SitRep – 03/18/2020

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There is so much going on in the world today…it is all moving at light speed and perilous. I want to cover:

  • Economy & Stock Market
  • Politics
  • COVID-19 Panic
  • War

 

 

Economy & Stock Market –

Regardless of what the stock markets look like, it appears as if now that we will have a recession to deal with on top of everything else. Thank you to all of the panic pushers, hysteria hypers, and fear promoters…you win…we now have lost trillions of dollars of value in IRAs, 401Ks, college funds, and senior citizen savings accounts. You must be very proud of yourselves…I am sure your parents are.

Some of the horrible mistakes being made right now are:

  • The Fed has reduced the FedFund rate to near zero. There is no room left if we hit more financial trouble.
  • The Fed has pumped trillions into the markets and the economy since the beginning of the crisis…all of it created out of thin air and added to the overall national debt. Like taking on more water into an already sinking ship.
  • The Fed has also removed cash requirements for banks. Yeah, that means that banks no longer are required to keep any cash in reserve. That is a huge, huge mistake. Banks can now easily run out of cash for people to withdraw. They also now have virtually zero capability to handle any kind of bank run. This is a big red flag.

So, my bottom line…we are in a world of hurt right now! And another single bad economic feather blowing the wrong way could easily topple it all into a depression…or worse.

But that being said, I just bought some more growth mutual fund for our IRA yesterday. It was modest purchase but I bought it after the near 13% drop of the S&P the day before. Stock market history shows what goes down will go up. If not…well, didn’t matter what I bought, the IRA will be gone if it all falls apart anyways. But, hedging my bet has always paid off before.

Politics –

Politics is as bad as it has ever been…and it will get worse. The Republicans and the White House have both put forward economic plans to help ease the pain of the COVID-19 panic. That’s bad enough that the federal government wants to throw us deeper and deeper into debt for a quick fix that has no chance of righting the ship. Not to be outdone…the Democrats have just proposed their own plan. And of course they have to include part of Satan’s top priority…abortion. Yup, the evil left is saying the COVID-19 panic is the perfect time to fund even more abortions. Killing over a million unborn babies a year is a love affair for them…but not near enough.

You have been following the news and you know what political moves are being made and the games being played. All of the politicians are in full operational mode. They will not let this crisis go to waste, they will take advantage of it for their own personal and political party agendas. Virtually every political leader out there is trashing rights, liberties, and freedoms under the pretext of COVID-19 prevention steps. And the truly sad part…almost every single Republican is right there in step with them. And to make it even worse…all these so-called conservatives and patriots out there…well, they are calling for big government, draconian actions, and the suspension of the Constitution principles right along with the radical left. Nice! They talked a good game…then a little breeze comes along and knocks them right off their principle pedestal, they lose their moral compass.

COVID-19 Panic –

It would be absolutely impossible for me to write enough about the fear, hype, panic, and hysteria being generated because of the COVID-19 outbreak. I could write for a year straight and couldn’t cover all the dishonesty, ignorance, personal agendas, commercial agendas, political agendas…all of senseless drivel being thrown out there as fact but in reality is fantasy. Deadly and dishonest fantasy! Let me show you a perfect example…

Remember the Hoax Alert from yesterday about Amazon (click here to read)?  Well, someone confronted the website owner about the headline “misrepresentation”. He did it with respect, openness, and allowing plenty of room for the website owner to correct his “mistake” and save face. So you would think that any normal and reasonable person would admit to their mistake and correct it since it was so obviously wrong. Well, what you expect and what you get in a stressful situation can be quite different. The website owner got very aggressive, attacked the person, and defended his position that he was right…he maintained that suspending shipments was the same as prioritizing shipments. My first reaction was the website owner was being very dishonest, was caught in that dishonesty, and was using a tactic to discredit the other person to reinforce and cover-up his dishonesty. Then the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was irrational behavior, and clearly showed the website owner’s behavior/actions to be those that could only be described as mentally unstable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. The GroupThink kicked in and supported the website owner…mob mentality at its worse.

And yet it got even worse…Another article on the website was a reprint of an article by Ron Paul (click her to read). Remember, Ron Paul is considered a leading Constitutional expert, liberty advocate, former Congressman, former US Air Force Flight Surgeon, and current medical doctor (obstetrician-gynecologist specialist). So the man has some serious credentials! Earlier this morning I posted an article from him that he published yesterday. It is a patriot’s and prepper’s dream article. Well-reasoned, level-headed, truthful, and factual! So you would think that all preppers would embrace that article, learn from it, and appreciate the mature and level-headed information.

Ahhhhhh, no!

This same troubled website that I have been referring to…well, a top leader of that website came out against the article and called for a FEMA employee, who is also a member of that website, to respond to Ron Paul and to discredit his article. WHAT?!?!?!?!!? Yup, you read it right. Abandon the expert with impeccable credentials in favor of a person purportedly working for FEMA? Yup!

So this FEMA person gets on a rant and trashes Dr. Ron Paul and basically calls him a fraud. And the FEMA employee used the same old tactic of morbidity rates to “prove” that Dr. Paul is wrong. Well, once again, facts are not on their side. The FEMA employee was quoting outdated numbers…and couldn’t even get their math right. They used a .1% (one tenth of 1%) mortality/morbidity rate for the regular flu. Reality is, all accurate reporting of, regular flu season mortality is less than .1%, but for this example let’s stick with .1%.

What would 10 times that amount be? 10 x .1 = 1 to most people who have even the most basic of education in mathematics. Well, this FEMA person claims that 3.4% is 10 times .1% Ah, they flunked that test! One tenth of 3.4% is .34% That is simple, basic math…and they couldn’t even get that right. And they are an “expert”????

Then they go on to claim how much more deadly COVID-19 is. They flunked that math test again as well. See, less than 50 deaths have occurred so far from COVID-19 in the US. But let’s say that is being under-reported by 50% and actually 100 people have died from COVID-19 in the US. Well, regular flu season kills approximately 30,000 people each year. So do the math again…30,000 deaths vs 100 deaths…ask yourself which kills more people? The virus that has already killed 20,000 so far this flu season or the virus that has killed less than 100?

Ah, my math skills and education tells me that the flu virus that has already killed 20,000 people is 200 time more deadly. Is my math off? Or is this FEMA employee ignorant or simply agenda driven…or has joined the irrational mob?

So who are you going to have more faith in…a Nurse Practitioner who supposedly works for FEMA…or an imminently qualified Doctor, former Flight Surgeon, and Constitutional expert? I know my answer, what’s yours?

So, clearly people began implementing Confirmation Bias and dismissed Dr. Paul’s article. Then another website poster in that same thread put up information by an infectious-disease expert showing the FEMA employee to be absolutely wrong and the mortality rate is NOT 3.4%…it is actually .5% or potentially even much lower. And again…the sheep dismiss the qualified infectious-disease expert and embrace the FEMA employee. Do you notice a pattern here? Do you think people have become irrational in their ability to think clearly?

Conclusion…this COVID-19 has become a complete and total mess. Websites out there are posting dishonest information, using unqualified people as so-called experts for opinions vs. actual experts’ opinions. People are embracing government spokesmen when just a few short months ago they feared all things government and derided anything the government said.

In other words…mass panic by sheeple, and those sheeple are those who are being led by those with mental issues, those that are flat out dishonest, or those folks who are just plain ignorant. Typical of mass hysteria, typical of GroupThink, and typical of mob mentality. There is no reasoning with them, they have their mind made up regardless of facts, and lost their ability to use their mind in a positive way. They have only one goal…support and defend their own position…at all costs, including morality, ethics, and basic honesty.

I found this on Lew Rockwell’s website that I felt interesting and appropriate, “Control the masses. Big government is winning. The masses are patrolling the streets and social media enforcing the state’s agenda. And here I feared a SJW-lead Red Guard. Now it’s neighbors haranguing anyone and everyone to fall in line. Interesting times, to say the least.”  Now…Ask yourself, who is advocating what and why? What does the spirit whisper to you when you read something like this? Who is trying to control whom? Who is demanding people “fall in line”?

War –

Yes, you read that right…”War!”

Yesterday I had a number of folks call me to discuss the COVID-19 panic situation. Interesting phone calls to be sure. But, one topic kept coming up in every one of those calls, brought up by the caller…How soon did I think Civil War would start? The question caught me off-guard the first time, but not after that.

I explained that if civil disturbance breaks out over the COVID-19 situation, which it very well could (click here to read more), it could become widespread and could take on the look of a civil war at first glance. But, it wouldn’t be civil war. Why? Because civil war indicates two sides pitted against each other. And any nationwide violent civil disturbance coming out of the COVID-19 panic wouldn’t be two sides fighting each other. It would be brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, cops vs. rioters, looters vs. business owners, military vs. everyone, rich vs. poor, black vs. white, white vs. white, black vs. black, those with food vs. those without food, etc. It would multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, confusing…and would devolve into tribalism…one tribe against another. It would be vicious and ugly.

And here is the sad part, one of the main “vs.” would be those preppers who panicked over the COVID-19 vs. those preppers who didn’t. Yup, straight up true! Those preppers that are panicking over the COVID-19 are showing they have no solid foundation in Constitutional principles, no grasp on reality, no ability to think clearly, rationally, or use critical thinking skills. Sure, that would make them very dangerous but it would do so in a mental illness kind of way. But, the worst of it…they are showing they are willing to follow anyone, follow even those who now support big government totalitarianism…even those that are mentally unstable. Seriously?

Yes. I saw it in the military, in my professional career, during high-stress environments such as structure fires and wildland fires…even hurricane responses. People in leadership positions who would freak out when the pressure got turned up. Those leaders would act irrationally, lose the ability to think clearly, lose Situational Awareness, promote fear, embrace inaccurate information, etc. I am sure all of you vets, especially combat vets, know exactly what I am talking about…those officers who would fall apart in the field when the first bullet was fired. I saw it time and time again as a firefighter. I am sure you peace officers see the same thing in stressful confrontations…some of your leaders falling apart and who are unable to make decisions that you could have confidence in…or keep you safe. These so-called leaders become emotional and functional jelly under stress.

If we keep on the same path we are on now with this COVID-19 panic, if we keep going down this authoritarian path, if we keep allowing the government to not let this crisis go to waste, if we keep allowing dishonest panic pushers to rule…well, civil disturbance is inevitable. And God help us if it becomes both violent and widespread…it will get ugly and will hurt a lot of people and families in unimaginable ways.

Is that the only threat of war? No, that is only the internal or domestic threat of war.

We saw China’s reaction to all of this. They went all totalitarian on its own citizens (even more so than normal for a Communist country), then moved on to an economic war reducing sales and shipments of goods to the US. Next, they started claiming the US engineered COVID-19 and that the US Army intentionally started the outbreak in China. And of course their close ally Iran jumped on the bandwagon and took up the claim that COVID-19 is a bio-engineered weapon that the US infected Iran with. When does rhetoric become action?

Here is another problem waiting in the shadows to happen…price of oil. Oil slipped below $50 a barrel yesterday. Why is that a big deal? Well, Russia’s economy is almost entirely dependent on oil and natural gas sales. If oil hits $40 a barrel Russia begins to feel a lot of economic pain. If it hits $30 a barrel Russia is hurting big time! If oil hits $20…war is almost assured. Why? At $20 oil the Russian economy would be dying quickly, and along with the economy dying the Russian government would be ready to fall, violently perhaps, due to public unrest. Do you really think Putin would/will allow that? No, of course not. Putin would do the same thing all other leaders do in times of such crisis…go to war. And who would they go to war against…or at least start another proxy war with?

If oil hits lows like I just mentioned, what happens in the Middle East to all of those countries whose economies are 100% dependent on oil? Do you think Iran or the Saudis would stand by and watch the price of oil destroy their countries…or rather destroy their kingdoms? No, of course not.  Who would they strike out against…and how would they do so? You can figure that out pretty easily.

The chance of war, either domestically or internationally, is growing as fast as the COVID-19 outbreak. The most devastating war…a tribal-based, domestic war would be the worst and most dangerous…and most likely to occcur at this particular point looking out on the COVID-19 exponential panic curve.

Summary –

Where do I even begin?

First off…be prepared. And you probably already are if you’ve been coming to this website for even a minimal amount of time.

Next, have accurate Situational Awareness. Reject all fake information, reject panic pushers, reject those who are acting mentally unstable, reject those who support unqualified “experts”, reject all those with personal agendas, reject GroupThink, reject Confirmation Bias, reject mob mentality, and reject being a sheeple. Embrace facts, use common sense, act rationally, live in reality, be mature.

When the time comes, take decisive and appropriate actions based on your situation. Don’t allow others to make decisions for you and your family. Avoid the mentally unstable. Avoid and reject unqualified “experts”.

Reject all extremism. Do not allow yourself to be caught up in those that are acting extremely or expressing extremist views…especially those that have panicked or who are acting irrationally or promoting fear and hysteria over COVID-19.

Take care of each other. Yes, of course take care of your family first…that goes without saying and is scripturally based. But, do NOT exclude others that need help. Share a couple rolls of toilet paper, share your food, share your water, share you medical supplies, share other essentials, share your love and concern, share your life with others. It is the only decent thing to do. Treat others as you want to be treated. If you claim to be a Christian…then act as a disciple of Christ.

Remember, do not panic, do not become hysterical, do not be fearful…be the level-headed, mature person you are. Become a leader that others need…whether it is in your family, the neighborhood, your congregation, or the community. Be a leader with moral character, integrity, maturity, and honesty.

I hate to say this next part…we are seeing the continued destruction of America. We are seeing forces at work that are wreaking havoc with rights, liberties, and freedoms. We are seeing those who we previously thought to be solid patriots and competent preppers fold before our eyes. They are joining, either unintentionally or otherwise, those powers that wish to destroy our country, destroy the Constitution, and destroy all that is good about America. And they are doing so under the guise of this crisis. Avoid walking off the cliff with the sheeple.

Hang in there, trust your training, trust your preps, trust the Lord. You can make it through this if you keep a level head and stay away from those who are trying desperately to manipulate you.

You can do this…stay calm and carry on.

 

Articles that are important and related to the COVID-19 panic:

Additional articles that you might find of interest and valuable:

Ask me a question …





 

 

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