We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
With the election "concluding" next week, many "prepping" folks are putting out their wild conspiracies and marketing their paranoia. It'd be funny if they didn't have a following where people make real world decisions based on much of the nonsense out there.
No, we are not heading into a complete SHTF situation. And, as WNC demonstrates, community is what's important. Surviving requires connectedness to community and skills. Now is the time to become connected and learn. On the job training is ALWAYS subpar.
Many now understand the importance of communications after watching what happened in WNC. The Mt. Michell repeater was a lifeline for those asking for help and those just LISTENING to the communications. The flawlessness of that endeavor came from years of practice by net control operators and many of the "eyes/ears" in the community. It was those screeching out over their Baofengs (for likely the first time) that hindered operations. Don't be that guy next time around.
Thus, I push getting a GRMS and/or technicians class amateur radio license when asked about preparing for the next event. Do you know how many times I hear something like, "In SHTF, the bad guys could look up my address in the FCC database" completely missing the point that their intent to buy an arsenal is registered in NICS. They'll use credit cards to buy ammo and purchased their equipment from Amazon.
I really don't understand this paranoia. Everyone is in a database somewhere that is publicly or semi-publicly searchable. To avoid the opportunity to practice and build a skill because of a very low, no extremely low, risk is asinine. Even if you only use GRMS to communicate with family while at the park or caravanning, you will start to understand limitations and capabilities unknown before relying on it for disaster communications.
Moving forward.. focus on community building. If you haven't spoken to someone in awhile then reach out, see how they are doing. And, get licensed and use radios for communications. Remember, Andrew Grove may have been right about business, but wrong about life. In the future, only the connected will survive.
CP
Yanis Varoufakis (former Greek Minister of Finance) describes AI as a new form of capital that produces not goods, but behavioral modification. This is achieved by engineering perceptions.
The answers provided by ChatGPT, or the images rendered by StableDiffusion — as these increasingly inform our perceptions, they in turn define the reality we experience.
This is what makes AI so powerful — he who controls the AI, defines the reality of tomorrow.
⚡️🇺🇸 Some more things coming out for the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Under the preliminary drafts of the bill, the USAF is requesting a release of $57,000,000 USD ($57.0 Million) to retire all remaining 162 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs in current service. Apart of the 2023 NDAA, there was a clause for a few million dollars to be released every so often to gradually retire the (then) 250 airframes by 2034; however due to the push by the Dept of Defense to ‘shed’ obsolete or obsolescent airframes that cannot be overhauled or upgraded further without a whole new airframe, it appears the USAF wants to retire all 162 remaining A-10s by the end of 2026.
The USAF plans to fully divest the 340-total remaining A-10s entirely, including those that currently serve in a handful of Air National Guard units in some states; which will be replaced by F-15EX Eagle IIs (like what is already happening with the Michigan State Air National Guard’s A-10s), or F-35A/Bs.
Included ...
My older sister lives in the country in between Velma Oklahoma and Duncan Oklahoma near the Fuqua Lake area, this story was told by a rural mail delivery woman who delivers the mail in the country.
The incident happened while she was on her route, when she came upon to the mailbox a male Chinese nation came out brandishing a, AK-47 rifle being very hostile,
I don't know if he pointed it at her since it is against the law to do so but she was terrified and said she was never going back and that the location that had a guard tower. Was the sheriff department notified, I don't know, did she notify her supervisor, don't know. But word is from the country folk who live in the area they have seen the guard tower at the pot place;
I refuse to call it a farm because it is an insult to farmers.
And yes she was traumatized by that ordeal
