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Foreign. Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome back to the Mike Force podcast. I'm in my basement early this morning. I could not sleep. I've been reading a lot of intel, trying to catch up for my Monday sit rep on my Patreon. Generally speaking, this is the big picture version of that that's more distilled on on Patreon because I'm very easily and quite often suppressed and I have a little anxiety about what's going on in the world, especially as it relates to terrorism. We aren't as a country paying attention to what's going on and we're not taking it seriously. I don't believe there's so much focus on things that are important for sure. Epstein files for sure important. Do you like all those Bill Clinton photographs that were released with almost every single one of them with a female that was redacted. And yet he walks free. A multi millions heir former president who got away with infidelity in the White House and nothing was done about it. So people, yeah, are tired of corruption. People are tired of the fraud, waste and abuse of the government. But that means they're shifting a lot of resources, in my opinion, towards things that aren't going to further protect us. For example, this shooter who was able to kill a professor that apparently he went to school with at MIT and then went into Brown University, committed a mass shooting and then was able to get away until randomly a Reddit user poster tipped off law enforcement and they were able to roll him up. Well technically they rolled him in a body bag but as they rolled him were going to roll him up, he committed suicide. On top of that we had an attack on two National Guardsmen, one woman that were unfortunately shot ambush style. And one of those guardswoman passed away on Thanksgiving. How much have you heard about that? Since then? I've been monitoring the news. I of do it for a living and haven't seen anything. So it's not a priority, it's not a focus and that's a problem. And so I don't want to be an alarmist because I'm not an intel expert. I'm not Khalid Muhammad, I'm not Sarah Adams, I'm not these experts who distill this intelligence and develop a better refined picture of what's going to happen in the future. An ops guy, right? They give me the intel, I come up with the operations plan and can navigate how best to execute that based on the mission. So what I'm going to focus this episode on is five holiday safety tactics that you could apply to be best prepared for this potential threat. And it's crime, it's violence, but it's also terrorism. One of the things that I want to talk about, which I've glossed over in the past, is situational awareness. But as it relates to pattern disruption and your situational awareness, we call it pattern pattern disruption awareness. Pda, not. What does PDA stand for? Public is it? What is it? What is that? That thing that the kids use nowadays? Public displays of affection. We're talking pattern disruption awareness. And the threat principle is that attackers rely on routine predictability opportunities to exploit you when you're doing something so mundane, like pumping gas, like going to the atm, like walking down the street, that you're likely not focused in situational awareness. And they could exploit that. What to look for? Well, these are things that you would look for of somebody looking to target somebody or potentially looking to target a bunch of people for an attack. Repeated loitering near entrances, that's number one. Why? It's common sense. They're looking for a go criteria, a no go criteria to launch the attack or to call off the attack. They're monitoring or securing or giving information based on who's coming and going. Individuals pacing without purpose. Pacing is a nervous reaction. Most people aren't trained in terrorism. They, they are trained as in they're told what to do, they're fed the propaganda, they have belief, but they're not typically trained in stress inoculation, for example. So they do react nervously under pressure. And people who are nervous under pressure, whether they're going to commit a crime potentially as a first time criminal, even a hardened criminal might get nervous. They pace often without purpose. Someone who observes people, not products. For example, you're in a store and they're walking around following people, looking at people casing the area, but they're not looking at the shelves. Right. One of the things I'm very concerned about is if I was a bad guy, I would target especially Christians because there is a war against Christians. I would target Christians on Christmas. They're holy today, where they're likely most vulnerable because they're enjoying the holidays with their family. Now there's going to be less crowds in public, but where there's going to be more crowds is in homes where you're less secure potentially. I mean, I'm more secure in my home, but you might be less secure. Backpacks or bulky clothing. Inconsistent with the weather. I'm inconsistent with the weather because I'm inside, but I just came from outside. And it's cold. Somebody who's inside wearing a big bulky jacket walking around in a mall, well, that could happen in the wintertime. But something to pay attention to. How long is that person going to be walking around with a trench coat jacket? Backpacks are very consistent with increased capacity, space for capability. So if I'm going to have a fold down weapon system, if I'm going to have ammo grenades, pipe bombs. It was just identified that the Australian Bondi shooters had bombs that they wanted to blow up. Vehicles parked unusually close to pedestrian areas. I just saw a vehicle the other day was driving in front of me and it was probably just a hooptie like a crappy car, but I noticed that the back end of it was loaded down and that overseas was an indication of there potentially being a vehicle borne improvised explosive device in it. I mean bombs are heavy, especially bombs and vehicles. Most people are distracted. That's when backed up. Bad actors feel the safest when you're distracted. They have confidence that they can get away with whatever they're doing. And in cases of terrorism, let's separate crime and terrorism. Criminal wants to get away. A terrorist might not care if he gets away. He might be as brazen as a shooter that walks up to two National Guardsmen and shoots him in the back of the head. A person who pretends to be one of the good guys and shoots soldiers overseas in Syria, Bandai shooters who stand in the open confidently behind minimal cover and concealment and engage innocent people. So the actionable habits are wherever you go. Identify two exits. Everywhere you go, look for exits. Look for your exfil route. If I go to a concert with my kids, if I go to a public space with my children, I'm always looking for an out. Just as I would driving down the highway on a motorcycle, right? I need an out because if something happens I need to be able to quickly egress if necessary. That means parking somewhere where you have a clean departure path. An easy habit to build is Combat Park. If you're in a parking spot where you can't go through it, back up into that parking spot. So when you load you can immediately break contact because it's harder to break contact. We used to call it combat parking. When you're pulled into a position where you have to back out where everybody else is trying to exfil the same and also sit facing entrances when possible. It's very stereotypical for people to say that like that's paranoia. Why you always got to face the exit? Because I want to see who's coming in and out. Often I sit next to trash cans in public establishments because that happens to be where the back door is. I've realized. Guys, I want to say a big shout out to Wasatchweigu, the sponsor of today's podcast. Wasatchway Goo makes really good beef sticks. My favorite, jalapeno dill honey. Like I crush these things every single night. But they're also a small business here in Heber City, Utah and they use all American beef just like my other main sponsor, Carnival. I like the meat. I am eating cleaner nowadays. I stopped drinking and these guys help me do this podcast. So if you want to save, I got a 10% code down in my description and a 20% MG20 for wasatchwaygu.com that I'll link down below. Big shout out to both of them. My favorite American beef companies. One's doing freeze dried, one's doing beef strips and they're delicious. Check them out@wasajwegu.com and carnival.com down below. The second thing is crowd density management. The threat principle is crowds reduce reaction time and movement options. It's the same thing that happens and bottlenecks on roads and highways and byways and any disaster or catastrophe, accident, you get gridlocked, you get locked in. So crowds reduce reaction time and movement options, especially in high risk holiday locations. Malls, church services, Christmas markets, parades, big box stores and transit hubs. Those will be targets of opportunity, especially on Christmas Eve. You have to avoid bottlenecks. You have to avoid these main entrances, food courts. Certain specific times, depending on where you are in the country, early, maybe late. Keep kids within arm's reach. Don't have them out on their cell phone running around, especially in a crowded area. Keep them within arm's reach and designate a comms plan for rally point for those kids just in case you get separated. So you would say something like, hey, we're going in the mall. If we get separated and you can't find me, look for me. But if you can't find me, I will meet you back at the car at this time. If you are not at the car, I will give you 30 additional minutes and then you need to be at the car within that 30 minutes because I'll sit in the car and wait for you. If you're not back after that 30 minutes, I'm calling the authorities. Right. A very clear, concise plan of the five W's. Who, what, when, where and how. Which is always bizarre to me that they call it the five W's because there's an H. Distance buys you time and time buys you options, right? That's how it always works. So I always say, if there's a circumstance, especially if something pops off, create as much distance over time with as many obstacles in between you and the potential threat. That's the base best case in point. Third, family movement and control. This is important for spouses, but also children because chaos separates families. First, you know, if you're in a situation where gunshots sound off, your kids might panic, you might panic. Whoever panics might just start running. And if you're in a crowd of people, you're going to lose contact. You have to brief your children in very simple terms. And you have to have a pro word identify a loud verbal pro word that means we got to move now. And speak in plain English. You don't need to have secret code words for let's go. Just say, let's go. Right. Also, assign roles, if age appropriate, for things that you need done. You might be the security guy. You might have a pistol in your hand, running with your family, protecting them. You might have an older son who's policing up his younger brother, and you're going to need that help. But don't have the conversation in the middle of it. I mean, you can, you could adapt. But designate, hey, if something kicks off, you know, your responsibility is your little brother. I mean, I always empower my 6 year olds to always take care of their younger siblings. No matter where we're at, it's important. And if something feels wrong, never hesitate to make clear, concise decisions immediately. It's called immediate action for a reason. Immediate action is what we do immediately, without hesitation, without critical thinking, without cognition and processes. We have to move immediately in order to survive. And that's important. That's why it's called immediate action. Don't wait for confirmation. Read about it on the news. Leave immediately. You don't owe politeness to a situation that doesn't feel right is the bottom line. 4. Mindset. The permission to act. Most people freeze because they seek social permission, and they do so because they're worried about how they're being perceived by the people around them. And so they're looking for all the cues to take from other people. Be a leader and the one setting the cues for everybody else. Don't start running when you see everybody else running. Don't police up your children and start moving because you see somebody else doing it, because your reaction will be slower than their action and you'll already be behind, make a definitive decision and move. And don't assume someone's going to say something because they're not. Not always. You have to pay attention to your intuition. We all have that sixth sense. And your intuition is data. It's not emotional, it's a calculus. It's what you're taking in information wise via the patterns that you recognize and then making a definitive decision to move. Act early, act decisively and don't ever consider not acting because you feel like you're offending somebody. So act without apology. Lastly, post incident discipline, secondary incidents and chaos often cause more casualties. If an incident occurs, move off the X, avoid clustering, avoid first responder access routes like go out the back and then head across the street. Jump the fences and egress away from everybody else that's coming into the situation. You have that opportunity. Don't be afraid to be bold, to pick up obstacles and throw them through doors, to throw them through windows. Remember, survival is the priority. And worrying about all these arbitrary things like offending somebody or breaking property or whatever it is, especially in a catastrophe, is very important. Do not rush back for vehicles if it feels unsafe. I mean, I would park in a place where I could egress and not get gridlocked, but there is the possibility that everybody's egressing the same and if you get to your vehicle, you're going to get locked in. So move on foot in the opposite direction. Really the bottom line is wherever the herd's going, go the opposite direction. Remember, medically, a lot of these situations were secondary incidents where there's chaos, cause a lot of casualties. You're going to need to be able to potentially treat a mass casualty. Mass bleeding kills people the fastest, so you need to know how to stop the bleed. Do you have first aid on person for your family? If not, I don't expect you to carry an aid bag on your back, but I expect you to have one in your car. So be prepared to treat post incident the casualties. I talk about this in, in church security, the initial engagement. That's the easy part of the process of the entire situation or scenario. The more difficult one is what do you do after when? Now you have to deal with a dozen casualties and triage them and start working to stop the bleed. Do you have that training? Do you have that equipment? It's important to identify that. And tourniquets are really easy to learn. You don't have to have a degree, go through a certification course, go on YouTube and learn how to stop the bleed. Also in the event there's cardio issues or arrhythmia issues where people are stroking out, which could happen. Know where AEDs are. Remember, survival doesn't end when the noise stops. Just because there's no gunshots going off doesn't mean that the threat is over and there is a lot more to do post potential attack. Remember this isn't fear mongering, this is just speaking the reality of what I think is a potential for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Radical jihadists have not forgotten about you. They remember. They haven't gone away, they haven't stopped training, they've actually built up their numbers and according to Joe Kent, the director of NCTC for the CIA, they predict there's 18,000 potential terrorists in this country. 18,000, that's a lot. So prepared people don't panic, they move. Prepared people don't freeze, they act. Prepared people don't outsource responsibility, they lean in on their own self reliance. I want you guys to enjoy the holidays, be present, love your family, no doubt, but don't go unconscious just because it's Christmas. I appreciate you guys. Till next time, peace.