Posted on 11/03/2026 4:19:01 AM PST by MtnClimber
Governments are warning their citizens. The Pentagon is preparing for prolonged disruption. Military activity is intensifying. Are we paying attention?
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the war with Iran will end immediately after the November 3 midterm elections. On Sept. 9, he made that prediction publicly. On Oct. 28, however, when asked whether he might order additional strikes after the election, Trump replied, “Anything’s possible.”
That same day, the Associated Press reported that American officials had privately urged several Middle Eastern governments and regional allies to prepare for renewed U.S. strikes against Iran after the election, as well as possible Iranian retaliation against energy facilities and other critical infrastructure. The diplomats briefed on those discussions said Trump had made no final decision.
So the president is talking about ending the war, while American officials are telling allies to prepare for another round of it.
That is worth paying attention to. And it is only one piece of what is happening.
In Palm Beach, the sight of two Avenger air-defense systems aboard a barge in the Intracoastal Waterway, immediately outside Mar-a-Lago, has raised another set of questions. These are mobile military systems equipped with Stinger missiles, designed to counter low-flying aircraft, helicopters, and drones. NORAD and U.S. Northern Command confirmed their deployment at the Secret Service’s request. The Secret Service described the current situation as a “heightened threat environment,” although officials have not identified a specific threat prompting the deployment.
More than 60 aircraft have reportedly been intercepted for violating restricted airspace around Mar-a-Lago since January 2025. The systems have also been positioned near the airport. This is not routine presidential security that most Americans see every day.
WPTV reported on the barge deployment, and WPBF reported the Secret Service’s heightened-threat statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Always stay prepared.
Moslems worldwide are setting up their caliphate.
Moslems worldwide are setting up their caliphate.
Iran officials apparently are very resistant to ending their dictatorship there. Until they do, anything is possible.
I’ll just have Amazon send me whatever I need. /s
I expect Republicans to lose control of both the House and Senate come January.
Trump will get his needed authorizations after the elections and put the US military to its needed work.
I generally favor some moderate prepping.
But what Glenn Beck and Dan Bongeno are doing is making money for the emergency food supply companies they are invested in.
We have neglected preparedness, hardening, and resiliency for decades. This is long overdue, quite apart from the immediate threat environment. The more complex and globalized our systems become, the more vulnerable they are, and we cannot and will not be able to anticipate all contingencies.
There are scores of issues here. Two are longtime hobby horses of mine: the defense industrial base; and a more decentralized electrical grid.
Corporate America bought into globalized supply chains decades ago. Most other countries have to do this by necessity; smaller countries simply don’t have the scale to be autonomous in a pinch. The U.S., however, is in a more favorable situation, and that is a strategic asset.
This doesn’t mean we should simply throw up tariffs and go fully mercantilist on trade. International competition keeps both huge corporations and organized labor honest. The people in Germany, Korea or Japan who build high quality cars and sell them in the U.S. are not underpaid, and they are not our enemies. The issue there is reciprocity; their markets should be as open as ours to peer group competition.
That said, bad things happen and we should manage downside risk. That means getting serious once again about identifying strategic industries and maintaining an adequate domestic production base and supply chain. That needn’t mean autarky, and I wish Trump would stop talking like he wants to emulate North Korea’s juche system. So it becomes a matter of deciding what percentage of the U.S. supply chain to protect, and how to do it without simply handing the keys to the unions and three selected winner corporations that will play crony suckup politics with the political class.
We can keep older cars on the road indefinitely, so maybe we can settle for a 50 percent domestic baseline. But advanced chips are a critical weak spot; maybe we should shoot for at least 50 percent domestic, or even more. We want to keep the supply chain as competitive as possible, so it’s a matter of deciding how much short term domestic demand could be triaged in a serious crisis. I’m not terribly concerned if Apple, which loves sweatshop labor in Asia, gets hammered on its nonstop rollouts of new iPhones to its addicted, cultish customer base. But there are innumerable vital systems that we can’t afford to jeopardize. So: pick a domestic supply threshold.
Decentralization of the electrical grid is another biggie. I’ve been grousing about this for many years, largely as a result of econazi nonsense coming largely from the big blue cities and states that think energy is too dirty to produce themselves, so they want flyover country to do the dirty work. Maybe we should require every state to be at least 75 percent self-sufficient in baseload electrical generation. With small, modular nuclear reactors becoming available, I’d push it even further, down to major metro areas. Require the NYC metro area to be 75 percent self-sufficient. Let the libs get their hands dirty actually producing power, instead of just lecturing the rest of America on their moral superiority.
I’ll add a third: food. The U.S. is the world’s largest agricultural exporter (even if Trump seems to lose sight of that fact in his tariff wars). We obviously want open markets globally. U.S. farmers are among our trade superstars. But internationally, we have to recognize that most foreign countries are fundamentally apprehensive about becoming totally import dependant in food. That’s where we have to be fair bargaining partners, insisting on reciprocal recognition of strategic vulnerabilities.
We have neglected preparedness, hardening, and resiliency for decades. This is long overdue, quite apart from the immediate threat environment. The more complex and globalized our systems become, the more vulnerable they are, and we cannot and will not be able to anticipate all contingencies.
There are scores of issues here. Two are longtime hobby horses of mine: the defense industrial base; and a more decentralized electrical grid.
Corporate America bought into globalized supply chains decades ago. Most other countries have to do this by necessity; smaller countries simply don’t have the scale to be autonomous in a pinch. The U.S., however, is in a more favorable situation, and that is a strategic asset.
This doesn’t mean we should simply throw up tariffs and go fully mercantilist on trade. International competition keeps both huge corporations and organized labor honest. The people in Germany, Korea or Japan who build high quality cars and sell them in the U.S. are not underpaid, and they are not our enemies. The issue there is reciprocity; their markets should be as open as ours to peer group competition.
That said, bad things happen and we should manage downside risk. That means getting serious once again about identifying strategic industries and maintaining an adequate domestic production base and supply chain. That needn’t mean autarky, and I wish Trump would stop talking like he wants to emulate North Korea’s juche system. So it becomes a matter of deciding what percentage of the U.S. supply chain to protect, and how to do it without simply handing the keys to the unions and three selected winner corporations that will play crony suckup politics with the political class.
We can keep older cars on the road indefinitely, so maybe we can settle for a 50 percent domestic baseline. But advanced chips are a critical weak spot; maybe we should shoot for at least 50 percent domestic, or even more. We want to keep the supply chain as competitive as possible, so it’s a matter of deciding how much short term domestic demand could be triaged in a serious crisis. I’m not terribly concerned if Apple, which loves sweatshop labor in Asia, gets hammered on its nonstop rollouts of new iPhones to its addicted, cultish customer base. But there are innumerable vital systems that we can’t afford to jeopardize. So: pick a domestic supply threshold.
Decentralization of the electrical grid is another biggie. I’ve been grousing about this for many years, largely as a result of econazi nonsense coming largely from the big blue cities and states that think energy is too dirty to produce themselves, so they want flyover country to do the dirty work. Maybe we should require every state to be at least 75 percent self-sufficient in baseload electrical generation. With small, modular nuclear reactors becoming available, I’d push it even further, down to major metro areas. Require the NYC metro area to be 75 percent self-sufficient. Let the libs get their hands dirty actually producing power, instead of just lecturing the rest of America on their moral superiority.
I’ll add a third: food. The U.S. is the world’s largest agricultural exporter (even if Trump seems to lose sight of that fact in his tariff wars). We obviously want open markets globally. U.S. farmers are among our trade superstars. But internationally, we have to recognize that most foreign countries are fundamentally apprehensive about becoming totally import dependant in food. That’s where we have to be fair bargaining partners, insisting on reciprocal recognition of strategic vulnerabilities.
Glenn Beck is all about the drama. Has he started crying yet? As for Bongino, I lost a lot of respect for him when he bailed on the Trump administration.
So the president is talking about ending the war, while American officials are telling allies to prepare for another round of it.
I’m curious what moderate prepping is and I don’t know what those two promote, 1 year?
I think prepping and preppers are about all we have in America for Civil defense now, and that the more households with long term food stores then the more prepared we are as a nation for the big calamities.
The more tons of food scattered around America in closets and basements, the better for us as a nation, and people storing food also think about survival, which means more people who are ready to adapt to survival situations, and more prepared to be hands on with some of the tools of emergencies, like lighting, water filters, guns, hand tools, generators, wheat grinders and sleeping bags, solar, the more the merrier when it comes to the nuts and bolts stuff.
One percent of the population being preppers helps, 5% is better, 10%, 20%, the higher number of preppers then the better off the nation as a whole is for facing emergencies and also the bigger the voting constituency for politicians who support being prepared by the government returning to storing wheat, corn, hardening utilities, building nuclear shelters and so on.
“Be Prepared!”
Even a Boy Scout motto teaches simplicity
**We can keep older cars on the road indefinitely,..**
If road salt doesn’t eat any more of them, and motor vehicle accidents cease.
Don’t rule out another cash-for-clunkers-style round-up of older model cars. The last go-’round eliminated a lot of perfectly serviceable American cars and car parts.
I don’t dismiss the military threat however I note that the degree of threat is equivalent to Congress bankrupting the country.
When the US goes broke, it will have dire impact worldwide.
**..cash-for-clunkers-style round-up..**
An example of wasting energy by the kooks. The energy used to make those still useful cars and trucks.
When Toyota recalled all of their 1995-2005 Tacoma pickup trucks for rusting frames they took 850K+ vehicles off the road. 850K was the number the Toyota of North America rep told me in 2012. It went on for several years after that.
Many like my 1999 that they bought back had already been repaired by welding patches on the frame. However, in 2012 they paid me KBB full retail x 1.5. Roughly $14.5K for a 13 year old pickup truck. That they drained the fluids out. Recycled the tires and aluminum rims and then crushed it.
The engine only had 127K miles. Probably was worth $1000 or more. That truck could have easily been sold in Central America or Asia for $5K or more with a Salvage Title.
We don’t have to prepare. We stocked up years ago and now its all sitting up at our rural compound. Mr. GG2 did an inventory the other day when he was up there doing repairs. I’d say we’re good to go for 6 months.
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