June 16 Intel Update: The Goldilocks Zone

hello again everyone and welcome back to the underground this is the intel update for thursday the 16th of june 2022 and like always it is being recorded the day prior so let's get to it all right so first up is gas prices so as literally all of you know gas prices have never been higher so that's not really anything new what is new or really rather a unique way to think about it i think is some of the second order effects that are occurring due to these high gas prices and one second order effect that i've noticed across the country is several police departments throughout the country are reporting that they have blown through their fuel budget already this month and as a result they're not going to be responding to every call now this story has two sides like all stories right if you look at just the news and see what they're saying about it it's you know oh no the police can't respond to every call well there's two sides to every story right so here's what i think i think that yes it is true that a lot of police and other public service agencies have fuel budgets that are a specific dollar amount allotted to them that's just the way it is in some areas in the area where i grew u rvice agencies have fuel budgets that are a specific dollar amount allotted to them that's just the way it is in some areas in the area where i grew up that's exactly where it what happened in rural areas a lot of times the law enforcement groups they get they don't actually have like a central fueling hub they have to go to commercial gas stations right in a lot of cities they have their own fueling points but for the most part for the most part a lot of times you have police officers just given a gas card that they use to fill up in some areas so it makes sense that they would have spent you know gas prices are more expensive you're not able to buy as much gas as you could and you've already blown through your you know limit for the month that that that does make sense however i also think that this is probably an excuse in some cases for law enforcement agencies to avoid doing their jobs or even more likely to increase their budget i know for a fact that this is the case in my own area i just happen to be really unlucky and live in a horrifically bad law enforcement district jurisdiction so with many overlapping jurisdictions and it's just horrifically bad so i know that my own a horrifically bad law enforcement district jurisdiction so with many overlapping jurisdictions and it's just horrifically bad so i know that my own local police officers unfortunately will will stop at nothing to avoid patrolling uh the streets for many reasons and um the decision has been made in many jurisdictions around the country already that police officers will not be responding to most 911 calls this is really in your sort of gotham city areas right like your seattles your portland's your new york cities chicago detroit places like that they've already said hey you know this has been a problem for decades now honestly there are places in in detroit where the police just haven't gone or patrolled in probably decades so you have to remember that right and we always have to be skeptical of things like this and remember that when it comes to the public services honesty is not a trait that is often exhibited especially when it comes to things like budget so that's something to keep in mind is that yes these fuel prices are having second and third order effects but we've gotta like be really careful in attributing these second and third order effects um to a lot of different th second and third order effects but we've gotta like be really careful in attributing these second and third order effects um to a lot of different things up next is food distribution uh again just like last time more food processing facilities mysteriously catching fire or are being closed down or otherwise being offline for very suspicious reasons i think that even the average person is likely to notice when they walk into a grocery store and see infant formula behind you know lock and key on the shelves something's not right here right so this really kind of leads into the next one as well they're kind of a combined uh idea here in that is smithfield the company closing a major pork production facility in california now i myself have been following the smithfield company for a few years because they got bought out by china a couple years ago and this was actually a pretty big scandal at the time with many entities reporting on the largest acquisition of a us company by a chinese company ever at 7.1 billion dollars so this is a highly suspicious case of a chinese chinese-owned company shutting down yet another major food production facility in the us it's a lot seems very fishy r ly suspicious case of a chinese chinese-owned company shutting down yet another major food production facility in the us it's a lot seems very fishy right but just like all of the other food distribution issues there's really not much that we average uh people can do about it uh even if we were able to kind of point fingers at deliberate attacks being made i think the general lesson here is is not just how vulnerable our food production infrastructure is like we've been talking about those vulnerabilities for years now but really the the key takeaway now is how desperately very powerful people are using food as a weapon against us not an easy uh pill to swallow there but it's just quite obvious at the point at this point that's what's happening and finally i wanted to talk about the def shortage and really just kind of broad strokes the general shortages that come from rail logistics and this is a topic that most americans are blissfully ignorant of yet completely vulnerable too and for those of you who don't really want to deep dive on this topic the bottom line is the def shortages will result in yet more logistical failings in pretty much every industry within a few months time on this topic the bottom line is the def shortages will result in yet more logistical failings in pretty much every industry within a few months time but since a lot of people are liable to say well what else is new with regards to shortages which are now a household staple like everybody knows that shortages are here to stay for a long time we've been living in a nation where food shortages have been commonplace uh for years now um so with that being not really a new story let's talk a bit more and get a little bit deeper into the the why behind this so let me first briefly explain what def is because that's a really good place to start def stands for diesel emissions fluid you'll sometimes see people refer to as diesel exhaust fluids so it's you know it's really technically a diesel emissions fluid but it's a special kind of fluid that is required by a diesel engine to function ordinarily it's not needed but the government now requires it this is one of those little government overreach things that was done back in 2010 but nobody really cared about modern vehicles simply will not even start without def because the engines are specifically made to use def in the combustion cycle eally cared about modern vehicles simply will not even start without def because the engines are specifically made to use def in the combustion cycle of the diesel engine in order to allegedly reduce the climate impacts of diesel combustion it would be kind of funny if it wasn't so tragic these days everyone is terrified about the government putting a magic chip in their car and uncle sam turning off their engine if they tweet the wrong thing but def is the original government transportation tyranny and it's been around for well over a decade now so other than being a classic case of government controlling food distribution at the infrastructural level why does this matter well guess what def is made out of urea most def is comprised of about 75 urea by volume if memory serves me correct and guess which country is the world's leader in urea production any wild guesses if you guessed andorra you're wrong but guessing that probably means you're an interesting person so there's that no the world leader in urea production is china the second highest producer of urea in the world is india and the third biggest producer is russia and china has put the squeeze on all fertilizer exports in ond highest producer of urea in the world is india and the third biggest producer is russia and china has put the squeeze on all fertilizer exports including urea due to prices skyrocketing domestically india used to be the world's largest urea producer but china eclipsed them uh just a couple of years ago there is some good news because russia hasn't stopped exports of urea in fact they've actually been flooding the market via india and brazil which i think is to help russian oligarchs offset the costs of the sanctions with regards to the invasion of ukraine but the bottom line is that urea prices right now are kind of a bit they're they're still very high but they're not as high as they were a couple of months ago when we were talking about the devastatingly high fertilizer prices it's come down just a little bit but i think that's kind of the calm before the storm so you might say well what's the problem then china might have slowed down exports but russia is still exporting and prices are still at you know an all-time high but we're dealing with it so there's no problem right well not so fast urea production is seasonal and that's why i haven't given you any numbers or percenta re dealing with it so there's no problem right well not so fast urea production is seasonal and that's why i haven't given you any numbers or percentages because the market has fluctuated so much that i've got a lot of conflicting data and this is because a lot of the information surrounding the exact details of global fertilizer statistics is not available to the public or it's behind a pretty substantial paywall so it's really difficult to talk about global fertilizer stuff and be accurate because there are conflicting companies with different numbers and all of which you have to pay hefty fees to see the data but all in all what does this mean i'm new expert on the global fertilizer market but i'll give it to you as straight as i can right now the global fertilizer markets are doing some pretty weird stuff and considering that a lot of third-party things like def are made from these fertilizers it's not just an agricultural problem seasonal production increases such as in india are keeping prices high instead of being tremendously high but china's export squeeze from last year and many other nations around the planet suffering from food shortages are going to result in the sever high but china's export squeeze from last year and many other nations around the planet suffering from food shortages are going to result in the severe global fertilizer shortages that we and many others have been talking about for gosh probably well over a year maybe even two years now it's it's very much a case of the dog chasing the cat that ate the rat that the chain of causation is already pretty crazy global fertilizer shortages are resulting in def shortages this we know for sure that's a direct like line and def shortages mean problems for freight carriers now this brings up another major complication that has been highlighted by the recent surface transportation board hearings specifically the hearings regarding urgent issues in freight rail service from back on april 26th and 27th i believe of this year and this is going to be a bit dry and hard to follow as if this already hasn't been dry and hard to follow so please bear with me as i try to make sense of this for people who quite who don't quite understand the industry now if you wish to watch all 10 hours of these hearings you can and it would take at least an hour to summarize what was said and explain everything but if you wish to watch all 10 hours of these hearings you can and it would take at least an hour to summarize what was said and explain everything but the bottom line is that if you watch the entire session you will be legitimately terrified about what's to come a big problem specifically for the def shortages and by default food shortages is rail carriers piss poor rail traffic allocation and that's putting it kindly people in the logistics industry are freaking out rightfully so about a lot of problems specifically in the rail logistics industry and here's why union pacific accounts for the transportation of about 40 to 45 percent of all domestic def and union pacific in their infinite wisdom has gone to a new rail administration model called precision scheduled railroading just uttering that phrase is liable to cause veins to throb in the foreheads of many railroad workers around the country other carriers have done the same and also gone to a precision scheduled railroad model so all of your major you know tier one or what is it called class one railroad authorities have gone to this kind of system you see there are only so many rail lines in the country there's only so many mil lled class one railroad authorities have gone to this kind of system you see there are only so many rail lines in the country there's only so many miles of track and there are only so many train cars and there are only so many trains that can move along a rail line at one time so it's a delicate balance to ensure that everything is as efficient as possible and just like everything in the logistics field the slightest change can torpedo this balance canceling pipelines means that crude oil or natural gas or whatever now needs to move by rail taking up valuable rail cars that could be used to transport something else railroads firing workers for not being jabbed also has a huge impact we mentioned this a long time ago but now we're seeing that being a huge problem because rail companies are having staffing problems right now the railroad companies in their lust for money have cut costs to a dangerous level firing so many employees that service is now extremely poor and this was done pre pandemic so they can't even really fall back on the pandemic being a huge problem for them even though that did complicate things a lot all in all under a precision scheduled railroading or psr model e pandemic being a huge problem for them even though that did complicate things a lot all in all under a precision scheduled railroading or psr model you get fewer trains moving but the trains are longer sometimes several miles long and these trains are scheduled by national authorities or at least higher level authorities with local rail administers at lower levels having no choice about when trains move now for those of you who have read a few history books we know about how national administration of resources works in short it doesn't most people in the industry think that precision scheduled railroading is anything but precise and is nothing more than an invention by the elites to not just cut costs to dangerous levels and pocket the money but done intentionally to put the squeeze on certain commodities due to availability and driving the prices up to line the pockets of wall street in short class 1 rail carriers have created this new process called precision schedule railroading and this new process is so horrendously bad that many people in the industry think that it's intentional intentionally creating a bad scheduling system which delays the transportation of goods which c any people in the industry think that it's intentional intentionally creating a bad scheduling system which delays the transportation of goods which creates shortages which drives at the prices of commodities and therefore increases the wealth of the elite billionaires who are running things in other words the whole thing is one big grift according to many in the industry i myself obviously do not know enough about this whole thing to say whether or not this is simply horrifically bad management or if this is something more nefarious or intentional i just don't know the way things are going right now i'm more inclined to think that this is more intentional than not for me someone who can only watch this stuff happen from the outside i am very concerned and if you glossed over the details of real logistics just listen to this a lot of highly complex stuff is going on with regards to our national logistics and none of it is good and what this will result in is quite troubling food shortages energy shortages raw materials shortages which will result in even more you guessed it shortages like i've mentioned before the united states has a lot of production capacity we can make a lot of will result in even more you guessed it shortages like i've mentioned before the united states has a lot of production capacity we can make a lot of stuff but the challenge is getting that stuff to the right place and the right amount of time and that's a huge problem because the slightest upset in our systems makes that impossible right so again for most of you who tire of seeing and hearing about the shortages this is much bigger than just running out of food at the grocery store we're talking about problems that were caused very quickly but will take years to solve if they can be solved at all i don't think as a nation we will be able to recover from these problems anytime soon for me all this does is strengthen my own resolve to create my own logistical networks and get off the grid as much as i possibly can the less you rely on national logistics the better off you'll be generally speaking but i know that for most of us going completely off-grid is not it's not really an option uh at least not yet i know that i don't have several million dollars to set up a fully off-grid compound in the mountains and i'm guessing that most of you listening to this out there don't either so j l million dollars to set up a fully off-grid compound in the mountains and i'm guessing that most of you listening to this out there don't either so just be advised that the logistical problems we're facing on the national level will not be going anywhere or they're not certainly not going to be going away anytime soon and the solutions to fix the damage that has already been done will take years to implement if those solutions can be implemented at all now this sounds really pessimistic and it probably is but there is some good news at least in my opinion which i'll get i'll get to at the end because all of this stuff is kind of tied together with everything else in this brief before i move on all of this being said i do kind of want to walk back the talk of food shortages and kind of balance things out and temper expectations and a world of fear propaganda never forget that there is a lot of money to be made from shortages increasing fear increases panic buying and panic buying in a time of scarcity not only generates a lot of revenue for some industries but it also gives government the green light to come in and fix in heavy air quotes the problems that they themselves directly ue for some industries but it also gives government the green light to come in and fix in heavy air quotes the problems that they themselves directly created or contributed to and i don't know about you but the best help the government can give me is to leave me alone and this doesn't just apply to government either oh no private citizens and private companies can be just as devious fear is a big seller and even though i personally think we are on the brink of serious food shortages not due to lack of production but rather logistical problems and the high cost of food we still cannot let the fear get out of control a tiny bit of fear is good it keeps you alive it's helpful right but constantly consuming utter dread is not good it's not productive and even if the situation is that bad it's definitely better to focus on solutions rather than let fear consume all thought i just thought that would be a helpful reminder for everyone out there yeah things are bad and it's probably going to get worse but we're doing the best we can that's all we can do and i would expect nothing more than that moving on to significant governmental actions we've got a lot of unfortunate stuff this week thi l we can do and i would expect nothing more than that moving on to significant governmental actions we've got a lot of unfortunate stuff this week this slide is really unfortunate it's just the nature of it i guess uh but the first one is the political targeting that is occurring um michigan gop candidate ryan kelly was arrested and his home was raided by the stasi excuse me the fbi back on june 9th allegedly for simply being in the general vicinity of the january 6th reichstag fire his arrest comes after many other gop candidates in michigan have been banned from running for office due to allegedly forged signatures on the petitions to add them to the ballot i don't know i'm not a an election official in the state of michigan and i did not personally examine a single ballot for this but it seems to me like in michigan the only signatures that are checked are the ones on republican ballots now many of you know that i myself am no fan of really any politician or political party at this point uh and i'm sorry but there's really no way for me to even use quasi-neutral language when talking about stuff like this and again i have no skin in the game i am no fan of the republican party a or me to even use quasi-neutral language when talking about stuff like this and again i have no skin in the game i am no fan of the republican party and i don't know anything about this guy ryan kelly at all uh but man i really do think we're at the stage uh of you know government arresting political rivals uh at this point especially in michigan they are pulling out every stop to keep in power some of the most tyrannical people in the entire country that's pretty much obvious to me by now kind of like a political outsider who doesn't really follow politics or at least doesn't follow specific candidates at least i really do think that the fbi is solely a political secret police organization at this point and they are they're really incapable of investigating a real crime um by now they only serve the elites so anytime the fbi does anything at all i strongly question it no matter what it is so my guess is that we'll start seeing various american versions of alexia navalny quietly being arrested and their homes raided anybody in a position to upset the elections of either democrat or republican seats already has a target on their back so keep an eye out because i think we're only see ion to upset the elections of either democrat or republican seats already has a target on their back so keep an eye out because i think we're only seeing the beginning of this you know open opposition silencing and it's going to be interesting to see how far it goes and how effective it's going to be they're going to have to be pretty effective because if they martyr some of these guys that are opposing the status quo either on the democrat side or the republican side they're going to uh they're going to increase their popularity i think you know so something to keep in mind moving on to number two the supreme court so again something that only probably half the country has has heard about because it's only been making conservative news sources but a few days ago on june 8 a man was arrested by the taxpayer-funded security team in the vicinity of brett kavanaugh's home the man was armed and confessed immediately that he was there to kill the justice not much more has been made public about this event conservative pundits as expected are talking about how nobody is talking about it and liberals well they probably hoped that he would have been successful either way i think that the i re talking about how nobody is talking about it and liberals well they probably hoped that he would have been successful either way i think that the interesting bit is not the actual crazy guy with a gun story but rather how everyone seems to have forgotten that we already have a supreme court replacement confirmed by the senate to me this assassination attempt if we can even call it that can we call a crazy guy with a gun a legitimate assassination attempt i don't know either way this highlights a little side note that's kind of interesting and that is that supreme court nominations are not tied to a particular seat so here's what we have the story leaks that breyer will be retiring leaving a vacancy on the court so the liberals and conservatives rush to find the most unintelligent militant leftist judge they can find and quickly so you know we're talking within a matter of just a few weeks they confirm her so all we're waiting on is for briar to retire and he hasn't yet the story of breyer retiring leaked on january 26th brown was confirmed on april 7th and it's now mid-june so my fevered brain thinks hmm interesting they confirm a seat on the supreme court and have a militant le onfirmed on april 7th and it's now mid-june so my fevered brain thinks hmm interesting they confirm a seat on the supreme court and have a militant leftist ready to go and now whose lives are being threatened the conservative justices if you can call them conservative that's a debate for another day interesting how that works out though isn't it leftist politicians openly calling for violence against conservative justices when they just so happen to have an extreme leftist replacement ready to go are they expecting an untimely vacancy among the conservative justices i don't know how likely is this theory probably not vary this is literally a thought i had in the shower a few days ago all i'm saying is that at this point it would not surprise me if we wake up one morning to find that a conservative justice has been abstined by the powers that be and if this sounds crazy to even theorize about you know whatever but just remember that in today's world of fifth generation warfare nothing will make you sound crazier than simply knowing about five or six crimes that the cia or other federal agencies have committed and fully admitted to you know that's how crazy is that right so i don't k ut five or six crimes that the cia or other federal agencies have committed and fully admitted to you know that's how crazy is that right so i don't know granted breyer's retirement was probably held up by the roe versus wade leake debacle which you know has completely destroyed the last shred of credibility that the supreme court had i just thought it's suspicious that everyone seems to have forgotten that we already have a tenth justice in effect and have had one for months and just in time for the personal safety of conservative justices to be in question and up next is a real doozy so for number three the department of defense in their infinite wisdom have issued a policy that soldiers who are hiv positive are not just going to be allowed to remain in the service but are also deployable that's pretty much it that's the story and it's utter madness of course the immediate thing that comes to mind are the thousands of troops that were kicked out for refusing the jab that shall not be named utter insanity but there are additional problems as well administratively deploying soldiers with serious diseases like hiv are a problem for other reasons than the obvious one which is the add blems as well administratively deploying soldiers with serious diseases like hiv are a problem for other reasons than the obvious one which is the additional medical care and medications to manage the condition one of these problems is blood donations look i am certainly no high-speed warrior here but even i remember standing in line outside the aid station waiting to donate blood to the casualties who just rolled in the gate a significant portion of blood used in combat zones comes from people in combat zones and correct me if i'm wrong but it's not a super great idea for an hiv positive individual to donate blood probably not a good idea that's not to mention the problems for medics treating a wounded casualty with hiv again i'm not a medical professional but come on man i guess the dod thinks that combat medicine is done in nice sterile environments and not in the back of vehicles and helicopters all i have to say on that is good luck and i really mean it to the medic who takes a good bleeder to the eye from an hiv positive casualty so put another mark in the column of stupid stuff the dod is doing these days man sometimes i wonder i really do anyway moving on to the next one uh y so put another mark in the column of stupid stuff the dod is doing these days man sometimes i wonder i really do anyway moving on to the next one uh the new disarmament campaign um so just like clockwork we are seeing another major offensive in the war to keep us defenseless disarmament efforts are underway in many states yet again with new york even banning body armor i honestly don't really know of any other way to put this so i'm just going to say what everyone's thinking agents of the us government are planning on shooting you if you resist their tyranny and they don't want to get shot while doing it it really is that simple and states like new york simply want to make it easier for agents of the state to kill you if i had said that even just a couple of years ago they'd throw me in a padded room but now i think that we all just casually acknowledge this as fact when you've got a government giving weapons away to citizens of foreign nations but trying to disarm their own citizens here at home that makes the picture pretty clear to me so i really don't have a lot more to say on this at the moment because that's really heavy and we've already talked a lot about disarmament so s to me so i really don't have a lot more to say on this at the moment because that's really heavy and we've already talked a lot about disarmament so striking that deceased equine doesn't really do much good but this is something that is important to remember when we talk about the next topic and that is the us army selecting a new service rifle ah yes the sig m5 spear now surely your youtube feeds have been full of people talking about the new rifle so i'm not going to talk too much about the specifics of it i of course am no expert in this field i don't shoot things for a living and more people have a lot more invested in the entire rifle selection program than i do i just think about stuff for a living and i did think about something and it's probably going to hurt a lot of feelings so here it goes uh it's probably my own bias but my own mind immediately made a few connections surrounding this new rifle and specifically the 6.8551 cartridge allegedly being chosen as a way to target individuals wearing body armor this doesn't automatically mean that whatever round the army chooses is going to be zipping through ceramic plates i don't know i'm not an expert in that regard but suppo ically mean that whatever round the army chooses is going to be zipping through ceramic plates i don't know i'm not an expert in that regard but supposedly this new cartridge might be more effective against armored targets i would think that you would have to have a tungsten core for that to happen but i don't know of course there are many other reasons for this selection but the body armor thing caught my eye on the surface it makes total sense body armor is super common nowadays and the us military wants to get ahead of the curve and adopt a new weapon system that is more formidable in that regard makes total sense for your average rand corporation reader who believes that the government is telling the truth with regards to procurement programs but here's a slight problem that i have noticed exactly which adversary is this rifle meant to be used against if you stop reading the publications that the us government produces and do your own research and just watch some clips on youtube you might come to a different conclusion or at least be in a position to challenge the dod's narrative on why they chose this rifle we've seen russia's actions in ukraine and their lackluster performan t be in a position to challenge the dod's narrative on why they chose this rifle we've seen russia's actions in ukraine and their lackluster performance and the troubles they have had equipping their troops with basic gear items these troubles seem to be very common i'm certainly no expert again and i don't think we will ever see unbiased combat data from ukraine but the use of body armor by russian troops does not seem to be super widespread or particularly effective maybe it is and we're just not seeing it i don't know there is a survivorship bias i guess when it comes to this kind of research but yes it is true that russia just a few years ago introduced the ratnik program which was good for russia and a desperately needed revamping of infantry gear but it's still not quite to the level that the united states issues gear generally speaking russia is many years behind the u.s in terms of individual soldier gear and they only started trying to issue body armor to soldiers just a few years ago whereas the us has been issuing ceramic level 4 body armor plates pretty regularly for decades now and china our other potential adversary uh if you think russia has some problems invading uk evel 4 body armor plates pretty regularly for decades now and china our other potential adversary uh if you think russia has some problems invading ukraine that does not hold a candle to china's woes in the defense sector if russia is 20 years behind the u.s in terms of individual soldier gear then china has to be at least 30 years behind yes china has a similar program to field body armor to the average infantry soldier but they only started this effort literally a couple of years ago and we're seeing china's ability to equip every soldier with body armor being even more of a challenge than russia is facing just my guess but i think russia probably sent every body armor plate in their country to the hundred thousand troops or so that ended up invading ukraine so just think about what china's issues might be it is true that the vast majority of body armor on the planet is chineseium so it's certainly a capability that china possesses the question is how much of a threat it faces enough of a threat to select a whole new rifle that i don't know do russia and china issue body armor to their troops yeah sure they do do they have problems doing so in many cases absolutely so my thoughts n't know do russia and china issue body armor to their troops yeah sure they do do they have problems doing so in many cases absolutely so my thoughts are this why is the us military going to a new cartridge and a new rifle if the main threats that we might be facing as a nation have trouble issuing armor to their troops or don't wear body armor at all or the body armor kind of sucks or the rounds that we already have are already effective against the dod is changing their entire philosophy on small arms and i'm highly suspicious of the motivations to do so plus to me from my tiny wheelhouse it seems like a heck of a trade-off to issue such a heavy rifle to an army that is completely forsaken the concept of physical standards sure i guess it's easier to un-fat a soldier than it is to make a 5-5-6 round punch through ceramic but i still think the weight thing is going to cause problems it is also pretty common knowledge that round count is what has mattered most when it comes to most combat engagement not really the caliber so much that's just basic infantry knowledge and one of the kind of ideas that goes back to way before even the m16 was developed if you look at a lot of the m16 t's just basic infantry knowledge and one of the kind of ideas that goes back to way before even the m16 was developed if you look at a lot of the m16 development or procurement trials and ideas back in the day one of the main justifications for going with a smaller caliber you know a 20 essentially a 22 caliber rifle the 556 cartridge was due to the fact that the you know your communist black countries were running with 762 right heavier round fewer round count per soldier the you know with the 556 you're able to carry more so there you go right so the the ability for a soldier to carry uh smaller calibers but more rounds uh that's a lot that's a theory that goes back a very long time and with this new rifle the ability for the average soldier to carry less ammo is going to cause problems i think i i just i really am interested to see the doctrinal thought behind this um because it's a complete flip-flop now on how the us doctrine has been for gosh well over 50 years now yes we do have things like unguided ground vehicles which are going to be a thing in the future but we we don't really have you know things like exoskeletons being fielded in mass just yet and i think that it is a oing to be a thing in the future but we we don't really have you know things like exoskeletons being fielded in mass just yet and i think that it is a big gamble to think that these technologies are going to be around anytime soon for the average combat unit i think by the time that we start getting soldiers equipped the average soldier that is we're not talking about some developmental thing if by the time we get average soldiers equipped with an exoskeleton type system we're going to select a new rifle cartridge anyway so you know it's going to be probably several years down the line other than the weight including the weight of the round i really have no opinion on the the rifle itself i'm again not a weapons expert and there are certainly others out there better suited to offer up opinions on the rifle itself but in any case with all this in mind my mind immediately thinks two things oh okay this is a military industrial complex thing and two this is something that is certainly going to end up causing heartburn for us citizens at some point just a sort of foreboding gut feeling with no other proof to back it up that's all i'm saying i'm sure this decision to change is in no way some point just a sort of foreboding gut feeling with no other proof to back it up that's all i'm saying i'm sure this decision to change is in no way related to the side fact that the largest demographic of body armor owners in the world second only to the us government are private u.s citizens i'm sure that that is also in no way linked to the push for politicians to ban battery armor which we have been covering on this channel for at least three years now since we got started i'm sure there's no hint of a link there at all so yeah as distasteful as it is for dudes who just want to talk about guns you've got to look at the whole picture a pretty smart dude once said that war is the continuation of politics by other means so for those of you who just want to talk warfare doctrine and philosophy but want to ignore the politics of the age and the motivations behind various military leaders i think that's leaving out a big part of the story united states senior military leadership has spent at least three years now making decisions that only hurt soldiers hurt americans reduce readiness and betray our strategic intentions to our enemies but this decision to procure a new rifle is com only hurt soldiers hurt americans reduce readiness and betray our strategic intentions to our enemies but this decision to procure a new rifle is completely innocent because it's a cool rifle and you know it is a cool rifle but remember even the m16 back in the day was up to its neck in politics at the time it was adopted so why should this rifle be any different and considering the politics of the department of defense these days and how eager they are to call us all extremists and target us as such decisions like this personally give me pause and lead me to think things that i then spend 20 minutes conveying to you guys so even though i can feel jeff bezos's amazon predator circling my position as i speak all i'm saying is that we need to at least broach the question of thinking hmm maybe there's something to this new rifle besides targeting russia and china maybe russia and china is not who they intend to target because i think that it's pretty obvious that the us government is preparing for something that they aren't telling us that's all i'm saying maybe i'm all wrong maybe the threat of body armor is significant with regards to russia and china and any other potential advers hat's all i'm saying maybe i'm all wrong maybe the threat of body armor is significant with regards to russia and china and any other potential adversary and this is legitimately a good thing for the army to do i mean if that's the case then good on the army for actually making a good decision that's rare these days i just find it odd that the us military said that they are choosing this rifle for the body armor reason and everybody just went well okay then and didn't actually do the research to find out if russia and china actually field body armor in significant amounts or if this rifle can actually even ballistically punch through it nobody in the civilian world to my knowledge has actually said wait a second that's not quite right even considering future body armor concepts russia and china might be lucky to get some version of esappy plates in the next 10 years what is quite clear is that no nation on earth even comes close to the us in terms of body armor the only group of people that have body armor on par with or even better than the us military are u.s citizens and ignoring this fact would be irresponsible despite how biased or political this idea might sound and despite h han the us military are u.s citizens and ignoring this fact would be irresponsible despite how biased or political this idea might sound and despite how people might not want to hear it now that i have dedicated so much time to this whole body armor idea i actually think that it is very possible that the body armor thing is not as much of a benefit as range is so i just wanted to balance it out a little bit one of the alternative explanations is that the body armor thing is all well and good and it's something the dod would like to see but the real reason for the dod to select this cartridge is range you can get a lot more range for the same effect on target compared to say five five six and in that case the ability to maybe punch through body armor is really just a side benefit this explanation is perfectly politically correct in polite defense conversation so that alternative is obviously more palatable for most people which is why i wanted to mention it and as a counter to that i would merely point out that that's not the argument that deity is going with in defense circles the ability to punch through armor is not advertised as being a side benefit it's usually what most people that deity is going with in defense circles the ability to punch through armor is not advertised as being a side benefit it's usually what most people mention first when talking about this new rifle cartridge if you wanted range you might go with a different cartridge i don't know is this a myth or some flood science i don't know but it's kind of interesting that things have worked out the way that they have with regards to procurement and i'm sure the internet will tell us someday when talking about anything to do with guns these days i think of that old line that there were 260 navy seals that served in vietnam and i've met 500 of them so thankfully for us literally every single person on the internet is a firearms expert so that's convenient either way i just had the thought and i thought i would share it honestly it would probably do well to dive into this topic further at some point uh if i could dedicate a couple hundred hours to do the research um i would think it would be very interesting to to talk about the tactics of other countries and i've tried to do that a lot lately with a lot of our research a lot of our teamers working on awesome stuff in that regard but i don't k countries and i've tried to do that a lot lately with a lot of our research a lot of our teamers working on awesome stuff in that regard but i don't know if there'd be interest in that sort of thing specifically so again a lot of people are not going to like this idea but again i get paid to think about stuff and that's what i thought all i know is that i myself am looking into armor solutions that provide better protection against specifically the 6.8 millimeter round because again with politicians already trying to target body armor now we're going to have some serious problems when level 4 ceramic plates turn out to be not good enough a few years down the line and i personally think that is the duty of every american to possess body armor that is capable of protecting against the weapons that the us government uses so i think we'll call it quits on that and move into international issues and i don't have a whole lot today uh but first up is china china again has been getting kind of squirrelly over taiwan lately which makes a lot of sense i guess although i do think that russia's performance in ukraine has given them pause about their own military aspirations you know honestly t f sense i guess although i do think that russia's performance in ukraine has given them pause about their own military aspirations you know honestly that sounds like a cheap and oversimplified thought though i'm sure military academies around the country are full of cadets writing term papers on that exact topic but maybe it is that simple i don't know in any case i do think the increase in china's rhetoric is interesting clearly they are going with the time-honored communist idea that their power comes from the perception of their power on the one hand i think that rhetoric is what they have so rhetoric is what they will use on the other hand it wouldn't surprise me to be waking up in the middle of the night because they launched their invasion of taiwan one thing that is hard to keep remembering is that just because we lowly peasants can look at things strategically and see things that are obvious that doesn't mean that the people running the show see these things too moving on to india and sri lanka as we talked about last time both nations are severely facing food insecurity actually sri lanka has recently a couple of days ago instituted a four-day work week to allow people an h nations are severely facing food insecurity actually sri lanka has recently a couple of days ago instituted a four-day work week to allow people an extra day on the weekend specifically to tend to their home gardens and work on other agricultural pursuits now diving a bit deeper into the reasons for the food shortages in sri lanka specifically a lot of people are pointing fingers directly at politicians because last year the president of sri lanka banned the use of chemical fertilizers this decision directly resulted in crop yields shrinking to basically nothing and is directly leading to mass starvation throughout the country the government reversed the decision uh but by now it's too little too late and in response to the government uh basically causing their own population to starve directly the government rewarded itself by expanding itself adding new cabinet positions in addition rampant inflation and shortages of diesel and gasoline have made everything worse so what little food does come out of the fields is very hard to transport around the country mass civil unrest has been the result as we've talked about last time which has been since then put violently put down by the sport around the country mass civil unrest has been the result as we've talked about last time which has been since then put violently put down by the government sri lankan citizens have gotten their licks in though with many clips circulating online of politicians being beaten and tortured in the streets by their starving constituents so yeah the situation is severe in sri lanka and is already at the point of no return with regards to how bad this is going to be in just a few months time the situation in india is also severe but not quite to the sheer emergency level that sri lanka is experiencing i mentioned the two nations at once because they're strongly linked when india experienced hardship they circled the wagons and banned or reduced the exports of things like fertilizers and wheat to other nations so as to keep their own citizenry fed and since sri lanka imports a lot of everything they need from india we can see how this is a problem so we're definitely going to be keeping an eye on southeast and southwest asia for quite a bit of time so that's pretty much all i have for today and i i wanted to end on kind of a positive note for once as many of you know i prefer to be rea it of time so that's pretty much all i have for today and i i wanted to end on kind of a positive note for once as many of you know i prefer to be realistic with these briefs and if the situation is not good i don't think it's appropriate to put a positive spin on something negative simply because we all want to be happy and never have anything bad happen to us i've tried a lot to tone down the language i use in these briefs but you guys see what makes it into these briefs so imagine what we end up cutting out but looking back over the past six months or so i really do think that we're in a sort of goldilocks zone with regards to how things seem to be collapsing i've mentioned this goldilocks zone before but but for the most part i don't really want to scare anyone which is why i haven't really talked much about this but i really do think it's obvious that the the american system what we've got going on in this country is either in some sort of collapse or some sort of transition to something else maybe a new style of governance maybe a new style of culture i don't know this doesn't mean that we're going to wake up one day and the apocalypse will have happened in a singular event b a new style of culture i don't know this doesn't mean that we're going to wake up one day and the apocalypse will have happened in a singular event but it's clear to me that we are in a period of transition and i think that this decade is going to decide our fate uh our institutions our culture and our system of government may not be completely disappearing but it's certainly changing into something else and one thing that's hard for us to remember because we don't often see it and we want to focus on the negativity right is that every day the situation in the u.s becomes more dire we also see the resistance to such tyranny growing by leaps and bounds which again is hard for us to see right some think that the us will balkanize others think a civil conflict will decide our fate or both others think that we're slowly sinking into quicksand with each passing day and there's not much that can be done about it and i will admit that i personally don't know what the future brings but generally i believe that our situation here is collapsing into something else uh i think that we're past the point of no return and um there will be no going back to the way things were until some pretty ra g into something else uh i think that we're past the point of no return and um there will be no going back to the way things were until some pretty radical changes occur and as a side note i'm not really sure that we'd want to go back to the way things were because humans have a tendency to over romanticize nostalgia i guess but the good news in my opinion is that this collapse for lack of a better term is occurring at nearly the perfect rate not too hot not too cold but just right think about it things are happening at just the right speed to get people motivated to change their fate yet not so quickly as to remove resources completely from people this applies to everything to be honest but just look at gun control if the past two years of utter tyranny had been spread out over 50 years would anyone have noticed we know the answer to this the answer is no because we did have 50 years of gun control and very few people noticed these disarmament campaigns are happening at the perfect speed in new york body armor is now illegal well that gives all of the other states a fair warning to start buying body armor the government passes laws that make it illegal to disassemble your own gun t gives all of the other states a fair warning to start buying body armor the government passes laws that make it illegal to disassemble your own gun for cleaning or something like that which is great because literally zero people will follow that decree and instead start generating a culture of mass open non-compliance even though gun control efforts have sped up at tyrannical rates over the past few years it's still happening slowly enough that the average person can still get what they need in the field of logistics i think that our national logistics networks are failing at the precise rate which is encouraging others to create more robust networks of their own either on the citizenry level or to encourage companies to start popping up and fixing some of these logistical problems that we're facing with our own children this is still the case if you are a parent and you see what is happening in our schools how much more evidence do you need to make changes with regards to your child's education we've all been given fair warning in that regard no matter how hard that challenge might be with the military same thing how often do you get a free out so you're telling me that you had that regard no matter how hard that challenge might be with the military same thing how often do you get a free out so you're telling me that you had the opportunity to take a free discharge and all you had to do was refuse an order that was illegal anyway man good luck in the next few years when the next major illegal order to come is not going to result in you getting a free discharge but rather some world war one style stuff by you getting a webley to the face you know so right now everything is in that goldilocks zone it's just bad enough to encourage people to change their lifestyle but not quickly enough to make those changes impossible we are incredibly lucky for the situation to be this way and it certainly won't be that way forever it's almost funny in a morbid sort of way i don't think that humanity has ever been given so many fair warning signs as it has right now it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic to see how many people still can't see what's happening and still choose to ignore all these warnings that even the average person can see right now but even in that case there is still good news when the world is going to hell it makes it a lot easier to find people tha ge person can see right now but even in that case there is still good news when the world is going to hell it makes it a lot easier to find people that you can help and it's a lot easier to be a righteous person or at least try to be fortunately our paths ahead have been narrowed for us and in many cases the choices we have to make are quite simple and very easy to identify these days it's not even a matter of taking the high road or the low road or the hard path or the easy path no i don't think that's accurate anymore we can either take the road of degeneracy and shear evil for lack of a better term or we can take the path of doing good things of course choosing the good path may be more simple these days but it's really easy especially if you are surrounded by degeneracy and bad stuff all the time but that's why we are fortunate to be in the goldilocks zone right now because we can harden ourselves we can get tough mentally physically and even spiritually i think we're still in the beginning stages of the tough times ahead so right now we need to be preparing especially mentally and again as things get tougher out there in the world it will make it easier to find others with sim now we need to be preparing especially mentally and again as things get tougher out there in the world it will make it easier to find others with similar mentalities and start banding together for the tough times to come so drink some water go for a jog turn off the internet for a bit and start living a better life i know you can do it it's never too late to start and right now i am super excited that we all have the chance and the motivation to be better people myself included in a fifth generation war or even a war of good versus evil as this increasingly seems to be i myself am placing a higher priority on keeping my head in the right place and keeping on the right track humans can live under extraordinary hardship but if they lose hope for a better future they have no chance for a better life so take pride in making it through what the world is throwing your way but also keep in mind that we're still basically in the training phase for the challenges that have yet to come so thanks for watching uh here are the sources for this slide if you wanted to do some more research on your own and a special thank you to all of our supporters on patreon and nutrient you guys and gals are ide if you wanted to do some more research on your own and a special thank you to all of our supporters on patreon and nutrient you guys and gals are rock stars out there and we appreciate your support even more than you could possibly imagine so thank you again for watching and we will see you next time and as always fight in the shade