Thursday, February 25, 2021

Hold Your Horses: Crawl, Walk, Run


Great flick. But don't be Col. Pitts

Wes at NC Renegade has some thoughts. That's today's lesson topic.
Go read it. I'll be here when you come back.

At his site, I replied:
Thanks for recapping Why.
At this point:
1) Stand up to Whom?
2) With What and Who?
3) Where, When, and How?
Most people reading this couldn’t write a 5 Paragraph Order, let alone grasp one, and about 90% of them would have to google it to even know what I’m talking about.
They have, on avg., 1/2 a weapon apiece, little ammunition, no time, funds, support, friendly forces, and for 90+% of them, zero training in any meaningful way.
We didn’t invade Normandy on December 8th, 1941.
And we didn’t get here in a day, so we won’t be getting out of it in one either.
I absolutely share your frustration, but one cannot grow a crop faster by pulling on the green shoots.
Now is a time for gathering and preparing, not taking any direct action, and making the most of temporal and financial opportunity while we have it.
“Boy, I wish we’d spent less time in training, and been less prepared and supplied” said no one ever in world history, least of all those entering a battle or embarking upon an entire war.
The first thinning of the herd will be those willing to invest the time and money to get ready for the conflict. That’ll probably move the decimal point of available forces one place to the left, automagically.
One’s time should be spent in
a) being that guy
b) doing the work
c) finding other guys doing the same
d) figuring out what to do, to whom, and when to do it
Unless you’re already a former JSOC ninja with a file cabinet full of CARVER-rated objectives, and a tight-knit vetted cadre of like-minded and capable folks, with an existing support matrix, doing anything more than that is simply a recipe for a short, interesting, and ultimately futile life.
Change my mind.

I've posted links to military manuals any half-dozen times for a reason, dammit, and it isn't nostalgia.

Most of you (95%, by all polling data, though the blog stats here may skew a wee bit higher) never got any closer to a military formation than lining up outside for phys ed classes in school. And that was great in a free country but not so much for a burgeoning banana republic, with all the trimmings, which is what we are, right this minute.

So let's talk turkey:

There are three undeniable truths operating right now in America.

I. Elections are pointless, worthless, and futile.

If you didn't get that memo despite what happened in November, and again in GA in January, sorry to break it to you, but it's nevertheless gospel truth.

Anyone yakking about "We'll get 'em next time!", "Vote Harder!", or any variation on "MOAR Elections!" is an unredeemed delusional jackass suffering a psychotic break from reality. They should be placed in a room in a quiet glen, featuring soft music, soft lighting, soft food, and soft walls. They're fucking nuts. Don't waste any further breath on them until they wake up, if ever.

TINVOWOOT: There Is No Voting Our Way Out Of This. 

Learn it, Live it, Love it.

Should you still pull a lever ever again? Hell yes. Enjoy whatever simulacrum of freedom you can, and maximize the time and minimize the gradient of the decline, if such be within your power. Primary out RINOs. Use it as a weed-out for whom to ever listen to, and whom to discount, forever. And a platform to shitpost, meme, rabblerouse, and generally send raspberries at TPTB, while you can. But minimize the time, energy, and funds you spend waste on electoral activities going forward, knowing the entire process is as fake as TV News and pro wrestling.

II. We're at war, within this country, with those who hate fundamental America.

Not a debate. Not an argument. Not a fight. A W-A-R.

They want you dead. They want you rounded up and obliterated, and they want to kill your unborn babies, kidnap your living children, and poison their minds against you. In the interim, they want you unemployed, broke, dispossessed of your goods, lands, and chattels, and treated like sub-human scum, which is what they think of you, to their marrow. And they'll stop at nothing to do exactly that. When your enemy tells you his true feelings, believe it. Mein Kampf was a blueprint for the Holocaust. Das Kapital was the blueprint and excuse for the Holodomor, the Great Leap Forward, and the Killing Fields.

Scapegoats and counter-revolutionaries will not be tolerated. You are both.

If you're reading this, that means YOU, to a metaphysical certainty.

But there is a difference between being AT war, and warfare.

Your fight, at this point, is theoretical, philosophical, and moral.

III. You aren't ready to fight any other kind of actual war. Yet.

As I noted to Wes, above, I share his frustration that this is so. Some of us have been trying to edumacate folks about this for years. As you might have noticed, to date, it hasn't helped much, other than as a pressure relief valve for those of us watching the trainwreck, transfixed, aghast, and infuriated.

Which brings us to the Teachable moment, and the Action/Implementation Phase.


AIP: Get yourself ready for a war.

A) It's going to be a shooting war, so you'd better have something to shoot with, and something to load into it. And you'd better get damned good with it. The good news is, even for GED-holding high school dropouts, that only takes a few hours a day for a couple-three weeks, even for Army Rangers and Marines. And a grand total of 260 rounds. Folks, that's nothing, in the grand scheme. Competence is not mastery, but start with bare competence. If you're looking for recommendations, there are plenty of good options, but the AR platform is where to start. You'll do just fine if you pick up a Smith and Wesson MP-15, which is just a civvie M4gery. YMMV, but it'll get anyone over the age of 12 off on the right foot. Pistol? Learn how to run a Glock. You can upgrade from all of this, (and I hope you do) but that's the floor.

B) Once you've scratched the itch of your inner Gear Whore with that rifle and/or pistol, get your (overwhelming majority of Americans) fat @$$ in shape. PT. 3-5 times/week. Upper body, lower body, aerobic endurance exercise, strength-building. The shorthand for that is push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and running 2-3 miles. Running. Not walking, pedalling, driving, slow jogging, or anything else. Start with less distance, and slower, sure. But get to where you can run 8-minute or less miles, for at least 3 of them. That's the standard. Two minutes of sit-ups. Max effort, and increase over time. Max push-ups and pull-ups. Lather, rinse, repeat.

C) Get healthy. Stop eating sh*t. Balanced meals, wipe out the sugar, fat, and junk food. Get your teeth fixed. Get anything else you need to taken care of. Get your booster shots for tetanus, etc. Cut back on the alcohol, and junk the nicotine habit. Spend the money you save from those vices on more important supplies. Like stored food, medical supplies, ammo, tools. You can party when you're using the skulls of your enemies for cups. Until then, self-discipline. Medical care may not be around much longer, and healthy people fight harder, and they're harder to kill. I repeat, get healthy.

D) Learn what an unconventional warrior needs to know. I don't know you, or your area, or what you're up against. You should. Then learn what you'll need to deal with that. At a minimum, you should be focusing on what the ground forces (Army, Marines) teach their basic recruits. We may have pounded that home with a 2x4 a time or twelve on this very blog. Repetition is a teaching technique. Even if you're too old/brokedick to participate, you should still have the knowledge in your brainpan. And if that's the case, learn tradecraft skills: scouting, spying, information-gathering, recording, encryption/decryption, transmission, collection, and analysis. Too scared? Focus on supporting activities: caching, sheltering, running a safe house, supply, small-scale manufacturing, finance, medical support, feeding, transportation (all means: truck/rail/waterborne/pack animal), repair, communications, construction, field engineering (anything from shovels to heavy equipment), and so on. If the Army has an occ field that you could do, you can be useful. On average, it takes 10 people to put one insurgent, supplied, fed, and equipped, into the field. And you're going to need some of that tradecraft I mentioned above to not be scooped up for aiding and abetting, and winding up dead, or in prison.

E) Find (and VET!!!) other people doing A-D, above. {Hint: Over 50% of those in the @$$clown show that was Malheur were federal CIs. If you get to where your main strategy to avoid prison is jury nullification because you were a jackass about vetting, you've screwed the pooch beyond repair, and you deserve to die in prison. Whether or not you do is up to a merciful Deity, because TPTB will have no sense of humor, and Fate is set to Zero Fucks Given when you're stupid.} Take your time. Sniff around. Check them out, overtly and covertly. Due diligence or die. No one will tell your story alongside that of Patrick Henry. You'll just be the next Timothy McVeigh. Remember, you're picking people into whose hands you're entrusting your own life, and the fate of your family. So are they.

F) As Sam Culper has said, and taught, and teaches (take his classes!) do an Area Study. Look the term up online, find an example, and then wipe out the info paragraphs and pages for the sample you select, and refill the info with the same thing for your town/city, and county at a minimum. If it's small enough, do your entire state, and push outward if neighboring states are closer to you, for example, than your own state capitol. E.g., New Mexico (and Mexico!) info is going to be a helluva lot more relevant in El Paso than info about Dallas, Houston, and/or Austin. Just saying. If you're in Rhode Island, you should be looking at all of New England. For a good guideline, stick a pin in a map where you are. Scribe a circle to the limit of a tank of gas - say, 400-500 miles - and look hardest at that. That's your "area of interest". Same pin, then a circle of the 20 miles in any direction you could walk in a day: that's your "area of concern". You should know both intimately, for all topics in your sample Area Study. This is what Sun Tzu meant when he said "know your enemy" and "know the ground".

That's already five more things than most people out there have done, and it's enough to get you started.

Provided you start getting started.

Whatever you haven't done, above, is where you are. Get busy with that, FIRST. Leviathan isn't going to wait all day before taking an interest in you.




15 comments:

Unknown said...


Got logistics and some skills (T-shirts at 1000 yrds using a stock Remmy 700 and commercial ammo, on a low-wind day, with a minute or 3 to set-up, good light, ....) but way concerned about the antisemitism in too many comments. Yup, some of my 'tribe' deserve the view from the top of lamp-posts, but me thinks the brush is too broadly applied. Am I gonna have to part of a Yid Brigade, echoing the Japanese troops in WWII, to avoid a 'negligent discharge' here and there? I just don't get it. If there's a Irish deep stater, are all Irish connected? Ditto for [enter whatever here].

Just sucks to keep an extra magazine tucked away for this kind of shit. Other shit, of the unavoidable kind, also sucks.

The posterior horn of my medial meniscus, more accurately referred to as my medial mucous given its consistency, precludes running for fitness or fun and being held in reserve. There are work-arounds which are accomplished. But then at 60, if I need to run, I have royally screwed the pooch.

Aesop said...

"Any man who judges by the group is a peawit. You take men one at a time." - 1stSgt Buster Kilrain, Gettysburg

Michael said...

Aesop not to be rude but a few factors your message missed. The Powers that Be don't give a flying *uck about the American People. They use, abuse and set us AGAINST Each other for FUN.

AND that's just the Disposable Face People for the Deep State and the Chinese that BOUGHT them for the price of a Satrapy. From Wikipedia The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with considerable autonomy. The word came to suggest tyranny or ostentatious splendour

Sounds a LOT like the Walled Off Fortress our Capital has become eh? OH BTW the Chinese don't CARE if the Buffoons inside the Barbed Wire get smurfed when things get spicy, they are Disposable.

You've posted the truth that the Chinese don't have a use for 90% of us aside from sex toys and agricultural materials.

During the American Civil War our population was 18.5 million and today around 330 million. Far MOAR of them had basic skills in not shitting near their water supplies and fix it skills compared to our current Superstorm Sandy I-Phone lovers that were shitting in their apartment hallways in a day or two.

When the "Natives" get restless the Powers that Be will withdraw into their secure taxpayer paid for fortresses and allow the 4 Horsemen to Do their THING. Grid DOWN from Our Actions OR THEIR Choice will make TEXAS a 50 State Situation. Population will die in mass as lack of safe water (Disease) and Famine gets those that figure out water safety.

The best prepared will be part of the 18 million "survivors" of the 4 Horsemen if they avoid getting killed by each other. Unless the Chinese feel the need to clear out even those troublemakers (VERY LIKELY).

OH BTW they are likely to be Amused to watch the "Hunger Games" LIVE as we fight and kill each other for ONE MOAR DAY of survival for our families.

So as I see it it's die on your feet in a vainglorious effort or die on your knees as a slave. We do need to train up as not to be easy kills. We need the BEANS (and safe water, sanitation) First before Bullets as so two of the horsemen have less employment. We need to know the very few people we are willing to trust with our lives.

Small teams, Closed mouths, Bad Attitudes. BFYTW

Sarin said...

@unknown
I share your concerns as I’m in the same boat. Precious few of us out here. Most folks don’t assume it as I have a nondescript surname. Aesop’s quote is good; too many folks need a boogeyman, we are an easy target.

My thought is that by the time it comes up, either they’ve gotten to know me or I have the drop on them.

Cederq said...

Us old and brokedicks can't scoot and shoot that is correct. We still can shoot and most times well enough because of military training, life long hunting, which, may be rusty as hell but will come back and serve you. Some of us that have a medical background, much like me as a retired nurse, I can man a guerilla hospital and hope to save lives, treat wounded. I know I have some value to what we may/do in the near future. If you read true histories of civil wars in other countries especially the first hand accounts of ordinary people that they learn very quickly the skills to survive and put monkey wrenches in the tyrants plans. They also learn battlefield medicine to save the partisans and families affected. This can't be emphasized enough, set your mind right, become hard hearted, train like your life and loved one depend on .

idahohunter said...

Amen brother. Words to live by.
IdahoHunter

Aesop said...

@Cederq,

And that's the point: Don't do what you can't, do what you can.

Sean said...

Aesop, thanks for this blog, and damned good advice.

anonymous said...

Aesop, I appreciate your comments, that seem to recommend "get your mind right...and train...." Agree vehemently, although at 70, I can not do those things I once did for as long as I once did, I still know a few things. 5 paragraph order? I TEACH that to those who don't know it...

My recent reply to Renegade follows, and I'm still open to suggestions:

Begin pasted reply:


anonymous said...

First time did not paste in my reply, trying again:

NC Renegade makes a good point about not wanting to become a martyr. All that accomplishes is to gain your 15 min of fame in the MSM as yet another “lone shooter/domestic terrorist.”
Whatever happens has to be a concerted, coordinated effort, simultaneously, and in multiple different locations. And of course, folks like Renegade, Bracken, Aesop, cannot “call a meeting” because all of the attendees would be federal agents.
So where does that leave us? Inquiring minds want to know…

Unknown said...

yeah, gonna have to parrot what a couple of others are saying. concerned about the general feeling that we are going to encounter (check that, already are encountering) the side-eye and crosshairs of those who think religion or color of skin matter f^ck-all in the coming weeks/months.

getting in shape has been an ongoing struggle for a couple of decades now... short on rounds and near impossible to procure recently and for the forseeable future... anxiety over family and household responsibilities juxtaposed with the idea we need to ALL be in the streets fighting the morons who wish to see us dead... more than those things, overwhelming frustration at not being better prepared.

preparations are ongoing. not sure where we are left.

much appreciation for the info on pages like this.

Cavguy said...

“As I noted to Wes, above, I share his frustration that this is so. Some of us have been trying to edumacate folks about this for years. As you might have noticed, to date, it hasn't helped much, other than as a pressure relief valve for those of us watching the trainwreck, transfixed, aghast, and infuriated.“

I have stopped trying to get the stupid to see. Fatigue set in after a decade of concerted effort. None took me serious, none have over the over the horizon vision, their focus is to the end of their nose. Now that I have departed that area and put 2,000 miles between, (moved to The American Redoubt) those i tried to help are reaching out for help. Not much I can do now i reply, then crickets to any other communications. They are still lazy and want to just buy trinkets to get ready, no real EFFORT. Success at training takes too much of an investment of their precious time, they still don’t get it.

Regarding voting? Prolly wont vote in big elections till the mess is fixed. Local local local is where the change begins.

Cavguy

Cavguy said...

What would Henry Bowman do?

Aesop said...

Short on rounds?
Make a target list in your AO.
If you only had one bullet, it would be best to make it count.

"If everyone swept the sidewalk in front of his own house, the world would be clean."

Aesop said...

Also:

I don’t see “a concerted, co-ordinated effort, simultaneously…”.
I see it happening like corn kernels popping in a big pan.
First, one goes off.
Then a couple more on the other side of the pan.
Then a few random ones here and there.
And before you know it, they’re popping everywhere, all over the place.
That doesn’t require anything being co-ordinated.
Just requires the heat getting turned up high enough to set the kernels off.

And if nobody “calls a meeting”, just gets together in little cells of 2-4 people that they’ve known for years, if not all their lives, there’s no way to infiltrate that.

That scenario also scares the living hell out of TPTB.

We should learn a lesson from nature: Piranhas don’t call a meeting either, they just all show up for business with the same agenda, and the job gets done.