Editor’s Commentary: The vast majority of the time, I post Michael Snyder’s work without skipping a beat. He’s an extremely talented writer and thinker, traits that are surprisingly uncommon in tandem. Great thinkers often write in ways that make them sound like they want the world to know they’re great thinkers. Michael’s commentary is down-to-earth while betraying the brilliance in his analytical skills.
Today’s post needs a bit of minor, nitpicky criticism. What he calls “political correctness” can and should be called by the way it’s manifesting today: wokeness. Political correctness is an old scourge that once ran rampant in our culture, but it has been replaced by its far-more perverted and destructive big brother. Widespread wokeness has infected our armed forces under the Biden regime in ways that go far beyond standard political correctness.
Otherwise, Michael is spot-on as usual. Here’s his article…
Should we be surprised that so few young adults want to serve in the U.S. military? When I was growing up, serving in the U.S. military was considered to be a noble profession. My own father was in the U.S. Navy throughout all my years in school, and I never once thought that he should leave to get a different job until he finally decided that it was time to retire.
But now Joe Biden and his politically correct minions at the Pentagon have transformed our military into a laughingstock, and that should deeply grieve all of us. The U.S. military is one of our most important national institutions, but it continues to get weaker and weaker.
According to NBC News, every single branch of our military is having difficulty with recruiting in 2022…
Every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals, say multiple U.S. military and defense officials, and numbers obtained by NBC News show both a record low percentage of young Americans eligible to serve and an even tinier fraction willing to consider it.
The officials said the Pentagon’s top leaders are now scrambling for ways to find new recruits to fill out the ranks of the all-volunteer force. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks consider the shortfall a serious issue, said the officials, and have been meeting on it frequently with other leaders.
The Army is having the biggest problem with recruiting.
At this point, the Army has only reached 40 percent of its goal for this fiscal year.
That is terrible, because the fiscal year ends on September 30th.
Officials are primarily blaming a couple of factors for the shortfall. The pool of young people that are actually eligible for the military is shrinking, and the percentage of those that are eligible that actually intend to serve is also shrinking…
The pool of those eligible to join the military continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testified before Congress that only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without a waiver to join, down from 29% in recent years.
An internal Defense Department survey obtained by NBC News found that only 9% of those young Americans eligible to serve in the military had any inclination to do so, the lowest number since 2007.
I think that it says a lot about our society that 77 percent of our young people are not even qualified to serve in the military.
That is absolutely pathetic.
And it is really alarming that such a low percentage of those that are actually eligible have any desire to do so.
How can we explain this?
Well, here are 3 reasons why a lot of young people out there are shunning the military these days…
#1 Political Correctness
Traditionally, a high percentage of military recruits come from homes that are both conservative and patriotic.
But thanks to the Biden administration, the U.S. military has now become a politically correct madhouse…
Start with President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day executive order prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The order specifically opened doors for transgender men who want “access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports” reserved for women.
Under a DoD Instruction, all military personnel must embrace the notion that gender is “assigned at birth,” even though human DNA and chromosomes in every cell determine biological sex long before birth. Doctors, nurses, and chaplains must provide or support controversial treatments for gender dysphoria, including life-long hormones or irreversible surgeries, regardless of their own medical ethics or religious convictions.
And of course each June the political correctness in the military tends to reach a crescendo, and this year is certainly no exception…
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President Biden’s obsequious Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Pride Month sparked numerous displays of LGBT activism, including a high-level Pride Month event at the Pentagon.
Marine Corps headquarters tweeted an image of a helmet sporting six rainbow-colored “bullets.” Air Force Recruiting posted a picture of trainees running with a rainbow striped banner, not the Stars and Stripes, and in Germany, Ramstein Air Force Base sponsored their second “Drag Queen Story Time” for children.
If General Patton could see what our military has become, he would be rolling over in his grave.
But even though our military leaders are being relentlessly ridiculed, they keep producing more cringe-inducing videos for social media like this one…
What is a self-respecting young conservative that is thinking about joining the military supposed to think when he sees something like that?
#2 Vaccine Mandates
I warned that good people would be driven away from the military by the vaccine mandates that Joe Biden implemented, and that is precisely what has happened.
Needless to say, the majority of those that are opposed to vaccine mandates are conservative, and as I have already noted conservatives traditionally make up the largest pool of military recruits.
And not only is the military losing recruits, but it is also losing countless good people that are already serving in the ranks.
For example, it is being reported that tens of thousands of National Guard soldiers are “no longer allowed to participate in their military duties” because they have refused to be vaccinated…
Some 40,000 National Guard and 22,000 Reserve soldiers who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are no longer allowed to participate in their military duties, also effectively cutting them off from some of their military benefits, Army officials announced Friday.
“Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order without an approved or pending exemption request are subject to adverse administrative actions, including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement.
There is a significant chunk of the population that will not even consider military service for the foreseeable future because of the absurd vaccination policies of the Biden administration.
That is extremely unfortunate, because large numbers of really good people are being rejected for no good reason at all.
#3 War With Russia
The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed how many view service in the U.S. military.
In the past, serving in the military could mean dying in action, but that was mostly for personnel serving on the front lines in places such as Iraq or Afghanistan.
But if our proxy war with Russia in Ukraine becomes an actual shooting war between our two nations, it could rapidly become a nuclear conflict.
And if there is a nuclear war between the United States and Russia, all of our military bases will be prime targets.
You can find a list of all of our military bases on Wikipedia right here. If you are working on a military base and the Russians launch a surprise first strike, you will almost certainly be among the 20 percent of the U.S. population that will instantly be wiped out during such an attack.
I know that there are a lot of young people out that there have no intention of needlessly dying in a pointless war with Russia, and I can’t blame them for seeing things that way.
As the quantity and the quality of recruits continues to go down, we can see the impact that this is having on our military in countless ways.
For example, we just learned that a 65 million dollar Super Hornet was simply blown off one of our aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea by bad weather…
On July 8, 2022, an F/A-18 Super Hornet assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1, embarked aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), blew overboard due to unexpected heavy weather in the Mediterranean Sea. The carrier was conducting a replenishment-at-sea, which was safely terminated through established procedures.
And at this point the Navy hasn’t even decided whether to go back and get the aircraft or not…
The Navy has not yet made a determination if the service will recover a F/A-18 Super Hornet that blew off the deck of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75).
The service announced Sunday that the Super Hornet was blown overboard on Friday due to heavy weather in the Mediterranean Sea. There was no personnel in the aircraft at the time, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa spokesperson Cmdr. Richlyn Ivey said in a statement to USNI News on Monday.
U.S. 6th Fleet is still reviewing how to recover the aircraft, Ivey said.
Are you kidding me?
The incompetence that we are witnessing on a regular basis in the military now is absolutely mind blowing.
Of course the same thing could be said about the incompetence that we are witnessing on a regular basis from our federal government.
We better hope that a major war doesn’t erupt any time soon, because we are definitely not ready for one.
***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***
About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.
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Article cross-posted from End of the American Dream.
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
