Cold War: Considerations for Civil Unrest in Winter

hello again everyone and welcome back to the underground so as we move forward into a sort of colder time of year and as the election season gets closer um we thought we would throw together a sort of um top 10 list of considerations for uh civil unrest in urban areas in the winter time and some of the some of the unique considerations that winter and more inclement weather bring so we're going to go over a list as more than 10 but we're going to go over a list of things that people may not have thought about so without further ado let's just jump right on into it so first up the very first thing that we have to acknowledge before we talk about anything else is that in the wintertime and in colder inclement climates people are less likely to riot right you know the the sentence if someone were to say uh the sentence you know people don't write when they're six feet of snow on the ground you know that's not an untrue statement um it makes it so much more difficult to riot and and commit violent acts in mass in the wintertime as we know a lot of the more you know severe riots you know minneapolis new york city um chicago detroit some of those more heavily urbanized areas um they get a lot of the more you know severe riots you know minneapolis new york city um chicago detroit some of those more heavily urbanized areas um they get quite a bit of snow and quite a bit of winter weather now granted uh in the wintertime your city cities like you know in florida any city in florida even atlanta you know which has been known for rioting as well um and you know southern california los angeles that's those areas are not going to be uh impacted as much because you know it doesn't really get that cold in the winter time but we do have to remember that in these northern cities some of these northern latitudes they're going to get a lot of inclement weather and it's going to present a lot of challenges not just for rioters but also for people like us who are trying to just survive through the rioting right now that being said people being less likely to riot that does not mean that there won't be riots it just means that the people who will be out rioting in the six feet of snow will be your dedicated hardcore um i hesitate to use the word you know elite rioters but that's essentially what it is you're more dedicated followers you're more dedicated people who are dedicated o use the word you know elite rioters but that's essentially what it is you're more dedicated followers you're more dedicated people who are dedicated to violence and looting and rioting and things like that so if somebody or a group is out riding and you know a lot of ice and snow and and colder weather they mean business so but you know just just keep that in mind that you know while people are less likely to ride in the wintertime and in snow and things like that it's not a complete um it doesn't mean there's going to be a complete absence of rioting so up next one of the most significant factors is fewer hours of daylight um fewer hours of daylight is has is a double-edged sword right so basically when we look at some of the rides that occurred such as minneapolis the one that started all of this the riots really the riots started in earnest at around sunset or around you know shortly after sunset right or maybe even shortly before on the following days but we do have to remember what time sunset was you know sunset was at or around you know rush hour time so uh in a lot of cases falling after rush hour because the sun set you know after people had gotten home for the day as we nd you know rush hour time so uh in a lot of cases falling after rush hour because the sun set you know after people had gotten home for the day as we start getting into the winter months our days get shorter and our night our hours of darkness get longer meaning our sunset comes earlier you know obviously this means that your sunset might be before rush hour in a lot of areas well what does that mean that means that a lot of people in these heavily urbanized areas you know instead of getting home turning on the tv and finding out oh hey there was there's a riot downtown they're going to be finding out about this at while they're still at work and so you're going to have a lot of people that rush of traffic you know during rush hour and in some of these major cities there really isn't a rush hour anymore it's just like a three to four hour period of increased um traffic so uh we do have to remember that uh some of these more heavily urbanized areas you're gonna have a lot of people you know sort of trapped at work or that the traffic is gonna get a lot worse and and yet as a theme you'll see going on throughout the rest of these sort of considerations is that they tend to compound is gonna get a lot worse and and yet as a theme you'll see going on throughout the rest of these sort of considerations is that they tend to compound on one another for instance less you know fewer hours of daylight also means your solar panels are not going to be able to be as effective as they were in the summertime meaning your night you're going to have fewer hours of daylight so for us at our latitude here in virginia that gets cut in half so um yeah the fewer hours of daylight it means means a lot of things it means that a lot of these you know crimes of riots are going to have a lot more darkness to play with a lot more operating hours right that's something that cannot be underestimated as we move forward into this winter season up next and this was a this is a big one and it is um the prevalence and difficulty of fighting fires in an urban environment in the winter time so i think that fire preparedness is one of those things that people tend to discount or they don't exactly know how severe it can be basically fighting fires is hard enough in the summertime but fighting fires in the urban and urban landscape in the wintertime is makes everything infinitely harder you know is hard enough in the summertime but fighting fires in the urban and urban landscape in the wintertime is makes everything infinitely harder you know pipes and hoses freeze which means that you're going to have to drag hose a lot further you have to keep hoses you know keep water moving through hoses which creates ice you know you also have to remember that during the winter time people use space heaters and other flammable heat sources so your risk for having a fire spread throughout a city goes up anyway and that's not even with a riot right you also have to remember that firefighters endurance is also affected as well it is a lot harder to carry some of this equipment and operate in a winter environment because it's just so much more difficult you also have to remember that you know traffic is affected as well from you know snow drifts so fire trucks and and other first responder type agencies are going to have a harder and longer response time structures are also more prone to collapse from the weight of snow and ice so for instance you know fighting a fire if you've got you know three or four feet piled up on the roof of a building well that's a collapse hazard right there so nce you know fighting a fire if you've got you know three or four feet piled up on the roof of a building well that's a collapse hazard right there so it's another yet another thing to slow down the firefighting process you also have to remember that snow and ice also change the geographic landscape meaning you know snow hides swimming pools so when you're walking around on the ground and you don't know there's a swimming pool there you could walk in and and suddenly you know you're you're uh you're in trouble if you're a firefighter so you know snow hides things like pools you know stairs drop-offs embankments and and everything is suddenly an entrapment hazard which it wasn't before before the snow fell so there are a lot of hazards to fighting fires in the wintertime which once again slows down operations so it's almost you know a recurring theme like i said is things compounding on one another and you know it's just one of the paradoxes of this is kind of like a spin-off of you know murphy's law which is that you know the harder and the more uh the harder the situation is and the the more desperately you need something the harder it is to get so this is definitely the case with nd the more uh the harder the situation is and the the more desperately you need something the harder it is to get so this is definitely the case with firefighting the hard the more you need a firefighter in your firefighting entity to be to get to your location the harder it is going to be for them to do so just one of those things that tends to happen up next are considerations for personal defense and this one's kind of a longer list because um i don't think people quite take into consideration a lot of the the the winter warfare uh type things that that go into a uh even not even just like an alpine or a snow environment such as you know on the slide here but really even something that's just moderately cold these things can affect you know weapons personnel all kinds of things and very very interesting ways um so you know first off how many people out there can you know accurately and quickly and reliably fire their weapon while wearing gloves you know when heavy winter gloves you know so that's one of you know one thing that not a whole lot of people i i haven't seen anybody practicing that at the range and yet you know we get a decent amount of snow here every year and it's a whole lot of people i i haven't seen anybody practicing that at the range and yet you know we get a decent amount of snow here every year and it's it's certainly cold outside and we all wear winter gloves here in virginia in the winter time even though it's not as cold as like michigan or maine or something like that it still gets pretty chilly here and you know if you're concealed carrying can you draw and reliably accurately and uh and easily engage a target while wearing gloves so that's another consideration people don't quite um think about another thing that people don't quite think about is just the whole concept of sort of aftermarket parts and and um these cool gucci add-ons to their carry weapons and really all you know any of their weapons you know we of course are you know guilty of this as well you know everybody likes a cool looking you know weapon system but how many of those weapons how many of those cool weapons accessories were made with cold weather in mind you know you know i i don't i'm not sure of any sort of ar pistol stock that is or pistol sorry pistol brace i don't have any sort of ar pistol brace that is made and uh tested to extreme cold weather stand ar pistol stock that is or pistol sorry pistol brace i don't have any sort of ar pistol brace that is made and uh tested to extreme cold weather standards whereas the normal you know normal m4 weapon stock is right so that's something to keep in mind that you may not even though granted you know mill spec isn't certainly not a metric for any sort of quality it does indicate in some cases that certain testing was done on certain things whereas a civilian market may not have that problem right another issue that we see a lot of people not really take into account is wearing body armor on top of their winter clothing so a lot of people are you know into wearing plate carriers and things like that but you know even in the military we see the problem of of people wearing body armor on top of their winter clothing and that body armor is you know sitting now instead of sitting flush up against your skin it's now an inch or even two inches in some cases away from your body so the further your body armor is away from your body the less area it covers so you might have you know some things to do with that so you know make sure that you can actually wear your body armor effectively over your covers so you might have you know some things to do with that so you know make sure that you can actually wear your body armor effectively over your winter clothing because as we all know the gucci thing to do nowadays is to have smaller and smaller sized plates another thing is you know physical fitness like in the cold and in the in the rain and the snow and in the sludge and the mud you know how far can you run what are your physical standards right you know it's hard enough to run out with a with a heavy load on flat ground you know carrying something heavy that's hard enough as is and it becomes exponentially harder when you're trying to do that uh in the snow i mean running in the snow is just torture in some cases right depending on how deep the snow is and then not to mention the fact if try running on black heist guess what you're just gonna hurt yourself so uh you know that's another consideration as well is that we have to realize that our transit times if we're trying to go somewhere on foot might heavily be infected you know affected and sort of getting back to the personal gear type thing we have to remember that a lot of you know weapons uh type of lubricants don't know affected and sort of getting back to the personal gear type thing we have to remember that a lot of you know weapons uh type of lubricants don't necessarily work that well in the cold as well and a lot of people haven't quite thought of this because let's face it you know if anybody's going to carry a gun most people who carry guns outside their home do so concealed in america right and when you have a concealed pistol or something like that it's up against your body so your your body heat is keeping it warm okay well what about if you have to go outside with a rifle now now your rifle is outside it's outside your clothing and it is you know definitely more more susceptible to cold than say your concealed carry pistol so you know a lot of people you know use stuff like um natural like cleaners and clp sort of like frog lube and um you know despite the fact that there's you know of course your youtube backyard scientists out there but just us personally we haven't really had any good experiences using froglube in the cold weather especially if you if your weapons system likes to have a lot of lubrication froglube just ends up freezing and sticking whereas other types of weapons especially if you if your weapons system likes to have a lot of lubrication froglube just ends up freezing and sticking whereas other types of weapons lubricant are perfectly fine but you wouldn't know this unless you actually are you know training in the cold which not a lot of people have the opportunity to do and then we also have to remember things like if you have an optic on your weapon guess what you know cold temperature dramatically affect battery life you know not so much with your lithiums right your lithium batteries but if using like rechargeable batteries or some kind of oddball battery or like an aimpoint battery which is like a you know 2032 better a little watch battery you know your your um your battery life is going to get impacted severely especially with things like nods because a lot of nods nowadays are running off of double a's and which is great because every you know double a's are so common but double a's if they're not lithium you know if they're like a rechargeable double a they're going to have a severely shortened um battery lifetime and it's significant it's sometimes upwards of fifty percent we've just noticed with our own uh own devices and things shortened um battery lifetime and it's significant it's sometimes upwards of fifty percent we've just noticed with our own uh own devices and things and then of course you know your flashlights as well so um that's sort of you know a consideration moving forward with you know how many batteries you're gonna carry with you and where you're going to store them right another thing that people don't quite think about in this personal defense category is the sort of crash or the bump in the night preparedness right so i think that everybody or a large portion of people out there who listen to our podcast are have thought about or and are you know pretty pretty well prepared for the bump in the night well what happens if that bump in the night is a riot outside your house and it's you know 17 degrees below zero outside you know are you going to be able to grab your grab your go kit grab your bag eagers from the area and because i'm pretty sure everybody doesn't sleep in winter clothing are you going to have winter clothing in your uh egress system or you have wind good winter boots good socks and things to change your clothes in if you get wet you know that's a huge consideration and we s system or you have wind good winter boots good socks and things to change your clothes in if you get wet you know that's a huge consideration and we'll move into that when we talk about other stuff but you also have to uh think about can you fit your winter you know winter gear in your go bag like uh one of our guys here uh he he rocks his bag and uh he cannot fit his sleep system inside his bag he has a strap to the outside but his summer one his summer system fits inside the bag but the winter system doesn't because it's such a bulky bag and you know it's a it's quite a consideration considering how much bulk a lot of this winter type gear has another thing to consider is the the nature of of some kind of conflict at night the winter landscape provides a lot of different things one of the things that is pertains to warfare specifically is sound so sound over well-crusted snow where it's you know had a chance to settle down freshly fallen snow tends to absorb sound a lot of times but snow that's been there for a while old snow is crusted over frozen melted and re-frozen that snow sound tends to carry pretty well over that much further away than on normal standard dirt or grass o rusted over frozen melted and re-frozen that snow sound tends to carry pretty well over that much further away than on normal standard dirt or grass or some kind of other terrain so that's a consideration if you're trying to you know listen for activity that's coming from a long way away or if you yourself are trying to move about without being detected as the sound carries along a long way you also have to remember that snow is obviously white and if you've got a full moon out there well guess what moving around at one or two o'clock in the morning is going to be pretty hard to do if there's a full moon because it's going to be like daylight because that sunlight is going to reflect all that light so if you're trying to move tactically secure your property do whatever you got to do remember it's going to be a lot harder to do in the snow plus i'm not sure of very many people even people who live in in more alpine type environments i'm pretty not very sure how many people have uh winter type camouflage so you know it's we've got to start thinking about these these things that the military has been thinking about for a long time like what like i mentioned with their mountain warfare art thinking about these these things that the military has been thinking about for a long time like what like i mentioned with their mountain warfare schools another consideration for the in the personal defense category is wounded wounded personnel so if you get injured if you slip and fall on some black ice or something which is likely to happen or you know god forbid somebody gets shot or injured and you know critically injured in some way well guess what it's going to be a lot harder to evacuate you because uh it's going to be harder to create things like hlz's helicopter landing zones it's going to be harder to to get you you know out of that area right so you know the old adage of you know once again the more you need it the harder and more impossible it will be to get comes into play so um you know medevacs and and and things like that are a huge huge consideration for for something like that so um you know coming back to the topic because i forgot to mention it with the uh the snow light being bright and reflecting light that also enhances people's night vision that don't have nods so for instance on a moonless night with with no snow on the ground and with no city lights also enhances people's night vision that don't have nods so for instance on a moonless night with with no snow on the ground and with no city lights in the distance like you know even you know somebody like me with nods is going to struggle to get a good picture of what's going on and somebody without nods and that stitch in that scenario is going to be totally blind like they're not going to be able to see their hand in front of their face you start adding things in like you know a little bit of moon illumination a little bit of star light things like that you're going to start adding that back in and suddenly you know my nods are working at their peak efficiency and you know maybe a human being can have some level of night vision well if you add in snow to that factor guess what you are greatly reducing you're greatly reducing the barrier and the sort of disparity between uh somebody with nods and somebody without nods so and this could be a good thing or a bad thing if you don't have nods guess what you're going to be able to see a lot better in the winter time where there's snow on the ground and when there's ice on the ground well mostly snow but if you have nods guess what e a lot better in the winter time where there's snow on the ground and when there's ice on the ground well mostly snow but if you have nods guess what everybody that doesn't have nods can now see you better and your uh capabilities aren't increased that that much at all um so that's a huge concern because it looks the snow levels the playing field a lot between people who have nods and people who don't so that's a huge consideration for personal defense and i know this was a kind of a big category so we split it up into uh the next category which is a perimeter defense so one has to remember that with snow and ice on the ground you know all of your security cameras all of your your your motion sensors motion detectors for lights and things they can become obscured by um snow they can also be you know water can get inside them and and freeze them and the glass that's usually pretty cheap because security cameras in america are usually made in china so they're all pretty cheap quality they could frost over pretty easily and things like that so your defenses can be easily hampered or hindered by um snow and things like that you also have to um consider things like you know doors and loc at so your defenses can be easily hampered or hindered by um snow and things like that you also have to um consider things like you know doors and locks you know sticking or freezing shut um which can create an entrapment hazard so i i know that even here in virginia this happens about maybe once a year or so during the coldest part of the year we'll have you know sticky locks we'll our our car doors will be frozen shut or something like that maybe our back doors got a little sticky but hey if there was an emergency yes with that sticky lock you know that's normally not a big issue suddenly becomes a big issue so snow and ice and well really just mostly snow this is from more northern areas but snow piled up you know can also allow people to get over obstructions like fences and even things like concertina wire you put concertina wire down on the ground you know and which is you know about 18 to 24 inches in diameter and you get a couple feet of snow guess what you could you could walk pretty much on top of that if it's compacted down enough you could walk on top of that and not be bothered by it at all so you know snow drifts love to congregate up against houses and fences and tho enough you could walk on top of that and not be bothered by it at all so you know snow drifts love to congregate up against houses and fences and those can easily be used to step up and over should a riot head your way the sort of traditional defense methods of you know going out to you know check your property and things like that those become hindered as well um because let's not forget that you know during in our own experiences when we had our own riots locally um we had one of our guys had to um he basically turned off his air conditioner opened up all the windows in his house and i was very quiet for several hours that way this is one of the things we did so that we were able to hear what was going on because you know an air conditioner for those of you that don't know is quite loud and if you shut your air conditioner off and open up your windows if the the climate is um permissive to this you can hear protesting and rioting from a long way off so that was a huge force multiplier just being able to do something as simple as that well that might not be possible in the winter time if it's you know you know 30 30 below out there you might not be able to open up you know your w at well that might not be possible in the winter time if it's you know you know 30 30 below out there you might not be able to open up you know your windows and things like that because it's just simply too cold to do so so that's something to to definitely keep in mind and then going on uh to the next topic which is uh not really a sort of you know combat defense type topic is the food supply so ordinarily food supplies are usually impacted and impacted in the wintertime though usually not severely you might have the occasional grocery store tractor trailer flip over like this one um but you know combined with rioting and shortage and and food shortages in the winter these impacts will be made infinitely worse you know by bad weather so you know we also have to remember that the colder weather results in people tending to consume more calories right um we all know people even our even our us ourselves you know put on a few extra pounds in the winter time which is a combination of you know rich type holiday foods and you know a sedentary lifestyle that people not get outside to to to work out and things like that so you we have to remember though that during the winter time is natu ary lifestyle that people not get outside to to to work out and things like that so you we have to remember though that during the winter time is naturally just throughout the history of humanity winter time has been the time where foods where food shortages are most likely to occur anyway right we've all heard even you know nursery nursery rhymes and children's stories talk about you know the you know stocking things up and saving things up for winter saving things up for a rainy day right so just just naturally what happens and you combine that with the fact that we already have food shortages due to the the sort of covid crisis and uh combined with rioting it's just a it's just a perfect storm of vulnerability right there with our food supply so you know there are a lot of people out there that are already saying that hey we're going to have a huge food shortage you know we can't say if that's true or not but hey it doesn't hurt to prepare for it because we've shown we've shown that it is possible you know and especially considering that in the winter time it's a lot harder and it almost impossible to grow food in a lot of different areas so you know even for us even like right g that in the winter time it's a lot harder and it almost impossible to grow food in a lot of different areas so you know even for us even like right now um and you know come as we come to the end of september we're you know our own personal little gardens are starting to get a little chilly so we're having them you know make preparations for our you know winter crops which is something that it just takes a lot more money to do it you have to run power out there you have to have heating elements in a lot of cases if your stuff's outside you know protecting things from the elements you can only grow certain crops and things like that so you know once again just yet another dimension to the whole perfect storm of vulnerability with the food supply and then moving on to the next one which is cut which is directly tied to this one is the water supply you know you know as one might expect you know water is also a huge consideration in the wintertime because as we kind of touched on it with the fire scenario pipes burst pipes burst and and things happen not just with you know your own residential type water setups but with the city as well and you know municipal uh water supplies so you things happen not just with you know your own residential type water setups but with the city as well and you know municipal uh water supplies so you know pipes bursting are sort of a mainstay of of winter you know winter weather you know if you've ever i remember growing up if you've ever lived in a house where you um where you have a sort of water pump a pumping station a little uh water pump outside it's got a little you know little hud over it or in a lot of cases people put fake rocks over them right you know i guarantee you if you have one of those um you've put a a light bulb or some kind of heating element out there around those pipes and uh it's just so that the pump itself and you know the uh the pipes don't freeze and burst you know i can remember doing that i think probably every year i've had to do that that i wasn't living on city water or something like that um but yeah what are you gonna do if you don't have power though you know so do you have a way to keep your pipes from bursting without using some kind of power and i know a lot of people don't have that uh that don't have that luxury right so um we have to remember that electricity is a huge one as well which is i know a lot of people don't have that uh that don't have that luxury right so um we have to remember that electricity is a huge one as well which is what you know sort of directly segues into our next category which is power outages you know just like i mentioned you know power outages are already extremely common in the wintertime in a lot of areas you know even areas where winter weather is not necessarily a a huge problem so for instance you know one of the one of the things that you'll that the people will notice who've lived in different you know climates around the united states is that you know you live up north and you know you get three feet of snow on the ground everything's fine it's a normal it's like a tuesday right but you know down in virginia or in texas or you know occasionally in like northern new mexico or some you know states like that which aren't really known for getting snow if they get like a freak you know blizzard come through and they get like maybe a quarter of an inch of ice not even snow just quarter inch of ice or something like that the whole state will shut down you know that people have no idea how to drive because they're not used to it you're h ch of ice or something like that the whole state will shut down you know that people have no idea how to drive because they're not used to it you're ho you're gonna have instead of one or two power lines coming down you're going to have a whole city down and it's because they just don't get that you know thing so you they don't get that much snow every year so you know even though you'd think that some of the bigger risk comes from the areas like in the northern states where they do get a lot of snow actually from what we've seen is that there's still a lot of it may not be most risk but you still get a lot of risk and a lot of bad things and unfortunate things happen in in states and in areas which aren't known for snow but may get that one occasional storm and you know what if that one occasional storm was during a riot right and you know bringing the rider element into this if you know if rioters or other more serious malign actors like actual domestic terrorists and not just like unorganized rioters um if they were to capitalize on you know naturally occurring power outages we could see city-wide blackouts that last for a long time and it's not that hard to impact the power gri n you know naturally occurring power outages we could see city-wide blackouts that last for a long time and it's not that hard to impact the power grid and it's only a matter of time before these people figure it out and you know once again bringing back the theme of hey everything compounds on something else you know without power to electrically heat homes you know more people will rely on more hazardous forms of heating which exponentially raises the risk of residential fire so you know your power goes out and people get cold they start you know burning things or using you know oil or kerosene space heaters and you know propane start using their gas stove and then suddenly you've got you know risk of gas explosions you've got risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from your neighbors you've got a lot you've got a lot of stuff risk that piles up just because of a power outage so um you know you also have to remember that power being out also means that most security systems will be down as well you know same thing with you know your security lighting and things like that unless you have like battery powered uh lights which are fairly common but there's nobody out there that i know of rity lighting and things like that unless you have like battery powered uh lights which are fairly common but there's nobody out there that i know of that has battery-powered security cameras unless it's a dedicated system and even then it's only a like a a ups so that it can safely shut down i don't know if any system that's a residential system that has a whole bank of batteries to keep it going when the power goes out that might be something to look into but you know this of course increases the risk of damage and you know looting and rioting and just general theft it just increases the risk exponentially right and then moving on to the next one this is kind of a different topic one of the a big consideration is complacency we tend to underestimate the impacts that you know normal winter weather has on operations you know we just tend to underestimate that no that's not even counting the rioting and protesting and things you know as such we drastically underestimate the impact of rioting and bad weather uh that those two will have when combined together right and it's something that's very hard to predict i can say the only really good thing about you know the weather is that it when combined together right and it's something that's very hard to predict i can say the only really good thing about you know the weather is that it's it's universal and it's random in its impacts right everybody's affected pretty much equally and also randomly we don't know exactly how much snow is going to fall we don't know how much ice is going to fall or how much damage it's going to do until it happens so by default the people that are more prepared before bad weather will have an advantage over those who aren't prepared so you know one of the things that that is perhaps a good thing is the lack of preparation on the rioters part for instance just looking at some of the riots and the and the more violent um uh demonstrations around the us the people that are doing them aren't exactly preparedness-minded so i doubt i highly doubt that you're going to have hundreds of riders in the streets all with you know layered clothing waterproof boots changing their socks every half an hour um you're just they're just not going to do that right so they're they're not going to be prepared for winter weather they're barely going to be hanging on just being outside whereas um people like p right so they're they're not going to be prepared for winter weather they're barely going to be hanging on just being outside whereas um people like police military and more uh more conscientious and and prepared uh type people will be able to be comfortable outside so you know we have to factor that in as well because these riders are good no they're not going to be even if they're going to go on riding cold weather they're not going to be truly prepared for cold weather they're not going to be hydrating like we all know is a huge thing with cold weather you need to hydrate almost more than in warm winter because you're going to be sweating a lot they're not going to be removing layers when they do start to swim all these other traditional winter weather basics that we all know the writers they're not just not that personality type so moving on to the next one is communications and this is a big one so as one might expect power outages like i just mentioned affect communications greatly you know obviously but when combined with rioting and civil unrest the the impacts are amplified uh you know like everything else we've talked about so far you know a a if you have sort of a unique ng and civil unrest the the impacts are amplified uh you know like everything else we've talked about so far you know a a if you have sort of a unique setup which is becoming popular now which are attic antennas you've got to remember that if you've got a foot or two of snow on your roof that's definitely going to reduce the range of you know attic-based antennas and if you have an outside antenna like the one here on the slide guess what you get even just a small amount of ice build up on it it's going to bend and break um so you have to remember that that the weather definitely impacts your ant and antennas you know you know we also have to remember the technology itself is vulnerable you know from ham radios to cell phones it is rare to find a communications method that is truly weatherproof um you know connections get wet and freeze you know antennas collapse and break under the weight of ice and you know cold temperatures impact electronics of all kinds and just like i mentioned battery life as well you know as such at a time where communications are most needed you know during a time of unrest and rioting and during you know inclement weather is exactly when communications of re communications are most needed you know during a time of unrest and rioting and during you know inclement weather is exactly when communications of all types are the most vulnerable you know after all if your communications plan works when things are you know just peachy outside it doesn't really matter that much but if your communications you know fail when things are going badly that can and most likely will have a severe impact on you know your situation so i think that we cannot underestimate the power of communications um so another thing that uh is isn't impacting uh communications are things like transportation which is our next topic so uh this is kind of indirectly related to communications because in a lot of times you know the the old-fashioned uh runner you know messenger is your classic um and timeless way of communicating and in a lot of times where if your cell towers are down your radio is not working because the snow and things like that you're you know this is going to be being able to move from one area to another with a person is going to be crucial and if your roads are shut down too well now you've just eliminated your last most reliable form of communicati r with a person is going to be crucial and if your roads are shut down too well now you've just eliminated your last most reliable form of communication if that's part of your comp plan but one thing to to remember in this sort of category that goes along with communications is tracks you know tracks are left behind in snow right whether you're driving or walking right so if you're trying to covertly move somewhere it's going to be next to impossible to do on you know fresh snow with fresh snow on the ground if it hasn't been filled in by you know more you can move during snowfall it's fine the tracks will be covered up pretty easily but if it's just snowed and it stops snowing guess what you're gonna leave a huge trail this matters for communications because what if you're trying to go out what if you've got a covert antenna outside one of the big things in the ham radio community is covert antennas right being able to put up an antenna somewhere where your maybe your hoa doesn't approve of you having a ham radio antenna or maybe you don't want you know some kind of federal agency to determine to figure out you're using a radio antenna or have some kind of communications method li don't want you know some kind of federal agency to determine to figure out you're using a radio antenna or have some kind of communications method like that so covert antennas are popular we use them all the time but the point is is that if you have to go out there and service that antenna and get the ice and stuff off of it and check the connections and and dry out the connections well you're just gonna you're gonna lead people right to it if you're walking through snow so that's another huge consideration as well we also have to remember that you know just like i mentioned earlier winter weather in your in your bug out bags and your go bags or whatever you want to call them the kit you carry even the stuff you just take to work every day if you're going to carry winter gear in them just like i mentioned it's going to get bulky and it's going to get a little heavier but another thing is is how you pack your your bug out bag as well you know for instance it's not just as simple as taking out your summer sleep system putting in your winters and putting in your winter sleep system or taking out you know your mosquito netting and putting in an extra thermal layer it's not quite as si inters and putting in your winter sleep system or taking out you know your mosquito netting and putting in an extra thermal layer it's not quite as simple as that because there's and and this is up for debate so just take it for what you will but you know i just me personally what i do is during the summer time i have things the heavier things in my bag higher up and closer to your back like the classic backpacking trick that everybody's talked about for a long time so if you've got a something really heavy like water it goes up right up next to my back as high in my pack as i possibly can can make it it just makes it a lot easier on me and it allows the load to be transferred more efficiently to me personally now the winter time that changes in the winter time i put my heavy stuff at the very bottom of my pack as close to my body as possible that's because i want the center of gravity for my body to be lower so if i'm using skis or snowshoes or something like that i can actually have a better center of gravity better balance and things like that over uneven terrain or like i said with skis so that's something to uh something to factor in as well if you're in that sort of environme gs like that over uneven terrain or like i said with skis so that's something to uh something to factor in as well if you're in that sort of environment even if you're not in an environment where you actually have skis or something like that you know i still do it because things get slippery out there even in the mid-atlantic even as far down as you know the south and you know the the west um you know out west it gets it gets pretty cold out there and you might have some black ice and things like that so that's what i tend to do in the winter time so it's not just what you pack but it's how you pack it changes in the winter time as well and also in the transportation method transportation category we have to remember that snow like i mentioned earlier sort of sort of alluded to snow fills in things like ditches you know it makes it very uh likely for you know you to actually accidentally drive off of the road surface and into a ditch and then that of course once again compounds uh by making it very difficult for you to get your vehicle out of the ditch in the wintertime so you know and then guess what you know if that happens you're stranded in the cold uh in an inclement uh situat e out of the ditch in the wintertime so you know and then guess what you know if that happens you're stranded in the cold uh in an inclement uh situation where your vehicle is stuck and now now the situation's just gotten quite severely worse so moving on to the next topic this uh another thing that people tend to discount not just in the wintertime but this is also a summertime thing as well but as the morale and you know the mental impact the weather can have um you know being cold and wet is miserable i don't care what culture you are where you grew up or or whatever you know unless you grew up in the you know remote regions of siberia you're gonna human beings have a pre uh a preconceived um a predetermination to being cold and wet it's just miserable right doesn't matter where you're from you know and it's even more miserable if the reason that you're in the reason that you're cold and wet is because you've got to stand outside or stand watch and make sure that people don't destroy your stuff right so that's you know you're already in an angsty situation where you're emotionally invested in something and now you're cold and wet you see how that affects morale it makes you feel dy in an angsty situation where you're emotionally invested in something and now you're cold and wet you see how that affects morale it makes you feel pretty bad or it changes your mentality in ways that you you know are situation dependent but you know in cold weather we also have to remember not not just you know mental capacity um of of being you know you know uh sour at the cold weather but um your mental capacity is directly harmed as well in cold weather even the simplest of tasks things you've done your entire life require considerable considerable brain power just like i said in cold weather even the simplest of tasks it requires a lot of brain power and requires a lot of dexterity which is impacted immediately as soon as you step into a cold weather situation and is made worse the longer in that situation so you know we also have to worry about things in the winter time of long-term issues like trench foot or immersion foot or or other cold weather maladies you know dehydration even hyperthermia hyperthermia where you get too hot whereas you know when somebody's next to you know next to a fire on that line they get too hot so that's something to uh to to factor in as well hot whereas you know when somebody's next to you know next to a fire on that line they get too hot so that's something to uh to to factor in as well something that we can't quite uh overlook and then finally our last topic which is perhaps the most uh most unfortunate one is things like cbrn concerns cbrn seburni basically riots are going to continue and law enforcement agencies around the us are continuing to use tear gas like it's going out of style tear gas riot control agents pepper spray you name it it's being used and you know however you feel about that the fact of the matter is is that a lot of innocent a lot of innocent bystanders have the have the capacity to be hit or impacted by these things we ourselves have been close enough to rioting and of course not partaking in it just riots happening near our house and we've even felt that familiar sting of tear gas you know just standing on our own uh center on our own property so um it's you know things get things get real close and you know just imagine um you know sitting at mop level you know infinity right where you literally got all your mop stuff on yours way more stuff that's probably necessary in the freezing rain in op level you know infinity right where you literally got all your mop stuff on yours way more stuff that's probably necessary in the freezing rain in the dark you know with spotty comms because the power is out you know and a gun that may or may not jam because it's cold and it's kind of sticky and you know with a fire on the next street over you know riders right there at your front door you know you see how all of this compounds together i think that's probably the the the theme for today is that winter time is miserable uh for operations like this and unless you're a military unit which is spent decades training and and trying to impact and and not just survive but actually be an asset during a winter condition you know a lot of civilians especially us are not going to be able to um we're not going to be able to be quite the level of the asset that we hope to be but we can still plan and hope to not be a liability and that's sort of the goal out there so as we move into finishing up here today i hope this has been helpful these are just some of the things that we've kind of been uh working around we've all kind of pitched in two or three of these ideas of hey you know what are s just some of the things that we've kind of been uh working around we've all kind of pitched in two or three of these ideas of hey you know what are some of the considerations for wintertime warfare and winter time you know riding because in a lot of cities they look just like this it's it's a it's a war zone out there in a lot of these situations and um while you know like i mentioned in the very beginning it did you know winter weather does mean that riding is probably going to quiet down but this riots that do survive are probably going to be pretty severe so hopefully this helps trigger some ideas as people who have been listening to us for a while now know really all our businesses is triggering ideas and providing some good information that can help save some lives out there and that's certainly what we hope to accomplish today so that's all we have for today and as usual make sure you go check out our other platforms we have you know some some social media sites out there if you guys still got instagram up we've got our website teespring if you want to support us that way if you're listening to us on youtube we have a we have a podcast if you didn't know already and if you'r teespring if you want to support us that way if you're listening to us on youtube we have a we have a podcast if you didn't know already and if you're listening to us on the podcast we also have a youtube channel which we have basically mutual content on both of those platforms we're trying to spread out as much as possible but we do have we host different things on on different platforms so make sure you check all of our stuff out we also have our key base server where we do you know live updates from time to time and uh you'll you'll be able to hit us up there if you have any questions you know also our emails and things like that are also linked below so hopefully that has helped been helpful once again and we'll be coming back at you with another episode talking about more preparedness for the upcoming um sort of insanity that the election season is going to bring on us um very soon so so hopefully we'll not only be able to fight in the shade but also fight in the darkness as we get closer into the winter time so hopefully we'll see you all guys next time and s2 actually out