...the model results clearly indicate the imminent end of the exponential growth curve. The excessive consumption of resources by industry and industrial agriculture to feed a growing world population is depleting reserves to the point where the system is no longer sustainable.

All the expertise and modern technology we possess will not be coming to save us; there is no techno-fix or deus ex machina remotely scalable to the planetary crises we face. Emergency atmospheric geoengineering schemes won’t save us at this point. Can’t we just suck the 900 billion tons of CO₂ out of the atmosphere that we have spewed since the beginning of the industrial revolution? No. It bears repeating that the spiking Keeling curve is non-reversible on human timescales.

“We sadly continue to break records in the CO₂ rise rate,” said Ralph Keeling, director of the CO₂ program at Scripps. “The ultimate reason is continued global growth in the consumption of fossil fuels.” ~ May 8, 2024

The rate of ocean warming has nearly quadrupled since the late twentieth century, doubling since 1993. In the last twelve month, ocean heating has been on a tear, shattering records consistently. The world is currently undergoing the fourth global coral bleaching event on record, the second in the last decade, and the Great Barrier Reef is suffering its worst bleaching event in recorded history. This year’s hurricane season will likely be a record-breaker. The oceans are starting to release all that thermal energy we have been unceremoniously dumping into them. At one time, oceans seemed like an endless sink for the emissions from humanity’s nonstop consumption of fossil fuels, but that appears to be coming to an end. The world’s rivers are warming and losing oxygen even faster than the oceans. In contrast to those grim stats, humanity is set to consume more resources in the next 30 years as we have since the dawn of civilization. We have already consumed the future and are now, as they say, eating the seed corn.

We have breached tipping points and set in motion positive feedback loops that are accelerating non-linear ecological changes. Six of nine major planetary boundaries have been broken. Our unintended and haphazard experiment with complex Earth systems will unleash a Pandora’s box of deadly consequences. The current rate of CO₂ change is unprecedented for the past 50,000 years. We have already passed the 1.5C warming threshold set by the Paris Agreement to prevent the irreversible and worsening effects of climate change. A recent study warns that as we add more and more CO₂ to the atmosphere, its potency for warming is stronger at higher atmospheric concentrations than an equivalent increase at lower atmospheric concentrations. The polar regions are warming four times faster than the rest of the planet and have been undergoing fundamental changes to their ocean/ice system which will affect all life on Earth. An ice-free Arctic is just around the corner. In a warming world, pathogens will be looking for ways to exploit the fast-changing environment, potentially creating the next global pandemic for people or destroying our food supply. The tree line, as well as animals, are expanding northward as the climate heats up and the ice melts. Nearly a third of all tree species are now endangered by our radically changing environment. The clear blue waters of Alaskan rivers are turning orange and rusty brown by the heavy metals being released from melting permafrost. The oceans are also turning green due to the shift in phytoplankton population from warming waters.

The insurance industry, the backbone of the global economy, is beginning to buckle: “I believe we’re marching toward an uninsurable future.” As is typical of our modern-day society, the hypocrytical insurance industry is heavily invested in fossil fuels while simultaneously warning about the looming destruction from climate change. Billion dollar disasters are increasing while the time between such disasters is decreasing. This continual rebuilding that needs to be done more often would be another doom-loop cycle for our crumbling civilization, considering the carbon emissions required in such repair and reconstruction. Compound extreme weather and climate events, combinations of two or more extremes (hazards) that occur concurrently or sequentially, are also increasing and expected to grow many fold over in the future. These compound weather events will inevitably create a perfect storm that will one day permanently destroy supply chains and economies by acting as a constant disruptor to stability. It would have the same effect as a monster cyclone, or hypercane, traveling the globe in perpetuity, waxing and waning in strength but never dying, and leaving a path of destruction wherever it roamed. A stable climate no longer exists to support the reconstruction of what once was. Walden Thoreau’s words seem very prescient today: “What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” With corporations also gobbling up single-family homes to monopolize the real estate market in America, we can officially say that the American dream of owning a home is dead. George Carlin always said you had to be asleep to believe anything about the American Dream.

I have been hearing about the need to abandon fossil fuels since President Carter put solar panels on the White House 45 years ago. I am still waiting for the techno-optimists to explain to me how they will save us from this new age we have created, known as the Pyrocene or Age of Fire; rest in peace, Holocene. We could also call our modern-day clusterfuck the Plasticene or Age of Plastics. Scientists are finding the stuff in every nook and cranny of the planet, including Antarctic krill, men’s testicles, and throughout the human body. If you drive a vehicle, you are contributing to the primary source for microplastics in the environment, tires, which account for 78%. Just as they lied about their knowledge of the catastrophic effects from burning their fossil fuel products, so too did the oil and plastics industry lie about their greenwashing fraud called recycling.

I never get an adequate, rational answer to our conundrum, because there is none. ChatGPT provides no better insight than the techno-optimists. The problem of a planet overrun by humans will resolve itself in short order and be recorded in the geologic fossil record after we put a cherry on top of this fossil fuel orgy, flattening the planet into a glass parking lot with nuclear weapons. That is another part of human nature that we will never escape…warfare. We seem to be one twitch away from WWIII and the next Stone Age. In fact, there are nearly 200 armed conflicts raging around the world right now, the largest number in decades. This marked uptick in violence could be an ominous sign of a violent new era.

“The accelerating climate crisis continues to act as a multiplier of both root causes of conflict and institutional weaknesses in fragile countries…”

We are on the verge of authoritarian rule as global conditions break down and people embrace centralized solutions. Xenophobia will grow and borders will be shut down, sources of food and energy will be fought over and secured, and rationing of resources will be enforced.

After studying our ecological overshoot for several decades, I have some observations that must be accepted as fact:

• “Renewable” energy is not displacing our massive fossil fuel consumption at all, but only serving as a small addition to the total global energy consumption.
• “Renewable” or alternative energy, such as solar and wind, is dependent on fossil fuels for its manufacture, installation, maintenance, and eventual disposal.
•  The so-called “Energy Transition” away from fossil fuels is pure techno-hopium and will never materialize.
• The general public and many scientists don’t understand the math and physics involved in transitioning a $100 trillion global economy, dependent on hydrocarbons, to intermittent alternative energy sources.
• No such “Energy Transition” can be accomplished without radical reductions in resource consumption. This is antithetical to the basic biological urge for expansion by most organisms, including humans, and current trends illustrate this behavior. We also keep finding more ways to consume evermore energy. On top of this, the World Bank is urging faster economic growth for emerging economies in order for them to repay mounting debts.
• Governments are ill-equipped to deal with industrial civilization’s complex polycrisis because effective solutions would undermine economic growth.

The latest deadline to ‘save the planet’ is now two years from now, according to a UN Climate Change official. No doubt another arbitrary date given to justify someone’s job and department budget. According to Global Footprint Network’s calculations, humans have been in overshoot for over half a century. Others would say that we have been in overshoot since the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago, surviving only by mining the Earth’s soils. Like fossil fuels, the vast nutrient store of soils represents a unique one-time gift that has been squandered by agricultural erosion. Without petroleum and arable soils, the Earth will only support perhaps 5% of the present global population, as it did before the advent of agriculture. Considering that we are being constantly blindsided by faster-than-normal and worse-than-expected findings from scientists, I suspect there are far less food harvests left for us than we think. Hotter temperatures and pollution are hastening the destruction of topsoil. Our temporary extension of Earth’s carrying capacity for humans is coming to an end. Once Earth’s life support systems start to unravel, the grotesquely inflated human population will crash. In the meantime, “Memento moriturum; maxime faciunt vitae!” 

In recent years, the government’s expenditures have soared and the national deficit has exploded. This has caused the national debt to explode. Much of the rationale behindQE has been that it creates what the Fed calls a “Wealth Effect.”Sadly, several times over the years the wealth effect formula has slid off the tracks and most likely will again. 

In short, nothing has been fixed or repaired, we have not created a sustainable economy. Printing and creating new money is not fixing the problem, instead, it has created an economy addicted to printing and creating even more new money. We here in America need to focus on the American economy, if that is strong it will help galvanize the country’s future.  

An example of our failure is seen in how China got a big boost with the passing of Biden’s 1.9 trillion dollar relief package and the American taxpayer is the big loser. Buying junk from China will do little good when it comes to creating jobs in America. When looking at the policies flowing out of Washington it is clear many politicians seem to have no idea that all consumer spending and purchases are not created equal.     

Damn near every economist and analyst seem oblivious to the point that what and where consumers buy matters a great deal. An article that delves into spending and its impact on the economy claims,“Where money flows and who it enriches is a key component of economics. The failure to consider this is a blind spot many people have.” Much of what has been registered as growth over the last few decades does not necessarily transfer into economic strength. 

This point is something that has been covered time and time again on this blog in articles such as,Healthcare Spending Wrongly Feeds Our GDP, and Economic Growth Does Not Equal Economic Strength. Many of our economic problems stem from consumers making poor decisions. The least responsible consumers tend not to fulfill obligations but to take on new debt and squander every penny they can lay their hands on. Online shopping and companies such as Amazon are like heroin to an addict when it comes to promoting spending that destroys real economic strength.

Another huge issue is that inflation is not just prevalent in manufactured consumer goods but inflation also occurs in the area of fees, tolls, and taxes. People tend to forget just how much of government spending is done on the local and state levels where simply printing more money is not an option for eliminating revenue shortfalls. This translates into a slew of revenue-driven schemes that come back around to become a huge driver of inflation. 

When we look at where inflation has occurred during the last decade or so we find it centered in areas where the government has expanded its influence. Two that rapidly come to mind are in the areas of healthcare and education. The skyrocketing cost of even basic health tests and medicine, as well as tuition at universities, screams inflation. This dovetails with claims by politicians that leveraging local dollars to match federal and state resources is not always a win for the residents. 

Many people fail to grasp just how much government has expanded over the years. Much of this growth has been masked by “outsourcing” a great deal of the work done by government workers. Another place this sneaks under the radar is in the huge growth of “quasi-government ” entities such as airport authorities and downtown improvement districts which are able to levy special taxes. Utility companies, often monopolies carrying out government mandates under government supervision, also can be placed in this category.

The theory that a lot of future inflation will flow from governments is tied to local governments’ need for revenue. Local and state governments have hidden and masked the size of its growth and financial promises from the public. Since state and local governments lack the federal government’s ability to print money and buy back its debt they must pay higher interest based on their credit rating. 

It is a fact that businesses and landlords eventually must pass on to consumers the added cost forced on to them often through higher prices. Another way to do this is by transferring responsibilities, limiting warranties, or reducing goods and services that had been previously provided. A city forced to cut costs or increase revenues often chooses to plow snow only when three or more inches fall, reduce the number of times it picks up leaves, or increase fines for such things as parking violations or ticketing drivers for violations caught on camera.

An unnoticed but very important part of the inflation puzzle is that so many people are willing to invest in intangible assets.The Fed should be ecstatic about this, in not increasing demand for tangible and real items they help to minimize inflation. Intangible assets are often “useful resources” that lack physical substance. Examples are patents, copyrights, trademarks, and goodwill. Such assets produce economic benefits but you can’t touch them and their value can be very difficult to determine. 

Another example of quasi-intangibles are stocks, when you buy a share of stock what do you really have? For a long time, I have taken the view that many “financial assets” have slipped into the intangible class. Assets such as stocks, pensions, and annuities all harbor many of these qualities. These are things we can not touch and often live in the land of future promises. Over the years the growth in such assets has exploded. Intangible assets stand in sharp contrast to physical assets like machinery, vehicles, and buildings.

The growing danger resulting in policies encouraging people to invest in intangibles does lessen inflation. When money is created or printed it has to go somewhere, and this has been fueling the “everything bubble.” Yes, the wealth effect creates more spending but it is not the key driver of inflation. The main reason all the newly created money has not resulted in even more inflation is rooted in the fact it is being diverted from goods most people need to live and into intangible assets. The theory that investments in intangible assets minimize inflation may be a chief reason government savings and wealth-building programs are centered on driving money into such assets.

Many people and even economists have real misconceptions as to how the economy works. Where money flows and who it enriches is a key component of economics. The failure to consider this is a blind spot many people have. Fans of Keynesian economics that encourage government spending to stabilize the economy tend to discount the importance that savings plays in a balanced economy, or that small local businesses are the heart and soul of the economy. Where and how money is spent matters a great deal. In the end, we will all be forced to pay the price of this “cost-shifting” by suffering a lower standard of living.

No matter how many times it is said, it can never be said or heard enough: “The best self defense firearm for you is the one you are proficient with, feel confident with, and are carrying in a time of need.”

In an urban environment, you have to defend yourself at close, intermediate, and long ranges. This is why you need to develop proficiency with at least one weapon in each of the three main categories of firearms: handguns, shotguns, and rifles.

For each of these groups, there are questions to think about and answer for yourself in order to decide which weapon will best meet your needs.

Since .22 Caliber handguns and rifles are often underestimated as defensive rounds, I created a category just for them. In most cases, as a beginner, you will be starting with a .22 and then moving onto higher powered weapons.

Handguns

This is the weapon you should always carry and have on hand when a rifle or shotgun is impractical. Choose a defensive handgun that is comfortable to shoot under any circumstances and feels comfortable to carry all day.

While those questions are a matter of personal taste, reliability and stopping power (should be powerful enough to put an attacker down with the first or second shot) are much easier to gauge via known facts about specific handgun models.

In pistols, the most popular defense calibers are the 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. All are good choices, but I prefer the 9mm for its larger magazine capacity and the .45 ACP for its knock down power with lighter recoil than the .40 S&W. For open or concealed carrying, I prefer to carry a full-size pistol at all times.

My recommendations for pistols are the following:

• In the 9mm – the Glock 17 with it’s 17 rounds per magazine. This pistol is safe to be use by adults and older teenagers after instruction.

• In the .45ACP category – the Springfield XD-M with it’s 13 rounds per magazine. This pistol is to be used by adults only who can handle the heavier recoil.

Revolvers are an excellent option, and a good choice for inexperienced shooters since they are a rather simple handgun to operate. They are also very reliable and do not require buying and using spare magazines. I would choose the Ruger stainless steel GP100 in .357 magnum/.38 Special with a four inch barrel. I would recommend this revolver for adults and older teenagers that can safely handle them after training.

If you live in a dangerous area, or want a handgun that might be used against bears or big cats, a S&W 629 .44 magnum revolver would be suitable. I would recommend this revolver for adults only because of the heavy recoil.

In a time of social unrest it’s to your advantage to use the same caliber ammunition as the police and the military do. This makes it easier to scrounge up extra ammunition in your calibers during and after these periods of unrest.

For most modern pistols and revolvers, it is easy enough to get spare parts or repairs. However, as laws continue to change, these options may become limited. Now is the time to buy parts kits, accessories, and any tools you might need to make basic repairs or manage deeper cleaning.

Shotguns

The shotgun is an excellent and formidable home and personal defense weapon. Shotguns come in pump action, semi-auto, double barrel, and single barrel.

My personal preference is the pump action because of the distinctive sound it makes when being racked. If there is one gun in this group that will act as a deterrent that reduces the need to open fire, the pump action models can do the job. If they can’t, you will still have an excellent weapon to resolve the matter with.

Pump action shotguns are rugged, reliable, simple to operate, and best of all easy to learn and teach.

Shotguns can be concealable if it is done right. The first thing that you must consider is how to make the shotgun a more compact weapon. To shorten the overall length, I would use the shortest legal tactical barrel and stock combination possible. The standard stock would be replaced with either a cruiser or a folding stock that folds over the top of the shotgun. Finally to help support the weight and add control ability I would attach a single point sling.

For a shotgun to be concealed properly you must be wearing clothing that can cover the shotgun without standing out. Here, loose fitting clothing and a long cold weather or rain coat would help, but the clothing must fit the season and temperatures.

One of the things I like most about a lot of the pump shotguns is that changing barrels is very easy. To make the most of your pump action shotgun, you should have at least two barrels for it. This gives you two guns for the price of one.

The first one should be a field barrel with multiple choke tubes. This one is your hunting and varmint control barrel. The second barrel should be a shorter tactical barrel in the 18-20 inch range. This one is for home defense purposes. It is quicker handling in tight quarters and gives a wider shot spread at short ranges. The tactical barrels come either rifled or smooth bore.

What to choose from so many pump action shotguns?

For adults and older teenagers that will not have any problems with recoil or operating a pump action shotgun, the Parkerized Mossburg 590-A1 in 12 Gauge should work well. This shotgun was designed for the military and is a very heavy duty shotgun that holds 9 rounds of 3 inch shotgun shells. If need be a M-7 or M-9 bayonet can be mounted under the tube magazine for further self defense.

For smaller framed adults, teenagers, and older children that can operate a pump action shotgun, I would recommend the Remington 870 Shotguns in 20 Gauge. An 18-20 inch barrel can still be used for defense and a 26-28 inch barrel for hunting.

For individuals that can’t operate either pump action or semi-auto shotguns, the double barrel shotgun may be a viable answer. If you can handle the recoil of a 12 Gauge shell, but can’t work the pump action or semi-auto action, the 12 Gauge double barrel shotguns should work fine. The same is true for those individuals who can handle the 20 Gauge recoil, but can’t work pump or semi-auto actions.

My recommendation in this group is the Stoeger Double Defense over/under double barreled shotgun for adults and older teenagers that have no issues with 12 Gauge recoil. This shotgun comes with a fiber optic front sight and a picatinny rail for your optics or rear sights. It shoots 2 3/4” or 3” shells. These shotguns are well made and very reliable. It is easier for most people to aim and shoot an over/under shotgun, because of it’s similarities to shooting a rifle. Most people prefer it over the side-by-side double barrel shotguns, because they are more accurate and are easier to aim.

Smaller framed adults, teenagers, and older children that can handle the 20 Gauge recoil and would rather not shoot an over/under double barreled shotguns can try the Stoeger Coach double barreled shotguns with a 20” barrel. These are well made and very reliable shotguns that can shoot 2 3/4” or 3” shotgun shells.

As with handguns, in a time of social unrest it’s to your advantage to have and use the same Gauge shotgun ammunition as the police and the military do. This makes it easier to scrounge up extra shotgun ammunition in your gauges during and after these periods of unrest. Now is a good time to find out what is most commonly being used in your area.

For most shotguns today, it is very easy to get repair or spare parts. You can get them today by ordering direct from the shotgun manufacturers or from firearm part dealers. In a time of social conflict, repair or spare parts will not be available on the open market. It is best to purchase extra kits now while you can.

Centerfire Rifles

As with any other weapon, it will be a matter of personal preference in terms of which one feels most comfortable and easy to carry. You will still need to choose a rifle that is reliable and can put down an attacker with the first shot, if you have to face the aftermath of a disaster in your urban location.

If you need a few recommendations for semi-autos and bolt action rifles in today’s popular calibers, here are some options. As with the other categories, each of these models has a long standing reputation for reliability and has suitable stopping power for most situations.

The Springfield Saint (Military Spec) AR-15 in the 5.56×45 can also shoot the .223 Remington. This gun is very easy to shoot and works well with high capacity magazines or drums. Because of its low recoil, I recommend it for adults, teenagers and slender built individuals after proper training.

In the 7.62×51, the Springfield M1A would be an excellent choice. I highly recommend the M1A for it’s knock down power, durability, an reliability. It shoots very accurately from 20 round magazines, and is an excellent hunting or battle rifle. I would recommend this rifle for adults and older teenagers that can take the recoil after proper training.

In 7.62×39, the AK-47 is my hands down favorite weapon. This weapon is a proven warhorse rifle that has stood the test of time. It is extremely reliable, low recoiled, shoots high capacity magazines and drums, and has good knock down power. I would recommend this weapon to all shooters except young children after proper training.

My choice for a bolt action rifle is the Ruger Gunsite Scout in .308. This is a well built rifle that is very accurate, reliable, has an 18 inch tactical barrel, and uses ten round magazines. This rifle can be scoped two ways; by a regular scope, or by using a scout scope on the picatinny scope rail. If you don’t wish to scope this rifle, it comes standard with front blade and rear aperture sights. This rifle has a bit of a recoil, so it is best for adults and teenage shooters that can take it after proper training.

For those individuals that would like to shoot semi-auto rifles, but have recoil issues, I would recommend an AR-15 that shoots the 9mm pistol round. This AR could be a companion rifle to anyone that is carrying a Glock 9mm semi-auto pistol. Both of these weapons can use the large capacity Glock magazines when needed. This rifle is safe to use by all shooters after proper training.

If you choose a gun that uses ammunition other than what the local military, police, or sheriffs use, it would be to your advantage to stock up on them now.

For most centerfire rifles of today, it is also easy to get repair or spare parts. You can get them by ordering direct from the manufacturers or from firearm part dealers. Get them now while they are still available and easy to get with relatively little effort.

AR-15s with a folding stock or a collapsible stock and AK-47 rifles with a side folding stock or an under folding stocks can be concealed. It will depend upon the climate, time of day, and the type of clothing being used. Concealing other full sized centerfire rifles will depend on their size and weight. Some are very hard or impossible to conceal.

What About .22 Caliber Rifles and Handguns?

.22 caliber rifles and handguns are great learning and practice tools for shooters of all skill levels. It is also an underestimated defensive round, and will put down attackers quite well with good shot placement.

Training and practice are the keys to being a good marksman and with these firearms. Ammo for these weapons is also cheaper than for higher powered guns, so you will find training and practice more affordable.

I recommend the following .22 caliber rifles and handguns for training and defense:

• For a semi-auto rifle – Ruger 10/22 in stainless steel with a black synthetic stock. This rifle can be scoped or use the metal adjustable sights. The 10/22 is a tough, reliable little rifle with a lot of accessories. Upgrades are also available. If taken care of, this 10/22 will last a life time.

• For a lever action rifle – Henry Lever Action .22 caliber. This is a very well made and dependable rifle that shoots .22 LR, .22L, and .22S.This rifle has adjustable sights or can be scoped.

• For a semi-auto pistol – Ruger Mark III Hunter. This is a .22LR very well made, reliable, stainless steel pistol with adjustable sights, and a 10 round magazine.

• For a .22 caliber revolver – Taurus Tracker in .22LR. This is a very well made and dependable SA/DA stainless steel revolver, with a 4 inch barrel, and a 9 round cylinder capacity.

Typically, .22RL ammunition is not used by most local military, police, or sheriffs. It would be to your advantage to stock up on this ammo now because it will disappear very quickly in time of need. At this time the ammunition is priced reasonably, but you never know when the next shortage will come.

For most .22 caliber handguns and rifles today, it is easy to get repair or spare parts by ordering direct from the manufacturers or from firearm part dealers. It is best to buy extra parts now while you can get them at a reasonable price on the open market.

In a time of social conflict, you have to defend yourself at close, intermediate, and long ranges in an urban environment that goes crazy. Proficiency with handguns, shotguns, and rifles will go a long way to helping you achieve that goal.

Each of these weapon types have their advantages and disadvantages, as do specific models in each category. Regardless of how many models you try out, the best one is always going to be the one you are comfortable with and actually have on hand in a time of need.

Prepare your guns and practice your shooting skills, so you could survive the disaster!

For those of us who study propaganda critically, and seek to do this all-important work as public intellectuals, these last two years have been uniquely challenging, and even dangerous, forcing us into a painful double bind.

On the one hand, we have never had so much to work with, nor has there ever been a greater need for our peculiar expertise. Whereas in the “democratic” West, propaganda used to be most evident as an intensive episodic practice, flaring up in wartime, in political campaigns and following immense state crimes like JFK’s assassination, 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks (among other national traumas engineered by governments), the propaganda blasting all of us non-stop today is no longer national, or merely multinational, but global; and the former intermittency of those most awful crises, with decades going by between one trauma and the next, has given way to a mind-numbing strategy of serial bombardment — one cataclysmic fuss after another (with, sometimes, one within another), as under openly totalitarian rule.]

Thus, throughout 2020 — Year One of the now-endless Covid crisis — we were inescapably suffused with terror of “the virus,” and thereby bullied into locking down (despite the scientific fact that lockdowns do more harm than good), while also masking all the time, and everywhere, and “social-distancing” as well (despite the scientific fact that neither practice “slows the spread” of any respiratory virus). While masking was imposed, ostensibly, to make us less afraid of Covid-19, it only made us more afraid of one another, and so compounded that disabling fear with a ferocious anger at all those not wearing masks (despite the scientific fact that masks would not prevent transmission of “the virus” even if the entire global population wore them all the time).

As propagated fiercely by the media — both corporate and “alternative” — throughout 2020, that sanctimonious division of ourselves into benevolent maskers and self-centred “anti-maskers” was just a pestilential variant of the “red”/”blue” divide that the media, with very few exceptions, had already fiercely propagated since the rise of Donald Trump; and that incapacitating tribalist division deepened, in mid-2020, with the George Floyd incident, and the emergent cult of BLM, whose blurry mission against “white supremacy” was suddenly and ostentatiously extolled throughout the media worldwide (George Floyd’s beatification being yet another stroke of global propaganda, the same big graphic of his quasi-tragic face popping up at rallies as far afield as France, Ghana and Japan), and anomalously hailed by Jeff Bezos, Mitt Romney, Jaimie Dimon, Bill and Melinda Gates, Nancy Pelosi, and other wealthy players not notable for their concern about black lives (on the contrary). Whereas the anti-lockdown protests flaring up (organically) that spring had been denounced throughout the government and media as lethal “super-spreader events” (despite the scientific fact that no respiratory virus ever has been known to spread asymptomatically, as even Dr. Fauci publicly admitted at one point), the multitudes of BLM protesters were applauded for assembling, although many wore no masks, or had their masks below their chins (nor were the rioters who followed them condemned for “putting everyone at risk,” either by their masklessness or by their vandalism, arson and/or physical assaults in cities nationwide — crimes pointedly denied throughout the media).

Now reaffirmed as a distinctly racial melodrama, with BLM (and Antifa) facing off against the “white supremacists” supporting Trump and (just like him) not masking, the mass division between Us and Them so thunderously propagated — and exacerbated — by the media exploded one more time, on January 6, 2021, when, during the gigantic peaceful protest going on in Washington that day (to move the Supreme Court to look into the evidence that Joe Biden’s election victory had been stolen), an ebullient little horde of (unarmed) “white supremacists” — including over 20 FBI assets — “forced their way” into the US Capitol (having been urged in by Capitol police), their noisy antics universally and stridently misrepresented, by the Democrats-and-media, as an “attempted coup.” As a propaganda sideshow to the mammoth protest going on outside the Capitol that day — a protest as diverse as it was peaceable — this FBI-backed “insurrection” served the purpose of impugning that far larger gathering, intended to protest the likely theft of the election, as a “fascistic” mob intent on taking “our democracy” by force; and since the anti-Biden vote was driven mainly by resistance to the stringent “Covid measures” favoured by the Democrats, the propaganda over “January 6” served to advance those measures, by demonizing their opponents as “extremists,” while making it now practically illegal to voice any doubts about Joe Biden’s inexplicable election “victory.”

Meanwhile, with millions now fixated on that raging “anti-fascist” propaganda drive (whether they believed it, or resisted it), Year Two of the Covid crisis started with the rollout of the most fascistic “Covid measure” of them all — the long-awaited “vaccination” program, which Bill Gates, in a televised exchange with Stephen Colbert, had hyped, indiscreetly, as “the Final Solution.” Thus, the propaganda inescapably instructing everybody to mask up (“Wearing is caring”), on the lunatic collectivist presumption that your mask will not “protect” you unless everybody’s wearing them, was now suddenly and inescapably instructing everybody to “get vaccinated,” as if anyone not getting jabbed was thereby (somehow) putting all those jabbed “at risk.” Thus, “vaccination” was now not only certified as “safe and effective” — by governments at every level, and by all the media, both corporate and “alternative,” and by hundreds upon hundreds of celebrities, and by every pharmacy, and by the schools, from grade schools up to colleges and universities, and, of course, by the “vaccine” manufacturers, along with Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates — but one’s own “vaccination” was now urged weirdly as (to quote Pope Benedict) “an act of love.”

And having thundered on through 2021, and into 2022 — with all those blithe assurances of “safety” and “effectiveness” disproved ever more dramatically by data out of country after country, harrowing research by independent scientists and doctors the world over, Pfizer’s and Moderna’s own clinical trials, and the ever-rising global toll in “sudden deaths” and incapacitating “vaccine injuries” — all at once that propaganda seemed to stop (the “Covid measures” abruptly dropped or modified by states and cities all around the world), as we were suddenly and (yet) still inescapably confronted, and surrounded, and pervaded, by another propaganda drive entirely; or so it seems.

This propaganda drive is, or was, not about “the virus,” or the “measures” used (allegedly) to stop it, but, exclusively, about Ukraine — and yet this drive is (or was) essentially the same as what preceded it; for just as that one had us all obsessed with Covid, the benevolence of those who followed every rule for “fighting” it, and the evil of all those who disobeyed, this one has (or had) us all obsessed with Ukraine’s struggle to defend itself against the monster Putin, the benevolence of all those who “stand with” Ukraine, and the evil of all those who don’t. And just as Covid once had everyone applauding, every evening, those courageous “frontline workers” in the hospitals (all “overrun,” reportedly, by Covid), so are (or were) we now attending vigils for Ukraine, signing petitions for Ukraine, sending money to Ukraine, and wearing Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow on our backs, and in our hair, and on our nails and our lapels, and hanging Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow in doorways and/or windows, and marvelling at public monuments now bathed in blue-and-yellow lights, to show our solidarity with that upright democracy against the Nazi Putin’s bloody effort to assassinate its noble leader, wipe out its brave soldiers, and exterminate its people, in his ruthless drive to conquer all the world.

I put that rough description of this latest propaganda drive in both the past and present tense lest this one soon ends, or seem to end, as suddenly as it upstaged the Covid propaganda; and since it too, in turn, will surely give way to some other inescapable campaign, it is appropriate to note the several further crises that the media, and heads of state, have variously floated, on and off, these past two years. (Such terroristic forecasts of imminent ordeals are in themselves a way to keep the widespread fear and anger simmering.) The possible next acts include a cyber-attack (“by Russia”); a breakdown of the world supply chain, and consequent food shortages, or famine (likely to be blamed on Russia); a heightened “climate crisis,” necessitating further lockdowns; “terrorist” attacks, by “white supremacists” and angry blacks (portending war between the races); an “alien attack” on Planet Earth, as in The War of the Worlds or Independence Day; and — of course — another plague or two, or three, caused by some further Covid “variant,” smallpox (Bill Gates’s favourite), the Marburg virus, and/or whatever other pathogen, real or imaginary, might serve the same old purpose (though this next pestilence is likely to be blamed on Putin, not the CCP). Such looming sequels to the Covid propaganda, which has arguably killed or injured millions through the mass injection program, and the Ukraine propaganda, which could bring on a nuclear war (and whose origins in 2014 led indirectly to the current bloodshed in that country), would also each inflict a vast amount of further suffering on humanity — and so those of us who study propaganda critically, as public intellectuals, must speak out loud and clear, to set things right.

This means, first of all, doing what the “fact-checkers” claim to do, and doing it far more conscientiously, and thoroughly, than they “debunk” whatever facts or theories contradict, or complicate, the narrative pumped out by governments and media. Whereas the “fact-checkers” do quick and sloppy work, and then move on, we work in depth, in scholarly commitment to the truth, which may take decades to discover — as with JFK’s murder, and the other key assassinations at that time, and 9/11; and just as we persist in careful refutation of the propaganda still obscuring those historic crimes, and others, so, throughout these last two years, have we been digging for, and trying to tell, the widely buried truth about the Covid crisis, its true origins, the actual lethality of SARS-CoV-2 (whatever that may really be), the PCR tests used to measure “cases,” the “Covid measures” hatched (allegedly) to “slow the spread,” the absolute futility of lockdowns, and their catastrophic harms, the homicidal impact of the standard Covid “treatment,” and the actual availability of valid remedies, the cynical redefinition of such key terms as “pandemic,” “cases,” “herd immunity,” “vaccine” and, “fully vaccinated,” the likely motives driving this whole crisis (and those still to come), the actual low number of those killed worldwide by Covid, and — above all — the ever-growing global toll of the experimental “vaccination” program; and now that Covid, and its “variants,” and “vaccination” have been pushed out of the spotlight by “Ukraine” (though governments-and-media continue warning us hysterically of “Covid” and its “variants,” and shouting at us to “get vaccinated”), we strive to find, and tell, the buried truths about that conflict — how and why it started, how it’s being fought on either side, and the fact that dozens of “atrocities” ascribed to Russia have turned out to be as bogus as those crimes charged to “the Hun” in World War One, the Iraqi army in Kuwait in 1990, and Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, from 2011 until his imaginary barbarism was eclipsed by “the coronavirus,” and then Putin’s barbarism in Ukraine.

And yet our goal must be not merely to instruct the public in those many truths blacked out by the propaganda over Covid, or Ukraine, but to urge the public toward a firmer grasp of propaganda overall, and so our larger goal must be to explain the factors that have ultimately helped turn the West’s “free press” into the propaganda juggernaut now keeping millions upon millions in ferocious ignorance. That real-life Ministry of Truth was not set up ex nihilo by some iron faction of totalitarian oligarchs but gradually took shape out of a corporate media cartel with interlocking boards, heavily dependent on the advertising revenues of Amazon, Big Pharma (especially Pfizer) and the media’s own parent companies (among other giant players), and with its assets closely managed by BlackRock, Vanguard and UBS; and as that vast commercial system has become more unified, it also has maintained, or even tightened, its covert relations with the military and “intelligence community” — essentially the same caste of untouchables that engineered JFK’s murder, and the media’s long cover-up thereof. And while the commercial media system has been thus corrupted top to bottom, through and through, the “public” media and “alternative” press — from NPR, PBS, the BBC and CBC (et al.) to nearly every single outlet on “the left” — have also been absorbed into the juggernaut primarily by their funding through such sturdy CIA pass-throughs as the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.

Such is the “free press” that has been turned into a bio-fascist fear machine, its propaganda services assured by Bill Gates’ “strategic media partnerships,” and the concomitant “fact-checking” operation that he also largely funds. The propaganda gushing daily, hourly, from that system also has depended on the wisdom of such global PR firms as Weber Shandwick, Edelman and Hill+Knowlton Strategies, the keen participation of innumerable celebrities, and, within the Fourth Estate, the rise to managerial authority of “journalists” prepared, in university, to be far less concerned with honest journalism than with (somehow) serving “social justice.” And all the false and hateful “content” pumped out by this wholly-owned “free press” is, every minute, amplified enormously on “social media,” where millions serve (for free!) as avid vectors of the propaganda, while those who contradict it, or just question it, are censored and defamed.

This brings us to that double bind in which we propaganda analysts have found ourselves these past two years; for, while there has never been so great a need for our analyses, there having never been so much disinformation, or so much highly poisonous disinformation, to correct, nor has there ever been so huge and powerful a propaganda system to explain, neither has it ever been more difficult, or dangerous, to contradict its claims, or show exactly how it works. Today, we recognise in Julian Assange a ravaged brother to us all, his long, brutal punishment on Airstrip One having anticipated the abuse now threatening anyone who dares to cast a shadow on the propaganda narrative roared everywhere by governments and media, as he, or Wikileaks, did with “Collateral Murder,” the gunship footage that lit up the dark side of the heroic “war on terror” propaganda. His long ordeal for that unpardonable sin foretold the (mostly lesser) punishments now undergone by doctors, scientists, journalists, and academics who have variously gone off-script, especially these past two years (although such heretics were also punished long before the rollout of “the virus”).

All such dissidents are doing what we do, in one way or another; and so — since every winning propaganda drive depends on censorship — all dissidents have been blacked out on “social media,” kept off the air by “our free press,” and/or variously cancelled by “woke” activists. Since they can’t argue with the dissidents, whose claims are either indisputable or largely true, the propaganda managers have heaped us all with slime, without (of course) allowing us to answer it; nor is that all, as those countering the propaganda also have been fired, delicensed, jailed, involuntarily consigned to psychiatric wards, and, evidently, even killed, to shield the narrative. Most of those thus punished have been Covid dissidents; though those now speaking out against the “Ukraine” propaganda also are at risk, especially those living in Ukraine, where the Nazi forces have been seizing, torturing and murdering dissident reporters, and where American-Chilean commentator Gonzalo Lira disappeared on April 15, re-emerging six days later, having been detained by the SBU.

What, then, are we to do, as analysts of propaganda? For now, under this ever-rolling thunder of Big Lies, all we can do is keep on doing what we’re doing, while maintaining a thick skin, and taking due precautions, as it is ever more important that we tell the truths we know to those still capable of hearing them, and then of looking for them on their own. (This is especially true of younger people who are largely more receptive than their elders.) In the longer term, however, we must re-conceive and rebuild all our democratic institutions, whose absolute collapse has brought this whole world to the brink. Specifically, we need to rebuild journalism, so that it actually reports the news, just as we need a whole new medical establishment — one that will reclaim its Hippocratic duty to make people well instead of very profitably sick (or dead). And, of course, we need a new Academy, to educate its students, not indoctrinate them, teaching them not what to think but how to think, while introducing them to all the arts and sciences that better us as fully human beings; and, as we have learned so painfully these past two years, what these new schools must finally do — and not only our colleges and universities, but all our lower schools as well — is teach our students about propaganda: how to recognise it when it’s everywhere they look, and even (or especially) when they find themselves agreeing with it.

Only when We the People finally know what propaganda is, and how it works, will we be free at last to live our lives and rule ourselves.

Thank God you made it to your rural bug out location (BOL)! You almost didn’t get out in time before the Police State Metropolis you lived in had their National Guard soldiers shut down all further mass exodus from the quarantined city, with shoot to kill Iraqi War style road blocks on the last exits that weren’t already blocked by panicked mobs and burning piled up car crashes.

You get out of your bug out vehicle (BOV) and kneel down for a moment on the cool green forest ground in a soon to get very hot world, and give solemn thanks that you were granted the presence of mind and discipline to have your BOV ready to rock at a moment’s notice.

You will miss a few of the friends and neighbors you know you’ll never see again, and you’ll feel sorry for those who were trapped in their normalcy bias comfort zone and ignored the ominous but clear warnings. You will pray for them the first chance you get but right now you have another serious problem.

Beware of “Zombiez”!

You pulled ahead of the general Mad Max road rage on the Interstate and traffic finally thinned out considerably as you branched out to the county highways.

You started passing more and more stalled out of gas vehicles off the side of the road, now looted out, and deceased looking, with shot out windows and bullet holes in the doors. You noticed small groups of stragglers marching off the shoulder of the roads carrying their military grade weapons and back packs with grim desperate looks on their faces.

These were the ones who never cared about prepping. They had a different kind of survival plan. They were out ambushing, murdering, looting, and ravaging those who didn’t prepare their vehicles well for escape.

A couple of them raised their weapons to draw a bead on your vehicle as you floored it and screamed passed at over 90 miles an hour but they never had a chance for a good shot. You then had that sickening, kicked-in-the-gut feeling as you realized it was going to get really ugly, really fast.

You hoped your secluded location would minimize marauding this “zombie” contact and that you would have enough time to make last minute adjustments, and finishing touches to your dedicated compound perimeter security before you hunkered down and sweated out the inevitable anarchy looming on the distant horizon…

“OKAY, I’M READY TO WORK ON THE PERIMETER!”

Although different catastrophic/emergency and disaster events require different strategies and appropriate levels of preparation, they all share a single concept.

Security. Security, defense, and personal safety measures also span different levels of preparation effort and expense.

There is a lot of info out there now on urban home invasions and spontaneous concentrated urban rioting and looting, and how to protect and fortify your house from a break in.

This is a good idea in any case even before an apocalyptic scenario, and the harder and more time consuming you make it for a predator to attack and invade your city home or apartment the better the odds they’ll get caught at the door by police. Or give you time to escape at another egress or ‘gun-up’ in defensive counter attack mode behind some concealment/cover and take them out ambush style as they break in.

But in a doomsday scenario such as a major power grid collapse, sudden universal economic collapse, or super bad disease outbreak, there won’t BE any Police response, at least not for you. Fortifying your home’s doors and windows and stocking up on a few weeks’ worth of extra food and water won’t help you that much in the long run.

The first myth is that you can survive in place relatively easy if you read certain books. That might work through a hurricane, super blizzard, or local power outage that traps people for many days, but not in an all pervasive major social and economic, and resource breakdown that would last months and even years. This is an entirely different prep than surviving in place strategies. Do not make the mistake of not realizing the difference.

In the worst case SHTF event, you must be as isolated as you can from congested metropolitan areas if you want any chance for safety and survival. Period. Because sooner or later desperate and extremely psycho dangerous “zombies” will target your urban dwelling place and get through your home fortifications one way or another, and kill you, or burn you out.

Almost any house can be breached and broken into by determined attackers given enough time if there’s no worry about police showing up on the scene and the occupant/defender’s name is anything other than Rambo. And I don’t mean days, but more like only a few siege hours.

Even brick houses with bars or steel break in shades like you see on business storefronts in high risk areas. And if you somehow manage to kill them before they get in the first time, there will just be another group, even scarier, right after that in most large urban environments. That’s the reality.

Bug Out and Live!

The best way to initially survive a worst case scenario is to NOT to be around anything for very long that can kill you. Then remaining low profile if not completely secluded off the predator radar and out of targeting sight. Because why would anybody of sound mind, except in certain unfortunate personal circumstances, want to stay in a burning high rise hoping the sprinkler system will work when they could take the emergency exit out immediately?

So bugging out should be your primary plan. And the only place to go is out in the rural areas where contact with others is as limited as possible along with minimal profile footprint concealment. Once you’ve attained that, then the next part is making sure the “zombies” can’t just easily take it all away from you if they do stumble upon your hideout.

If you chose a decent BOL, some professionals with experience in this think it’s easier and more advantageous to your safety and security to make a virtually impenetrable perimeter barrier around your dwelling than it would be to seriously fortify a house/apartment in the city or town.

The factual truth is that these types of bad human relations as violent social conflicts have been going on since Biblical times and always contain certain elements. It always boils down to attackers and defenders. Fortified compounds, camps or castles, and superior firepower and tactics which change the advantage and even the whole game.

5 Lessons to Learn from Vietnam About Perimeter Defense

The art of this type of social warfare evolved to a stagnation point during the Middle Ages and then became obsolete during the evolution of the military industrial complex and modern world warfare that included airpower and massive tank warfare. It was not revisited and perfected until the mid-20^th century, in a small country police action in a faraway country called Viet Nam.

Ironically, as I draw from personal empirical knowledge and on the job experience and historic record on the comparisons and similarities, the best paradigm for survival perimeter combat preparedness comes from the Vietnam war, both when the French and the Americans were fighting it.

The lessons learned and strategies and tactics ultimately deployed became so refined and successful they remained in military application even to the modern Afghanistan war, and American mountain base camps and varies only due to advanced technology in weaponry and early anti-intrusion detection.

The Viet Nam conflict draws parallels similar to apocalyptic anarchy because political perspective notwithstanding, the typical American defenders hunkered down in camp compounds and defended against mainly ground forces who won‘t have air or naval power or sophisticated precision electronic detection or aiming technology.

The Viet Nam ground war was relatively primitive terms of force multipliers and its success, or lack of it, depended mostly upon small unit engagement with relatively basic weaponry.

Amazingly, today this type of fortification can be replicated on a smaller civilian but equally effective outcome on the private BOL compound today, and in a couple tactical applications, even better! Obviously the scale of enhanced force would be somehow different but the essential principles of applied dynamics and what works best are the same.

Here’s how to get started in the simplest, least expensive way.

1. Local Threat Evaluation

A combination of the likelihood of indigenous harmful contact and the random plain view discovery level of your BOL determine the odds of you getting approached by marauding “zombs”.

If they can’t see you from any road, there simply is not that much of a chance of many roaming predators getting into your area, because most of the area is inhabited by good people, more exposed than you but pretty self-reliant and well-armed, and they would pro-actively interfere with any groups of predators before they would ever get to your neck of the woods. So the likelihood of your BOL getting hit is very low.

Setting up a protective live defense perimeter barrier would virtually guarantee your long term survival of the rare one time attack if that happens, because almost any well prepared and armed prepper will have enough firepower, ammo and resources on hand to handle that. That is opposed to a long duration regular siege and total destruction type environment that would be common in anarchy ruled urban environments.

2. Barrier Protection

What does the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, 13^th century castle walls and other heavy barriers have in common? Walls are the most difficult obstacles to penetrate or breach by humans without heavy destructive equipment, but they also are the most expensive.

If your intruder simply can’t move forward and gain access to you in your inner protective shelter without getting stopped one way or another by formidable outside barrier, then your perimeter security succeeded and you survived. That’s why it’s better to have an outside perimeter circle of defense rather than allow them to get too close to your main retreat.

Again, the Vietnam War proved beyond doubt that you don’t need a castle or great solid wall to get the job done. There are other, even better ways…

3. Perimeter Alarms

Aka anti-intrusion alerts and early warning devices. In Nam, we used anything and everything for perimeter alert from our empty beer and soda cans filled with pebbles, to the latest state of the art (at the time) forward terrain radar units and seismic ground sensors spread out even beyond the perimeter along with trip flares, and booby trapped grenades, and of course a healthy amount of pre-positioned Claymore mines if some of the attackers somehow get too far into the perimeter kill zone.

IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING you can easily replicate most of that with modern electronic battery operated noise alerts either with PIR detection triggers or pull pin type trip wire activation along with careful use of pyrotechnics, or both. There are pros and cons with each, mostly depending upon if you have a lot of animals especially deer in your area.

Pyrotechnics are a very good tried and true method of alert and can be enhanced to perform double duty as a shock deterrent ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. The old saying is that there are only two types of pyromaniac powder monkeys: those who are already missing some fingers or eyeballs, and those that are getting ready to.

The other thing is the potential forest fire hazards if you live in a dry area especially if you are using the trip flares, instead of a flash bang alert.

There’s also the legality factor. Most states have strict laws on the amount of powder you can legally shoot off in a non-commercial/professional display personal firework. I believe the max is an ounce of retort/bang powder that you can shoot off or purchase without a commercial license. But check it for yourself before trying anything else!

Plus, if the DNR is snooping around your land and you made an oversized flash bang on a trip wire that damaged his eardrums that will become cause for arrest.

I know there is advice out there on how to booby-trap your doorways but I seriously don’t recommend doing that with anything that can kill or maim (stick with loud siren alerts or flashing lights only) because not only is it illegal virtually everywhere, but it will be only a matter of time before you yourself or someone you care about trips the booby-trap.

And I strongly recommend that you don’t get into that with common store bought fireworks, which could easily blind or burn an innocent victim or start your house on fire.

On a perimeter defense, the common larger over the counter fireworks like the bursting skyrockets and rapid fire mortar tube clusters pre-loaded shooting and bursting shells could be used just to wake up the group of invaders.

The burst charges are not black powder loaded, but contain the silver flash powder which provides a potentially dangerous hyperbaric close concussive effect even in only a cardboard tube with the legal maximum amount of powder.

Again, these are legal to own, but you can’t shoot them at people without getting into trouble. Just like guns.

But in an all-out lawless society where nothing will be adjudicated anymore in any system but God’s court after you’re dead, these are formidable perimeter counter attack devices because they also can be enhanced for maximum damage and launched on demand electronically from a secure rear position or even tripped by wire.

So it wouldn’t hurt to stock up on these because they’re legal and fun on the 4^th, and would definitely come in handy on a doomsday “holiday” as well, both as an alert and force deterrent out to a hundred meters or so. Like shooting mini-RPGs and a mini grenade launcher barrage on egress/entry routes backed up by hidden wireless security cameras, which now can reach distances out to five hundred meters or better.

But if you are just getting started, stick with the pull pin or PIR battery security sound alert/alarm devices.

You’ll immediately get why I caution you on this after your nephew or YOU forgot about it while out squirrel hunting, trip it yourself creating embarrassing Hershey Squirts in your under drawers, and your children or grandchildren will laugh at you mercilessly.

You absolutely need a lot of training and experience before you start playing with things that go bang. After you think you are safely proficient with the mind set of perimeter security devices, you can graduate yourself and augment to the trip wire re-loadable retort devices like the 12 ga. shotgun shell blaster.

These are on the internet for about $40. They can take a shotgun shell right out of the box but these don’t work well because it is designed to be used with a barrel.

By itself it just pop bursts not even loudly below the shot/slug, and doesn’t even become any shrapnel because the powder is a slow burning type and it just splits the sides. Waste of good ammo. But you can get louder blank shells and commercial screaming flares and loud bangers from specialty ammo vendors on line. Pricey but very effective alert and deterrent effect.

There are also other good and even cheaper percussive devices that use only .22 caliber blanks, shotgun primers, or the nail gun blanks which also work decently on a lesser scale.

4. Perimeter Intrusion Obstructions

Of course a high chain link or barbed wire fence always helps slow down people you don’t want coming in on your property, but these are easy to breach if you are a good climber or have a pair of wire cutters.

You can make it look like a FEMA prison camp and it will feel like one also, but it won’t do much good against anything but animals maybe, unless you electrify it, and I don’t mean horse/cattle fence. I mean you’ll need sizzling frying high amp prison fence to stop “zombs” using only a fence. Not to mention it will be pretty obvious to passers-by unless you camo paint it or something.

The next best thing is pyramids of concertina type barbed/razor wire rolls. Harder to breach without having heavier tarps or plywood which “zombs” certainly won’t have in their back packs. Easy to set up.

Or, you can do it cheaper and less labor intensive with something that worked so well in the Nam that we almost felt sorry for the enemy who tried to get through it because it always was like the proverbial shooting of fish in a barrel. We called it snag wire and/or tangle foot and as their moniker imply, once ensnared, they were almost impossible to get untangled from.

And all it amounted to was regular barbed wire rolled out on the ground in crisscross or lattice pattern on the ground at intersects less than an average human step, and propped up with stakes at various heights from ankle to knee level.

Enhanced by anything imaginable from punji spikes to tripwire grenades to napalm bombs along the way. Not to mention backed up by the secondary defensive firepower towers, and bunkers armed with heavy machine guns and LAW rockets and inner perimeter mortars.

Tangle foot would be comparatively easy and less expensive to set up in conjunction with the ’creative’ use of ‘passive’ natural terrain obstruction like tree limbs and boulders and heavy brush on your perimeter. You’d only need about an eight foot width across the part of the perimeter you were setting it up at.

You can’t walk or climb over that without falling, tripping, and twisting yourself to injury and entrapment while not getting far, as it stretches for several yards straight ahead and several yards to the flanks before you can make it through but hidden in the grass are also stretches of tangle foot.

So you would naturally walk around it until you found a pathway/clearing to continue on. This turns out to be a funnel zone which essentially lures the intruders into going where you WANT them to be herded. Which is replete with trip alerts, more serious booby traps, cameras, or whatever else you like when the SHTF and you no longer casually walk around in the area because you’re now in full defense mode.

And these funnel areas–which actually control the locations of entry to your compound–then become pre-set up dedicated fields of cross fire counter attack kill zones. Where you can lay a heavy ambush backed in and covered from the entry way or snipe them as they try to get all the way through and closer if they aren’t immediately deterred and retreat away.

If you look closely at the woods picture with the path on the right side, there is also a natural passive tree barrier on both sides going outside the picture for fifty or so meters either way.

It looks like storm/weather damage caused the blockage but it’s actually a clever expedient perimeter hack by bending down horizontally and staking down smaller trees cross wise which continue to grow and can’t be penetrated except by chopping through. The path is normally used for egress but can be tightly sewn up and protected fairly quickly.

5. Defensive Counter Attack Booby Traps and Other Devices

Don’t waste time getting into man-trapping devices like large snares, dead falls, punji pits, etc. These are so labor intensive, time consuming, and mostly don’t work, that it’s not cost effective in this day and age. And it will be a pain in the ass pulling out dead animals all the time.

Yes, they were used in guerilla warfare but only because the Cong were so piss poor and resource impoverished that they couldn’t do anything else. And good Point man could spot them a lot easier than trip wired grenades. When they got their little rice ball hands on better explosive ordnance, they quickly forgot about these primitive sticks and stones methods.

First and foremost and probably least expensive is a passive perimeter far enough away from your main compound/shelter that’s too far for an easy pick off gunshot or throwing of firebombs, usually over fifty meters and ideally about a hundred meters, with anti-intrusion alerts and deterrents.

Then augmented by tangle foot and strategic counter attack defense zones that can be upgraded later in a bad SHTF scenario with extra more effective counter attack equipment that you can make with legal supplies you already have in your stockpile.

Obviously we only touched the subject of base camp perimeter security, and what you still need to know if this article piqued your interest would fill volumes. But if you do have a serious interest in this I’ll answer any questions you have in the comments section and/or point you in the right direction for further edification on the subject.

We wonder if this report about Russian military drills is related to the TASS report about French and UK ambassadors being summoned to the Russian foreign ministry.

The ambassadors of France and Britain were urgently summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry

French and British Ambassadors Pierre Levy and Nigel Casey were invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. The reasons for the visit are not reported.

The British and French ambassadors in Moscow were summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday amid growing tensions over the Ukrainian conflict.

The envoys were seen separately visiting the ministry’s building in the center of Moscow, but neither Briton Nigel Casey nor Frenchman Pierre Levy provided any comments to the press. The Government also discussed these meetings, only confirming that the ambassadors had been summoned.

Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced an exercise to verify the deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons. According to the military, President Vladimir Putin ordered the exercises after “provocative statements and threats” from Western officials.

Sorry folks, but we still think this is theatre and have it on backchannels that it is. Some tweets —

NUKE DRILLS TO “COOL DOWN HOTHEADS” IN WEST – MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Ministry states upcoming exercises with tactical nuclear weapons ought to help Western states realize “possible catastrophic consequences” of “strategic risks” they create.

Moscow adds that Russia will respond in kind to any American deployment of intermediate-range nuclear missiles, considering Washington VIOLATED IMF Treaty in 2019.

And bad news for any Kiev cannon fodder pilots if F-16 jets ever make it to Ukraine – Russia states all F-16s in Ukrainian airspace will be automatically considered to be armed with nuclear warheads and Russian forces will respond in appropriate manner.

”‘They’re not bluffing’: Russian tactical nuke drills are loud warning to NATO to stay out of Ukraine. “

This is a signal to the Western leaders that they are serious. They are not bluffing,” retired US Army Lt. Col. Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik, commenting on Monday’s statements by the Russian military and the Kremlin about Russia missile troops’ plans to hold tactical nuclear weapons drills in the Southern Military District amid NATO threats to openly deploy troops to Ukraine.

“If the Western leaders escalate this further with direct engagement, Russia will directly engage them: and they’ll destroy their forces, and potentially to protect the Russian state will, may result in tactical nuclear weapons [being used]. This is not good: this would force an escalation and eventually lead to a total nuclear war,” Rasmussen warned.

“I don’t believe that Russia wants to do this. I believe they’re trying to send a signal to caution the Western leaders from escalating further,” the 20-year US Army veteran-turned international and military affairs commentator said.

Unfortunately, Rasmussen warned, the hostile statements coming out of Western capitals about “getting engaged” in Ukraine if the Ukrainian front collapses increase the risks of a direct clash. “This is a very, very dangerous provocation, a very dangerous escalation. I would caution Western leaders not to do that,” he said.”

SEE VIDEO- https://twitter.com/i/status/1787516281744154875

Russian Defense Ministry announces its will conduct “combat” drills with its “non-strategic” (tactical) nuclear forces. This after recent blusterous threats from Emmanuel Macron and David Cameron. And of course, the passage of $61 Billion in Ukraine war funding by the US Congress

‘Juan O Savin’ has been saying events have to reach this critical point —

TIME FOR THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS 2.0?

BREAKING: Russian President Putin orders tactical nuclear weapon drills and combat readiness for its nuclear forces.

Russia will hold drills simulating the use of battlefield NUCLEAR weapons (targeting the UK).

This comes after Crazy Britain said it would provide Ukraine with missiles that can attack Moscow and other Russian cities.

Don’t fukkk with Putin & the Russian Federation.

********

Russia announces drills involving nuclear weapons after West’s ‘provocative’ threats

PRESS TV

Russia has announced military exercises involving tactical nuclear weapons after top European leaders made “provocative” threats against Moscow.

On May 2, France’s President Emanuel Macron and Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron threatened direct intervention in the Ukraine war.

A Russian Iskander-K missile launched during a military exercise at a training ground in Russia. (File photo by Russian Ministry of Defense)

Russia has announced military exercises involving tactical nuclear weapons after top European leaders made “provocative” threats against Moscow.

On May 2, France’s President Emanuel Macron and Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron threatened direct intervention in the Ukraine war.

The Kremlin responded. It said the top European officials’ remarks posed “dangerous” threats to Europe’s security.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Monday the drills, ordered by President Vladimir Putin, were to “increase the readiness … to fulfill combat tasks” after “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials.”

The ministry said missile formations in the Southern Military District and naval forces will take part in the exercises involving tactical nuclear weapons and would take place “in the near future.”

The Russian ministry’s strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises but the statement marked the first public announcement of drills involving the tactical nuclear weapons which are smaller and with a shorter range and would be more useful for military commanders in “tactical” situations.

Contrary to previous claims that NATO has no operational plans for Ukraine, former US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Stephen Bryen claims that France already has boots on the ground in Ukraine. His revelation comes as NATO has hypocritically outlined two red lines that would justify intervention in the Ukraine War even though France has already committed troops and has thus escalated the conflict without provocation.

“France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine,” said former US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Stephen Bryen in an article published by Asia Times.

Bryen further wrote that forces were mobilised “in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in Slavyansk.”

The soldiers would have come from the 3rd Infantry Regiment, one of the main components of the French Foreign Legion. French authorities have not yet commented on the matter.

“These troops are being posted directly in a hot combat area and are intended to help the Ukrainians resist Russian advances in Donbas. The first 100 are artillery and surveillance specialists,” Bryen argued.

According to him, around 1,500 soldiers from the French Foreign Legion are expected to arrive in Ukraine in the near future.

The former US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense wondered about the “Russian red line on NATO involvement in Ukraine” or if “the Russians see this as initiating a wider war beyond Ukraine’s borders?”

At the same time, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on May 5 that NATO — “in a very confidential way and without an official statement — established at least two red lines, beyond which there could be direct intervention by the alliance in the conflict in Ukraine.” The newspaper also stressed that NATO does not plan to send its military contingent to Ukraine immediately.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently clarified that he did not rule out the possibility of NATO sending troops from Europe to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Macron’s statement as “very dangerous,” which was also criticised by French opposition parties and by several NATO members, including Italy, Hungary, and Slovakia.

According to La Repubblica, the first “red line” revolves around the possibility of Russia penetrating Kiev’s defence line and refers to the “direct or indirect involvement of third parties” in the conflict. This would happen when Ukrainian forces “can no longer fully control” the border, which would create conditions for the Russian military to penetrate the corridor between Ukraine and Belarus.

As the newspaper suggests, “then Minsk will be directly involved in a military dispute,” and “its troops and arsenal will be of decisive importance for Moscow.”

The second “red line,” according to the outlet, “implies a military provocation against the Baltic States or Poland or a targeted attack on Moldova.”

In addition, Western authorities were deeply concerned about the situation at the front and the “unfavourable conditions” for Kiev.

Russia has repeatedly stated that NATO is directly involved in the conflict, supplying weapons and training Ukrainian forces. According to Moscow, NATO, whose activities near Russia’s borders have intensified to unprecedented levels, are aimed at confrontation. The Kremlin has continuously clarified that Russia is not threatening anyone and would not attack anyone but would not ignore actions potentially dangerous to its interests.

Macron is evidently testing Moscow’s resolve and limits by deploying the Foreign Legion, foreigners in the French military who will be entitled to French citizenship after three years of service. This is, according to Bryen, for two reasons: So Macron can “act like a tough guy without encountering much home opposition” and as a petty revenge for “French troops, almost all from the Legion, getting kicked out of Sahelian Africa and replaced by Russians” which has resulted in France losing “influence” and harmed “overseas mining and business interests.”

Most importantly, though, especially in light of the two red lines that were imposed, how will NATO react to Macron’s deployment of the French Legion since the decision was made without NATO backing? Bryen suggests that “the French cannot claim support from NATO under its famous Article 5, the collective security component of the NATO Treaty” and that “Should the Russians attack French troops outside of Ukraine it would be justified because France has decided to be a combatant, and forcing an Article 5 vote would seem to be difficult if not impossible.”

The two red flags outlined by NATO do not include if French-flagged troops are killed by Russian forces, meaning if Macron’s hope is to drag the entire alliance into conflict with Russia, it will not succeed, demonstrating once again his desperation to keep France relevant in the international scenario after Russia humiliated the French president’s neo-colonial agenda in Africa.

According to wfpusa.org- Is There Really a Global Food Crisis?

Yes. Right now, there is a global food crisis – the largest one in modern history. Since the United Nations World Food Program’s (WFP) creation in 1963, never has hunger reached such devastating highs. From the eruption of new conflicts and the escalating impacts of the climate crisis to soaring food and fuel costs, millions of people are being driven closer to starvation each day.

Nearly 350 million people around the world are experiencing the most extreme forms of hunger right now. Of those, nearly 49 million people are on the brink of famine. Behind these massive statistics are individual children, women and men suffering from the dire effects of such severe hunger. Malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished babies, passing hunger from one generation to the next. Children’s physical and cognitive growth is stunted. Farmers are unable to grow enough food to provide for their families and communities. Entire towns are forced to leave their homes in search of food.

The food crisis will be the biggest crisis of the 21st century. It will push up food prices and spread hunger and poverty. Surging food prices will create inflation and create more crisis in the world. This will not only affect developing countries but also developed countries. According to United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), more than 73 million people in 78 countries who depend on food handouts are facing reduced rations this year.

Also watch- FEMA Emergency Alert! Hidden Terrible Situations Exposed- Watch the video below to find out the most shocking details!!!

High prices have caused food protests around the world like Mexico, India, Senegal, London, Mauritania and other parts of Africa. India, Mexico, Haiti, Philippines, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Yemen have seen food riots this year protesting the food crisis. Hardest hit of this crisis will likely be African countries, where many of the world’s poorest nations are here. A lack of food as the primary needs of humans will cause riots, suicide and millions of people could die from it.

Nearly every region of the world is experiencing drastic inflation caused by food this year. Retail prices are up 18% in China, 17% in Sri Lanka and 10% or more throughout Latin America and Russia.

In 3 May 2008, a cyclone devastated Myanmar’s low-lying Irrawaddy delta region leaving more than 1 million people homeless, according to the UN. An estimated 80,000 people died in the delta’s Labutta district alone. Myanmar had been expected to export 600,000 tons of rice this year, including to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The cyclone flooded 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) of farmland. Cyclone Nargis struck the country’s main rice-growing area, worsening a food crisis that’s triggered unrest from Haiti to Egypt.

Why does it happen

Rocketing oil prices, global warming, biofuels, and the world population explosion are the cause of this food crisis. The primary driver is the soaring cost of oil, which reached $123 a barrel for the first time. Oil cost will make transportation more expensive, thus making food more expensive too. The price of oil has sent the cost of food imports skyrocketing this year.

The World Bank predicts global demand for food will double by 2030. This is partly because the world’s population is expected to grow by three billion by 2050. Food demand will also grow due to new prosperity in India and China.

Global warming will disrupt food production in many countries. It can cause climate instability which is bad for crop.

Food price are affected by accelerating demand for biofuels. Biofuels, made from food crops such as corn, sugar cane, and palm oil, are seen as easing the world’s dependence on gasoline. But when crude oil is expensive, these alternative energy sources can also be sold at higher price. Last year a quarter of the US maize crop was turned into ethanol to fuel vehicles. US supplies more than 60% of the world’s maize exports. According to the World Bank, this is putting pressure on countries’ food supplies.

The worldwide food reserves are at their lowest in 35 years. Demand is growing much more than supply.

How to solve

For short term, massive government and international agency aid is needed especially from rich nations. For long term, there should be incentives to increase food production. Relative price fluctuations are an unavoidable part of an efficient economy. This becomes worrying when some people are so poor that a small rise in price becomes a life and death question for them.

The two primary driver for the crisis is oil price and global warming. Oil price hike is mainly caused by geopolitical risk, not supply and demand. Political conditions affect oil production in Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Iran. Iraq is still struggling to recover from decades of war. Nigerian production is affected by attacks and sabotage. Venezuelan oil production has never fully recovered since December 2002, when political strife brought Venezuelan production to a halt. The key is to bring peace on those country.

Global warming has caused climate instability, which can destroy crop fields. Nowadays, there has been a lot of talking about global warming. Each day, more and more people realized that global warming is endangering the world. For short term, he hope that researchers can improve farming technique to address worldwide hunger. Researchers around the world like the International Rice Research Institute in Philippines are studying how to improve crop which more pest and weed resistant, more nutrient rich and high yielding.