Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Project: Pioneer (Prepping, Politics, Afterlife, RVLife) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Don’t despair—prepare.

I've always taken pride in not being a sensationalist, always being practical and analytic. But it's true the frogs don't notice the water is getting hot until too late. It's true that people in cataclysmic historical times never actually realized it at the time. It's clear now the USA is an authoritarian regime. The Oval Office meeting with the El Salvador dictator on Monday made that clear. The past few weeks have made all this crystal clear:

The Constitution is dead.The rule of law is dead.The separation of powers is dead.The checks and balances are dead.The Supreme Court has been rendered a joke.The entire top hierarchy of our government is corrupt and acting in concert.We are strongly allied with Russia, striving to replicate that dictatorship.We no longer have allies to save us. They pity us.The bond market meltdown last week made clear the world is running from us.We are heading for a long recession, possibly depression.We are in complete chaos—daily political, financial, and climate destruction.Experts on fascism are leaving the country.Our brightest doctors, engineers, researchers are leaving.

If you don’t see the above happening in real time, you’re not paying attention or you’re in denial. I have a friend like that—always poo-pooing things he doesn’t want to acknowledge or doesn’t agree with, until reality makes it impossible. And maybe even then, he’ll still deny it.

I have another friend, a Mexican-American of dubious citizenship status. He and his wife are all in with the cult. They like to travel. I’d be quite nervous presenting my papers the next time they re-enter the US. He doesn’t realize he’s dirt to Trump’s racist leadership, as are his kids and grandkids, because they “look dirty” to these racists, due to their skin color. They may get “sent back where they came from” simply for that reason. Sure, there’s Kash Patel and other tokens, which allow them to say, “See? We have black and brown friends.” They get in the club with massive devotions and donations, of course. You aren’t in the club.

But, I love my friends, and we all have our quirks :-) However, it will always fascinate me how people who love and listen to all that music with lyrics that are the antithesis to trumpism, people who call themselves Christians, can support something that is the exact opposite.

If you’re one of the folks who voted for trump, don’t say, “I didn’t vote for this.” Yes, you did. We all saw it coming. He said he would do all this. Don’t ever call yourself an American patriot. You’re a gullible, hateful person who reacted emotionally because you’re uncomfortable around people who aren’t just like you. Or, you’re some greedy entitled prick who doesn’t want to pay taxes to the country that made *you* great. Or, somehow, you bought into the fallacy that a greedy, corrupt guy who has only ever destroyed everything and everyone he’s come in contact with, with six bankruptcies including a casino, but played a fake successful businessman on a scripted “reality” TV show, was indeed a successful businessman and would lead *you* into prosperity.

These billionaire fascists will come for you, eventually. You and those you love will suffer economically for these wannabe dictators. You already are. You are not in the club, as you’re just starting to find out (unless of course you’re a straight, white, male, billionaire). You’re not a fan of anything this country was based on, because this whole MAGA movement has always flown in the face of all of it. Don’t call yourself a Christian, because it’s always been the polar opposite of Jesus’ teachings. Re-read those Beatitudes. Carefully. You f’d around, joined a cult, now you’ll find out. You did this, you owe it to us all to join the fight.

At most we have a year and a half before the curtain comes down on the USA as a constitutional republic, if we’re lucky. The report trump requested on day one of his presidency, on whether he should use the Insurrection Act, is due on April 20. He may decide to use it earlier, to quell the planned April 19 protests. There’s no way they're going to allow mid-term elections, at least not legit ones. One piece of strong evidence happened in that Oval Office press conference on Monday, all the ass kissing for the dictator from El Salvador.

And so, back to us. You don’t find much real, actual, non-cosplay prepper content online. By virtue, we are paranoid, and a part of the recipe is to keep your mouth shut about your tactics, if you are serious about this. I only wanted to help others, and I hope I have over these two years of providing you so much information that you may very well need, and very soon. Those posts are a gift to you, but I can’t guarantee I’ll keep them online if things get hotter.

Do I sound mad? Yeah, big mad. Giavana and I had that dream of building a nice, isolated prepper log cabin. Trump’s election ended that, because we knew the USA empire would fall. We wouldn’t buy or own real estate in Russia either, for the same reason. Would you? If not, then sell. Then we started thinking about joining an eco-village, to form a community for security and survival. Yesterday, on an informational meeting, we were getting all excited, then I had this vision:

General (big strong guy, tears in his eyes): “Sir, I’ve come to you directly because Secretary Hegseth is still sleeping off his bender last night. This is important. We’ve discovered a village of woke, liberal smurfs living happily in the woods.”

Trump: “Seize it, use eminent domain, and burn it to the ground, hopefully while that scum are still asleep.”

I’m far more angry about the GenZ and younger people who will never enjoy the USA the rest of us had. For the first time, the children of working families have little chance of doing better than their parents. That’s not because of trans people or immigrants. There is one clear, obvious reason: corporate greed, corporate welfare. That’s what changed our life here so quickly from my parents’ time, one generation ago, where a high school dropout manufacturing worker could work Monday to Friday 9-5 with a solid hour lunch and give his family a comfortable life while his spouse stayed home to raise the kids properly. Now we’re all slaves to this corporate machine, stressed and tired, and it’s still not enough to survive, while those at the top wallow in luxury due to the fruits of our labor.

The government are now seizing and examining the phones and content of US citizens, without warrants. That makes us a target, and maybe even you as well, for reading stuff like this. It puts people I love at risk, and I can’t tolerate that. I do this for you. There’s no financial benefit, and frankly hasn’t been a whole lot of interaction, which makes it easier. I’ll die for this cause, I’ll die on this hill for those I love who are younger, but I can’t put loved ones in danger. It’s not a sell-out or cop-out. I will be in this fight in every way I can, and I hope you will too. Everything depends on it.

I’ll continue the fight, subversively, but that can’t include writing what I write. Not on a public blog, anyway. Trump said he’ll start sending US citizens to that gulag torture prison in El Salvador. I’m a small voice, whistling these words into the wind to a small audience. But, I enjoy this, and thus it’s another thing taken away.

In the past, when I dared to dream (nightmare) all this happening, I was often naive enough to think, “The cops and military are regular people with families, all races and creeds, most of them wouldn’t go along with a takeover or violence against citizens.” Surprise, it’s happening all over right now. Cops, ICE, Homeland Security, FBI, all in full fascist concert. Probably the military is next. They seem to be loving the chance to use all those cool weapons and rough some folks up. That’s what too many cops do, it’s why too many are cops. We’ve seen autistic Black kids beaten and killed by Black cops, incredibly.

In our last post, I talked about this overwhelming sense of things coalescing into…something. I mentioned earlier in this post that people in cataclysmic historic times don’t actually realize they’re in cataclysmic historic times in the moment.

A few scenes from the new The Chosen season five stand out. There’s one where the disciple Little James is a talented singer and makes the cut to sing in the national choir as a young man, but is told he can’t because he has a physical disability. Immediate flash to Trump saying it’s “not a good look” for him to be seen with disabled veterans.

There’s another scene where the Roman spy Atticus is telling Pontius Pilot his only job is to win, and another where the Jewish Pharisees are talking about “winning” and absorbed with politics over their faith and teaching. Of course, there’s the depiction of runaway greed when Jesus overturns those tables at the temple.

It was always about temptation, from the Garden of Eden onward. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Lead us not into temptation.” Actually, we’ll always have temptation. It’s always been our job to do the right thing. It’s always been a test.

Pioneer Update

We just paid our taxes, normally a patriotic contribution to pay for the good things we enjoy as citizens of the USA. Now, we pay with the knowledge that in some form or another, our hard-earned money will find its way into Trump’s pocket, pay for his weekly expensive and extravagant golf outings, finance his cruel fascist agenda. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

We’re going to commence laser firearms training, in addition to going to the range. These safe, quiet systems allow you to train at home. You can practice the most likely need to use your weapon—intruder drills.

Yesterday we moved our White House covered wagon RV from our former beautiful campsite to her staging area near us, to evacuate mid-country when things get real bad.

I won’t say I’ll never post again, but certainly not on these topics. Perhaps I’ll write on fiction and faith/afterlife topics, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll find the discipline to withhold political content/opinion and just write about prepping. Maybe I’ll get that follow-up novel to Farawayer done, and get my ham license. We still have so much prepping to do. As a parting gift, if anyone wants one of my fiction paperbacks, audio, or ebooks I’ll give them to you for $1, well below my cost, as a thank you. I’ll sign the paperbacks if you want. But only direct through this website. Nobody else knows, it’s our secret :-)

Where should you go for critical content on these topics? Definitely avoid the big social media apps/sites. Take them off your phones, it’s walking proof you’re the resistance. Use them from your home computer, if at all, with a VPN and burner proton email address. Reddit is a bit more under the radar (so far) so on that site go to r/EconomicCollapse r/TwoXPreppers (women’s prepper group!) r/preppers r/PrepperIntel r/prepping and maybe I’ll see you there.

In the meantime, be safe and keep the faith. Giavana, Pia and I love you all very much. Thank you for joining us on this journey.

“An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again, but one which crumbles from within, is dead forever.”—Unknown

“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.”—Marcus Aurelius

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer (Prepping, Politics, Afterlife, RVLife) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Project: Pioneer (Prepping, Politics, Afterlife, RVLife) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Don’t despair—prepare.

It seems like everything is converging, coalescing, the good and the bad. If you’ve been reading our pioneer journal over these past two years, you may be sensing that too. We’ve been writing about the coming dystopia, and how to prepare for it, what works and what doesn’t. There seems to be a theme. Let’s get busy as the going gets tough, because it’s clear that nobody is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.

Pioneer Update

We got our Costco raised bed garden (on wheels!) up and running this past weekend. It was a fun exercise. Apparently, there’s a lot more to this than just throwing in some dirt and seeds! Our diligence turned up the Seed to Spoon app so we’re on the seven day trial. It allows you to specify your garden size and lay out what you want to plant. The cool thing is that it warns you about plants that are “bad neighbors” (the ones with Trump signs in their yard?) and shouldn’t be placed next to each other. We would have screwed that up badly. We went with things of substance—potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, parsnip, eggplant. Now we wait for buds to get budding!

And yeah, you could use the rationale “Those are some expensive veggies, why not go to the grocery?” Because, well, we’re preparing for those shelves being empty, as we’ve shipped out all the ag workers, and poisoned our food, as we’ve canceled those silly FDA food inspectors. There will be no pesticides in our grub.

Tomorrow is another round of surgery for me, ugh. Next week, we move the White House covered wagon pioneer RV from our former beautiful campsite to standby near where we live now. That will complete our new transition.

Also, we got out for the April 5 protests. It was wonderful and magical to be among the massive crowds of sane, happy, motivated, patriotic citizens. There are plenty more to come, make sure you participate!

A Survival Plan

I mentioned convergence. The stock markets are continuing to crash due to this extreme nonsensical idiocracy. We’re heading to a deep recession or maybe depression, on the fast train. The worst of circumstances may well occur—stagnant economy and high inflation like in the 60s and 70s, a very bad combination that’s hard to fix. We’re likely heading for the “distraction” of a massive global shooting war, on top of the trade war.

Our once beautiful democracy and economy, the envy of the world just a few months ago, is being burned to the ground. One of the world’s biggest insurers is predicting the collapse of capitalism due to climate change. Imagine losing your home like so many in the Midwest did this week, and having no insurance to replace it. On top of being laid off due to recession. That’s how depressions happen.

Ok, that’s the bad news.

We’re always thinking of solutions, all day every day. We wrote about our trip to Europe, and as fantastic and utopian as things are there, it’s just not Plan A right now as we both have elderly mothers that need help. However, if it gets that bad, we may have to bail anyway. Good to have options.

But, while there, we saw a people who have always lived happily in smaller spaces. Giavana, Pia and I have been doing that for years, in an RV and now in a small apartment, after selling our home and attic, closets, basement, and garage full of useless neglected crap. So as a first step, why not bring that model here? Why can’t we all start behaving in that successful way, which is less stressful and better for your financial success? Americans are famous for our gluttonous shopping, our McMansions and land yacht vehicles, for having way too much of everything. Let’s change that.

Our point? Stuff is about to get much more expensive. People already have far less money due to the Trump crash, and that’s about to get worse as they lose their jobs. Corporations are to blame for the most part. Fix the problem and fight back. Fix one is to sell, share, and barter among ourselves at discount prices. Make that former gluttony a huge advantage to each other. Get on your neighborhood discussion boards, like nextdoor.com, reddit.com, or discord.com.

Need a lawnmower? I bet someone within a mile of you has an older or spare very functional one that they’d sell you on the cheap, far less than you’d pay at the store. Ditto for just about anything you need. If we all get out there, list what we have, or what we can do for others, think of the benefit! Same with thrift stores, and with food, by using farmer’s markets. Or mom and pop restaurants instead of those ugly, poisonous chains.

There are so many ways to cut back without harming your quality of life. For example, commercials have brainwashed us into heaping large gobs of toothpaste on our brushes, when a much smaller amount is just as effective, especially if you don’t then rinse or spit it out. Ditto for laundry detergent and so many other items. Again, Kiss Your Money Hello (and Financial Stress Goodbye) is the ultimate guide to saving money and Plan Your Money Path is the same for planning your financial life. Read or listen, get them for free by ordering from your local library.

Cut your reliance on expensive vehicles where possible by walking and getting a bike (or e-bike—they’re awesome!) Learn how the public transportation works in your area—buses and trains. Sell anything you haven’t used in a year, including clothing. Pile up your money, be frugal. Enjoy all the wonderful, free goodness of our parks and libraries (before they’re paved over).

We need to converge as a society—the good among us, anyway. We’re seeing this happen, out of necessity. Hard times always bring that sort of thing. Families save money by sharing space, like in the old days here in the US. Communities begin to coalesce and share.

In our area, some folks have started a discord server to bring this about. The main purpose is to move toward building our own intentional community/ecovillage, as we’ve been advocating for and written about in past posts. Quite European! The result has been phenomenal. We now have subtopic areas where people in this area are mentoring and sharing with each other on topics like personal security, gardening/farming, communication, bushcraft, survival, medicine/first aid, and disaster preparedness. It’s bringing about everything we’ve discussed above, and it’s beautiful to behold, watching it bloom. We’re also facilitating in-person meetings/training on those topics. Make it happen in your area, your survival may count on it.

As we build and form these communities, so much more becomes possible. We can shelter those we need to—young people from being drafted into a war that might kill them, marginalized people from the hate on the outside. Underground railroads have been quite effective in the past. We all might need one at a certain point. Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 is just starting, what an example of all this!

The other thing that’s coalescing here, at least for us, is the return to faith or at least hope for so many, with the popularity of The Chosen. We’ve binged the first four seasons for free by using their app and web page, and seeing season five at the theater, which is spectacular. Even if you don’t believe, it’s epic on the scale of other memorable shows we’ve all enjoyed. It’s a great break and distraction from our current lives, giving hope and joy, along with many of the lessons we should be relearning about how to live happily together on this rock.

Find that safe haven, that hopeful diversion. It really helps. It could be mindfulness, yoga, reading, knitting, painting, gardening, whatever. Maybe it’s some combination of things. Forgive old grudges, turn the other cheek. That old friend turned adversary may be useful to your survival in the near future. We’ve never needed each other more.

"Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much"—Helen Keller

"Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”—Mother Theresa, Saint Teresa of Calcutta

“I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other.”—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer (Prepping, Politics, Afterlife, RVLife) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

There are waves of storms coming in the next few days. Lots of different types of storms, none of them good. Let’s talk about ways to prepare, and best practices for each.

It’s going to be hella cold (up to -6F without wind chill) here in pioneer-land this week, with a big snowstorm coming tomorrow (Sunday). We’re going into extreme mode—wrapping our covered wagon RV windows and that problematic outside above ground well riser pipe/spigot with Reflectix. We’re bringing our small propane tanks inside (not the big ones outside that we rely on—we’ll wrap those). Battening down the hatches! If you read our last post, you’ve learned about our big decision. But, that is later. This is now. Have you ever noticed that once you make decision to move on from something, you only see its hardship and flaws? It’s a thing we battle these days, especially with everything in general getting harder. Stay tuned for how we weather this storm in the next few days!

Tonight at 8pm eastern, there’s allegedly going to (finally) be a full-disclosure event in the UAP/UFO/Alien world. On the NewsNation network, Ross Coulthard will host a former US Special Forces operator who participated in the long-discussed (see my former posts) NHI (non-human intelligence) alien spacecraft recovery unit—complete with video. If it’s undeniably believable enough, it will be a profound revelation. Aliens exist. They’re here. What will people do? Freak out? Disregard? Meh? Don’t Look Up? What about God and religion? How does this change all that? We’ve seen soft disclosure over the past few years (the release of the fighter pilot audio/video) and the recent UAP/drone hysteria). But, there was still enough vagueness for skeptics to put their heads in the sand and poo-poo the whole thing. Could tonight change all that? Are they here to help us avoid the insane dystopian chaos we’re running headlong into with intentional purpose? Or, will tonight be yet another nothingburger? We’ll see in a few hours!

Then, if we manage to make it past the weekend to Monday, the pièce de résistance, the crowning of our first-ever man-child dictator king here in the United States. Let’s not forget, he promised several times, “dictator for a day.” After all the bended-knee pomp and circumstance, blatant sycophancy and toadyism on Monday, you should immediately see some attempt at dystopian raids to pull hard-working law-abiding residents of this country out of their safe haven churches, schools, and hospitals. This will infuriate other marginalized people and people who otherwise follow the teachings of their religion and care about others. Anarchists will rise up, protest violently and non-violently, and disrupt life in every way possible.

Of course, this is just to make the magas feel better. It’s theater. Quietly, on the down-low, authorizations will be signed to bring a massive flood of Indian and African H1B and H2B workers to actually take American jobs and exacerbate corporate profits, CEO compensation, and stock buybacks. So, apologies, Bubba, there will be a lot more dark-skinned people speaking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while you’re buying your scratch-offs and PBR.

All this could lead to enraged Bubba mass violence, akin to Jan 6.

There should also be some immediate (or very soon) executive orders that will make the realization of “what we done” quite impactful to the maga crowd. These changes will not make their lives better, in fact quite the opposite. Too late, he’s already in, the damage is done, Lucifer is out of the bottle. They’re gonna be big mad. There could be violence. I’m quite sure the inauguration itself wasn’t moved indoors so much due to the cold (what a bunch of “masculine energy” woosies!), but Trump’s terror at the many credible intel reports on long-range sniper assassination attempts. When that happens, it will happen indoors, a small gathering, by someone familiar, and at close range.

We’ll be in a much more dangerous place, as a country, because as of Monday, we’ll be cut off from critical intelligence from our partners around the world. Intelligence that could keep us from death or great harm. There’s no way the rest of the Five Eyes is going to continue to share that stuff with our new crew of drunk, corrupt, criminal, unintelligent, anti-democracy, and dictator-loving folks. No way. They’ll significantly water it down, if they help at all. We’ll be very exposed. Remember last time—a few days after taking office, Trump had Russia’s key people into the White House and leaked all kinds of extremely sensitive intelligence to them, which very much upset our allies that it put in danger. And that was just the first time out of many. Fun fact: he did keep our most sensitive military and nuclear secrets in the potty at his spy and cockroach-infested golf club. Don’t believe me? Read this recent Eurasian report of the top five risks the world faces in 2025.

Let’s cut to the chase, the good part. What should you do to prepare and protect yourself from all the above? Here are some best practices, so to speak.

Cold Weather: Take a walk around your house. Make sure nothing is connected to your outdoor hose spigots. Temporarily insulate any exposed basement windows. Drip your faucets before going to bed. Wrap your indoor pipes, keep them warm. Wrap or insulate any you can’t. Have safe ways to heat your indoors if the power is out for an extended period. Test all your carbon monoxide and fire detectors - like now. If your car battery is due for replacement, do it now.

Violence: Stay away from crowds for a while. Be gray, bland, boring. That “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Kamala” bumper sticker might feel good, but it could get you killed. Cook at home, order in, keep your eyes up (not on your phone!) at all times. Always position yourself near and be aware of emergency exits. Don’t engage in arguments, it’s not worth it, you won’t change anyone’s mind at this point, only their suffering will.

EMP/Power Strike/Outage: Regardless if it happens through extreme climate weather, a solar coronal mass ejection, an enemy starting their first strike with an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) bomb, or other, you should always visualize one thing:

The power suddenly goes out, and stays out. No heat, no internet, perhaps no cell coverage, no gas stations, no ATMs, no refrigerator, no cooking, no air conditioning. Are you ready for that? Do you have food? Do you have alternate ways to communicate with anyone in your immediate circle that you might be away from, at work or school? To get the latest important community news, weather, police, traffic, weather updates?

The best practices there are to mitigate all those exposures, using the ways I’ve discussed over and over in this pioneer journal. They are too many to list here, I’ve spent a year and a half documenting them and providing links.

Here’s a sample of our thinking on a deeper level. We worry that the incoming administration is already crapping on and insulting our world-wide allies and about to do a whole lot more. They’re pissed, and talking about retribution. Canada has mentioned cutting off the critical food and energy supplies to all of the northern US. What if the rest of the world decides to disavow the dollar standard, as they’ve threatened to? As well, the tariffs and other draconian and stupid things this administration is talking about crash the dollar? Your cash is trash, at that point.

We’ve already moved to cash and bonds, and out of the stock market. If the dollar crashes, we’re still screwed on that front. That’s why we started moving into crypto and (mostly) silver and gold coins. There are risks with those things, too. Crypto is imaginary money that could vaporize easily. It requires electricity and a network. When it’s viable, it’s a good means of doing business with folks who may have important (and illegal) resources. In the immediate aftermath of a stuff-hits-the-fan (SHTF) scenario, nobody will want gold or silver coins to barter/trade. They’ll want more important stuff like medical supplies, food, water, ammo, and information.

Even putting yourself out there to barter for things will be dangerous. You could get easily robbed/killed, negotiation over. It all boils down to making sure you have a good strong supply of all those things, that you are self-sufficient. If you can get past the initial phases of disaster or societal upheaval, you may then get to the stage where there’s enough rebuilt society or infrastructure to do bartering with initial, basic currencies such as gold or silver coins. Our hybrid move in the spring to fixed shelter plus RV will allow us to store up a ton more stuff and hunker down for longer, if possible.

Death: What if we don’t make it? What’s the best practice for that? I’ve documented my spiritual journey here before. I was a devout kid, then (mostly) an unbeliever in my very hard Farawayer days. I was always thinking it through, though. Analyzing. Re-reading. What makes sense? What checks off and explains the questions and concerns most accurately, as in Occam’s Razor? A profound reading was After, by Dr. Bruce Greyson, among other similar works, both pro and con that point of view.

You don’t have to join a club or cult to have faith. Think of what that word means—faith. What’s the down-side, compared to the upside? I’ve covered it all ad nauseum. My best practice here is to be good. To be intentional. That’s the key. We’re not perfect. We make mistakes. But if our heart is in the right place, if we’re trying hard, and course correcting, we may get a pass. If it’s not true, what’s the down side? You were a good person, and fondly remembered as an example of such to the people you leave behind? Be generous, help others with less, even in the little ways, each day. A few bucks to a local organization that supports homeless people, people (especially kids) with horrible health issues, abused animals, orphaned kids, whatever it is. C’mon now.

Example: At this point in writing this journal entry, I’m realizing that my references above to “Bubba” and “maga” are not something God/Buddha/Allah/Jesus would approve of or say. It sounds hateful. I should understand that those fellow spirits are the way they are for many reasons, some outside their control. Upbringing, their environment, their struggles in life, their minds being poisoned. They deserve love, pity, and help—even Trump. I won’t go back and change it, because it’s more evidence—I’m not perfect. I need to do better. We all do.

I’ve done a lot of work in the financial area. I can say unequivocally that the more money people have, the less they’re inclined to give. It’s an addictive sickness just like porn, gambling, drugs. You get too much, it feels too good, you only want more. It goes back to that concept that this short, blink-of-an-eye life here is just us swimming around in this placenta miasma womb as a proving ground, an “improving ground” to polish and hone our spirit, our goodness, to pass into another existence where there is nothing but that. We’ve been told this over and over in every form of religious text. This is an environment of temptation. Are you strong enough to resist and do the right thing?

Perhaps our visitors are coming here to tell us (not eat us). What if the ancient religious texts are an accounting of when they were last among us? Those Egyptians certainly didn’t have tools to precision cut and lift-fit massive pieces of granite, one of the hardest substances on Earth. Perhaps this sudden and massive influx of evil in our society is a leadup to a great battle, a great reset, as documented in the past (the flood, the plagues, the droughts, Sodom and Gomorrah). What we’re seeing does check all those boxes, it explains a lot. The Rapture and Second Coming are described as the final battle of God’s army versus the evil “Kings of the world.” Check. The sorting of the good and the evil souls. Which criteria do you fit? Are you loving, even when it’s difficult? Are you intentional? Helping those with less? Not hating those who are different?

Do you want to hear or see something beautiful and thought-provoking? Give fourteen minutes of your time to the below. You can even just listen to it while driving, walking, shopping, doing household stuff. It may change how you think, because it’s beautiful. The people with these stories, like this ER nurse, are everyday people with no history of trying to grift or lie to folks (I haven’t vetted this one yet, personally). They come from all around the world, identical stories, even those from indigenous places with no technology. If you like this, read or listen to After, as mentioned above.

Greed: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—Matthew 16:26

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

I knew things had changed when, as we settled into the darkness of our pioneer wagon sleep cave for the night, Giavana suddenly raised up from her nest of pillows and smacked her hands together violently, scaring the bejesus out of half-asleep little Pia and me.

“What the heck was that about?” I asked.

“Spider,” she said calmly, getting up to wash her hands.

I sat in shock and awe as I watched her exit through the barn door toward the bathroom. A year and a half ago, when we started this pioneer life, the mere idea of a spider in close proximity would have sent my Italian former Playboy bunny city girl into hysterics.

It was an epiphany. Things have changed. There was further evidence the following weekend, as I went on a trip, leaving her behind in the covered wagon RV. It’s winter, and a damn cold January so far. While I was gone, a few typical malfunctions occurred. The furnace went out, and the water froze up. Incredibly, she dug in, troubleshot, and fixed both problems on her own. I guess she had to, survival and all that, but I was only a phone call away. She fended for herself, and I’m damn proud of that pioneer woman.

We’re working on survivalism, we’re preppers, and you need to become self-sufficient to survive. When the stuff hits the fan, you can’t simply call a repair person. You need to understand how electrical, plumbing, sewage, and other systems work at a fundamental level, and fix them yourself.

We’ve had some discussions lately, over cafe breakfasts and our favorite simple home-cooked dinner of chicken, onions, and peppers fried up in a pan of olive oil and wrapped in wheat tortillas with some excellent salsa.

If you go waaay back to Project: Pioneer #1 from August 2023, our original thesis for making this drastic change, selling all our stuff and moving into a small RV, had a few points such as:

* We were too spoiled in our big ol’ house with all that space we rarely used, filled with crap we rarely used, and yet paid to heat and air condition all year round.

* COVID and Trump v1 were wakeup calls. We saw a good chance another pandemic would occur, and perhaps Trump would return and this time achieve his lust to end our democracy and turn this country into a dystopian hellscape, perhaps start WWIII.

* A climate disaster or world war/nuclear strike would force us to flee, with no plan and no resources. Our home and land, a significant part of our overall net worth, could become worthless (or seized by an out of control autocratic government).

When I frequent the prepper communities, I see a lot of people reading the books, following the blogs, and piling up a lot of survival gear in their McMansions. If you’ve watched any of those reality shows where people are suddenly thrown into a dire survival situation, you’ll note that it’s a whole different ball game. You need practice.

So, we sold our house at market high, and moved into an apartment for a time as we sold off our things and formulated our plan. In August 2023 we pulled the trigger and moved into a (way too tiny) RV. A very simple, minimalist life, year-round. Dealing with extreme weather, predators, threatening and perhaps dangerous people out in the woods. We learned in our year and a half that we’re just fine in very, very close quarters (that’s amore!), and how to maintain our small covered wagon.

That box is checked, we feel. Our year-and-a-half-long special forces boot camp has served us well. We’re far more hardened than before. We feel we’re ready—far more ready than most, at least. I knew it the moment that spider bit the dust (although, I’m more of a catch and release type person—baby steps, Ms Giavana).

Along the way, my health has continued to decline. I had a heart procedure, causing Giavana to have to care for me here in our pioneer covered wagon. I didn’t like that, because I felt exposed. We were exposed. This life is hard enough. Now I’m due for two more surgeries this year, which will basically take away the use of my hands for most of the year, not good for pioneer life. I have a looming AAA (ascending aortic aneurysm) that could take me out in a moment’s notice.

And so, our decision. We’re keeping this beautiful rigged-out tiny home White House RV on standby, ready to hitch up and turn into our escape pod at a moment’s notice. This spring we’ll move into a quite small apartment, more tiny home living, but it will feel like palace for us. I’ll be near the hospital, crawling distance again. Good for survival. We’ll be able to store up far more food, water, and survival gear—a huge bonus. We’ll have access to our few remaining prized possessions—clothing, books, turntable/music again (those are in a very small storage unit), good for our mental health. They say a rolling stone gathers no moss. This will be around our tenth move in our years together, which don’t number much more than that, for reasons both known and likely unknown to us.

Make no mistake—we’re not bailing, we’re not quitting. We love this simple pioneer life. We love our cozy little home, which we are fully acclimated to. But, for all the reasons above and below, this is the more strategic decision. We can’t become complacent—we have to continue to explore and practice other aspects of what surviving in the future might entail. This move allows us to explore those other scenarios, and solves some pressing problems.

We’ll have options. If there’s a disaster, we’ll have strong shelter, perhaps enough to formulate a plan or just stay put. A fast, zero notice bug-out will entail taking our priority one items and stuffing them into the bed of Henrik the pickup truck, and bolting. A more dire and permanent looking scenario will entail the same, but hitching up the White House RV and bugging out. We like options. In any of those cases, we’ll be self-sufficient for quite some time, perhaps until help comes. Waiting for Godot, so to speak. We will be ready, because we practiced. We know this life.

I was always a bit concerned because we were exposed with our original phase. If a sudden disaster hit, such as an earthquake or tornado, and we had no time to leave, we’d have been in big trouble in this flimsy tin can. Now we have the best of both worlds in phase two. This is what concerns me about the homestead fixed-location preppers—if they’re forced out of their comfortable established hard-wired setup due to war conditions, climate disaster, or other, what’s Plan B? They’re kind of screwed—forced out into the open, the unknown, and very exposed.

So, the focus now goes to that new phase, along with our other priority one items—ham radio license and setup as well as learning indoor and outdoor small-space gardening, which we had zero room for in this RV life. We need to get to the shooting range more regularly. We will still be prepping, and from a perspective that will be much more relevant to many of you out there, so stay tuned! We already taught you all the RV stuff. But first, we have to make it through this cold unforgiving winter. Perhaps there are more lessons on the way. We also have a lot to look forward to. We’ve booked our trip out of the country to hopefully finalize our second citizenship—another escape-pod lever to pull in the coming dystopia. That one has been a lot of work and a long time coming. We like to have options.

In our current phase of pioneering, we’ve been pretty much fixed-location. We got to practice battening down the hatches, hitching up, and moving twice a year as we migrated between our summer and winter RV sites. Cool. But, we always had the luxury of connections to electric, water, and sewer. In this next phase, we’ll be practicing boondocking and dry-camping on some spring, summer, and fall trips. This will force us to rely on our solar setup and water collection systems, which will be excellent practice. This is the practice we’ve been missing out on. Everything needs to be practiced, because when the stuff hits the fan, mistakes can be deadly.

Make no mistake—hard times are coming, and probably pretty soon, as in about a week from now. The Trump regime is likely to take a wrecking ball to our country and world order. We were at the precipice of a strong future, keeping the peace and reversing climate damage, and we took the other option. These promised changes will make everything worse—the complete climate crises we’re seeing regularly, likely the promised war (will your kids/grandkids be drafted into the meat grinder to die for the billionaire class?), financial crisis, and more. The water is already boiling in our frog-pot—we’re already there. Just ask the people from California, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and countless other places who suddenly have no home. And that’s just in the past year or so.

Are you understanding yet? We’ve passed the tipping point, and we’re already there. The time is nigh (or rather, now). Prepare.

We went to the new Dylan biopic movie this week. It induced a slew of nostalgia and emotions. All that time ago, the young people of America and the rest of the world knew that we were damaging the earth, the climate, and heading for disaster. They knew the war was futile, wrong, and working-class American kids were being fed to slaughter in Viet Nam to feed the military-industrial money machine. It was a simple time, before we were all brainwashed to have our faces stuck in front of electronic devices for every aspect of our lives. I miss it.

Back then, there was the same imminent danger. When I was living in a military barracks at that time, my two roommates (a Black dude from Ohio and an actual Mexican (possibly illegal) immigrant), we knew the danger. We’d buy the latest album at the base exchange, come back to our tiny cinder-block room and crack the cellophane open, placing it on the turntable. (The simple and pure sound of that mechanical device, a stylus on vinyl, still can’t be beat with all our fancy digital crap.) Someone would produce a baggie and some rolling papers, we’d use the album cover to separate the seeds and stems from the weed, and roll a joint to share, still in our olive-drab fatigues. D would typically queue up some Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, I’d defer to Led Zeppelin or Allman Brothers, and our Latino friend would go with Santana. We were a mini United Nations of mutual respect for each other’s culture. We learned so much from one another.

The point is, it was an escape from the everyday imminent danger right outside our cell block. Fighter jets loaded with missiles screamed through the air 24/7, taking off and landing. We were on the border facing our enemy during the Cold War, and constantly jumping back to work when the air-raid sirens signaled an alert was occurring. The gopher-hole mounds that topped the Minuteman nuclear missile silos dotted a remote area called “the bomb dump” out on the horizon. When those bay doors swung open during the sirens, you knew it was serious business at hand. Maybe death.

Now, while war and attacks on our allies and neighbors are threatened by our President-elect, it feels just as dangerous. And we could have had it all. Yet, here we are again. We never learn.

The one possible positive outcome of the great reset that would follow a dystopian nuclear war or climate-ravaged planet (or both) would perhaps be a return to simplicity for future generations. It’s believed we’ve seen this movie before, as a species. There’s plenty of evidence that advanced civilizations predated us, thousands of years ago, but were wiped out by a significant event. Perhaps it’s that wheel of time I spoke about in my last post, turning and renewing. I’ve speculated that we ourselves, our spirits, exist in a cycle of death and rebirth in a new body, forming and growing spiritually until we’re polished enough to qualify for a utopian afterlife.

If there’s anything to look forward to, perhaps that’s it—a simpler, more peaceful life. But first, we have to survive. Because, just like in the play, Godot isn’t coming. Nobody is coming to save us, so prepare yourselves, please.

You used to laugh aboutEverybody that was hanging outNow you don't talk so loudNow you don't seem so proudAbout having to be scrounging your next mealHow does it feel, how does it feel?To be without a homeLike a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the streetAnd now you're gonna have to get used to it

(this final verse for our MAGA friends…)Ain't it hard when you discovered thatHe really wasn't where it's atAfter he took from you everything he could steal?How does it feel? Ah how does it feel?To be on your own, with no direction homeLike a complete unknown, like a rolling stone—Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

A slow-moving stream turns a water wheel, which then powers the gristmill’s grinding stones to turn grain into flour. The wheel of time also turns, slowly, ambivalent to the follies of mankind. History rhymes, repeats, the same lessons having to be learned again and again, as they’re easily forgotten in the fog of memory.

Throughout history there are countless occasions of greed and power run amok, mostly through the deception of the working class by the ruling class. In a recent post, I mentioned the Secession of the Plebeians back in old Roman Empire times. In this country, the USA, we’ve seen several cycles of this.

In the 1700s, when British colonists had had enough of a greedy king back home, they held a Tea Party and bloody revolution for their freedom.

In the 1800s, when the decent people had had enough of the horrible human and financial abuses of slavery, they revolted, and we had a long and bloody civil war.

In the early 1900s, Upton Sinclair’s bloody exposé on worker conditions led to changes in workplace safety.

The gilded age of runaway capitalism and abuses from the 1870s to 1890s was exposed by a Mark Twain novel of that name. It featured prosperity for the wealthy and runaway corruption, exploitation and poverty for the working class. This culminated in the big stock market crash of 1929, the following depression, and resulted in reforms after workers rose up, held strikes, and formed unions. Those changes led to a balance in wealth/equality distribution, and a prosperous middle class where one non-college educated wage earner could provide a comfortable standard of living to a family while a spouse/partner kept the home and cared for the kids. Ironically, that was the true golden age of America the MAGAs visualize when they talk about making America “great again.” All except for those

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

of course. America was great then (except if you were a minority, gay, or female).

Then came Reagan and the return of monstrous, excessive greed. The Empire Strikes Back! The Social Security system was raided in Reagan’s Great Heist to pay for a big tax cut for the wealthy Got deja vu yet? Union busting took away worker power. Deregulation led to poor product safety and greater profits. Antitrust regulations were ignored to smash competition and create monopolies. The two Bush Presidents, as well as Trump v1, continued this march, resulting in several catastrophic economic periods that left the economy and middle class in shambles, to be rescued and rebuilt by Democratic Presidents each time. Nobody was ever held accountable for the countless lost homes and jobs from the 1999 Dot-Com Bust, 2008 Financial Crisis, corporate bailouts, the raping of the treasury with corrupt COVID-era PPP loans to politicians and the rich, the 2017 Tax Cuts for the Wealthy that cost us actual taxpayers (and our future generations) another $7 trillion. And they’re queuing up V2 to launch quite soon.

Four years ago yesterday the misled, gaslit working class rabble rose up and rioted because they were told their hero, an extremely corrupt lifelong con man with many bankruptcies under his belt, had actually won a free and fair election. He was that guy who was going to (finally) do something about…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

A few months ago, they rose up again and re-elected him President, believing he would actually fulfill his promises this time, particularly the one about making their eggs cheaper and do something about…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

Now that Trump is officially on the record, before even day one of his presidency, and it’s become clear that he won’t be doing any of that, the rabble is stirring again. Especially since he’s sided with his billionaire friends in regard to actually bringing in planeloads more of those

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

from India and Africa on H1B “indentured servitude” visas to take jobs from their white American kids. Trump and his billionaire pals love H1B and H2B workers and fill their businesses with those cheap-labor American-displacing workers. It’s very good for profit!

There’s a recent, excellent post by Thom Hartmann that puts this historical trend in context of predator and prey. I highly recommend you read it!

The above are examples throughout history of people being screwed over until they just can’t take it anymore. To get to the point of this post, that’s when the fun starts.

A guy fed up and in pain from being screwed over by massively profitable health insurance companies run by folks that make tens of millions of dollars (and use AI to reject claims) goes and kills a CEO. Now he’s a folk hero, with massive donations to his legal fund.

A US military veteran fed up about trying and trying to get ahead, being held back by his skin color, creed, and other factors, rents a pickup truck and mows down a crowd of people to make a statement.

A Trump-loving white military guy rents one of Musk’s crappy cyber trucks and blows it up in front of one of Trump’s crappy hotels. Why? Perhaps he heard that it had just come out that Trump wasn’t going to do nuthin’ about…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

How bad will the class warfare get in a few weeks and beyond? That’s when we’ll turn the keys to our almost 250-year old democracy to a gaggle of the most corrupt, greedy, working-class hating folks on the planet.

How bad will it get when those tens of millions of Mr & Mrs Bubbas see that not only have their egg and gasoline prices doubled, but those…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

have actually multiplied like rabbits due to H1B and H2B visas. And then, on top of that, the Musk-promised “time of pain” when they crash the stock market (to make big short bucks), driving massive layoffs. The Trump Bucks checks won’t be coming this time, kids.

The rest of us are already mad. We know the truth of what happened in the last administration—all the massive corruption, theft of taxpayer dollars, criming that went on. We know, because we haven’t been watching the gaslighting channels. Wait until the rest of ‘em figgers it out. Them folks is heavily armed. They might then start to take note:

That wall never got built, and Mexico didn’t pay for it. He never locked her up.

There never were any caravans of murdering, raping immigrants. No pets was ate.

COVID wasn’t a hoax. Never went away in spring. Countless Americans died from the lies.

The deficit wasn’t eliminated, as he promised, it was jacked bigly.

He didn’t bring back the coal industry, steel jobs, or those auto plants he said he’d save, or even that Foxconn plant he promised. There was no 4% GDP, as promised.

There was never a big, beautiful healthcare or infrastructure plan.

And worst of all, nuthin’ was ever done about them…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

Wait until the part when they say they need to make big cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment/food benefits, and more in order to “get us out of trouble.” When they find out the lobbyists are responsible for newly exposed lies like how a glass of alcohol a day is good for you, when really it’s a contributor to cancer. When they figure out all the poisons put in their food to make their children addicted and sick, and even more with additional regulation slashing.

They’ll be mad when they realize that all along it wasn’t those people crawling across the Rio Grande River with only their kids and clothes on their back that was the problem. They were only coming for slave wages and jobs and to pay $70 billion in taxes for services we get to use, not them. They were coming for the jobs the billionaires were dangling. They spent their lives in hiding, not raping and murdering. They were really…

Dark skinned people are talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

But in reality, they’re more like Bubba’s family than the billionaires Bubba just put in charge of things. Just trying to survive, just trying to give their kids a better life. Bubba will sure be mad when he/she figures this out.

The rabble will realize they shouldn’t have focused on immigrant pay, they should have wondered why, not too long ago, CEO pay was 30 times average worker pay, now it’s 3000 times more. That’s why your stuff costs so much, bruh. That and stock buybacks, another fun capitalist greed tactic. See below.

How about when they realize it wasn’t the welfare queens they should have been condemning, but corporate welfare? Wait until they see that billionaire-led “efficiency” team ignoring these massive lobbyist-inspired corporate welfare giveaways while taking away their Social Security, healthcare, veteran’s benefits, and unemployment. Lookee there at that list below—$16 billion of your taxpayer money for a company that makes airplanes that fall from the sky and kill the taxpayers inside. Don’t even get me started on all that waste for rich donor ambassador appointments Trump is giving out like candy. Imagine that—uber fantastically rich folks getting the fanciest digs, meals, drinks, all over the world on your taxpayer dime. Will that waste be cancelled? How about the armies of Secret Service and staff being forced to stay at Trump properties at jacked up prices to watch him golf while he promised he’d be working (again)?

The Biden/Harris cabinet of about a dozen people had a total net worth of about $118 million. Trump’s partial cabinet is now at around $340 billion, and that doesn’t include our $500 billion real, shadow President, Leon (sic) Musk (who incidentally, was an actual illegal immigrant for a time, was named after a Nazi rocket scientist’s book character, and grew up in a very wealthy, racist Nazi-sympathizing family in good old South Africa). Anyway, it’s hilarious how Mr and Mrs Bubba thought these working-class hating rich folk were going to make their lives better, and get rid of them...

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

Good Lord, the ignorance. Wait until they find out the same dude is now pushing to kill the net neutrality law that prevents internet companies from spying on all your stuff without a warrant 24/7. Especially since he plans to make his satellite-based ISP the one and only monopoly for internet access. Then, if you say, call him a pasty white loser trust fund baby, he can cancel your life the way he cancels people now on his social media platform who disrespect his fragile man-child ego.

So, it will be no surprise when a whole lot of heavily armed pissed off folks rise up. By then, it will likely be martial law, suspension of elections, and use of our vast and powerful military and all that Musk technology (see: drones) against anyone who dares speak out. Anarchy will likely ensue. We’re already starting to see it, and Bubba has only just started to figure things out, how hard he/she got played. Then it will likely no longer be conservative vs liberal, Democrat vs Republican. It will be the plebes against the royalty, once again as the wheel turns.

When someone who came up from working class becomes successful, they sometimes then look down their nose at their former tribe (see: Vance, JD). Others might go the opposite route and help those they left behind. See the Henry Ford quote at the end of this piece. It seems we’ve put the former group in power, those who grew up rich and despise the working class, and those who “made it” and also despise the working class.

Again, we’re not calling for or advocating violence, although it tends to be inevitable in cases like this, as history has shown again and again (and again). We are fans of non-violent class warfare.

Here are some suggestions:

Patronize your local mom and pop small businesses, get off that Amazon crack. Log on now and cancel Prime. Should you really be paying more and more for Prime, especially since you’re now subjected to commercials on their content? We go local first and foremost. If that doesn’t work, we go Costco, a very good company who treats their workers well. If that doesn’t work, we tried the $49 Target Circle. It’s actually amazing—an ever growing Amazon-like online selection that ships free and fast and actually will deliver to you same day if it’s something stocked at the local store.

Do you need all those rip-off streaming services? Ever check the free (even live) content that comes with your TV or a high-definition antenna?

Is it worthwhile spending all that money on watching people do things (sports, entertainment) and contributing to their massively out-of-whack salaries? Ticket prices are massively jacked up, thanks to the Ticketmaster monopoly. Head to local minor league sports and local bands. It’s in many ways even better, and far less expensive.

Go to real local restaurants instead of those nasty chains.

We’ve turned the keys over to a group of the worst of us. A sex-abusing alcoholic misogynist in charge of our military. A conspiracy theorist science-denying brain-worm infested scam artist in charge of our health (actually, two scam artists in charge of our health). On and on, you can’t make this stuff up, it’s so bad. Inexperienced felons, criminals, drug abusers, pedophiles at the top of massive, critical government agencies.

These are people who have never gone grocery shopping, changed a flat tire (let alone a baby’s diaper), had to pay a bill, drive their own cars, or care for a child in charge of our lives. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? They never have to be around…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

They’ve only ever been catered to, doted on, served. Behind their country club doors, while sipping very expensive scotch, they really do refer to “the rest of us” as losers sucking on the teat of government. All while they enjoy those massive subsidies and a pass at paying any actual taxes on their massive wealth and income.

The people actually voted for that, instead of someone who had just actively participated in rebuilding yet another Republican devastated economy and was promising help for working people in so many ways, from starting businesses to actual meaningful tax breaks for working people, to buying affordable homes, to making the wealthy pay their fair share. All that wasn’t enough, cuz there’s…

Dark skinned people talking funny languages down at the QuickieMart while I’m tryin’ to buy my scratch-offs and PBR.

And now, the price will be paid, and folks are going to be big mad.

To close, kudos if you figured out this post is a tip of the hat to the late Gil Scott-Heron. He was my old Farawayer buddy Damon’s hero. Heron wrote this piece to bring attention to the massive spending on the military-industrial complex and space program while so many were suffering here at home (especially marginalized communities) during the horrible economic period in the 1960s to 1970s.

A rat done bit my sister Nell.(with Whitey on the Moon)Her face and arms began to swell.(and Whitey's on the Moon)I can't pay no doctor bill.(but Whitey's on the Moon)Ten years from now I'll be paying still.(while Whitey's on the Moon)—Gil Scott-Heron

"Money doesn't change people, it only reveals them."—Henry Ford

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

Simple things, comprised of just a few working parts, are subject to more immediate and catastrophic failure. Complex things often fail more slowly—and in stages. They’re tough to bring down, often with fail-safe mechanisms and backups. When they do it’s often a result of a number of dominoes tipping over, breaking, then weakening others, which then fail in turn.

The disaster movies like to show things happening fast, because, well, they’ve only got a few hours to tell the story. In reality, it happens in slow motion, under our radar, as we’re seeing in real life. This is why we prepare, here in pioneer-land, and why you should too. Keep in mind, most prepping is simply to buy time. To survive in the below circumstances requires a different mindset—sustainable, minimal, self-sufficient pioneer living.

Think of our financial industry and system, which collapsed in the 2008-2009 crisis. The warning signs were there, but nobody did anything, because they were all making so much money. They correctly assumed the taxpayers would bail them out, and nobody would go to jail for that massive fraud on the working people. It’s strong incentive to rinse and repeat, no?

We’re currently seeing a slow collapse with much worse consequences. Our pioneer journey in this past few years has been all about the realization of those facts, and preparing for the inevitable.

There is nothing new under the sun. All resources are limited. Contrast this to our increasingly voracious consumption. We’re gutting the insides of this sphere we live on, faster and faster. Drilling the oil out of it, fracking (through massive underground explosions) the gas out of it. Strip-mining the mountains for precious minerals and metals. We’re pumping ever-more water from beneath the ground to deal with droughts.

Those resources are limited and our consumption is ever more voracious. A hollowed-out planet is not survivable. The oceans are so, so hot, and the massive ice sheets are melting—slowly. The sun gets hotter, droughts happen, farmers can no longer grow food. There’s no fuel for their farming equipment. Dominoes. I mean—what could possibly go wrong?

Yes, we have renewable energy sources like wind, sun, and water power. However, the means to use them requires building things to harness that energy. Building things requires metals and minerals, which are in ever-shorter supply. The richest place to find them is in the mountains of China. China just announced it will be hoarding those things, preventing their export. It’s no wonder. They see this coming.

We use those precious resources for our computer microprocessors, which are used for our defense, commerce, basically every aspect of our lives now. There is very strong evidence we are heading for the slow but eventual collapse of human society on this planet, likely in our lifetimes. And yes, it’s true we could otherwise have a sudden and catastrophic collapse due to nuclear war, CME/EMP/solar flare, meteor strike (again!), alien invasion, etc.

And that’s just the impending climate collapse. We also have a climate of societal and political change both here and around the world—a swing toward autocracy driven by the massive use of media to control minds. That tipping point was probably crossed when Trump won in November. It could easily lead to nuclear war.

Back to the financial aspect, greed is driven by the myth that “the stock market always goes up” over time. It does—until it just doesn’t. The next financial collapse could be a permanent one. World currencies are no longer backed by actual “things” like gold reserves. Like crypto currencies, “fiat” currencies are also somewhat imaginary now—money printed will-nilly. Crypto doesn’t seem to make any sense, yet it is exploding. The complexities of how financials work are now beyond most humans, so we’re at the mercy of those who do. (Narrator: Who also tend to be the most greedy and unethical among us. See: Trump, Donald and Musk, Elon).

Our air and oceans are limited resources, and we’ve been slowly poisoning both for a very long time. There are garbage patches in the ocean as large as countries. The water is filled with microplastics that are now abundant in the fish we eat, in the rain that turns eventually into our drinking water (and that of the animals we eat). The gas and oil usage have created huge emissions of greenhouse gases that deplete the ozone layer, making the sun stronger, melting those glaciers, causing floods and catastrophic weather, bleaching the coral and killing off marine species—dominoes. If those glaciers and ice sheets melt enough, we’ll see a sudden and catastrophic release of methane gas. Fun times that will be. We’ve blown past our warming “crisis points” of 1.5C and 2C. The current favorite pastime of billionaires—joyriding around in spaceships, is causing a huge amount of atmosphere, water, and food poisoning due to the spent rocket fuel sprayed into our air.

Out in space, we’ve (surprise!) polluted that environment with a massive amount of space junk (about 40,500 pieces flying around above us). It’s currently under the radar, but we’re very exposed to something called Kessler Syndrome—a chain reaction where one of these pieces collides with another, which then is thrown off its orbital path and collides with another, and so on. The result? An immediate and perhaps permanent loss of wifi, cellular/mobile phone communications, weather, medical devices, GPS navigation, and more. Think of the movie, Gravity, with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Some satellites are actually space weapons to knock out other satellites, as Russia is threatening, which could cause this immediately. Scientists have been warning about it since 1978, but we continue unheeded with space pollution. Because, the money. And note that out of the 10,000 functional satellites we use for the above, most of them are now controlled by Musk, Elon. What could possibly go wrong?

As all this marches along, resources will become limited and in short supply. Food, clean water, money, fuel/energy, safe shelter, medicine, security. We’re currently playing musical chairs with all of it, rather than working on actual solutions. I’ve asked many times in this journal why people feel they need so much money. This answers the question. This is why. They will be able to afford the limited resources, and their survival will be assured. They know this.

Everyone else, at least those not prepared, will likely perish in a very slow and unpleasant way. Class warfare (more in this in a subsequent post) will occur as people begin to “eat the rich” out of desperation. Assassinations of greedy rich people occur (oh wait, they already have). The point is, none of this is a prediction. It’s all, unfortunately, factual and already happening right before our eyes. MAGA found out this week, the plan all along wasn’t to remove those dark-skinned foreign-language talking people that trigger them at the QuickieMart. It was to add more, far more, to take American jobs this time (unlike the ones coming across the Rio Grande). Why? Because they’ll work for half the price and twice as long to escape India and Africa. The H1B Visa has always been about cheap labor, indentured servitude, and more profit at the expense of actual American workers and families.

Nobody is coming to save us, because the people that have the resources to do so are busy making other plans. We comfort and placate ourselves with the delusion that the experts have it under control and will save us, just like in the movies. The truth is, the folks we think of, like the myth of Musk, are busy building ways to save themselves, through the accumulation of massive wealth and spacecraft to whisk them away to a nice, new, clean planet to ruin, while we all burn and drown. They get to deploy the only prepper bug-out that actually works under these circumstances—getting off the rock.

What are Giavana and I doing about it? We’re learning to grow our own food. We’re studying for a ham radio license as another way of communicating and gathering critical information. We’re exploring homesteads, eco villages, eco communities of like-minded people who believe in simple and sustainable living, both here in the US and abroad. We’re doing all the things we’ve been writing and teaching you about for the past few years. And you should, too.

Want to learn more about slow collapse? Please read this excellent post by The Honest Sorcerer.

One last word—we lost a truly great human being and former President over the weekend. His life should be a model for us to aspire to. He was good, kind, ethical, and honest. He spent his life, well into old age, helping others with less. He spent his entire life fighting against racism, for equality, peace, and human rights. He was also an Allman Brothers fan! Rest in peace, sir.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."—Charles Darwin

"Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception."—Carl Sagan

"Survival was my only hope, success my only revenge."—Patricia Cornwell

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

T’was the night before Christmas and a lifetime of those memories come flooding back. My childhood excitement, harried parents rushing around in last minute preparation, midnight mass, cookies and milk for Santa, sneaking peaks at Dad downstairs putting together presents he thinks I think Santa has brought. Will I ever get to sleep so the morning can come?

It’s the holiday season, religious holidays, specifically. Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Bodhi Day. It’s not a time for talk of the things that stress us. We won’t be discussing politics, alien landings, pandemics, preparing, or the downfall of humanity today. Let’s focus on hope and giving thanks, and we’ll share with you a little of what our typical pioneer RV life is like, in case you should ever consider such folly. We’ll get back to that other stuff in our next post. There’s a world to save, after all.

Today begins like every other day. We rouse from the soft, warm blankets of the sleep cave, through the sliding barn door that leads to the main cabin area of our pioneer RV home. We crank the furnace up and coffee burbles as it readies for our cups. I pull my jeans off a bathroom hook and don them so Pia and I can take a walk outside in the bitter cold. The new snow covers the bleak greyness of dead things with a pristine white sheet. It’s too early for humans to wreck it with their big truck tires.

Back inside, after she’s devoured her healthy gourmet food, Pia hears me slide back the foil lid on my daily yogurt and steps up. She always gets to lick the underside of that foil clean. The news drones in the background and Giavana mutters and grumbles on the follies of mankind from somewhere inside her plush oversized robe.

Sometimes this tiny home reminds me of those forts we’d build long ago, out in the woods. Often they were just cardboard appliance boxes—tiny but a secret refuge from the horrors of the world outside. A place for quiet. A place for hiding. A place to not be criticized or judged. God and nature and church alone in the woods with the other animals, safe from the adults busy out there wrecking the world in their retched behaviors.

Yesterday it was below zero, and we woke to faucets that yielded no water. Something was frozen, somewhere. We went through a standard process of elimination, switching from the outside well water connection to the backup water tank in the RV underbelly. Bathroom plumbing needs to work early in the morning! That temporary solution worked, meaning our underneath tanks weren’t frozen, whew. Checking the app, we verified the temp down there is holding at 32F, despite it being much, much colder on the outside of the insulating foamboard. Elimination yielded that the vertical pipe coming up through the ground had frozen at the valve. I slid the tall rectangular foamboard cover off of it, grabbed Giavana’s rocket turbo hairdryer, turned it on max, and stuck it inside. A few minutes later, water gushed out, eureka, and now Giavana gets to buy a brand new hair dryer because that one is officially toast.

Today’s adventure came when I went to dump the tanks. Our connection to the ground sewer must have frozen and cracked, as water gushed onto the ground. This is why you always test with the grey water before dumping your black water. A very smelly crisis averted. I’ll wait until Sunday to fix that, when it will be at least tolerably cold.

Back to the warm inside again, I feel the soreness from my surgery a few weeks ago. The freezing cold to raging heat brings out the stiffness and itchiness, as I just had the stitches out yesterday. I had sat in the cardiologist office as he checked things over, making noises as he waved some gizmo over the site where the electronics now bulge out of my upper chest. My body is on Bluetooth, yay. I had thought this was the end of half my serious problems, leaving only the ascending aortic sudden-death bulging balloon aneurysm to fret about. Then he starts his own muttering to the assistant, pointing at the tablet and something disturbing, apparently. The big reveal is that there’s indication of new symptoms that the new device can’t help with, which could lead to stroke. There’s discussion of blood thinners. Great, more big pharma, which I’ve always avoided when possible.

Giavana can tell I’m upset when I arrive home. We go over the news. She goes into loving-comfort-nurse-wife mode, suggesting we bail now, in our second year of pioneer life, and go back to our luxury apartment with nice pool and fitness center and best of all, within crawling distance to a major hospital, emergency room, and medical center. She suggests we also book some winter time near Siesta Key, a nice warm vacation getaway to the beach, which she knows is more alluring, exciting, and comforting than those oxycontin pills they’ve been giving me. It’s Florida though, certainly a cesspool of humanity, at least politics and disease-wise. The warm sand and a day at the beach, relaxing, reading, listening to music, are my crack cocaine.

Did I say at the start we’d focus on being thankful? Despite that news, that’s where I go after I’m done sulking. Giavana has made me feel better with the possibility and hope of those things. She’s good at that, my lovely Giavana. I’m lucky to have her by my side. I’m lucky to have my kids and grandkids, to have and feel that love even when we’re apart. I’m lucky and thankful for the few but good friends I have and my very good life in these many decades on this crazy blue marble we all spin ‘round on—Spaceship Earth.

We’re planning a trip to Italy in March, to check out what life is like in a civilized country where basic healthcare is a human right and children aren’t gunned down at their desks in school in support of NRA profits. We’ll be looking at properties—small villas in the countryside or ecovillages. After living in the Red House and White House, it would feel like a mansion. We have trained ourselves well.

We should all be thankful for what we have, and remember there are so many with far, far less, living in strife and struggle. Giavana and I are blown away every day at the examples of people with immeasurable money who never seem to have enough, never spend much to help others, and aren’t really especially happy. Something very bad happens to people when they get to the point where they have too much money. I’ve seen it too many times to believe otherwise. Check out old Mr. Potter while you’re watching It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas tomorrow. Prime example. There are exceptions, of course. Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife Mackenzie Scott has given away almost $20 billion to charities in the last few years. Ol’ Jeff just changed his residency from Washington state to Florida in order to save himself $1 billion in taxes and to avoid helping the state and country that gave him such wonderful opportunity, and avoid helping other taxpayers with far less.

What I’ll leave you with on this holiday eve is to ask you to take a moment from the bustle and stress of this week. Think about all you have to be thankful for. There are adults and children starving, living outside in the heat and cold, all around the world, and amazingly, here, in the richest country ever known in history we have our own citizens living under bridges and on sidewalks, in dire need of mental health help. (Narrator: Ol’ illegal immigrant Elon Musk’s net worth is now close to $500 billion, mostly thanks to government subsidies and bailouts). Billionaire and Trump pal Dan Pena just released the most horrific, cruel Christmas video (warning, NSFW, F-bombs). We’ll talk about class warfare in our next post.

People are spending the holidays with their kids in pediatric cancer wards, or worse in cemeteries visiting their loved ones. Be thankful for this life, and all you have. Talk to your kids about this when they’ve grown bored with all the new “stuff” after a few hours. Teach them compassion and giving, and maybe there’s hope their generation will learn to love one another.

As for Giavana, Pia, and I—our Christmas is a simple and humble one. One small gift and one thoughtful, lovingly inscribed card to each of us from the other. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Our gift is each other and this life, day after day after day. And, Pia got a very plush new bed, which she is also loving very much when she’s not snuggled up with us in the sleep cave.

“An awareness of one's mortality can lead you to wake up and live an authentic, meaningful life.”—Bernie Siegel

“A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream?”—Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along.”—Pierce Brown

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

The old Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.” Actually, it’s a myth, but quite pertinent. Remember way back on December 21, 2012, when we were all sweating because that was the day the ancient Mayan calendar had indicated the world would end? Whew! Didn’t happen. We missed one detail though—we’ve fiddled with the calendar so much since the Mayan times, some math folks are arguing the actual predicted date is in December 2024. On top of that, we’ve got world events that are very similar to those described in the Bible’s Book of Revelations as leading up to the Battle of Armageddon (more on this later). Lastly, the increasingly hard to deny UAP invasion I’ve been hinting at in our last few posts.

People are losing it. Examples? Here’s one. A NJ woman on a forum discussing these drones was moved to expletives in her stress. So, another NJ woman told her to shut her #@^! filthy mouth. Jersey girls, gotta love them!

Remember that movie Slapshot with Paul Newman? Apparently the Hansen brothers have retired and become one of our only legit scientific resources to understand this. Meet the Tedesco brothers, twin scientists from Staten Island. They’re awesome and providing a legit take on these UAPs.

Things are a bit stressful out there. How does this all relate to our faith, and what exactly is going on? I have some theories. First, let’s do a fun exercise to get away for a while. Imagine this:

It’s announced that we’ve found a new planet that’s rich with all the resources we’re running short of and greatly value—lots of rare metals for semiconductors, minerals, natural substances. But, the new planet is filled with many species of life, which are harmless in that they just go about practicing the natural food chain and cycle of life, eating each other. There is also some “intelligent” life but it’s very primitive, with basic tools and weapons.

What would we do in this circumstance? We’d make regular forays—scientific expeditions, exploratory missions, mining and cargo operations to bring home the bounty. We’d probably want to stay off the radar of the primitives, lest they catch us off guard and hurt one of us or our craft. We wouldn’t want to upset the natural, ecological balance by messing up the food chain, as it might lead to the organic decay and destruction of the planet full of resources we so badly want and need. We’d keep going back again and again for a very long time, but certainly keep an eye on those rapidly evolving primitives and their weapons.

When the Spanish Conquistadors arrived in the New World, the natives were in great fear and terror. They originally thought the mounted horsemen were one great beast with fantastic weapons. Same with the Native Americans that encountered the English and other Europeans with their thundering guns and cannons. Imagine those futuristic warriors if they suddenly encountered a brigade of modern special forces, with their tech from head to toe, flying machines and armored vehicles.

We’re the bomb (no pun intended), aren’t we? We like to think so. It’s a human condition, called arrogance. In 1899, the Commissioner of the US Patent Office suggested closing the department down because, “Everything has already been invented.”

Now that the stage has been set, here are my theories.

SPECIAL OFFER: Print these theories, take them to Starbucks, hand them to the barista along with $7 and you get a venti latte.

Theory One: Visitors

We are those crude, ignorant primitives on that rich planet. Our visitors have been here for a very long time. It’s been quite well documented over the years, in leaked intelligence, military, and other government documents, pictures and videos. The government has gone as far as subtly acknowledging this, along with official video and pictures. There are countless clear depictions of craft and visitors from ancient civilizations around the world. And architectures that they just weren’t capable of building.

It’s no longer up for debate. The visitors likely go about their business mostly undetected, but do get nervous now that the cavemen have nuclear weapons capable of destroying the planet, and get ever closer to using them. The visitors have shown up in force during nuclear power plant accidents (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima). They’ve disrupted our nuclear weapons capabilities on many, many occasions.

Receipts? Read up on the 1964 Vandenburg Air Force Base Big Sur incident. Exactly a year ago, Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was swarmed with drones for over two weeks. Advanced F-22 fighters were grounded and moved away to other bases in a panic. It’s incredibly hard to believe this wasn’t a bigger deal.

So why not just tell us? As I said above, they have been, in a very slow and cautious manner. They are acclimating us to this reality. If they had a big dramatic press conference, like in the movies, it would likely be followed by mass panic, rioting, looting, suicide—just like in the movies. This way is better. Although, it feels like the visitors are forcing their hand. Perhaps they’re doing this by appearing as something friendly and known to us—using the red and green navigation lights that planes do. This is how we acclimate animals when we’re training them, right? Get them comfortable with us.

This knowledge is carefully held, even above Congress, the Gang of Eight, and the heads of our military branches. Organizations like Space Force and All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) were created simply to placate and misinform those voices in government and the populace and let the real players, like Immaculate Constellation, do their thing under cover.

And yes, many “sightings” are regular planes and helicopters—large, small, commercial, military. You can verify that with the FlightRadar24 app. But, many are obviously not. By government and law enforcement admission, these are far beyond our known technology. They cloak, maneuver at g-forces and speeds we’re just not capable of, have no thermal footprint, and use frequencies we can’t detect. They stay aloft far longer than any current battery technology would allow (it’s not internal combustion like our big military drones or they’d have heat signatures). This isn’t JetBlue, sorry, kids.

Fun Fact: There have been documented “drone” incidents like this since long before drones were invented on this planet. They’re not drones. They’re UAPs.

These do look like regular craft, aside from it perhaps being a familiar alien mirage. That fact is a bit off-putting to me when I consider the alien angle. Of course, the aircraft we have are shaped a certain way simply due to it being an efficient way to travel in our atmosphere. Visitors may simply be respecting our standards in order to avoid conflict.

The point is, they seem to get very nervous when we come close to blowing up our planet, the one they seem to need and treasure. There was the incident where schoolchildren had seen a craft land, and were approached by beings that communicated with them telepathically to respect the planet and go easy on the technology. There were really too many with identical stories to discount it. These visitors may see the impending takeover of our government by hateful, violent lunatics hell-bent on WWIII as not a good thing.

There are tons of “experts” with YouTube and social media accounts who are basically grifters or tin-foil hat brigade members. It’s hard to know who to believe. More sane and practical information comes from Ross Coulthard’s Reality Check show (on NewsNation’s channel), and people with credentials such as Lue Elizondo (who just published a new book, Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs).

Theory Two: The Gov’mint

The government has never been shy about using the populace for experimentation. See: Tuskegee Experiments, Agent Orange, LSD experiments on servicemembers, and so much more. This could be something like that. There are videos of them spraying something that smells like ammonia or chlorine. That’s scary.

Perhaps it’s more of a social experiment. Overwhelm people so they’re already exhausted for the really big thing to come. Fear always makes the acceptance of authoritarianism easier. “Only I can fix it.” “Only I can keep you safe.” Yeah, Trump said that stuff. So did Hitler and others long before him. It’s a playbook, not a cookbook.

It’s quite possible that these are highly-classified drones that are searching, sweeping for something. Perhaps there’s a dirty bomb snuck in and they’re thinking it’s hidden in water. That would explain the focus on bodies of water. They wouldn’t alert us, as it would cause a mass panic and chaotic evacuation, and yes, rioting and looting. Maybe it’s a Republican special op, looking for the rest of Hillary’s emails and Hunter’s other laptop.

This government theory is tempting, other than these UAPs are also swarming our nuclear bases in the United Kingdom, Germany, and other nuclear sites, and have been for some time now. The only plausible way to explain that we have technology like this is that we’ve finally successfully reverse engineered the alien craft we’ve captured, as the Immaculate Constellation leaked documents and the 4chan leaker describe in detail. They describe attempts and failures, and very little success.

We’ve all learned one thing from Trump. If there’s a big scandal, just wait it out until something else even bigger happens, and people will move on and forget. Perhaps that’s what the government is hoping here, no matter which of these theories is true.

Theory Three: Foreign Actors

China and Iran have very smart people, lots of money, and incredible technology. It’s reported they’ve captured their own visitor craft and are similarly trying to reverse engineer the technology. Perhaps they have, and these things hovering above us are theirs, and we’re powerless to do anything about it. I don’t think Russia has the money, resources, or technology. If they did, we’d see this in Ukraine. Whomever is doing this, if they’re from this planet, it’s an incredibly expensive endeavor. Something very big is at stake.

The fact that we let that spy balloon cross the US in early 2023 didn’t seem to make sense. What if we’re one step ahead, knowing it was collecting information, and simply configured our stuff to give them a wealth of strategic bad info? Then it makes sense. We could have shot it down any time. We did at the end, to achieve the mission and satisfy the townsfolk. Maybe that’s what we’re doing now, if these are foreign actors.

Aliens and God

Perhaps it all fits. The existence of life outside our planet doesn’t mean there’s no God. I believe in a spiritual realm and a physical one. In my posts on spirituality and the afterlife, I explain in detail how I’ve come to my conclusions, after a lifetime of hard thinking, experience, and soul searching.

As we have learned in other Biblical resets (flood, Sodom and Gomorra, etc), we may have simply exhausted God’s patience with this incubator experiment and need a reset. As a species, we certainly seem to have lost our way, the mass temptation toward the seven deadly sins now overwhelming and in such plain view. There are very few truly good people among us, especially in positions of leadership. With Trump’s election to lead the most powerful country on Earth, it seems to have reached a tipping point.

If you read and believe what the Bible (and other religious texts) say, we seem to be close to those ending times they prophesize. I mentioned the Mayan calendar at the start of this post. The Bible talks about the rise of the antichrist as someone who would receive a head injury and greatly mislead the populace. Check. It talks about the great war to kick things off, happening in the Middle East/Israel, with an invasion from what is now Russia. Check. There are so many signs. Trump checks all those antichrist boxes, as well as the Nostradamus and other prophets. Clearly a purely evil human being of Satanic proportions.

The Bible describes Armageddon in the Book of Revelations as the final battle between good and evil. It heralds the return of Jesus and the establishment of God’s Kingdom here on earth. It says the kings of the earth will fight against God’s forces. We certainly are moving to a situation where the earth is ruled by kings—dictators who are hell-bent on carving the planet up between them. This all may be inevitable.

Again, I see this existence as an incubator, a testing ground, where we are surrounded by temptations to test our goodness, our soul’s spiritual evolvement and evolution into a polished one, a good one, a loving one, deserving of being in a place where there is only goodness and love for eternity. God does not intervene, but he watches and judges. Nothing else makes sense to me.

What can we do? Simply be good. Be kind. Help others. Love, don’t hate. Do what all those religious texts tell us we need to do to gain happiness in eternity, see all our lost loved ones again. Follow the Commandments, the Beatitudes. The inner peace you’ll find, and newfound self-respect will be incredible. You’ll lose your fear of dying, of apocalypse, because you’ll know something better is coming.

Lead a simple life. You don’t need millions of dollars to be happy. In fact, it will probably make you less happy. Follow the financial advice in my other posts, read those books, and you’ll see how to get there. Spend your spare time doing things that are good for your soul—volunteering, yoga, meditation, music, reading, walks.

You don’t have to go to church, although it helps to find that community, if you can find one that’s not oriented around putting their hands in your pockets or on your kids. There are plenty of good, non-denominational churches like that. Yes, they need money to operate, and you should donate. What they don’t need is what Joel Osteen pays himself— a salary of $54,000,000, a custom garage with 20 stalls for his custom vehicles, including his favorite, a $270,000 Ferrari 458 Italia, not to mention his 70,000 square foot mansion. I worked for Oral Roberts, and saw this disgusting greed and financial rape of the flock first-hand. Find a good church, even if it’s only in your heart or under your own roof.

Our Take

I’m a skeptic but intensely analytic. From what I see so far, the only thing that checks all the boxes and makes sense is the visitor angle. I like to think they’re here to help. If they’re not, well, that’s why we intensely prepare. Now that our cabin dream is gone, we’re thinking more about heading inland to less populated areas. Whenever what is about to happen happens, it will likely be impossible to go anywhere. If we can’t, we have everything we need right here in our pioneer life. It’s pretty clear that if they wanted to hurt us, they are more than capable and likely already would have.

The deafening silence and ridiculous statements from Biden’s administration is very disappointing. Last time we saw him, he was ill. We have a secret dream he’ll step down, even just for a few weeks, and let Kamala be the 47th President. It feels like something is about to break in this whole UAP situation. Something is certainly about to break when Trump and his clown-car of morally and financially corrupt friends take over in a month.

On the pioneer side, I spent yesterday gingerly (still healing from surgery) repairing leaks in our underbelly insulation. It’s about to get big cold, and we can’t have any tanks freezing up. I feel much better that’s done. I’m also setting up the latest solar gear additions, and the cold is complicating that some.

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned!

It's been too hard livingBut I'm afraid to die'Cause I don't know what's up thereBeyond the skyIt's been a longA long time coming, but I knowA change gon' comeOh yes, it will

Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

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Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

Heyo! I’m still kicking—my surgery went well. A little sore, a bit worse for wear and tear but hopefully bought some time here, wherever it is we are. Good thing my good nurse Ms Giavana is in my life. She and little Pia are taking good care of me. I can’t use my left arm for much for six weeks, which sure makes everyday pioneer life more challenging!

That CEO getting shot was a sad but important bellwether for these times. In our last post, we mentioned the Secession of the Plebeians in the old Roman Empire. There are countless examples over history of greed and lust for power, combined with the stepping on the necks of everyday people, grows to a breaking point.

People get to the point in their daily struggles, see their beloved kids, parents harmed, maybe die, and just don’t give a damn anymore. There’s not much more dangerous than a vigilante human who cares not for consequence. It’s what my whole Vigilante Angels fiction trilogy was about—a dying ex-cop who has lost hope and is hell-bent to extract his pound of flesh before he goes to meet his maker.

We had a recent long battle with the same company, United Healthcare, about an expensive claim they rejected that was clearly within their guidelines for coverage. It was horrible—they just kept trying to blow us off and make us go away, hoping we’d give up. This is what happens in a country, the only one, where you allow making people’s sickness and dying a for-profit venture.

With all the dystopian harm that will come to people around the country when Trump comes in, based on his own promises, you’ll see a lot more of this sort of thing, unfortunately. It’s one thing to take the children away from parents who have just crossed the Rio Grande river with just the clothes on their backs. He’s promising to take away the parents and children of people who have only ever lived here, and are likely well entrenched in our culture of guns and violence.

The anarchists will rise, both the non-violent disruptor/occupier sects and the violent ones. Margaret Killjoy’s recent piece here on Substack, I Hope We All Make It was incredibly sad (even more so when listening to the dramatic audio voiceover). She herself hinted at coming out of legendary anarchist retirement.

Today’s young people have been through hell most of their lives, between school shooting terror and the trauma of COVID. Many are likely at that breaking point. They’re worried they’re growing into a broken and condemned world of increasing climate hell, not to mention not enjoying the freedoms that have traditionally been enjoyed by their own parents and grandparents. I don’t blame them for being angry about it.

This election was the first profound example of the danger of massive propaganda allowing to flourish, of the mind control that results. Most of our populace rooted in false belief, despite the evidence in front of their lying eyes and ears. Young people may completely revolt against all of it, disavowing the corporate social media that’s poisoning their minds.

All of this pain because a bunch of boomer snowflakes can’t tolerate being around people who don’t look like them, speak like them, love like them, worship like them. That’s essentially why we’re at where we’re at, with a lifelong con-man and wannabe dictator about to take the reins of our government, followed by his clown car of bizarre criminal sycophants.

Fun story. A beloved old-school corner store/delicatessen in the sleepy burgh near us just closed down. Now a vape shop is going in, and the old maga boomers are losing their stuff over it. “OMG, there goes the neighborhood, what trash!” Same folks with the barrage of tacky blow-up, flashing LED, projection, gaudy holiday “decorations” plastering their homes, and rusted pickup trucks up on blocks in the front yard.

Back to that CEO shooter. He’s reached cult hero status because so many average people have endured similar oppression by the billionaire class, and do every day in their struggles at work and home. So many have said, while seeing news reports of the ridiculous, insane CEO compensation, the penchant for not paying taxes, love of bragging about their wealth, and lust for more wealth, “I wish I could shoot that mfer…” Now somebody has. Apparently the CEO of Cartier’s jeweler/diamond company, worth $7.5 billion dollars, has said his biggest fear is “the poor rising up.”

Which brings me to my next subject—security theater. When I was a kid, I read a lot of scary science fiction from under the covers of my bed when I was supposed to be asleep. I think Mom knew, she was well aware that I couldn’t help but read anything I could find, cereal boxes, furniture tags that should not be cut off “under penalty of law,” etc. She’d check in late at night to find me with the sheets pulled up to my nose, wide-eyed in the darkness. Then she’d turn the light on, check under the bed, and bring in a special anti-monster spray and hit the closets and other hiding places with it to placate me. I still remember the first time, as an adult, someone used Aqua-Net hairspray around me. “That’s the monster spray!” Thanks, Mom. And, these sick b******s want to take kids away from their loving mothers. Careful—moms can shoot too.

The point is, the Aqua-Net was security theater—something useless that makes you feel safe. Most of the perceived security around us is simply for show—primarily to scare someone from doing something. In practice, it’s not anywhere near as effective as we dare to dream. You want examples, you say?

* If a simple 57-year old woman can sneak onto a transatlantic flight, how hard to you think it would be for someone with actual stealth skills, and with malintent?

* Nobody could stop 9/11. All those massive shiny new warehouses are an anarchist/terrorist dream. It’s almost impossible to stop a weaponized small drone.

* If a scrawny kid decides he wants to shoot a Presidential candidate (or anyone else), and actually does, how hard to you think it would be for someone with actual skills, despite all those impressive folks with the earpieces?

* They never caught the person who planted those bombs on January 6.

* They still haven’t caught the CEO shooter. You may have seen the video of the pathetic search of Central Park by NYPD, where dozens of cops leisurely sauntered on the sidewalks, occasionally poking a bush at double-overtime pay, idly chatting about WTF is going on with the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. No wonder they missed that backpack in plain sight for days. 99% of humans shouldn’t be trusted with work that requires diligence, full attention, and where lives are at stake. Not these days, anyway.

* Cops in schools, metal detectors, teachers with guns, and other “security precautions” haven’t stopped one school shooter with a military grade assault weapon, and never will.

* Too many in law enforcement just simply and sadly aren’t the best of us. Many of them are in the newly trained vigilante militias that have been forming up, allegedly to help with this immigrant roundup and enforce border security. Too many were participants in 1/6. Once a group has that kind of power, they typically get out of control with it. Trump’s dream. His own brownshirts.

* Despite all our trillions of dollars invested in tech, military-industrial gear and personnel, intelligence, satellites, our top military and law enforcement people can only stand in front of the cameras and say they still don’t know what these SUV-sized craft are. You know, the ones that have been hovering over our most secure military/nuclear facilities for weeks with impunity.

“Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions,” you say. We’ve been doing that for over a year now. These are the reasons we sold our house and all our crap in order to become mobile and self-sufficient. It was a gamble, in case this exact thing happened. These are the reasons we have our own security/defense systems, food/water/energy stores, medical supplies, and more. We don’t want to scare you. This journal is a money-losing proposition, it’s not to make a click-bait buck. We are anonymous, not seeking fame or attention. We want you to survive, because if you’re the type of person reading this, you’re probably among the best of us. That’s who we’ll need for the rebuilding after this debacle to come has torn everything down.

And so, another pioneer day ends. We shut down our projects and head to the sleep cave to nestle under soft, warm blankets together, all side by side, ensuring we’re always touching, secure and happy that we’re all together. Something distracting is chosen for pre-sleep entertainment, and we three drift away into the ether of dreams together, peacefully. Little Pia snores, but that’s OK. Love means tolerance.

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Next up I hope to get back to some ideas on spirituality, afterlife, and more positive, hopeful content. Stay tuned!

“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage.

And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

Winter has descended on our pioneer home and I very much miss those days of summer festivals. We installed our thermal door flap before the harsh cold arrived. It’s a simple but wonderful tool to keep the heat in and cold out as we go about our business. The thing I love most about it is the Native American teepee vibe it gives to our pioneer RV home. I boycotted Thanksgiving again this year in honor of those victims of our massive genocide.

There are six of us families hunkered down on this hill for the winter. The mountain range looms behind us, a comfort. Bear and mountain lions have been spotted all around our perimeter recently; we can hear them at night. Pia is always on high alert during our early morning and nighttime walks in the dark. She does her business and trots back to the hut—”Let’s GTF inside, yo!” She hears and sees things we cannot. She knows danger is lurking at that forest tree line. Our pond and lake are frozen, and the beautiful shades of autumn are reduced to bare gray sticks, the scalp of an old man lying on the gurney, reaching, begging for just a little more life.

None of us neighbors know much about each other, the code is MYOB. We mostly keep to our cordial selves and find comfort in that no matter what anyone’s political ideology is, when the hard times hit, when the power is out, and snow is deep, we’ll help one another despite all that. It’s a comfort, hope for humanity.

We’ve posted a lot recently on prepping. We feel we’re as ready as we can be at this point—with still just a few minor touch-ups needed. Our big concerns have shifted from political violence (now that the Trumpies are placated; perhaps until they find out how badly they’ve screwed themselves…) to quickly evolving world war, the next looming pandemic, and yes, our new alien visitors. Not to mention sinkholes opening up and swallowing grandmas as we suck the oil and gas out of this balloon we live on.

Your Next Pandemic

Giavana is a registered nurse and works in clinical trials. She pays attention to the medical radar the way I pay attention to the military/intelligence side. There’s some crazy stuff growing in our round blue petri dish at the moment. There’s a mystery disease rapidly spreading and has already killed hundreds. We don’t know what it is.

These additional diseases are also growing and on the move: Monkey pox, Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, H1N1 Bird Flu (now in dairy products, poultry, humans), polio detected in NYC waste water, measles on the rise, mumps, rubella, walking pneumonia, and whooping cough (450% increase in those last two recently). And we still have good old COVID-19 and flu. Winter is the worst time for this—the spread is fast as we all stay indoors, crammed into shopping centers and holiday gatherings. This is the worst possible time to elect and bring to power a group of low-IQ anti-science, anti-medicine clowns. RFK Jr went to Samoa when a measles outbreak started killing their children, and spread misinformation about the vaccine. Result: many more children died. “Dr” Oz spent his adult life ripping off people who just wanted help with his fake snake-oil remedies. Now those nuts will be in charge of your health; your kids’ health.

I’m dashing this post off today because tomorrow morning I go under the knife—work on the ticker. One of our prepping suggestions is to take care of any planned medical needs and procedures now. I’m practicing what I preach, although I don’t have much choice in the matter. Fortunately, I have a very beautiful and wonderful nurse and caretaker in Ms. Giavana and my raggedy ever-present source of comfort and love, Ms. Pia.

So, the question is—are you stocked on N95 masks? The products that we had such a hard time getting when COVID slammed us in a heartbeat just a few years ago? This includes all we’ve discussed in our last few posts, including and especially hygiene products, food, water, and medical supplies. Darwin is going to take his pound (tons) of flesh again, be prepared so you’re not among the victims.

Crypto Bros

I’ve been a crypto skeptic/naysayer but saw the light when I heard stories of those in dire circumstances using it to buy banned sources of medicine and transport. If you’re going to need that kind of underworld help as our nation descends into a TV-clown con man autocracy, you’ll need crypto to buy the goods and services you need.

As I said, we’re not betting the farm on this. Just enough to maybe accomplish some of those goals. We’re putting our feet in these digital waters. I have to say it’s been hilarious, as Giavana and I, old people, try to navigate and learn up on this tech. It reminds me very much of trying to teach the elders in our family tree what the internet is back in the 1990s.

“Put it in there!”

“Excuse me?”

“No, in the wallet. The crypto wallet.”

“The coins don’t go in there; just the private keys.”

“Where’s our coins?”

“In the blockchain.”

“WTF is that? Where my money at?”

Yeah, we now crypto bro and crypto babe. I think we have this down now. Step by step, day by day. It’s good to have options, and we’re being careful to take a conservative approach and every possible precaution.

Election Reflection

We still hold out hope that something will happen before the Jan 20 inauguration. The math and stats around a lot of the results is just completely bizarre. But, unlike the cult, no claiming anything without substantive proof. We’ll see.

Looking back though, what things might have made a difference? Kamala was incredible. We miss that joy and enthusiasm. Those planned policies to help everyday Americans, not billionaires. If these results are legit, this election was won on ignorance.

Our average adult reading level is 6th grade. The Trump demographic (if you don’t trust me, just go watch the rally footage and attendee interviews, not to mention J6 footage) is primarily uneducated, bigoted, boomer white folk (yes, and very rich folk). These are people who have zero to no knowledge of how inflation and basic economics work. No idea how our long-broken immigration and asylum laws work. How shipping out a massive portion of our low-end workforce, those construction and agricultural workers, would cripple our economy (8% of our GDP, gone, poof!) and the billions they pay in taxes for programs they’ll never get to use. How that effort alone, to round them up and ship them out, will cost us trillions more in debt to be paid by us, our kids, grandkids. Out of ignorance, MAGA drank up that Kool-Aid.

I think a series of dumbed-down, cartoonish Schoolhouse Rock type short ads that demonstrate these concepts would have been impactful. They didn’t need to have, shouldn’t have, anything about Trump or Harris or politics. Just the basics, graphically depicted, of how these things work and thus, how they were being played by the con, brainwashed by that massive propaganda effort on Fox and Twitter/X. Maybe, then, Mr & Mrs Bubbamaga would have understood. Maybe. Soon they will, though.

Before Trump, the ignorant among us elected a guy “I’d like to have a beer with,” George W. Bush. Like Trump, he struggled to get through school, born with a silver spoon, clearly low-IQ. Result? Thousands of our brave servicemembers dead in a war we entered based on lies by him and his handlers Cheney and Rumsfeld. A massive financial crisis that cost working families their homes and savings. An economy left in ruins. More massive debt for our country. Obama cleaned that mess up and left Trump a golden economy, which he also left in tatters, with hundreds of thousands of Americans dead unnecessarily on our own soil. $7 trillion in additional debt, $4 trillion of that due to the tax cuts for the rich he said would pay for themselves, and didn’t.

It will likely get bad. What can we do? In ancient Rome, when the wealth equality got out of control, the commoners (plebs, or plebeians) realized they had power in their numbers and rose up—The Secession of the Plebeians. They held boycotts, strikes, protests, disrupted traffic and the economy, refused to fight in the military, and left the cities and began to form their own self-sufficient communities. The impact was drastic. Rome’s enemies saw this weakness in their military and economy immediately, and Rome folded. This is the kind of non-violent anarchy we need, and we will see. You saw the immediate reaction when martial law was declared in South Korea yesterday.

As well, the Democrat party at large needs change. Some of these ancient politicians need to step aside in favor of more young, energetic replacements. Everyone loved Ruth Bader-Ginsburg but the reality is she enjoyed that limelight too long, “Oh, how cute the 90 year old lady doing exercise!” and refused to leave when she was clearly too old and ill. It was one of the first dominoes in this disaster. We saw that with Senator Feinstein, and see it in so many others (Pelosi, Nadler…). They enjoy the spotlight and access to insider trading to further enrich themselves. They all do it—both parties, and it’s disgusting. Make the left the party of the young intelligent, open-minded, compassionate. Back to the party of the working people, the commoners, the plebes.

All righty, folks. I’m getting myself all worked up, and the doc said to chill prior to this surgery! Time to hit send. If I don’t make it (being dramatic here, it’s routine surgery) remember my words—be kind, be generous, and I’ll see you on the other side, my brothers and sisters.

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. The clock is ticking. Stay tuned!

Religion is for people who fear hell, spirituality is for people who have been there.”—David Bowie

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

Happy Thanksgiving from your pioneer friends me, Giavana, and Pia! I guess I shouldn’t have mused about, “What’s next, alien invasion?” It appears it may be on. Military bases around the world are clearly being monitored. More reason to prepare, and that’s what we’ve been all about since we started this pioneer journey. We’ve already covered prepping for personal safety and security, financial security (here, here, here, here and yes, my thinking has evolved on crypto!), and medical. Today we’ll cover food, water, energy. Good timing, as almost everything in the links in those posts is on sale for Black Friday (and likely will be for the holiday season and after, and perhaps ridiculously expensive after Trump comes in Jan 20 and introduces those tariffs). I’m tracking the UAP situation and may do a post on it (prepping for alien invasion?)

Mobile preppers (pioneers) have a much bigger challenge when it comes to food, water, and energy. Most of this stuff is heavy!

Water

If your goal is to harm or kill people, consider that 90% of people rely on the public water systems. Those are fed by reservoirs that are big bodies of water right out in the open. They’re a huge target for any enemy to attack. So, how to stock up? Sure, you can freeze-dry food, but there’s no freeze-drying water. Within 72 hours without water, humans are extremely dehydrated. This breeds desperation, the mind plays tricks, and people resort to drinking bad water filled with bacteria and die from that. Many of our troops in Afghanistan learned this lesson the hard way.

We keep a rack under our White House pioneer RV loaded with 5-gallon containers of water. We use this small device to pop on top and create a nice compact, portable fountain. We also keep some smaller 3L jugs on hand. In a bug-out situation, we likely wouldn’t be able to carry all that weight. We have too many other heavy things further up the priority list (ammo, solar gear, generator, us). Humans require about a gallon of water a day, minimum, just for drinking. Don’t forget your fur babies! Three gallons is the minimum when you include sanitation, cooking, etc. If you have freeze-dried food, you need water.

The small Lifestraws are a great solution—we have a bunch. You can literally stick them in a pond or lake or puddle and safely drink through them in almost all circumstances. Next up the chain is a collection system that can be used to filter rainwater or other sources. This larger one is the best bet. Having these lightweight solutions means you can skip carrying too much heavy water and utilize any you find in a new location. We also keep purification tablets in our bug-out gear. I’m not a fan of the systems that attach to guttering. Those gutters are filthy, and likely introducing an abundance of aluminum, rust, or plastic. Sure, it should be filtered out, but still. Food-grade collection barrels are a good way to keep stock on hand if you have space. As an extra precaution, you can boil your water if you have sufficient heat/energy to use for that. Here’s a video on a budget DIY water collection system.

If you have a pool, congratulations! It’s a wonderful emergency water supply. You can use products like the PortaWell to immediately convert it to safe water, and it’s already way cleaner than pond or lake water (I hope!). It’s another reason I converted my pool to salt rather than chlorine sanitation, back when I had a house with a pool. If it’s an inground pool, when it’s empty you can always use it for hidden shelter (assuming you have a robust cover), if not just waiting for rain to fill it back up. Perhaps shallow end for hiding, deep end for water.

If you live in a fixed location, you might have a well. Don’t be overconfident. During this recent severe drought around the US, wells started running dry. As well (sorry for the pun), they can easily be contaminated. (Have you had yours tested lately?). Keep a good stock of backup water and rotate through it.

Food

We need to exceed 1,000 calories a day, on average, before we hit starvation mode. You should shoot to double that number. Don’t just look at calories, though. You need a diversity of good nutrients and vitamins to stay healthy and alert. Beans and rice alone won’t cut it—your body will revolt at trying to continually process those dense foods. Costco-sized bags of these items, if not stored properly, will likely develop worms or go bad in other ways over time.

Cases of canned foods like chili and stew are great, but again, heavy. The water is already in there. It’s good to have a few cases on hand, but use them regularly to rotate/cycle through them, always storing so the oldest bought is next up to consume, to avoid expiration dates (which are generally suggestions in my humble opinion!) We also keep stores of protein bars on hand for quick energy.

Costco has a great selection of emergency freeze-dried food kits. We buy our other bulk goods there. Military Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) kits come with everything you need, including a heat source to warm food. Some are surplus, and that’s fine, they have an over five-year shelf life. Make sure you sample anything you buy. Sure, by complacent normal-life standards they might not be the best. But when you hit starvation/survival mode, you’ll be surprised how heavenly delicious they are.

Our kit includes a compact kitchen mess kit complete with a Jetboil stove. The small Jetboil cannisters are a great compact, efficient source of heat and can be bought at any local outdoor store. They were quite popular with our troops in Afghanistan, for good reason.

We have a good prepper seed kit for the long haul, if growing is possible (see: nuclear or solar radiation). Like water, your food will only last so long. It’s good to practice gardening now, so you know the rigors of doing it right and keeping animals (and humans) away from your crop. As well, you should consider a good, compact fishing kit, perhaps some traps or snares for game. Our personal security post covered guns and ammo, and they can be used for non-humans, too. A few chickens can be a great source of eggs, and perhaps protein.

Energy

If you’ve been following us, you know we’ve been concerned about this aspect of survival prepping. Yes, even though we live in a completely self-sufficient pioneer covered wagon RV! We have a gasoline/propane duel-fuel generator, but again, fuel is heavy and these are noisy (even the “quiet” ones). Noise attracts unwanted attention, especially if others have no power. It could be deadly. Fuel will be hard to come by in the worst circumstances (gas stations do require energy to pump gas, if they have any).

For those reasons, we’ve been feeling exposed and concerned. No energy, no survival, not for long, anyway. We did a ton of research, first starting with ways to solar outfit our RV, which is the usual route people take. But, we started thinking, what if we have to bug out without the White House? What if we someday get that dream log cabin and sell the White House, or simply upgrade it? So, the research turned to more practical solutions to address those concerns. We went with this Jackery kit (way cheaper now with Black Friday, ugh) and then added another expansion battery and two more 200w folding panels, along with some extension cables. These work incredibly well and the Jackery support team are amazing. As long as that old black hole sun is burning, we have energy, power for life. Whew.

We have a smaller folding solar charging blanket for some smaller uses. I’m also exploring comms, as in getting my ham radio technician’s license and a home rig plus some portable radios. We do have hand-crank weather/emergency radios (with solar recharging) and longer-range walkie talkies for now.

As always, keep the essential books handy, both in hardcopy and stored locally on a laptop or even better, extremely small and lightweight Kindle that can be read in daylight. Remember, download the books to the device so they’re on there and ready when there’s no wifi. These make great holiday gifts, and can save lives in so many different circumstances.

Survival Medicine Handbook

Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide

SAS Survival Handbook

The Prepper’s Blueprint

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more and make more concrete decisions. The clock is ticking. Stay tuned!

"All things are ready, if our mind be so."—William Shakespeare

“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”—Carl Sagan

“Fascinations breeds preparedness, and preparedness, survival.”—Peter Benchley

"Private-sector preparedness is not a luxury; it is a cost of doing business in the post-9/11 world. It is ignored at a tremendous potential cost in lives, money and national security."—The 9/11 Commission Report

"As a species, we've somehow survived large and small ice ages, genetic bottlenecks, plagues, world wars and all manner of natural disasters, but I sometimes wonder if we'll survive our own ingenuity."—Diane Ackerman

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

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Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

We’ve been hard at work here in pioneer-land, prepping for the dystopia ahead as each day the clown show continues. Headline after headline announces the next ridiculously unqualified white dude “straight from central casting,” complete with good hair and a long resume of unethical, immoral, and criminal behavior nominated to run a vast, complex government agency that has direct impact on your lives. Welcome to Trump’s newest reality show.

Remember, Trump and Trump supporters are just a symptom of the problem. The real, actual problem is the rapid decline of ethics, compassion, and morality combined with the escalation of rampant excessive greed. It’s a species problem, but seems to be wildly more prevalent here in the USA. Runaway capitalism is the difference, it’s fuel on the fire in this country. Our beloved America got cancer when Citizens United was upheld by the Supreme Court, and now it’s metastasizing rapidly. That was when the firewall broke between big money and our democracy.

My thesis on our existence, God, and the afterlife holds that we’re placed in this environment of extreme temptation as a test of our spiritual growth and purity. If we’ve sufficiently evolved, we may then gain access to a more perfect existence beyond. What are those criteria? Every religious text lays them out, such as the Beatitudes. Be compassionate, be generous, be peaceful, be humble. Exactly the opposite of what we’re seeing in this majority cult, which is, instead, a walking embodiment of the seven deadly sins.

We watched the new Netflix Civil War era movie, “The Free State of Jones.” This is what we’re going back to, all that overt hatred and discrimination. All the promise of good things for working people that Kamala Harris embodied is lost. It seems we are going back, after all. It’s interesting to note one root cause of most of this has always been parents that are terrified their kids may start dating someone with a different skin color or religion, or perhaps that by allowing gay people to live their lives in the open, their kids may somehow become gay themselves. The fear of being embarrassed in their social circles far outweighs just loving their kids for who they are, and wanting them to be happy.

As a former IT security professional and ethical hacker, I still pay attention to that community. There are rumblings deep in geekland as the metadata from the election and details about the tech specifics come to light. Something seems very, very wrong there. I’m not about to claim fraud—we should never do that without absolute, concrete evidence. Otherwise, we’re as ignorant of the Trumpies. But, there’s clearly smoke and I’m hoping the best we have are hard at work on this. We should know as the state certification deadlines approach in the coming weeks.

Money Prepping Part II

In our last journal entry, we discussed money prepping and some of the steps we’ve already taken. That’s a tough one. If you try to research it, you get things like, “pay off your debt,” and “have a good emergency fund.” Great advice, but this potential rising economic collapse situation requires more. We talked about a few strategies we’re taking (that might not be right for you). Some of those are stocking up on actual cash (bank straps of $1, $5, $10, $20 bills), small-denomination silver coins (for trading/bartering), and larger denomination (small, lightweight) gold coins (for bigger asks, such as, “help me GTF outta this country…”).

The problem is, that kind of money is heavy and it’s not too secure to be holding a bunch of it during desperate times (makes you a target). Since then, we’ve done a crash course in crypto currencies. Yeah, I know—it’s imaginary money. But it has been useful in dire situations around the world. Useful for buying banned medicines, vaccines, information, and services—such as “help me GTF outta this country.” There’s a pretty good tutorial series at CoinBase.

Unlike bank accounts, crypto currency cannot be seized by rogue, greedy autocratic governments who might use an emergency powers declaration. These allow a leader to take over domestic communications and media, seize bank accounts, prevent people from leaving the country, deploy U.S. troops against citizens, stop those pesky elections from happening, and much more. If you can’t imagine a power-drunk lunatic like Trump cashing all those chips, well bless your heart. He’s recently stated he’ll invoke emergency powers as soon as he’s inaugurated. He’s long promised to be a dictator on day one. What’s being planned, right out in the open, is a massive amount of shock and awe moves following the inauguration that are designed to overwhelm Americans and force a psychological coping mechanism of turtling up into submission and acceptance. We’re already seeing people just shrug their shoulders in the face of this ongoing horror show.

You don’t want to put all your life savings in crypto currencies, of course. However, staking in for a small amount provides yet another option—more diversity. It’s a whole new world rife with ways to get taken by bad actors. Hence, our crash education. Secure cold wallets store access to your coins offline, disconnected from the grid. If you’re doing this from a prepping perspective you’re keeping those coins for an in-case-of-emergency-break-glass situation, not trading with them daily.

There are many different crypto coins. BitCoin is just one type, the “Kleenex” of crypto currency, but it’s currently expensive due to being the market leader. Ethereum is in second place, stable, established, and less expensive. Ethereum has an advantage in that it support smart contracts, such as, “you get half the money now, and the rest when I’m safely outta this country.” Ethereum has other advantages in that it’s much easier on the environment, safer, and executes transactions faster than BitCoin. Meme coins and those created as a “joke,” such as the DogeCoin Musk is pushing on Trump and the country, are far more volatile and risky.

We’re also looking at offshore bank accounts, although it’s still unclear whether they can be seized by a rogue US autocrat. Even if so, it’s another layer of protection that separates our money from this threat.

Fight or Flee?

We’re coming to accept, slowly, the dream that we’d be able to put the long national Trump nightmare in the past and go about enjoying what’s left of our lives, is gone. No catching up on the back reading list, enjoying hobbies and retirement. No forever-home log cabin by the water. Not in this country, at least. We have all this planning and preparation to do. We’re not some hair-on-fire lunatics. We’re being thoughtful, purposeful, and pragmatic. We like having options.

There’s always the chance this is all talk—hot air. Keep in mind that in the last administration, Trump tried to pull off every horrible thing he promised. He was only stopped in much of it because he had some adults around him in the White House, and in Congress. That won’t be the case this time. He has experience, and only worse people around him. And even then, he managed to run up an additional $7 trillion in debt and kill hundreds of thousands of beloved Americans unnecessarily on our own soil. Among all the other drama, scandal, and constant fiascos. We were lucky we only had one crisis during that four years. There are many looming this time.

It’s not just about the election, although Harris would have begun the process to move our country to a happier one, such as, well, the rest of the developed world where you aren’t forced to work yourself into poor health and health care is a right, not a for-profit monster. The seminal piece is Kirsten Powers’ The Way We Live in the US is Not Normal. It’s free, please read it! Consider how much worse it will be for your kids and grandkids if this path continues in the US. You love them, right?

Our second citizenship is almost done. I had predicted that other countries would recognize the value of attracting the educated “good” Americans who voted for Harris. It’s already happening, with countries like Italy offering homes for $1 just to attract our wealth and spending. We’re planning a trip, perhaps around the inauguration. Sure, they’re tiny fixer-uppers. But, it’s a foothold, a roof and four walls to escape to if necessary. A place for our kids and grandkids to escape to, if necessary. We have elderly moms who need our help from time to time, so that’s a factor pushing us to stay. It’s a conundrum. Every single expat we talk to, most of whom left the first time Trump got elected, is deliriously happy. Just like the rest of the developed world.

Part of us, being Americans, makes us want to stay and fight. The problem is, this isn’t some small minority that’s taken over American (or, about to). Apparently, if the election results hold true, this is America. It’s been lost. We hit that tipping point when our ignorance and lack of education overwhelms reason, education, and goodness. It’s a result of massive propaganda networks like Rush Limbaugh, Fox, and Twitter, all run by billionaires. It’s happened in every dynasty in history, and at 248 years, we’ve been long overdue.

So, as stated, we’re working hard to ensure we have options. We can hitch up the White House and hit Canada or Mexico, if they’re accepting refugees for asylum. We can hotfoot it to Europe. If the second citizenship isn’t done by then, we can finish it there. Buying an inexpensive property would probably help. We’re preparing to be mobile, here inside the US, if necessary in the interim or permanently. There are already pioneer RV communities of like-minded individuals forming, and we’re tracking those as well. Lots rent and sell inexpensively.

While we’re still here, we participate in overt organizations like indivisible.org and citizen.org that are fighting back. There will be covert organizations (the resistance), you can bet on that, who will take far more drastic measures. It’s probably going to get very ugly, especially when the ignoramuses who voted for Trump start to realize and experience directly just what they voted for. We may see revolt happen in the blue states. the Governors are already banding together. Don’t be surprised to see, at some point, red state national guards attacking blue states. This kind of horror, in his name, is what excites Trump very much. See: January 6. He doesn’t care how many die, are maimed for life, or go to prison. It’s good ratings for his new reality show.

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more and make more concrete decisions. The clock is ticking.

Next up, we’ll take you through prepping for food/water and energy. Stay tuned!

“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!”—Bob Marley

“No level of border security, no wall, doubling the size of the border patrol, all these things will not stop the illegal migration from countries as long as a 7-year-old is desperate enough to flee on her own and travel the entire length of Mexico because of the poverty and the violence in her country.”—Jeh Johnson

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Project: Pioneer (Prepping, Politics, Afterlife, RVLife) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Don’t despair—prepare.

We pioneers have been in Europe for the past ten days. It was eye-opening from a prepper perspective. We were there to complete requirements for dual citizenship, begin to learn how to buy property, as well as take a long-overdue vacation in the last days of the pre-World War III world. Here’s what we discovered and experienced. And please, if you’re in one of those election districts in Wisconsin and Florida for this Tuesday, go vote and bring anyone and everyone else you can.

Pioneer Update

Before we get into all that Europy stuff, a quick status update on us. We had to leave little Pia behind, so Giavana and I missed her very much. Same with our covered wagon RV, the White House. This coming week back home will be a transition time—break camp at the remote location we’ve lived at for almost two years, and move her to stand-by nearby, fully prepped and ready to carry us to escape mid-country if necessary. What we saw in Europe has only increased our motivation. Now that we’re home, our emphasis also moves to getting our raised bed garden up and running, getting to the shooting range, working with the local eco/intentional community folks, and getting to some of these resistance protests and meetings.

Europe Prepares for WWIII

A good prepper is always gathering intel. Sure, a solid stock of provisions will keep you alive. Intelligence gathering is also critical. During our time in Europe, we paid close attention to what the locals were saying, and watched news channels based in several countries.

First, as we always say, this isn’t a journal intended to cause hysteria and fear mongering just to get clicks. Clicks get us nothing—very few pay for these words. We aren’t interested in fame either. We are anonymous for a reason. We’re interested in helping save those who want to be saved, preparing those who want to be prepared.

The countries of Europe are providing their citizens with education on how to prep—stocking provisions, all the things we do as preppers. They are also educating them on how to survive nuclear blasts. This is the government educating their people, not some random doomsday cult. They are buying up land to use for tens of thousands of graves.

It is serious business—nobody knows the future, but indicators of world war are blinking red. They are also all working to institute the military draft for able-bodied men and women. In the US, that means compulsory conscription for ages 17 to 45. We have a leader who is drooling at the thought of building a big, beautiful army to fight in his name, so he can enjoy it all on TV like he did on January 6. After all, we’re just his newest reality show.

Did we not just see a spectacular example of stupidity, and lapse of national security, a bunch of grown man-child bros at the top of our military and intelligence departments spewing emojis and excited bro-talk on a non-secure commercial app, jacked over the bombing of innocent children? Imagine their excitement at orchestrating a full-blown war, with our kids getting maimed and dying, of course not theirs. We’re gaslit starting in kindergarten, throughout our lives, how heroic and patriotic it would be to go off and die for our country’s constant genocidal conquests that enrich the already rich.

In Europe, we visited the crumbled, destroyed remnants of ancient dynasties and empires. History rhymes. The vast, powerful Roman Empire collapsed due to an incredible amount of greed and corruption, which caused division and infighting. The Germanics saw the weakness, invaded and took them down. Strong parallels to today, in the United States. Now that our government is being dismantled internally via chainsaw, and we have a collection of completely inexperienced corrupt fools in charge, we are incredibly exposed. Our enemies know this, and they’re watching and planning day by day.

The history we learned (or, relearned). on our trip was a reminder of the ages of human evil on the macro (nation) and micro (individual) level. So much cruelty, gluttony, greed, lust for power. So much suffering and death of innocents. We never learn. The mistake we make is living as if this one brief phase of our spiritual existence is all there is. You’re greedy and immoral, you might do well here, but there's a good chance you're screwed for eternity after that.

The attorneys we met with in Europe said they’re swamped with requests from Americans for passports, visas, and citizenship. Other countries are tightening their rules to prevent a mass influx of Americans, as we found on our recent visit to Canada. Those damned pesky immigrants, amirite? Irony is dead. Then again, the Jews that saw what was coming in 1930s Germany and left were the ones who survived.

We saw and heard much evidence of Europe and our other former allies around the world (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others) moving rapidly to detach themselves from any dependence or reliance on the United States, including their currencies. That’s a very bad thing for us on many levels.

Our brain blocks us from stark realization sometimes. We don’t want to believe things when they seem extreme. Jews waited forever for the prophesies of a coming Messiah to come true. When he arrived, despite witnessing proof who he was over and over, they were like, “Nah, this ain’t the guy,” and killed him. In my recent post, I outlined extensive evidence that Trump is indeed the antichrist. Fun times (not).

In my career, I traveled around the world every single week for years. I always saw so much American themed apparel on the foreigners, I often felt like I was back in the USA. Not this time, the difference was very evident. In grayperson prepper mode, Giavana and I made sure to not wear anything identifying us as Americans. The natives are clearly turned off by the US, and all we now stand for. In fact, the vendors were making sure their wares all had very prominent “Made in Europe” labels. It was very sad.

Our time in Europe was wonderful. Despite all that, the people were going about their business. They were incredibly polite, even after some realized we were American. Not once did anyone lose patience or become rude with these lost, confused, and tired travelers, even in the non-tourist backwaters we made our way to. Some natives gently broached the subject of our takeover, expressing incredulity and actual pity for us and our country.

The things that struck us most were the taxi drivers, restaurant servers, hotel wait staff that would often politely decline tips, or act genuinely surprised and thankful to receive them. It is because they are paid a living wage, and have excellent healthcare and retirement programs. They work normal hours with a long lunch break. Unlike our country, where hard working people like that cannot survive, due to the harm to extravagant corporate profits.

We saw very, very few corporate chains, particularly in eateries. Everywhere we went, the restaurants and cafes were small mom and pop operations serving ridiculously inexpensive and healthy food. That was a very stark contrast to home. They aren’t owned by corporations. The people aren’t being poisoned and addicted to garbage, for profit. They eat smaller, healthy portions.

The trains we rode were inexpensive, fast, on time, and super clean. The people were all multi-lingual—nobody losing their mind over someone speaking a foreign language—another stark contrast. In the crowded plazas, narrow streets, and on the roadways they were patient. The big cities were remarkable in that, even while in traffic, there were no drivers blaring horns, cutting each other off, providing finger gestures.

A notable difference for us, was that in the restaurants we saw a very leisurely social experience. People took their time eating (good for health) and the servers never rushed anyone. In the US, a pet peeve of ours is servers constantly coming up to us while still eating and asking if we want a box. They’re pressured to flip those tables, as it’s very good for profit.

We saw plenty of local and regional police, and military personnel. They were very observant, polite, and helpful to everyone around them. Tough looking and well armed, but not with that attitude as if they were standing by just waiting for a chance to crack some skulls. They smiled, showing true strength of confidence. Real badasses don’t have to constantly try to project badassery. They were almost equal numbers male and female. The dopes we have in charge now are all weak failson trust fund babies from unloving wealthy parents, insecure and feeling that need to project and cosplay uber-masculinity to compensate. The Joe Rogan set.

Among the tourists, we saw plenty of locals in fresh air parks and museums with their kids, and no signs of corporate amusement parks. The younger kids’ faces were not embedded in screens, just the older teenagers.

They drive very small cars and scooters (unlike our land yachts), and walk a lot. There were tons of recycling and composting devices along all the streets. We saw a strong emphasis on solar power, energy efficiency, and caring for the planet and climate. It’s a shame that our growing ignorance here will likely overshadow all their efforts.

It was all so…civilized.

What to Do

So…that’s a bummer, right? It is what it is. Buddhism says to expect bad things, they are a part of life. Endure them, do what you can, focus on the things to be thankful for. We’re big on the do what you can aspect!

The major purpose of this trip was to put the final stamp on about a year of chasing bureaucracy and paperwork to obtain dual citizenship and passports from a new country. Do you have any heritage you can rely on? Have you done a DNA ancestry test to make sure? Sometimes…there are surprises, just saying. Not a fan of turning over your DNA, but again, privacy these day is dead. Like your SSN, assume it’s already in the Musk Doge database. The benefit of finding out you may have an option could outweigh that concern.

Otherwise, there are other ways. Check into special visas for people with certain skills, student visas (even if you’re an adult), and so forth. Some countries allow you to get a visa and on the path to citizenship simply by purchasing (or even renting) a property, or investing some money there. Start learning up on the various expat reddit forums, a great place to strategize.

We think we have that part solved, although it will still take some time as we wait for everything to work through the bureaucracy and get approved. Now we move on to perhaps finding an inexpensive place to buy or rent. The attorneys we spoke to regarding our citizenship said they would help us with those things, so that’s our new focus. We will keep you informed of what we learn each step of the way! Others on Substack, like Kirsten Powers have already done the whole thing, and have plenty of sage advice.

That said, this new threat has changed our calculus. Do we run off, headlong into the first wave of WWIII, a likely Russian invasion and bombing of Europe, leaving all our prepping resources behind? Leaving behind a land, people, terrain, language, we’re very familiar with? Most importantly, leaving behind all those we love (but perhaps, also giving them a place to flee to).

Likely not, at least as a first option. We’ve written how we’re concerned about our financial assets. In times of impending potential collapse of a monetary system, it’s a good thing to convert those monies to tangible things with value, both financial and survival. Buying a small spot that needs TLC on the cheap at least provides a roof over your heads, provides another option. We like options.

Maybe the first big event isn’t a Russian invasion of Europe. Maybe it’s (surprise!) the movement of our troops to the northern and southern borders wasn’t to keep immigrants out, it was to keep us in when martial law is declared. It would be good to get ahead of that. Slip into Canada or Mexico, buy a way in to Europe with undetectable crypto or metals, and boat or plane passage to the emergency home. Keep in mind that April 20th is the day he requested a report be delivered to him as to whether martial law and\or state of emergency is necessary.

That’s where we’re at and what’s on our mind lately, as the landscape shifts beneath our very feet day by day and we all slide into the abyss of authoritarianism and fascism.

“An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.”—Confucius

“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”—Maximilien Robespierre

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”—Plato

Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

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Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Don’t despair—prepare.

The nights are restless here in pioneer-land. Giavana, Pia, and I jostle for position in our dark, warm, cozy-blanketed sleep cave, waking often to check that we’re all there together, especially after a nightmare. We all three have them, about every night. After a moment to give thanks we’re all still there, we nuzzle and fall back into (hopefully, good) dreams. Morning always comes, however, and with it a new day we’ll use to prepare. We can’t tell the future, but sometimes we can be pretty sure. This is one of those times.

We started this pioneer RV life over a year ago. We sold our house and all our ridiculous unnecessary suburban crap because we wanted options, should the worst occur. We turned our neglected household closet, basement, garage, and attic clutter into money, and used some of that money on our new pioneer life.

And, here we are, on the cusp of so many unpleasant possibilities over the horizon. Climate. Political takeover. War. Economic catastrophe. It’s all but being promised. We’d hoped we’d be wrong back then. Heck, if good somehow triumphs over evil, we can always buy another house and more unnecessary crap. Now we see so many people looking to start down this same path. Welcome!

Hopefully, the guidance we’ve provided over the past year will help some. I outlined much of what we bought back in Post #12 Riders On The Storm, Prepper/Personal Safety Edition. See that one for links to basic prepping goodies. Mistakes are expensive, both financially and health-wise. So, let’s focus on those two in this journal entry.

We spent a good part of the weekend inventorying our prepper gear and supplies. It sounds like a downer exercise but in reality it was kind of uplifting to see all the things we have available to solve so many scary problems. It feels good to know you have solutions ready to go. It means less stress. The process also reveals exposures.

Let’s cover medical and financial here. Maybe next we’ll cover energy and food/water. As stated above, I’ve already covered weapons and personal safety.

Medical

Note: We are not medical professionals and this does not constitute medical advise. Consult with your medical team, and you do you.

We had bought a few comprehensive medical kits over the past few years (see link in prior post). They have to be viewed like food is—stuff that can expire. Keep in mind, often expired stuff is better than no stuff. The dates are merely suggestions, as I always remind Giavana as she’s carefully eying the food in our refrigerator. She does not concur.

Seriously though, expired medicine can hurt you, so it has to be tossed. It’s also not as effective as fresh stuff, not a good thing if you’re hurt or sick. So, job one was to toss and replace those items in the kits, which we did (pain reliever pills, etc).

Looking through the kits revealed gaps in our preparedness. They were comprehensive for basic, utility first-aid needs, far more than your standard “home first aid kit.” But, again, looking ahead, there’s a big problem looming. If the promises made are fulfilled, we may have a hospital/urgent care/emergency room catastrophe looming. Care will compromised. Waits may be very, very long. Facilities may close, so there may not be availability nearby. In an emergency situation, seconds and minutes count.

Here’s why. If the ACA is repealed, millions will be thrown off their healthcare plans, including the free preventative care they get. Health problems will fester, until they become emergencies. People without insurance tend to go to the ER for everything, because the ER can’t refuse them (yet) for lack of insurance. We’re also seeing comments from the incoming administration that they’ll make cuts to Medicaid, veteran benefits, and Medicare. That should exacerbate the problem by orders of magnitude. Not to mention, in a climate disaster, help doesn’t come quickly and significant injuries are quite easy to come by.

In times of despair, people turn to alcohol and drugs, leading to more ER trips for them and the people they injure out of violence, car accidents, and other mistakes.

We feel we need more of a pioneer emergency room. To accomplish that, we added the items below. I’ll provide the Amazon link (Black Friday sales are starting!), but of course they’re available elsewhere. We also keep The Survival Medicine Handbook handy at all times. It’s an incredible layman’s guide to field medicine.

Liquid stitches (i.e. crazy glue for skin). Yes, this one says it’s for pets. If you read the comments, it seems lots of humans use it in emergencies.

Compression Battle Dressing. Awesome to make it easy to do that one very important thing—put direct pressure on a profusely bleeding wound.

Emergency Laceration Closures. Like stitches, but no needle and thread required.

Quick Clot. Get bleeding wounds to clot faster.

CPR Masks. Good for avoiding infection or disease if you have to give CPR.

Broken Tooth Repair. This isn’t denture stuff, it’s very strong epoxy for fixing teeth.

Iodine Tablets. These are useful in case of nuclear accidents and radiation exposure.

Tourniquets. Essential. Most of those on the market are crap that will break.

N95 Masks. Always remember those early days of COVID. It won’t be our last pandemic.

We’re thinking an AED/defibrillator would also be good, but haven’t purchased one yet.

Check into getting certified in CPR and basic emergency care at adult classes at your local community college or other place. It could save your life or that of someone you love!

Money

Note: This is not financial advice, merely my own musings for entertainment and informational purposes. Remember, your situation is likely very different from ours. Good decisions we make for ourselves could well be catastrophic for someone else.

It seems we have a shadow President (and/or first lady?), as Elonia Musk is ever-present by Trump’s side, joining in national security calls with world leaders, apparently has had our enemy Putin on speed dial for the past year in preparation.

Musk can’t be president because he’s an immigrant, in fact an illegal immigrant at one point. So, he did the next best thing—he bought one with his massive social media propaganda network and huge campaign contributions. He did it because he knows Trump is dumb, and can be easily manipulated. Now we have two immigrants, Musk and Ramasamy, in charge of dismantling our government. I thought MAGA hated immigrants? Now they’re in charge? Oh, the irony.

I’ve been warning for a long time that if Trump is elected, he’ll be dispensed of at some point in lieu of a real evangelical Christian like Mike Johnson (or in this case, a much smarter wannabe dictator like Musk). They will dispense with that pesky rule about no immigrants being the leader.

Musk is pitching to be in charge of “government efficiency,” and has said we’ll undergo severe budget cutting (see: services working Americans, veterans, elderly, etc rely on). He concurs that this, combined with Trump’s mass deportation plan, would cause a market-crashing economic “storm.” Musk warned us to be ready for “two years of pain.”

Basically, every major economist and financial publication who have analyzed these plans (including the tariffs Trump promises) have said we’re in for massive unemployment and inflation. Do you think people like Trump and Musk will feel that pain? Or, will they use techniques like shorting, insider trading, and market timing to further enrich themselves while the rest of us suffer?

Warren Buffett, regarded as the most brilliant investor of our lifetimes, probably ever, just sold hundreds of millions of stocks and went to cash. He’s probably seeing the same thing on the horizon, and looking to follow the old successful adage of “buy low, sell high.” Thanks to Biden and Harris, our stock market is currently at record highs.

Buffett can afford to sell hundreds of millions. It’s a fraction of his wealth, and this was likely in his Berkshire Hathaway hedge fund anyway. People who went to all cash in 1999 (Dot-Com Bust) and 2008 (Financial Crisis/Great Recession) paid a heavy price, most never recovered, and missed the spectacular rebounds that followed those crashes.

Goldman Sachs made headlines recently by forecasting a 3% nominal return from the S&P 500 (i.e. “stock market”). That’s about zero—no return, when factoring in inflation. This happened previously in the 2000s, labeled the “lost decade” and a good example of a period where bonds outperform stocks. Vanguard also predicts US stocks to return between 3-5%, with developed international forecast at 7-9%.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which was a massive tax cut for the wealthy (amid a few crumbs for the working class, and cost us an additional $4 trillion in debt) will likely remain in place, along with additional cuts for the wealthy (estimated to cost us another $4-5 trillion in debt).

Trump and Musk are talking about moving to crypto, an imaginary currency. It’s no coincidence Musk wants his new government agency to be called, “Department of Government Efficiency,” which as an acronym is DOGE, a type of bitcoin. He knows this, he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. In reality, he’s just a rich (illegal) immigrant born with a silver (platinum?) spoon in his mouth that takes credit for the successes of the smart people he hires.

Trump now wants to fire our military leadership and replace them with his “Generals like Hitler had.” I hate to be hysterical, but I see no other way to see this other than they plan to burn our government and democracy to the ground, and remake it in their image. For good. He has just nominated someone to be our Attorney General, the leader of our Justice Department, who was being investigated for sex trafficking young girls and has been arrested multiple times.

So, what to do? Well, first off, interest rates have been dropping (thanks, Joe and Kamala!) but are now expected to rise again under Trump. Work hard to pay off any debt, other than maybe a mortgage at less than 3%. Save. Make sure you have a very healthy emergency fund (one good thing about high interest rates!). Follow the advice in Kiss Your Money Hello! (and Financial Stress Goodbye) and the new follow-on book Plan Your Money Path: Create Your Own Financial Plan.

Whenever unexpectedly high inflation is expected to raise its head, inflation-protected Treasury bonds and bond funds become popular. They’re like buying insurance against high inflation. Vanguard always seems to place a healthy helping of these into their target date funds as they come close to their target year. Be aware though, if our government defaults on its bonds for the first time ever, these could become worthless.

The tariffs are going to jack the price of anything that comes from overseas (which is like, everything) so consider any major purchases on those types of goods now. But not by going into further debt! Ask yourself if you really need it. Buckle down a bit to those non-discretionary, essential budget items until the smoke clears, if ever.

There’s even talk of the dollar collapsing, ugh. That’s a tough one. We’re talking total economic and/or societal SHTF (stuff-hits-the-fan) collapse. We have diversified to hold some small denomination precious metal coins to use for trading/bartering. Your $3,000 Costco gold or platinum bars won’t work for that (but they might be useful in buying your way out of the country on the down-low, as it has worked in Ukraine and other places in emergency situations).

Remember, in those situations, it’s best to have what you need and not have to barter at all, because it could get you killed (why would someone pay you if they’re stronger or have better weaponry? There will be no law.) Other items that will be popular to trade are medical supplies (see above!), food, water, ammunition, services, and information.

We’re looking at placing some savings in banks in bordering countries, and even investments (seems those rich folks are always stashing theirs in Bahamian and other outside-the-US accounts). When Trump’s hero Viktor Orban recently took over Hungary’s democracy and turned it to a dictatorship, he seized the people’s accounts. In recent years, Vanguard has been putting a greater emphasis on developed-country international stock ETFs like VXUS. You see that in all their target date funds now. Perhaps this is why—they may have seen it coming too.

That diversity is a good thing regardless, as you’re getting ownership in great companies like Nestle Foods, European pharma, Honda, Toyota, Subaru, etc. We’ll have to circle back as we learn more on these topics and make decisions.

Have a look at how much of your investments in taxable brokerage accounts, 401k or other employer plans, HSAs, Roth, 529 plans is in stocks versus bonds or cash. Is it in line with your natural level of risk tolerance and your timeline for needing to use that money? If you need help, find a truly fiduciary advice-only advisor at adviceonlynetwork.com.

Next up, we’ll take you through our thinking about whether we should leave the country, move to a deeper blue state, go on the move with our pioneer covered wagon RV, or simply hunker down where we’re at. Stay tuned!

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace becomes a circus.”—Turkish proverb

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”―Antonio Gramsci, Italian Philosopher

"God helps those who help themselves,"—Ancient Greek Phrase

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Trigger warning: Much of this post is dark, but so is reality. It’s also about how you can survive, and how you can fight back. So, it’s important.

They say, “Breathe, relax, it will be OK.”

They say, “It’s only four years, we survived the first one.”

None of that is really true. Welcome to your new country, Wurstuvus. Trumpistan. People bought into a narrative about inflation, prison sex changes, eating pets, and tampons even though the first two were a direct result of the previous Trump’s administration and the latter two were just a made-up thing. The border was a big issue, but Trump blocked the solution and Biden had essentially closed it. The misogyny is simply too deep in this country. We’re too uneducated and ignorant to accept a woman leader, no matter how much better that’s turned out in the rest of the developed world.

Remember, 54% of American adults have a 6th grade reading level—that of an 11-year old. That’s Trump’s base in a nutshell; naïve people who are easily manipulated, prone to “entertainment” in lieu of boring factual information. This is why for so long, Republicans have fought hard against education. Add the ultra-wealthy, who want more damn tax cuts, and the evangelical right who want that theocracy. That’s your winning recipe.

The problem has been, for a long time, greed. The massive redistribution of wealth from lower and middle class families to the wealthiest. The massive and growing income inequality since Reagan’s 1980s. You’ve been getting screwed by the wealthy, by corporate welfare, all along. It was never the immigrants. And now, you’ve put them in charge, perhaps forever.

Forgive me, I may have missed the part where the raping, murdering caravans of illegal immigrants crossed the border and voted six times each? I thought there was all this voter fraud in America? Wut? Possibly, you were lied to, Trumpsters? Maybe the immigrants were busy eating the pets.

Giavana and I were hoping against hope, but in reality we’ve been preparing for this for over a year, as you know if you’ve been reading this journal. I tried to be optimistic in the last post, but my base instincts shouted deception. I let myself think America is better than this.

In that moment, I may have given false hope, so I feel bad, but for over a year I’ve been trying to help prepare others, as we’ve been preparing ourselves. We feel so bad for the young people, as we’ve had a lifetime of the best of America. We had it all here—a rip-roaring economy, best in the world, and we’ve thrown it away.

We had a candidate with clear, economist-blessed policies to help working people:

* Buy a home ($25,000 down payment assistance)

* Start a business ($50,000)

* Lower prices for rent/food/healthcare/everything by building more housing and stopping price gouging

* Pay child costs ($6,000)

* Pass gun safety laws to stop school shootings

The people instead chose the criminal serial liar billionaire who had only fully followed through on one promise last time—to cut taxes for other billionaires.

We’ve reached the evolutionary tipping point of ignorance over education. The uneducated racist ignorant white male now rules over all of us. This is the dawn of a new era of anti-intellectualism, those times when the dictators, ignorant populace, and/or evangelically religious folks feel threatened and start killing off the educated. That never ends well. It happened during Franco’s dictatorship in Spain in the 1930s-1970s, in dictator Pol Pot’s Cambodia in the 1970s, in the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, and it’s happened a few times historically in Russia, China, and many other countries.

This is going to suck, but the delicious part will be watching these ignorant hateful b******s come to realize exactly what they voted for, and seeing them suffer along with the rest of us. Bubba and Mrs. Bubba are about to get body slammed by what they voted for. They’ll realize the pain of “owning the libs,” who all along were fighting for policies to make their lives better. Here’s how that will play out:

* He will immediately push through his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

* That will result in a massive new spike in debt, and massive decrease in tax revenue.

* He will claim this is an emergency, and use it to justify massive cuts to services working people rely on, veteran’s disability benefits, Medicaid, and more. Robin Hood in reverse, like the Reagan raid on the Social Security fund to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

Put a pin in our incredible economic numbers a the end of the Biden/Harris administration: 2.2% inflation, full employment, stock market/401ks at record highs, gas under $3/gallon, mortgages at 6%. He’ll take credit for that, before it changes drastically, then blame someone else.

OK. This isn’t going to be just some melodramatic sky-is-falling post. We’ll take a practical look at what might be ahead, and what to do about it—how Giavana and I will prepare for what’s coming.

First, Kamala did everything right. God bless that woman. We could have had it all, they also say. In a good and decent world, this should have been a blowout win for her, as I had dared to hope. Instead, for the first time, we’ve elected a lifelong con man, rapist, twice-impeached, convicted criminal to be our leader. Yes, just like those s-hole third-world countries he’s always talked about. Remember, Hitler went to prison, before being elected again, and we know the rest of the story. To set the table for Trump, we eliminated any and all guardrails and ways to hold him accountable for past or future crimes in any way.

What could go wrong, right? He’s got the corrupt Supreme Court, big majority in the Senate, and the House of Representatives at his disposal. As well as anyone else with any kind of power who doesn’t want to end up as an example, hanging from the wall.

There’s no evidence of any fraud. Sure, Russia intervened with bomb threats to polling places, a years-long social media campaign, using its assets inside our country to influence. Bottom line is, this is who we are here in the United States. This country IS that hateful, horrible Madison Square Garden rally. We elected a cruel, racist, misogynist, corrupt, indecent man because the majority of our population see themselves in him.

You know those folks, by now. They’re easily identifiable by the red hats, flags, yard signs, nasty attitude. The bullies from school that have had all that pent up anger from not being able to hit or bully (other than their poor spouses, who now must suck it up per VP JD Vance, as no-fault divorces will be banned). They were enraged when a Black man was elected, and in their eyes became the boss of them. Further enraged when he was re-elected. Then along came the messiah figure, the daddy racist that gave them permission to be open and act on their feelings.

We are a country of entitled folks who for too long have been told and believed we’re this virtuous icon of the world, but in the end we’ve never risen above that basest instinct to hate and mistreat people simply because they’re different in some way. I’ve written about the illusion of America’s greatness before. In my last post, I wrote the shocking reality that Hitler himself was inspired in his evil by our genocide against Native Americans and treatment/isolation of the “other.”

The rest of the world are often complimentary of us, perhaps out of fear of that massive nuclear arsenal, but secretly aren’t big fans of the Ugly American, the entitled, drunken, obnoxious tourists that invade their lands. They look to us in pity over our allowing our children to be mowed down at their desks with military assault rifles, allowing faceless, greedy corporations to wield such power to screw us for basic human dignities like health care, allowing our people (especially children) to starve as the richest nation in the history of the world, while supposedly charitable “churches” are allowed to run mega-billion tax-free organizations.

Based on bond market activity since the election, they’re now skeptical we’ll be able to pay back our debt. This will result in higher interest rates for mortgage and car loans, and inflation. Just when Biden and Harris had that fixed, too. Watch what happens to this wonderful economy.

Make no mistake—I love my country and I love all of us who are better than all that. Perhaps this is the fulfillment of the prophesy that technology and social media as the catalyst of our demise. I’ve mused about that plenty of times as well.

Ok. Let’s look ahead to what may come. This is not hysteria or click-baiting. This is simply taking what has been promised, and what the effect on us may be. Sure, at different points there were promises not to do some of this, but those came along with frequent winking, nodding, and signaling they would. Let’s not forget these are folks, particularly Trump, that lie as they breathe. This is what I think we can expect, perhaps there will be some way found to prevent it, but I can’t see one, short of civil war.

Ukraine: Trump has made clear he’ll let Putin have Ukraine, and most of the Russian asset Republican party has been openly advocating for dropping our support and letting Russia have its way. As when we allowed Hitler to have Poland, this will enable Putin to plan and begin his march across Europe to rebuild the Soviet Union.

NATO: Trump’s long dream has been to kneecap the strongest military alliance in history. NATO is the primary reason we haven’t been speaking Russian for a few generations already. This also plays into the Ukraine scenario, as when Poland and other NATO members get invaded and invoke Article 5, we’ll ignore their pleas for help. It’s a shame as they came to our side immediately after we invoked it after 9/11 (we are the only ever beneficiary of Article 5). It’s kind of like when Trump abandoned the Kurds in Afghanistan, after they fought and died for us, when he surrendered to the Taliban.

Affordable Care Act/Obamacare: It’s another of Trump’s dreams to destroy this, and it will be gone. Millions of Americans suddenly without healthcare, at least not healthcare they can afford. Back to the days of uninsured people going to the emergency room at every turn, jacking up costs and reducing care for everyone else. Biden and Harris’ caps on drug prices will all disappear, meaning a huge burden on households, but great profits and executive bonuses for big pharma.

Inflation: Trump has promised to go wild with tariffs, which will be a cost to us, the consumers here in the US. The idea is to make imported stuff so expensive we just buy American stuff. The problems is we don’t make much stuff here anymore, and it will take years and years to be able to. The real purpose of this is to allow Trump to use these as an extortion cudgel, handing out exceptions in return for favors/gifts, as he did with Apple in his last administration. The other countries, of course, will retaliate with tariffs on our stuff, which will crater our economy since nobody else will be buying our stuff around the world. This tactic bankrupted family farmers in Trump’s last administration, requiring a very expensive taxpayer funded bailout. Barron’s, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and a slew of Nobel Prize winning economists have said this will result in financial and economic disaster for us.

Public Education: The promise is to eliminate it, meaning private pay-as-you-go education only. This has been disastrous and expensive when it’s been attempted before. It also allows your kids to be force-fed whatever curriculum is mandated, such as hard-core evangelical fundamental Christianity, and love of leader/state. They won’t be learning about their bodies and other cultures and so forth. Trump’s donor friend Betsy DeVos is going to make big bank on this one, and I’m sure he’ll get his cut.

Medicine: The promise is to put RFK Jr, or another anti-science lunatic like the Attorney General of Florida in charge. Both are anti-vax wingnuts. Get ready for the rapid spread of disease and pandemic, as Florida has experienced. Leprosy, anyone? Smallpox? Measles? After they make reproductive freedom illegal nationwide, we’ll see an even larger tidal wave of women dying.

Society: We’ll see the demonization and closetization of anyone other, as was the way back in the “good old days” that are the template and goal for all of this. Think “Mayberry RFD” where nary a person of color or LGBTQ+ was to be seen. Bullying will run rampant on our poor kids. Suicides will rise, and these folks won’t mind, like when Reagan laughed at the gay folks dying from AIDS. Social media will be highly monitored and regulated.

SS/Medicare/Medicaid/Disability/Unemployment/Veteran’s Benefits: These have been referred to by the right as “entitlements” and “socialism” for quite some time, a clear indication of attitude by the silver-spoon trust-fund baby set. Musk has said we’d have to go through some pain, and it’s likely this is what he was referring to, and more. Trump has often shown his disdain for veterans, a group he despises as he’ll never gain the respect and admiration he sees them receiving.

Legal: Justices Thomas and Alito will retire, to be replaced with two very young, very motivated evangelical Christians. I wouldn’t be surprised if they packed the court by adding more than nine. Get ready for more of the massive corruption we saw in 2017-2020, all at taxpayer expense. This represents a complete breakdown of the rule of law, because any case against a corrupt Republican can simply be pushed to the Supreme Court to be disappeared.

Financial: The self-proclaimed King of Debt added another $7 trillion last time. He loves spending our money. The next big tax cut for his billionaire friends will add about the same. We’ll pay that—our kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, if the country lasts that long, which is doubtful. They want to put our nation’s wealth into crypto, a dangerous, risky, imaginary currency backed by nothing. Russia, Iran, and North Korea would love that. Ca-Ching! Thank you very much. The climate impact would be huge—it requires a ton of energy and how do you transact when the lights go out?

Immigrants: After they get done rounding them up and deporting them, they’ll quickly realize these hard-working folks were holding up the bottom of our economy—keeping grocery stores stocked with fruit and vegetables, working in hospitality, as home aides/helpers, and other jobs our entitled folks don’t want to do or feel are beneath them. Our economy will be devastated, more inflation and product shortages.

Elections: Please. I’m sure we’ll have ones similar to Russia, in other words, just for show.

National Security: We can look forward to our critical agencies being led by people simply because they’re donors, golf club members, or syncophants. People with no actual experience or interest in, say, our health. People in many cases who despise those agencies and want them disbanded. People who will have security clearance and access to our nation’s most valuable intelligence but aren’t trustworthy and would never get them otherwise. This will cost lives.

Climate: Trump promises to drill, drill, drill. Says climate change is a hoax. This will exacerbate the very expensive and deadly nightmares we’ve been living, and speed up our eventual extermination.

Guns: My favorite part will be when they come for the guns. I can’t wait to see the look on all those MAGA bubba faces. No, you won’t shoot your way out. They will come with drones and military tactical vehicles and gear. I don’t care if you used cash at Cabelas. There’s plenty of camera footage with excellent AI-driven facial recognition. Yeah, they’ll pry your guns from your cold, dead hands. Meanwhile, school shootings will continue, as this group are firmly in the pocket of the NRA. We just have to get over it, Trump said.

Project 2025: Now we’ll see the truth about those lies of “Who? What?” Trump’s folks didn’t spend all that time building this dystopian vision of the future for nothing. This thing is a cornucopia of evil crap, too much to detail here. Read details here.

Oh, did you really think Trump was serious when he was talking about eliminating income tax, no taxes on tips, and no taxes on Social Security? Bless your heart!

It’s very sad what we lost. All those economist-endorsed plans to help working families start businesses, buy homes, get prices down, fight corporate gouging now up in smoke. Instead, the people elected the actual cause of all that—greedy, corrupt billionaires and their corporations. We feel bad for the youngsters that would have benefited from all these programs.

Over time, if things get real bad, pockets of commune-type communities of like minded people who provide security and barter and share goods and services with each other may form. More people will adopt isolation through homesteading. We’ll see more homes with multiple generations under roof, like back in the Great Depression, due to financial and security necessity. Hey, just like the immigrants live!

Some wise country (Mexico?) is going to realize there's a sudden huge populace of educated, decent, hard working people with some money who would jump at a package deal for a visa, job, and help with money/investment transfers, perhaps some land. Maybe 40 acres and a mule, but for real this time.

Ok, what about us? Giavana, Pia, and I just returned from our trip. It got off to a rough start as we had to rush home from a wedding on Saturday night as we got an alert that our area was on fire, due to the severe drought conditions. We took some unreplaceable stuff to storage and some of it with us, in case it happened again while we were gone.

It was nice to be away for a few days, even though we had to run that gamut of emotions as we got all excited on Tuesday night, settled in, and witnessed this profound disaster. We had a few days of nice breakfasts and jacuzzi tub baths. After staying up all night for the Tuesday debacle, we canceled our appointments and plans on Wednesday and hunkered down in the hotel room together, blinds closed to the dreary weather outside, but not escaping our dreary mood inside. It gave us a chance to talk and plan. We already adjusted our finances in accordance with this new reality, to provide some level of protection. There will be more to do along those lines.

We’ll spend this weekend carefully inventorying all our prepper gear and making trips to stock up on N95 masks, alcohol (not that kind), gloves, ammunition and other self-defense items and medical supplies. We may look to beef up our solar config on Black Friday and add a water purification system (our final exposure gap, other than possibly ham radio skills). We need a hard cap for Henrik the pickup truck to add additional storage and security to contents.

We’ll be stockpiling our prescriptions and attending to any planned medical items like checkups. In the first Trump administration, we kept thanking our lucky stars he had no crises to deal with. That was a blessing. Then COVID hit, and as expected, he screwed it up massively. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died unnecessarily. We likely won’t be as lucky this time around.

We won’t be buying any property in this country, that’s for sure. So, that log cabin dream is off the table, unfortunately. We may relocate our White House RV to a blue state, to have a better sense of security and community around us, for now. We’re tidying up the last loose ends on the second citizenship, although relocating anywhere in Europe might be going from the frying pan into the fire as Putin’s bombs begin to fly. We may buy a small fix-up property in a small town somewhere in Europe, to have shelter to flee to. We have trained ourselves to live minimally over this pioneer time. It’s our backup plan, for now.

I see tons of posts on social media about going to Canada or some other country. It’s not that easy. First, most countries don’t want us. They see it as the equivalent of soiling our own home and then moving into someone else’s, rather than cleaning it up. That Ugly American thing plays a part, as well. Most have tightened up policies against accepting us dirty immigrant refugees (oh, the irony!). By staying here in the US, we can leverage our pioneer RV mobility, and be able to leave for safer ground on a moment’s notice. We can (for now) keep our weapons to protect and defend ourselves. We may look to rent a piece of land to put the White House on for some privacy and space.

We were able to go home though, since there won’t be the post-election violence we worried about, because the bad guys won and good gal lost. This will be a slow-motion coup, the end of democracy, so we’ll have time to adapt, hopefully.

And, we’ll continue the fight, aligning with indivisible.org (please do as well!). It’s going to get ugly. I’m sure anarchists and a resistance movement are already forming up across the country. I’m looking forward to getting back to my Buddhism reading and finding a big, fat fantasy sci-fi novel to get lost in when I need a break from reality here in Trump’s Mordor. We’ll stay tuned to the news, but not as much, as it will likely be too much. We remember the non-stop drama from last time. We’ll do that for as long as we have non-state sanctioned news, anyway.

We watched Kamala walk onto that stage and say goodbye on Wednesday afternoon. It felt like the end of everything good, the end of the United States of America as we knew it. It felt like the dawn of the darkness, the new era of Trumpistan. She did an amazing job, almost perfect, but in the end, it didn’t make a difference. This is who the United States of America is. None of those other factors mattered. We now have a leader who lusts for dictatorship, with full immunity from any crimes he may care to commit in pursuit of that goal. He will bleed us of our wealth and resources, as dictators are wont to do.

The bottom line is that a lifelong con man, rapist, twice-impeached, convicted criminal is not going to be the one to solve your problems. They will only get worse. We will reap what we have sown, unfortunately. The pain will be slow, and non-stop for us here in America.

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”—American Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

Well, here we are together, all of us, on the precipice of a major historical moment. There have been so many, good and bad, that we’ve learned about in school. We’ve watched so many movies and read so many books about good versus evil, and we’re at that moment when we’re about to learn which will triumph.

Here we are. For real. Right now. In real life.

Remember that Will Smith movie, Independence Day (1996) when everyone banded together at the end to defeat the alien invasion on the 4th of July? (Chris Farley voice…) Yeah, that was awesome. This feels like that. But, you have to wonder, who watches those movies their whole lives, or learns the history of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and other real, actual evil bad guys, and decides to go with Team Evil? Sure, there will always be some, for whatever reason. They just might be…evil. But 40% of the population of the greatest country ever? At a time when we’re at peak prosperity and breaking records economically?

Four hundred historians just stated that “…the nation stands at an unprecedented historical as well as political crossroads. On the outcome of this election, no less than the election of 1860, hangs the fate of both the spirt and the letter of the Constitution.”

Frank Zappa saw this coming way back in 1986, with that Moral Majority Jerry Falwell movement.

“The biggest threat to America today is not communism, it’s moving America toward a fascist theocracy, and everything that’s happened during the Regan administration is steering us right down that pipe.”—Frank Zappa

Thinking… Oh, wait a minute! I think I understand. Those 40% supporting Team Evil are in the upside-down. They’re seeing this as good versus evil, an alien invasion threatening humanity. I’ve been hearing about those evil caravans of raping murdering illegal aliens for years now, since 2015 in fact, almost ten years! They must be using canes and walkers to be taking that long, geez. I thought my 88-year old mother was slow, but this is, like, ridic. Where dey at?

It can’t be the other ones that are arriving, now down to a trickle, because they’re going right to work on the type of jobs Trump and his friends have always dangled, begging them to come—construction, hotel maids, field workers. It can’t be those folks, because they commit far, far fewer crimes than your average white citizen dudes. They ain’t evil at all. Maybe it’s some kind of Trojan horse thing? Sounds pretty conspiratorial to me. Maybe on the next full moon they’ll turn into evil zombies and do that long-promised raping and murdering?

It’s the same confusing conundrum with the economy. I went through that in the last post. Restaurants, airports, entertainment venues all mobbed, every economic indicator through the roof, the world’s best inflation and covid recovery. Yet, you hear people say they’re voting a certain way “due to the economy.” Toward the major contributor, ironically. The guy who screwed it all up and left that mess (and an additional $7 trillion in debt) in the first place.

At first it was obvious Trump didn’t know how tariffs worked. But after he bankrupted so many family farms last time using them (requiring an expensive taxpayer bailout), we can safely assume he’s flat-out lying to the cult. His tariffs make no sense, until you realize they give him a tool to extort every business in America for waivers (as he gave Apple last time). Major conservative publications like The Economist, Barron's, and Wall Street Journal are telling us he will destroy the economy and jack inflation way back up with these crazy policies. Trump himself and Musk are telling you to get ready for some "hard times" and saying they'll have to "crash the stock market." You have one candidate promising to do good things for his fellow billionaires, and the other with a whole website full of policies to help people just like you and us. Like I said, the upside-down.

As I always say folks, if you’re not a wealthy, straight, white, male, evangelical Christian, you ain’t in the club. You bein’ used. Played by the playa.

We become vulnerable to that type of predatory con man when we have such a huge populace that doesn’t understand the fundamentals of our government, immigration, asylum, elections, economics, taxes, inflation, and so on. They become “marks,” easy to convince that the good guys are the bad guys. Easy to convince to not believe their lying eyes and ears. That’s how cults and dictatorships work.

1. Target the uneducated and bigoted.

2. Create a scary boogieman (Look over there! Immigrants tryina take ya jab and rape ya ol’ lady!)

3. Fear creates hatred. Stoke that fire! Jews will not replace us!

4. Convince them you're the only one who can fix it.

5. Convince them you're the only source of info to trust.

6. Take full control. Shut down all other sources of information.

7. Take the guns so there's no dissent, then take the money.

Of course, that’s the strategy for the folks on the low end of the totem pole. This is why Trump said, “I love the uneducated!” There are also plenty of rich people on board, though. They know the deal, they’re not stupid (well, some are…). They’re in it for that spot on the oligarch roster. Putin achieved loyalty quickly by sending anyone with wealth and power who dared dissent off to a Siberian work camp, then seizing their assets and sharing them among the ones who had been loyal. That recipe quickly locked in his team, both out of loyalty and fear, a very strong and lasting combination. This is what Trump is trying to emulate.

Back to Hitler. Sure, pure evil dude. Where did he get all those sick ideas? Well, actually, right here in the good (?) old USA. He was inspired by our campaign of genocide against Native Americans, and used it to go after Jews. He was inspired by our great “control” of minorities through Jim Crow laws, police brutality, and racial segregation. Pretty sad, amirite? We’re better than that. Let’s prove it this Tuesday. Let’s not go back.

So, here we are, sigh. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. Last time things were this bad, civil war busted out and over 850,000 men, women, and children died on our soil, by our own hand. Four hundred thousand were imprisoned, our citizens, in our country. Countless were maimed for life. It seems the pump is being primed for a sequel—the language and tactics being used already are open and clear.

There are people with machetes already showing up at polling places to intimidate voters. Mass disenfranchisement is happening, aided by the very much corrupt Supreme Court. Ballots are already being burned in postal and drop boxes. They want an evangelical, fundamental, strict, severe White Christian homeland, and they want it bad. This might be their last, best chance, so they’re all in, no matter what it takes. With the Supreme Court compromised, they’ll likely never have this chance again.

Therefore and forthwith, as promised, Giavana, Pia, and I are gonzo. We leave our beloved USA on Monday, intending to return but carrying our papers and our essentials in case we don’t, at least right away. We aren’t those frogs boiling in the pot. Not that we think thermonuclear war will break out on Tuesday, we just don’t want to be around for even the minor violence that will likely occur. We’re overdue for a getaway, and thought the perspective of watching this world-critical election go down from another country would be pretty cool.

That said, don’t forget we’re double-agents here in hillbilly Trumpland. They could be on to us, and that could easily get ugly if my inner demons are summoned from their long slumber. We might be staking out our new home and exactly what asylum entails in another country. We’ll be finishing the details of that second citizenship we’ve been working on. There’s been a ton of stress, of course. It’s at the point that Giavana and I are watching serial-killer documentaries to relax. Now it’s time to take a well-deserved break.

My prediction? Hey, I’m an optimist. I think she’ll win. Big. We can’t be that evil (right?). That hopeful opinion and $7 will buy you a Starbucks, maybe. I might be dreaming, trying to stay sane (too late?). I think a volatile period of lawsuits, violence, and dirty tricks that make 2020 look like child’s play will follow. The “little secret” Trump and Speaker Johnson have been hinted at is to manipulate the elector system, as spelled out here. If that succeeds, essentially the USA and democracy here are done, sorry.

Hopefully, on January 20th, President Harris is sworn in, and we can get back to normal, maybe get a break until history and human nature get around to rhyming again. That said, we’re still left with that 40% in dire need of cult deprogramming, a corrupt Supreme Court, and other problems. I think she’ll straighten things out, along with our help. Here’s a great short video on how to prepare for post-election violence, from a prepper’s perspective. Because, there may well be violence no matter who wins. Prepare. These may be our last, true days of innocence. Almost 250 years, what a ride!

We started this pioneer journey over a year ago, and this was a major reason why. We saw it coming waaaay back then, and here we are, at the crux of world-changing history. Our first ever post in August 2023 listed, among other reasons for taking on this pioneer life:

“The climate, planet, and democracy seem to be crumbling around us. Half our freedom-loving democracy has joined a cult—fanatics for a guy who openly lusts after fascist, authoritarian leaders and yearns to be one.“—Me

Not that we can hide forever. If Trump wins, he’ll award Ukraine to Putin (as he promised), after which Putin will take Poland and begin his march across eastern Europe to rebuild the USSR, as he has openly dreamed. This, of course, would begin World War III, with so many unstable countries and leaders now armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, just one of which is capable of ending life here on Earth.

That sucks.

But, we go knowing we’ve done all we can. We have phone banked, written letters/postcards, tried to deprogram cult members online and in person, started up our own local organization here in our critical state. We go with good conscience, and hope to God good triumphs over evil once more. This pitch to you is my last effort to help the cause.

Have you done all you can? You can make a difference in these last few days, even from home! Please help fight this horrible authoritarian fascist any way you can at moveon.org, swingleft.org, or indivisible.org. Talk to anyone in your life to make sure they’ve voted or have a plan to on Tuesday—early! Inform them about provisional ballots and their rights. Let’s not have to answer to our kids and grandkids when they ask how much of the horror of their lives could have been avoided if we’d done more in this very moment. Like, today.

“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”—Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address

“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature”—Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."—Sinclair Lewis

"Women's productive purpose and industry form the backbone of Gilead, even as men determine how each woman can best serve Gilead's goals"—Margaret Atwood, Handmaid’s Tale

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

The spiral of time seems to be winding more quickly, day by day; a vortex pulling us toward whatever inevitability we’ll experience very soon. Things are busy here in pioneer-land—we’re preparing. Not just for the new world we may find ourselves in, but for winter in our small covered wagon.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

I wrote last week’s post from the hotel, prior to checkout. It fired out into the interweb as we flew over this beautiful country, blissfully disconnected. We arrived home in the morning, to an absolutely mobbed airport full of vacationers (in October?) and business travelers, same as the one we had left just a few hours before. We spent too much time going from restaurant to diner trying to find someplace to eat. All were crammed to the max. On the radio, we heard report after report of just stunning economic and stock market performance. Then we heard voters being surveyed, some complaining about “Bidenomics” and the “bad economy.”

We had to hustle, it was moving day, and it was just brutal scurrying around, packing up the woodland camp and relocating to our new winter location, then setting up. We’re a team, and we got it done. In the week since, we’ve tightened up, made further progress on putting in the foamboard insulation, heated water hose, and connecting up the water lines. Remember my past procrastination on hooking up the sewer and water? Bah. This time, I jumped right in. It’s done.

To be honest, it’s a bit rough adjusting to our new location. We’re more packed in than we were down in the woods, out of necessity. The covered wagon RVs band together to protect one another from the wind and other elements. We have two neighbors with multiple yappy dogs, so it feels like we live inside a pet store. It’s easy to get mad at those people, until we remember the pure joy and comfort Pia brings to us, especially when we’re having a hard time. I was outside working on the foamboard yesterday and the one woman stopped by. She told me she ended up with the four yappers when her ex didn’t follow up on his promise to take them during their divorce. She’d recently lost her job. So, again, more reminders to give people a little grace, you never know what they’re going through in life. As it gets colder, windows will close, furnaces will be running, and that noise all fades into the background.

You might remember my ongoing drama last year with the neighbor I called Elmer. We almost came to blows at one point. Last winter, his wife rammed their vehicle into the support beam holding up the steel roof over us, almost bringing it down and narrowly missing our huge propane tank. They’ve bought a house and left the pioneer life. I wish them good luck and good health.

Luckily, the weather has been amazing fall splendor, albeit cold at night and in the early morning. We have our extra-large propane tank out front and that’s hooked up too. After all that, I got to have some fun. I unboxed and set up our new solar system—admittedly a starter system with two 200-watt rigid panels and around 5,000 amp hours of energy storage. It’s enough to run our rig for a few days, even without solar recharging, which will add to that. It’s fully expandable, so now that we have a comfort zone, we’ll be adding panels and power banks as we see deals too good to pass up (hello, Black Friday!). We finally feel good about our solar game.

As well, we picked up a great deal on a LiFe4PO (lithium iron phosphate) battery with 230 amp hours to replace the old-school AGM battery on the tongue of our wagon. I haven’t hooked that up yet, as I’m sorting through the options as far as a converter that can properly charge and maintain it. Fun pioneer/prepping learning projects! We’ll likely add to this as well, with additional batteries to run in series or parallel. Bring on the winter, Trump apocalypse, alien landings, climate chaos, whatever!

Giavana, Pia, and I have also been busy looking at remote cabins and land. That’s a really fun and uplifting project. Of course, we can’t bite on anything until we find out if this country will turn to Trumpistan or not. That won’t be resolved on November 5, it will take until Jan 20th, inauguration day, to feel safe. Even then, it could be the start of the threatened/promised civil war. This is not conjecture, people with the ability to move on such an idea are actually proposing it, seeding the idea in the cult members, to get them to ruin or possibly end their lives for Trump like the poor b******s that did back on Jan 6, 2021. It’s sad to watch the lemmings thrust themselves over the cliff, but from a purely Darwinian perspective, perhaps it’s the true and necessary cleansing of our species in order to survive.

Back to the vortex I mentioned at the beginning of this journal post. Everything is happening so fast! In the midst of all this, we’re working hard on the election. Phone banking, online deprogramming attempts, and more. We have to travel next weekend for a wedding. We come back, and head out of the country on election day, our work complete for now, to watch it all unfold in safety, far away from the stress of it all. Those should certainly mean some interesting upcoming posts!

In the meantime, please help fight this horrible authoritarian fascist any way you can at moveon.org, swingleft.org, or indivisible.org. Let’s not be having to answer to our kids and grandkids when they ask how much of the horror of their lives could have been avoided if we’d done more to elect Kamala Harris in this very moment. Like, today.

"At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division."—Jesse Jackson

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."—Desmond Tutu

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."—Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future."—Robert H. Schuller

"Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another."—Elie Wiesel

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Giavana, Pia, and I are on another getaway, down south this time. There is some degree of guilt, being away this close to the election. Fear not, however. The work doesn’t stop. I’m down in the trenches more lately, online, fighting hard in the various social locations to help deprogram cult members. My goal is to at least help them see how wrong everything they’re being told is, to sow doubt in their chosen one, to show his rapid decline and lust to see them ruin their lives in his perceived glory. Maybe I’ll get some to reconsider, and at least stay home.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Giavana has finished her angel work at this location. We’re enjoying the warmth and a chance to relax for a few extra days, over the weekend. We strolled the downtown main drag, lined with bar after bar blaring live music already at 10am, last night’s drunken puke still not dried on the sidewalks and the partiers already hard at it first thing in the morning. In another time, I’d have been right there with them. That past life pulls for a moment as we walk hand-in-hand. The live music was always my enabler.

Giavana knows, she lived it. She chides me, “We can go in and sit to listen to the band, and you can have a drink.” She used to do things like that early in our life together, and I quickly learned (the hard way) it wasn’t a gesture of kindness—it was a test. I failed the first few before catching on.

Back in the day, we’d wake up after a night of drunken debauchery and compare notes. Often, someone would say, “We did a lot of damage last night.” It was meant rhetorically, but was often true. The damage was always to budgets, relationships, health, reputation. When I’m in an party-to-excess environment like this, it’s not a temptation. It’s a sickening reminder of what I was, what that life was like, and a comfort that it is no more.

I’m still living the nightmare of my big mistake earlier this year. It burns at my core every time I’m forced to think about it. I’m still paying the price for that one mistake, that one-in-a-million chance coincidence that led to all this. I f’d around and found out. I left myself open, a rare thing, and I’m paying the price. I used to write about it here, keeping those post paywalled and semi-private, but couldn’t get past the idea I was pimping out my pain.

When I get hurt that bad, I’m done, whether it’s a relationship or friendship or anything. When I’m hurt like that, even when it’s somewhat my fault, I can’t ever go back. So, it’s easy to keep walking, not take the bait, mostly as well because life is good this way, this non-alcohol sober life is better. Instead of a long day of drinking, likely a bad end to an otherwise good day after passing though the euphoric stage, to waking up sick on an otherwise beautiful day, I feel good 24/7 now. I feel more Christlike, and that’s the goal at this (final) stage of the game.

We visited some historic sites yesterday. There were markers to commemorate the early women’s rights/suffrage movement, well over a hundred years ago. As well, the civil rights movement and all those who fought and died for it. And finally, those countless Americans and others around the world who died fighting fascism and authoritarianism, fighting for basic human freedoms. And yet, here we are, again, all those basic principals threatened by one wannabe dictator.

A third to a half of the country is buying it, too. That’s still very hard to wrap your head around, after all we’ve been through in this world. We never seem to learn, or some seem so ignorant they’re just incapable of learning, of remembering. They fall for the con every time, you can tell by the outlandish spending on merch they don’t seem to be able to afford, otherwise. On a positive note, here we are in hard-core Trumpland, a few weeks before the election, and I don’t believe we’ve seen one Trump hat or shirt or anything. Maybe they’re finally sick of the whining, sick of the drama, sick of the non-stop hate, fear-mongering, and vitriol.

President Kennedy was moving to end the Cold War with the USSR and the Vietnam war when he was assassinated in 1963. That may well have had something to do with it. The military-industrial complex doesn’t play well with enemies of war. As a Democrat, he was a friend of the civil rights movement. Had he lived, he likely would have been reelected, and much of the anti-war and race-related turmoil that comprised the 1960s may not have happened. We would have been on the path to a more peaceful country and world. The focus would have been on space and science, rather than hatred and killing one another for profit.

Hubert Humphrey came close to beating Nixon in 1968. He made mistakes, like not going to Michigan, which cost him the election. He had vowed to end the Vietnam war. Instead, Nixon won, the war raged on for another seven years, and another 22,000 brave American troops died for nothing. As well, we received the typical generous helpings of Republican corruption, scandal, and ruinous economies. That included his thoroughly corrupt vice-president Spiro Agnew, who resigned in disgrace.

In 2000, Al Gore did beat George W Bush, however the by-then corrupt Supreme Court had other ideas, stopping the recount and turning the win over to Bush. If Gore had won, 9/11 may not have happened, saving over 3,000 innocent lives on our own soil. The outgoing Clinton administration warned GW about Al Qaeda, which he promptly ignored. GW dismantled the CIA unit focused on Al Qaeda. Since Saddam Hussein hadn’t threatened Gore’s father, and the evil Cheney-Rumsfeld tandem wouldn’t be in positions of power, we’d not have gone to war in Iraq, saving over 5,000 US service members and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians (not to mention billions of taxpayer dollars).

Gore would have been less likely to believe the false Israeli intelligence fed to us about yellowcake and WMD, as he was by far a more intelligent man than the dim bulb GW was. We probably wouldn’t be enduring the countless deaths and billions spent on climate disasters, as Gore championed and knew full well what the effects of ignoring the damage we were doing to our climate would have. We would not have an even more corrupt Supreme Court—no justices Alito and Roberts.

If Hillary Clinton had listened to Michael Moore and gone to Michigan, she likely would have beat Trump. Our world-wide pandemic response team would have been in place to detect the threat of COVID-19 earlier and mitigate it. Hundreds of thousands of lives on our soil saved, trillions of tax dollars would have been saved. There would be no Trump $7 trillion debt, including $4 trillion for the tax breaks for his rich friends. The Supreme Court is saved by the appointment of 3-4 non-corrupt justices. No ripping children away from their parents, imprisoning them in horrific conditions, and inspiring a new generation for terrorists lusting to make us, you and me and our loved ones, pay for that.

On a happier note, it’s hard to imagine the hellscape we’d be in if Biden hadn’t won in 2020. Thank you, Joe! But we can, and it’s looming in front of us with all the dystopian promises we’re hearing from a sweaty, exhausted, cornered, and desperate Trump.

Of course, that’s all high-level revisionist history. A lot would depend on control of Congress and other factors.

We return to our White House RV pioneer home today, with a very busy schedule. We’re going to check out another remote cabin, and then have to pack up and depart for our winter home. We have to work on this election.

In the meantime, please help fight this any way you can at moveon.org, swingleft.org, or indivisible.org. Let’s not be having to answer to our kids and grandkids when they ask how much of the horror of their lives could have been avoided if we’d done more to elect Kamala Harris in this very moment. Like, today.

“The key to understanding why many Germans supported him lies in the Nazis’ rejection of a rational, factual world.”―Benjamin Carter Hett, The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic

“The real question is: who has the responsibility to uphold human rights? The answer to that is: everyone.”―Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning

“We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”— Justice Louis D. Brandeis

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished—unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”—Voltaire

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”—Benito Mussolini

“We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.”—Charlie Chaplin

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

It’s the last hurrah here in summer/fall pioneer-land. Most of the other settlers are winterizing their covered wagons and wrapping them for the winter. They’re mostly weekenders, so they have a cozy home to go back to and hibernate. Some will snowbird, heading to warmer climates for the cold season. Lucky! I’m guessing that’s not Florida—not the Sarasota area anyway. The very few full-time stationary folks like us are waiting for the others to wrap up their business so we can prepare to relocate next weekend.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Out in the woods around us, there were lots of tall fires crackling last night, burning off the last of the wood in the piles. Voices rise along with the blood-alcohol level through the trees, folks relaxing after a long day of battening down the hatches. The world turns, the seasons come and go, the wheel of time carries us forward until it’s time for us to get off.

I was at a high-school football game in the unusual cold Friday night. The Northern Lights were quite evident and beautiful, and everyone marveled, phones up like a Taylor Swift concert. I heard no one express concern, and wondered if anyone else had the same ominous feeling I did. The Northern Lights shouldn’t be visible here, certainly not so often, certainly not a regular visitor. It’s not a good thing, it’s a harbinger of chaos and likely death. I’ve written about that. Those lights are pretty, and ominous. I had a lot of wifi, cellular, and GPS trouble on the trip. It’s affecting us. A Bluetooth water dispenser turned on by itself a few times, spewing water onto the floor. It’s happening.

Perhaps another reason for this ominous feeling lately is that the election looms so close. There’s plenty of reason to be optimistic—the polls (if you can believe them) are close but in the right direction. Giavana and I have been working hard for Harris and the down-ballot Democratic ticket. Harris-Walz yard signs are popping up like mushrooms.

Yet, Trump looms, as a purely evil man who will stop at nothing to have his way, to have this country, to stay out of prison. He seems to have given up on trying to win the actual election, and pivoted to grifting as much money as he can milk from it and taking every measure to prepare his cult for violence in his name (his favorite thing, after money and flattery). There are no other real explanations for his planned events at Coachella in California and Madison Square Garden in NYC. He’s more aggressively and openly spewing his hate speech. Those aren’t exactly contested swing states. Or, perhaps he knows the fix is in and he’ll win through the many un-democratic moves being made by his minions in the state election boards.

He’s selling photo ops for $25,000 and “VIP Experience” seating for $5,000 each. If violence breaks out by bringing his herd of sheep into very liberal territory, he’ll have a huge opportunity to capitalize on that as a rally for yet more violence, perhaps the civil war he’ll need to take power after he loses the election. He’s got the lunatic richest man on the planet on his side now, also displaying erratic and questionably sane behavior (when he’s not showing off fake robots and robo-taxis). He’s asking why nobody has tried to kill Harris—something that would land any of us regular folks in jail or at least a visit from the Secret Service. F. Scott Fitzgerald was right. The rich aren’t like you and me.

DeSantis in Florida and Trump are calling for networks to lose their broadcast licenses for airing ads and content in opposition to their views. It’s the most fundamental anti-American First Amendment thing possible, but it’s also clear they no longer support or believe in the US Constitution. They want something else. Trump is now calling not just for illegal immigrants to be removed, but anyone who doesn’t have the “look” he considers to be the master race, quintessential American, i.e White European.

The situation in the Middle East also feels ominous. Netanyahu seems to be dragging us toward war, like Israel did with their false intelligence to get us to invade Iraq, kill so many innocent civilians, and over 5,000 of our own brave warriors. Like Trump, he lusts to keep himself in power and out of prison, no matter how many innocent people must die. Ukraine as well, with top Republicans like Speaker Johnson openly saying they “no longer have an appetite to help Ukraine.” They’re welcoming Russia to do what Hitler did, and without our opposition, this time it will work. We will have our world carved into just a few dictatorships, and it will happen fast if Trump wins. Or, we’ll have a devastating war where many of us will die.

Lastly, the massive destruction of the hurricanes in “safe” idyllic mountaintop places like Asheville, NC. These ever more powerful weather events are ominous. They're coming to you, it's a matter of time. It won't be on TV breaking news, it will be in your home. Prepare. Read my prior posts to learn how.

Back to us here in pioneer land, our solar gear is in and ready to be picked up on Monday, which we look forward to. It’s a big exposure finally closed. We’ve got capacity to store a ton of energy, and pull more when needed through several 200 watt panels. It’s a tidy solution to the problem, leaving the only long-term off-grid survival item left as some kind of water collection and purification system. That might depend where we land after everything plays out between now and late January. After we move to our winter location next week, we’ll be inventorying and organizing all of our prepper gear.

That aside, we can’t wait until it’s over. We dream of no more political commercials, and a life without all this stress, without the stain of Trump, finally. We’ll still have the problem of a large percentage of our population among us who worship a despicable person like that. Hopefully, Giavana, Pia and I are busy finding an isolated place to build our cabin to live out our days in peace and beauty. I’d like to have more time to read the many books and emails around my hobbies and interests that are piled up high. I’d like to have time to just…do nothing some days. I’d like to have a place where Giavana and I can dress up on occasion and go out for a great dinner and fun night out. It all feels like a dream, one we dare not put too much stock in—yet. Maybe it will happen, maybe we’ll have earned it after these recent very hard years in this world.

That’s the ticket, I’ve just convinced myself. Less ominous, more optimism! Soon, we’ll know. In the meantime, please help fight this any way you can at moveon.org, swingleft.org, or indivisible.org.

"I am confident that, in the end, common sense and justice will prevail. I'm an optimist, brought up on the belief that if you wait to the end of the story, you get to see the good people live happily ever after."—Cat Stevens

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”―Anne Frank

“Optimism doesn’t mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation. It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise.”—The Dalai Lama

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Our recent posts have been topical, so let’s use this one to catch you all up on what’s going on with our journey and here in pioneer-land for Giavana, Pia, and me. Follow ups on prepping, racism, politics, and personal finance.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

First up, for you personal finance preppers, Plan Your Money Path, the long awaited book by my fellow Wild Lake author is now available in eBook, paperback, and hardcover (audiobook coming soon). It’s at wildlakellc.com and all the major online stores. Give your loved ones the gift of financial freedom this holiday season!

As I write this pioneer journal post from the White House RV on Saturday, our neighbors are busy around us bustling about to break camp for the season, winterizing their rigs. The air is full of smoke as they use up the last of their firewood. A few idiots are burning their trash, the plasticine smell a dead giveaway. We’re surrounded by windows and the beauty of the changing leaves, some already taking flight from the trees in the shifting breeze. Our mountain backdrop is slowly phasing from shades of green to red gold hues. It’s a very nice Saturday afternoon, and we won free tickets to a show tonight in a small coffee-house listening room near us. I’m really looking forward to it. They have a fall event going on down by the camp office, with lots of vendor tables and basket raffles. A bunch of kids just came around trick-or-treating. I wasn’t prepared for that, we never get them, so I had to bust out a stash of full-size Hershey bars. Those little eyes were quite wide at the bounty! What a wonderful day, what a wonderful world, if we can pull together to keep it.

I was thinking more about my late friend Damon, who I wrote about in the last post. He’s an example of my concept of this existence as an incubator or proving ground. If you run with that, and start paying attention to the people around you, you can see that some are more developed in that way. They seem to operate at a higher level of consciousness, or awareness, of life. We might call it intelligence, but I feel like it’s something quite more. Damon was like that—very philosophical on another plane of reality. They exude empathy and all the traits we should aspire to—what all the religious texts say to aspire to. I think those are the well-formed, shaped souls that are likely now ready to pass on to a more perfect existence after this primordial, violent stew we’re in here. Maybe if there’s a sudden end to this experiment, those of us who are at least trying hard will get a pass.

On the prepping front, we’ve seen plenty of evidence of the things I (and many others) have been warning about. You don’t have to be in Florida or Louisiana to be wiped out or killed by a hurricane. It just happened to plenty of inland folks in inland Georgia, Tennessee, and western (inland!) North Carolina. Northeasters already know they aren’t safe, after the devastation of Sandy. Tornadoes are appearing out of nowhere, wiping out homes and entire towns. There’s another month of hurricane season. Two more are already queued up. Winter is coming. Recently I talked about the potential devastating power of the increasingly large solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CME), and resulting electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) here on Earth. This week there was a massive 9x solar flare combination, but nobody paid attention other than, “Ooooh, Helen! We might see the Northern Lights!”

As so many people just learned, when disaster happens, help doesn’t arrive for a while. You should be able to live off-grid for at least 72 hours, completely self-sufficient in terms of food, water, energy for heat/air, shelter, medical, security, and more. Are you? Envision none of that, no internet, GPS signals, unable to travel the roads, no communications, no medical help, for three days straight. Can you make it? If you’re not ready, see my other posts on prepping.

Our big exposure gap, as I’ve discussed, has been solar. I’ve been getting lost in the expense, nuances, and many doohickeys needed to do a proper RV solar install. I was worried about what happens if we have to bail suddenly, low-profile, and can’t take the RV with us. What if we sell the RV? Will we have to buy a whole new setup if we build our cabin? Then I saw this Jackery system on sale for Amazon Prime Days and grabbed it, along with their solar panel. I love how it’s expandable, and we’ll be adding on more batteries and panels as we go. It can power our future cabin. This will do for now. It’s inexpensive and well made. A renewable source of energy! Yay! That’s one major stressor off our plate. I’ll still be a little stressed until it arrives and is in place.

Speaking of stress, Giavana and I have taken to taking mini-vacations as a remedy. We took our field trip to look at cabins and bigger RVs. We recently did a weekend trip to a beautiful resort on a big lake. It was wonderful—the pool and outdoor spa were open, it was nice and warm, great restaurant for a nice dinner. Best of all, Giavana got to do the one thing she enjoys but can’t in this pioneer RV life—take a nice long hot bath. That’s the thing about living this inexpensive life ($700/month for our site, utilities included). We can afford to do that whenever we want. We have another queued up for later this month, and we’re still planning on spending November election week outside the country.

We’re moving to our winter site toward the end of this month as well. That will involve breaking camp, re-organizing everything, and setting up in winter mode at our new location. Ugh. We’re already thinking of warm weather winter escapes, if we still live here, if democracy survives Nov 5, Jan 5, Jan 20. In the meantime, we’re working hard on that project as well. This morning we had our own little letter writing party to registered Democrats and Independents who might need a nudge. We’re phone banking and running our own local group of very involved patriots. One month to go, and the lies are mounting from the right and on the propaganda network they use to reach most of the country. The one that had to pay almost a billion dollars last time for their lies about voting machines. The dog whistles for violence continue, and now the richest man on the planet is embracing a violent, dangerous new movement called Dark MAGA. People like him envision a world under their control—just a few kings and rulers to divide up the planet and subject us all to their will. That’s the plan. Trump is simply their useful idiot, because he has a cult.

If you have these discussions with any of the folks on the other side, don’t waste your breath arguing policy points. I’ve gotten tired of that, it doesn’t work. I go with these short points:

“We can argue policy until the cows come home. But you can’t escape that Trump has been a lifelong con artist. He’s left a long trail back to the 1970s in documented court cases, of screwing over families just like yours.”

Or, “I’m a veteran. My son and son-in-law are disabled Marine combat veterans. I will never vote for someone who has openly disrespected the biggest heroes among us, our war dead and injured. Trump has always and continues to do it, which proves who he is. Sorry, you can’t tell me you support someone like that and say you’re a patriot in the same breath.” I make that clear to my fellow veterans.

Or, to any non-Caucasians, “Trump has a long history of discriminating and hating on people just like you. He hates people who look you, your kids, your grandkids. You are not in the club. You are being used.”

I’m hoping you’re engaged down the stretch. Give a few bucks if you can at https://secure.actblue.com. Get involved with some great local peers at swingleft.org or indivisible.org. Send out pre-printed letters from home, with a personal note, at votefwd.org. There’s still time to make a difference. Ask all your democracy-loving friends, neighbors, coworkers, relatives to check at vote.gov to ensure they’re registered, and remind them if they have a problem at the polling place, they can request a provisional ballot.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense. —Barack Obama

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first. —Charles de Gaulle

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

There’s been a lot made lately of Kamala Harris’ racial identity. This whole horrible chapter in our American history is driven by racism. Actually, throughout history around the world, it’s almost always been about racism. Black Like Me was one of the most impactful books I read back in high school. It’s the story of a white journalist, John Howard Griffin, who used dermatologist treatments and other tactics to change his appearance from Caucasian to Black back in the 1950s segregated South. He wanted to see what it was like to be Black. I did something like that as well, unintentionally, and here’s what I learned.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Back in the early 1980s, I traveled the South with a Black dude I’ll call Damon (which I also did in Farawayer). He was one of a kind—a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. We were both fresh out of ungraceful exits from our military service, lost and broke young men trying to find our way through life. Damon was part Marvin Gaye, part Malcolm X, part Muhammad Ali—a poet, a politician, a philosopher, an artist, a lover, a radical, a fighter. Highly intelligent, yet not highly educated. He could never understand why he was treated differently than White folks.

When we hitchhiked, traveled, and lived in the South, whenever I was with him, I was as good as Black to everyone else. My long hair didn’t favor me with that same ignorant redneck demographic, on top of being in the company of someone who looked like Damon.

A pickup came toward us and slowed down as the driver and passenger windows rolled down. A huge confederate flag adorned the hood. Two fat, short-bearded rednecks leered out the windows at us, wearing T-shirts with the sleeves cut off. “Nigger, nigger, nigger!” they shouted. “A nigger and a nigger-lover!”—Farawayer

Those days were an unintentional perfect case study in racism. We were the same age, same height/weight, same background as high school grads and veterans, both pretty well spoken. However, time after time we applied for the exact same jobs—low level stuff like maintenance man, store clerk, warehouseman, and I’d get the job and he wouldn’t—except when we applied together. In those cases, neither of us did. To them, I was as Black as he was. I was proud of it, but in my case it wasn’t a permanent condition. I was lucky.

I snapped in my exhaustion and state of despair, and dropped my pack, running after the truck. “Let’s go then, you fat f***s. Man up!” I shouted. The truck slid to a stop and the lone working white backup light blinked on, like an ogre suddenly waking. Damon ran up beside me and threw his bag to the curb.—Farawayer

Time and again we’d enter stores to grab some groceries. I’d hide my hair up under my Stetson, but Damon couldn’t hide his Blackness. We’d go our separate ways once inside, to get the things we needed, and I’d always watch as the inevitable would happen—the store clerk or security person would begin to follow him around the store. Sometimes, they’d make an accusation. A cop car couldn’t pass us walking on the roads without stopping to “investigate.” We had no car, most of the time, at least not one that worked. It broke his good heart, and he’d be down the rest of the day over it.

“Damn, Levi. Get ready for Ali mode. Better hope these white boys fight like Jerry Quarry. You still undefeated?” Damon asked.“I’ll let you know in a few minutes, brother.” We had both been on the base boxing team a few years back. “You know the drill,” I said. “Same as always. They’re out of shape. Make them move and wear them down.”—Farawayer

I was born in Newark, NJ and started school there. I learned at that young age, with lots of Black kids in my kindergarten class, that color doesn’t matter. Good and bad come in every color, shape, and religion. We moved to a suburban White neighborhood, and I missed the diversity. Everyone was the same color.

“Rope-a-dope again,” Damon said as the two fat men flung the truck doors open and waddled toward us. Damon took his stance and called out to them as they approached with their fists up. “Just like Muhammad Ali, I'm gonna sting you like a bee, son.”—Farawayer

In my youth, I often heard the adults talking about “the Blacks,” and how they just wanted handouts, welfare, didn’t want to work. How casually they threw around the n-word! Sometimes, it would be in the presence of Hispanics, who would then get crapped on too, as soon as they were out of earshot.

In my travels with Damon later in life, I saw the truth. You have to work twice, three times as hard to get work. Then you have to work even harder so you don’t get fired. Folks who are born on second base as a white person, especially a male (perhaps third base in that case) don’t realize it, especially since they have their own (comparatively mild) struggles. They’ve never spent time as a Black person like John Howard Griffin and I did. They’ve never lived around Black or Brown people. Or any other Other, hence the fear, hence the hatred of anyone different from them. There’s a section in my book about when I had nowhere to go, nowhere to live, and a gay friend of a friend took me in, so I got to experience that side of hate as well. Same drill. I called him Barry in the book, and he died a horrific death from AIDS while still a young man. He didn’t deserve it.

We fear what is different, and the unknown. Our mind isn’t familiar enough to have protections. We yearn to be surrounded with familiarity, for comfort, hence the utopian straight White suburbia Trumpland covets. Everyone else back into the shadows. The only Black people many of them they see are things like the BLM protests, and it scares them to death, although ironically Jan 6, far worse, does not. It’s a wonder Black people don’t assume every White person they encounter is a school shooter or serial killer, because they’re always White. Perhaps they do. They’re human. It’s a human condition, but we’re (allegedly) smarter than that, when we’re using our brains to overcome emotion.

On a Sunday, when we were out walking, we saw people streaming into a Black neighborhood Baptist church. “Let’s go,” I said on a whim. We entered and found a place toward the front, as most of the pews were full. We were directly in front of the full band, with electric guitars and a big worn-out drum set. The musicians counted in and began playing fast and beautiful religious songs as sweat rolled down their faces.

The crowd jumped to their feet and danced and hugged one another, arms raised above their heads, growing into a fervor. It was nothing like I’d seen at the Village of Prayer. It wasn’t fake or devotional to one living man. Instead, it was a joyous celebration of life, and of Jesus. The preacher danced to the center of the altar and motioned the band to slow, then began a passionate sermon about loving one another, helping one another. He mentioned John 4:20.

“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

There was no begging for money, or Old Testament threats and admonishment. No forced discomfort and servitude by ordering the flock to kneel, stand, sit, kneel again. It was pure and real devotion. It was pure love of God and neighbor. During the praying times of the service, I bowed my head and asked for answers, asked for guidance. The second sermon focused on family, and the proverbs he quoted seemed to answer my questions.—Farawayer

The above passage from Farawayer speaks to something that has always amazed me. These people, who have been lynched, raped, beaten, enslaved, mistreated, hated on through generations and still, still persist in their faith and joy of life. In my times with Damon’s family and other families, I’ve only seen joy, hope, and faith. My skin color represented the bane of their existence, yet they lovingly accepted me. It’s just incredible to behold, and inspirational. And on the flip side, why is it the hateful always seem so unhappy?

Damon passed away recently. I went to see him toward the end. Same Damon, flirting with the nurses, holding court with the little strength he had left. His body was a shell of the man I knew, but his mind was all there. He rhapsodized about blues music, Gil-Scott Heron lyrics, injustice, regaled me with tales of our adventures together—all properly exaggerated per his style. We talked about those days, and these days. “You remember, Billy. Back then I told you, this s**t ain’t never gon’ change.” He was right, unfortunately. He wanted coffee from the hospital cafeteria but I secretly went to Starbucks instead, to his great pleasure. I lingered until I couldn’t stay any longer, and we wiped away tears as we said goodbye. We both knew it was the last time, at least in this life. I miss him every single day. He was legendary.

When I fight for Kamala, I’m fighting for Damon, and I’m fighting for his daughter and his family, all good people I came to know due to the fortune of being his friend. I’m fighting for Barry and the LGBTQ+ community. I’m fighting against Trump and every hateful, horrible, ignorant racist MAGA out there. As I move into this 4th quarter my time here on Earth, one of the things I look forward to most in the afterlife is a reunion with my old friend, and to hear his laugh again. We have a lot of catching up to do, and I can’t wait.

On a lighter closing note, this is one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits from back in the day. Eddie Murphy in White Like Me. Damon and I watched it many times together.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. ... With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our Nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together; to pray together; to struggle together; to go to jail together; to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.—Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister, civil rights leader, 1963

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

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Giavana, Pia and I went on a nice field trip to investigate some of our choices in the big decisions we have ahead in this pioneer life. This time in history, for the country, the world, and for us, is both exciting and scary. We like to plan, to prepare (as preppers), and have options. Of course, if the God of Chaos asteroid hits us in five years (on Friday the 13th, 2029!), there won’t be many options. You never know, right? Prepare.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

We took a road trip to look at some RVs and visit some cabin builders. Here are our choices, as they currently stand. Of course, how the election and fate of democracy turn out will factor in heavily, as far as location and timing.

If we decide to continue as full-time semi-stationary RVers for the long haul, we’d likely upgrade our rig again. We looked at models that are the next step up from our current White House, and it’s a huge difference. The two we’d decide between both have cozy fireplaces and dedicated workspaces. We spend most of our time in our workspaces, and they’re not all that comfortable or spacious. We’d have to upgrade Henrik, our pickup truck, as it’s currently right on the edge of towing capacity for White House.

If we decide to become mobile full-time RVers, for example snowbirding each winter or exploring the beauty of this country while it lasts, we may decide to switch from travel trailer to motorized (Class A) luxury. We could sell the gas guzzling Henrik (oh, poor Henrik!) and tow Giavana’s pocket rocket behind us. We still have some nearby family obligations that keep us from doing this, so it’s unlikely at this time, at least the traveling the country part.

If we decide to put down roots and build that dream cabin, we’d have to get started on the long path to finding a site and working out the details for utilities, construction, etc. The builders are currently scheduling out into late spring of next year. We’d want something robust, as climate-proof as possible, prepped out to be off-grid sufficient for a long duration, and highly secure. It would be exciting to design.

Nothing will happen in the short term. We’re moving away to our winter site next month, to button up for the winter and work on these plans. Right now, the focus is the election. So much is at stake—really everything. Our freedom, the climate, world security, the economy, our happiness. We have our plans to vote early and spend the election week out of the country, as we’re overdue for a trip. I’m starting to feel maybe I should be helping people who can’t drive get to the polls on election day though, to make every difference right up until the end.

The momentum in the election is exciting, and as promised, the violence is ratcheting up. Two attempts at Trump’s life so far, and they’re b******g because nobody is shooting at Kamala. Let’s not forget there were forty-two assassination attempts on Hitler. I wonder why that was. We don’t need violence, we don’t need him as a further martyr. We need to get past this ugly point in our history, and move forward, as Harris promises.

Please engage and help down the stretch. You can do a lot from home, and not have to expose your identity or use your phone. Head to swingleft.org, indivisible.org, or votefwd.org to make a difference and help in the swing states, even if you don’t live in one. Or, this video below may be the reality we and our families will have to live in. We need your help, the world needs your help. We’re faced with such blatant and unfathomable evil, it’s incredulous this election is even close. And, scary. Please take five minutes of your time for the below video.

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. —James Waterman Wise

Hitler lied shamelessly about himself and about his enemies. He convinced millions of men and women that he cared for them deeply when, in fact, he would have willingly sacrificed them all. His murderous ambition, avowed racism, and utter immorality were given the thinnest mask, and yet millions of Germans were drawn to Hitler precisely because he seemed authentic. They screamed, “Sieg Heil” with happiness in their hearts, because they thought they were creating a better world. —Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning

Fascists use patriotism and religion to manipulate dumb people. Fascist propaganda works best on the dumbest of the dumb. They don’t know when they’re being lied to. — Oliver Markus Malloy, American Fascism: A German Writer’s Urgent Warning To America

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

It’s Monday, and I bet you wish it was still the weekend. Nobody says with their last breath, “I should have worked more.” We work longer and harder than we need to. There are plenty of reasons for that, and I talk about them often, usually in passing. Many of you don’t even need to go to that job you dislike, trust me. Let’s focus on your money in this post, so you can have an easier, less stressful life. I’ll show you how, without much expense or effort.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

It was my daughter on the phone. She sounded tentative. “We’d like to come out with the kids this weekend, if that’s OK.” She quickly added, “But I don’t want to cause you to get all crazy and stressed.”

Wut?? It really hurt to hear that. My daughter is blunt, thank God. Words like that, spoken with love and the best of intent, can be impactful and a wake-up call. I’ve always been Type-A with a bold, italic, capitalized A. Military boot camp was the exact wrong thing for that condition, it further burned that acute sense of impatience and detail into my psyche. It’s made me a bag of stress for most of my life, to the detriment of others. Giavana knows. My kids know. Mama knows. Finally, I know.

I was that guy—each vacation had a carefully researched and curated itinerary for my squadron of young cadets to march along to. “Hurry, we can get to the Funny Falls ride in approximately five minutes, just prior to what the guidebook says is peak lowest wait time, let’s hustle!” Thankfully, they made it through all that, no doubt with emotional scars. They’re patient with their kids. I taught them the wrong way first hand, after all. Yeah, that’s it. That was my plan, alrighty. In my defense, I wanted them to experience everything I never got to, but I was too young and immature to realize it wasn’t fun that way.

The drugs and alcohol were likely a subconscious way to reign it in, or at least deal with myself. What I went through in the post-military years, the basis for Farawayer, those traumatic events, made things worse. No wonder I was a wreck as a parent. Quitting it all, trying to be in a mindful, Buddhist, Christlike frame each day has helped, but there’s still work to do. We are all products of our DNA and life experiences.

I’ve been stressed lately because I put myself behind the eight-ball on some projects, and if you read this journal, you know I have a bunch of them. Some are survival related, so that’s kind of important. Saturday was a day of unexpected pop-up obstacles, so I didn’t get much done. Sunday morning Giavana and I went to our usual awesome breakfast spot. I was trying to hustle on the way home, annoyed at a mo-mo driving slowly in front of me. “Let’s gooooo!” I hissed in my mind, death grip on the steering wheel. I had work to do.

We went through my favorite part of that drive—a stretch of country road where the pretty old trees have grown on both sides and stretched together overhead to form a sort of natural canopy tunnel. I always slow down there, and this time, extra. Took a beat. Reset. Deep breath. Mindful. Blessings counted. I noticed Giavana had been silent. We’re symbiotic at this point, living in this tight pioneer covered wagon side by side. I knew she sensed my earlier stress.

We exited the tunnel and I threw my hands up and said, “Geez, the day is half shot and I haven’t gotten a thing done!” in an exaggerated and comical tone. I knew it was what she was waiting for me to say, and we had a good laugh together. Stress—gone. Dude, it’s a Sunday. Chill. We arrived back at the White House RV and decided to take a nice walk through the woods. Anything else could wait, this is too important. Giavana suggested it—she knows.

Too many of us spend our lives this way. It’s how the system programs us, to get the most from us. Work harder, or you’ll be next on the layoff list. Oh, you didn’t get laid off? Work harder to take up the slack for those who are gone, or you’re next. Hunger games, work harder than your teammate so you’re next on the list to move up, and not get laid off. Hopefully, it’s them. Isn’t that sick? Yes, it makes us sick. Very sick. Our lifespans are shorter than the rest of the developed world.

I don’t do it out of financial need, I do it out of DNA and habit. That’s a whole other problem. But yeah, families out there are trying to pay the bills, put food on the table. We’re bombarded with stuff designed to make us want more, borrow more, keep up with the Jones’, and that makes it all worse. The sad thing is, none of this is necessary. I don’t care how bad you think things are, there are pretty simple ways to fix it, and get on the path to financial happiness.

Most people are in better shape than they think—they just need to get organized and have a plan. And yeah, most of the “remedies” you hear about on ads are scams. There’s no miracle way to magically make IRS or credit card debt disappear, or jack your credit score up overnight, or get that timeshare contract disappeared. There are real ways to accomplish all that. I know because I’ve seen countless people do it in real life. It’s a form of prepping, as well. Financial freedom gives you real freedom.

The reason most of us don’t make progress in cleaning up our finances is that they’re mired in the muck of everything else we have going on. We’re forced to work longer, harder. We’re bombarded with distractions cleverly designed to take our attention. In the little available free time we have, the last thing we want to do is work the unpleasant task of trying to make sense of numbers and our finances. We defer. The system gives us little time, hence it never gets done, hence we continue borrowing and spending, which the system likes very much. It’s a vortex, but you can escape it. If you do it right, it doesn’t take a lot of time.

Maybe you don’t like to read, or feel like you don’t have time to read (see: above). You can listen, right? Do you drive, or go for walks, walk your pet, eat lunch, do household cleaning or other mindless stuff on autopilot when you could be listen-learning? How about as you’re drifting off to sleep (use the sleep timer so it doesn’t go on to long without you…). Find time. Fight back. Free yourself and your family.

* I think the best book (audio, eBook, paperback) on this subject is Kiss Your Money Hello! (and Financial Stress Goodbye). It’s concise, funny, and covers all the bases, from paying down debt to investing wisely. Next best is I Will Teach You to Be Rich (but skip the credit card advice!).

* Have a plan. I don’t see how folks can go through life without a good money roadmap. The problem is they’re used as bait by sketchy investment advisors and insurance people to get you to buy their very expensive services and products. Finally, there are just a few true high-fidelity consumer facing tools you can trust, rather than the dumbed-down stuff you find all over the internet. I highly recommend pralanaretirementcalculator.com. There’s an upcoming guidebook on using it called Plan Your Money Path, in both Kickstarter (with lots of free helpful giveaways) and preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Pralana will be coming out soon in a new online version. Stay tuned at that website.

* Get a good, low-touch app that will monitor your cash flow while you sleep, without much effort, and let you know where your money is going. That’s a first step to stopping waste and reigning it in. We use and love Simplifi, but there are others that are popular, like Monarch Money. YNAB is good, but a bit more complicated. Use the basic features for a tool like Simplifi, don’t go down in the rabbit hole until you’re familiar. Connect your spending accounts (checking and hopefully just one credit card!) and let it do its thing. It will auto-categorize most of your expenses. You can spend a minute touching up anything else, like Costco runs, that might have multiple spending categories, but you don’t even have to in order to just get a high level, “Are we spending more than we’re making?” answer. Credit cards obfuscate that, out of design. Debt is slavery.

Anyway, after the call with my daughter, I was so excited about them coming the next day I immediately started to make a list of stuff I had to get done to prepare. I kept it my secret, and made sure to go about my tasks at a gentle pace. Whatever doesn’t get done, doesn’t get done. Tomorrow’s another day, if we’re lucky. As for the visit, I covered that in my last post, and it was a dream.

I’ll be OK. We’ll be OK. We’re hustling right now because there’s so much going on. We’re phone banking and organizing for democracy, working hard on this election. You should be too! I’m selling my business. Hopefully, when the smoke clears in a few months, everything calms down and we can go about life. I’m looking forward to being fully retired, not semi-retired as I am now, still running a business. I’ll still write, I’ll always write. I’d like more time to catch up on my leisure reading, and watch more soccer and motorcycle racing. Do the whole Twilight Zone series from start to finish. More time to travel, or just relax on a weekend and do nothing, if I’m capable of it by that time.

“Every other day, every other dayEvery other day of the week is fine, yeahBut whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comesYou can find me cryin' all of the time” ― Monday, Monday; Mamas and Papas

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Listen to the audio above for our new theme music, Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby. Please share this post!

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Don’t despair—prepare.

I remember way back in the day, when it would be unthinkable that you would work hard all your life for a company and not have a pension for your retirement years. That got blown up when the thing about working for one company your whole career went away, for various reasons. They acclimated us to the idea of not having a pension real quick, since we had no choice but acclimate. “You have your Social Security, after all, and this new thing called a 401k plan.” Now, we’re being “acclimated” to not having Social Security, or Medicare for that matter. Read on for the reasons this is happening, and most importantly, how you can prepare. Unlike most “sky is falling” journals, this one actually tells you what to do. You already know the sky is falling.

Pioneer Update

Saturday was another visitation day at our White House pioneer covered wagon RV. It’s good to visit her, and we miss her. With each visit, we’re unwinding the systems of our former full-time life there and transitioning them to our new humble abode. She knows the time may come soon when we’re back to her, and on the run. We’re careful to leave as much in place as possible to that purpose.

We built our raised bed garden and look forward to planting as soon as we return from our overseas trip, which we leave for on Friday.

Why This Is Happening

Quite often, people ask, “Why is this happening? Why are they dismantling the government? Let’s take one example—Social Security. The plan is to make using it so insufferably miserable that people start to hate it enough to welcome the new plan—privatizing it. There’s almost $3 trillion in the SS trust fund. If you don’t think endlessly greedy folks like Trump and Musk aren’t salivating over all that money, you’re a fool (sorry). Rinse, wash, repeat for veteran’s health benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, public education, forest/national park management, and other things our government does for its citizens, as it should in any developed, functional democracy.

You might say these government agencies, like Social Security and the VA, already suck. That’s because the staffs are undertrained, underpaid, and overworked. Sure, there’s an average 15 minute hold time when calling SS. Trump and Musk just tried to cancel the phone system completely—disabled people and elderly folks who can’t drive to an office be damned. Remember—through all disasters we’ve experienced in the almost one hundred years of Social Security, the checks never stopped. When I was under VA veteran health care, I received very good treatment from very compassionate providers. That’s about to end. The system needs to be improved, not decapitated. Always remember—the happiest countries in the world have a better version of what we have. The most unhappy and miserable have what we’re racing headlong toward.

Trump and Musk will push the idea of having “smart” money managers taking that Social Security money and managing it under some corporate umbrella. They’ll likely invest it in their own stuff, right? How would you feel if your future SS monies were invested in Tesla stock right now?

Elon would feel wonderful, but, note that it’s in the toilet. A sweet bailout of Tesla stock with SS trust fund money would fix that problem, same as they’re trying to do with crypto currencies and their “Sovereign Wealth Fund.” That’s in the tank lately as well. Everything Trump Touches Dies. It’s a taint of evil. Same with Trump’s social media company, which never made any money, and Musk taking Twitter from $44 billion of worth to basically nothing. Your SS payments will likely depend on how those investments are doing, and no longer be guaranteed. The SS system will be as scammy as the annuity and permanent life insurance business, and probably sold to overseas private equity, where there’s little regulation, oversight, or compliance obligation.

Have a look at our privatized health care system. It’s the most expensive in the world, with the worst health outcomes. We’re sicker and die sooner than other developed countries, and that’s a disgrace. Suffering and death should never be a for-profit business. But we’re stuck with it, as the health insurance CEOs get paid tens of millions of dollars and they place their company names on major sports stadiums.

Soon, when these government agencies are dismantled and sold off to the billionaire oligarchs that now run the country, our government will be a tiny shell of itself. What happens then? It’s a much easier target for takeover, which is the ultimate goal in all this. Then it will be a fait accompli, a system very much like Russia, where the ruler is massively wealthy, firmly locked into power, and protected by a small class of oligarchs by making sure their loyalty is well rewarded with that former government money. Anyone that steps out of line is brutally and publicly executed, sometimes by falling out of top story hotel windows or poisoning by polonium/Novichok nerve agents.

What to Do

In the near term, expect disruptions in all these government services as they break them and make them miserable to use. Build up your emergency fund and expect tax refund, Social Security, disability, and other government checks to just not show up. Be prepared for that. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

Cut your spending as you would when a disaster is impending, because one is. Take shelter financially. There’s a whole book about stuff like that, Kiss Your Money Hello! (and Financial Stress Goodbye). Read or listen to it to learn how to pay down any remaining debt, do side hustles, create an easy to manage budget, save on your expenses, cut your taxes, (not) pay for your kids college/trade/tech school, and more.

If you’re young, it’s quite likely you’re going to be “acclimated” to that life without Social Security, just like people my age were “acclimated” to a life without a pension. The key and most valuable asset you can have is a financial plan. Build it yourself, maintain it yourself. Once you have a solid baseline, the most valuable benefit is you can then copy that baseline scenario into what-if scenarios, like “What if there’s no Social Security or Medicare?” There’s a new book for that too, one that shows you how even if you’re not a financial guru. It’s Plan Your Money Path: Create Your Own Financial Plan.

Yes, we’re still exposed to the collapse of the dollar if we have our money in savings accounts, money market, US treasury bonds, bills, notes. It’s hard to get around that, especially knowing if the dollar collapses the entire world and all its currencies are going to do so (or come close) as well. They are busy preparing for that and insulating themselves from our poison at warp speed, economically and militarily. It’s important to prepare for all downstream contingencies.

There aren’t a lot of good options. Lots of preppers buy precious metals. The conundrum is that 1oz gold bars are a few thousand dollars, and not very useful if the stuff hits the fan and we finally get to a place where we can safely barter metals for goods and services. How are you going to get change for that $2,500 1oz gold bar? Silver coins solve the problem—smaller denominations, but they’re also quite heavy if you have a bunch of them.

Costco is selling sheets of 25 small 1 gram pieces of gold, each piece worth about $100. They’re light and smaller denominations, so not a bad solution to the problem. Again, the best investment you can make is essential goods (food, water, shelter, medical supplies, energy) so that you can ride out the dangerous chaos of a collapse without having to go out for anything. When you do, if you have some surplus, those things will be valuable to barter. Do you have a place to grow food or raise chickens?

Also think in terms of services. What new things can you learn in retirement that might be valuable to others to barter for goods or services? Midwife? Mending or creating clothing? Security? Electronics repair? Even if your career wasn’t in medicine, consider taking an emergency medicine class, or any of the skills you can learn at your local community college in person or virtually as part of non-credit adult continuing education.

Eternity and Mortality

On a final note, I went to a special concert presentation celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album on Saturday night. I received some test results this past week that weren’t so good, so it’s been a down and reflective few days. I have an aneurysm that’s in a particularly bad place and it’s growing, among other issues.

As I stood alone at the back of the concert venue, like a ghost, listening to the music from my youth, it brought back a flood of memories. Memories of a much simpler time, when we weren’t addicted to devices. Many of the people in the audience weren’t looking at the spectacular performance and musicianship on the stage, they were busy looking down at their phones, thumbs frantically twiddling. Or, they were watching the performance through their phones, holding them up to record something they’ll likely never watch yet depriving themselves of the moment. It’s not a boomer criticism, after all they were enjoying the show in their own way, momentarily distracted from the dystopian chaos of life in 2025 America, and that’s OK.

How did we get here? How did we lose our way, as a species and society? Greed, primarily, I think. The money eventually broke down the guardrails built into national, state, and local governments that were designed to maintain decency and order, and to provide a baseline standard of living for all (yes, it was never perfect, especially when it came to minorities and marginalized people). People lost their faith (another guardrail), and along with it decency, ethics, morality. Over time, the entertainment content we’re influenced by made heroes out of the bad people, rather than vice versa. People no longer take pride in that inscription on the Statue of Liberty, but cheer the exact opposite. They no longer understand or value what made this country great in the first place.

It saddens me greatly that I may not live to see this country I love and signed up to die for recover. I’m at peace with my life and the person I’ve become (finally) over this long journey, but worry about my beautiful Giavana, Pia, and the children and grandchildren I’ll leave behind. Believing in something beyond sets you free, and that’s the beauty of faith—there’s no down side if you do it right.

In The Chosen season three finale (spectacular and so emotional!), Jesus comes face to face with Rabbi Shmuel, who has sought to persecute him. Shmuel is all like, “Oh you’re so perfect, Jesus, we all suffer but what have you lost?” As Jesus is aware that his crucifixion nears, he simply and dramatically says, “Time.” He then says that time is not the only measure of existence, and is a small part of the grand tapestry (i.e. it is irrelevant in the spiritual afterlife). He tells Shmuel to not let the darkness consume him, but seek the light.

Even if you’re not a believer, give this series a shot. It’s epic on the scale of The Sopranos in terms of drama, love, retribution, and all the things that make a story captivating. The acting, sound, and cinematography are incredible. It’s on Apple TV, Amazon, best of all free through their own app and website. A perfect remedy and distraction for times like these. Season five, focusing on the Last Supper, debuts in theaters March 28.

There are also some key quotes in the series that mesh with Buddhism and mindfulness (it’s all one song, as Neil Young says…).

Suffering is a part of life, Shmuel, but it is not the end. It is a path, a test of faith, a chance to grow closer to the divine. And even in the face of what seems like a lost time, there is always the potential for redemption, for renewal, for a new beginning.

Peace is not the absence of chaos, Shmuel, but the ability to find serenity within it. It is the ability to trust in something greater than oneself, even when the world seems to be falling apart. It is the ability to find joy in the smallest of moments, even when surrounded by despair.

Pain and suffering are part of this existence. Get over it, because there’s also an overwhelming amount of love and beauty. Another prepping tip is to try to slowly acclimate yourself to those things. (There’s that word again, but in a good sense this time!) Don’t only look to the bad things that happen and exclaim, “Why me?” because then the bad will be all you’ll see. With each bad thing, recall something wonderful.

Be cognizant of the line between what you might be calling “pain” which is simply discomfort. Tell yourself it’s tolerable, and it may well become so. Of course, don’t ignore pain that signals something needs attention. But a little discomfort is something we shouldn’t complain about and can certainly live with. Things are certainly looking to be very uncomfortable going forward. Consider there are so many others who are far worse off, and look to help them. Another way to ease mental and emotional pain is simply to practice forgiveness.

“And you run, and you runTo catch up with the sun, but it's sinkingAnd racing aroundTo come up behind you again

The sun is the same in a relative wayBut you're olderShorter of breathAnd one day closer to death

Home, home againI like to be here when I canWhen I come home cold and tiredIt's good to warm my bones beside the fireFar away across the fieldThe tolling of the iron bellCalls the faithful to their kneesTo hear the softly spoken magic spells”—Pink Floyd

“To everything turn, turn, turnThere is a season turn, turn, turnAnd a time to every purpose under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to dieA time to plant, a time to reapA time to kill, a time to healA time to laugh, a time to weep”—The Byrds (paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

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We had our first visitors here in our pioneer enclave, after being at this lifestyle for a year. We see our families often, but until now, none have ventured into our world. It can be a little hurtful at times, but completely understandable. This life can be intimidating, and it’s not for everyone. It takes one out of their comfort zone, especially those who are only familiar with the sticks and bricks trodden path of normalcy. Let’s talk about that programming.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

As our visitors arrived, the clouds moved away to yield the sun. It was a beautiful day of togetherness, walks through the woods, paddleboats, laughter, and the non-device nature wonderment of small children. Giavana and I sat outside with our guests—my daughter and son-in-law and their girls, dining at the picnic table, talking about life. Their big shepherd enjoyed the outdoor ambiance, and our little Pia may have gotten a little jealous at first. The summer was full of wonderful memories, and that one closed it out in perfection. I’ll be forever thankful for that day.

It was an ending of sorts. Summer’s end. The woods were full of campers and it was loud. Lots of people, just blowing off steam, happy to be away from it all for a brief time. It seemed to go on forever, starting on Thursday morning, until on Monday when the last stragglers pulled away, sadly, heading back to the pulling vortex of reality, and left us alone once again. I puttered about outside, cleaning up. White dead ashen embers in the firepit and the children’s long, thin marshmallow sticks propped up on lawn chairs all a sad reminder of our special day. I had told them how delicious those blackened marshmallows they had prepared for me were. The hammock those kids enjoyed so much now sat still, alone, unattended, perhaps catching its breath after a substantial workout, so much attention as those gleeful kids shrieked and pushed it to its limits.

I also said goodbye to a few fellow pioneers, heading out for warmer climes now that summer is drawing its curtain. One fellow was traveling with just his basset hound, lost after losing his wife, no longer permitting himself a home, riding out his time in that old class A. My old best friend (the basis for the hero Shayne in Farawayer) and his wife now finally, finally retired and just left for their countrywide RV journey. Dubuque, Iowa at last report. I’m happy for them, envious, and look forward to their reports.

The distractions of summer concerts and festivals now behind us, Giavana and I will focus more on the future—near and far. The election is a big factor, I’ve covered all that and what our options will be if it goes one way or the other. Our next big task is to begin organizing and inventorying our meager possessions, our minimalist, prepper things, in order to prepare for our move to a new winter site. We’ll empty and clean this White House home from stem to stern, fore and aft, inside and out to prepare her for winter. The move will happen in October, next month, as far as setting up in the new place. We’ll leave for a getaway in November, to be out of the country for the election, safe and cozy by a lake, a much needed break.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden (a treasure, and one of my favorite books) about being simple and minimalist as a way of resisting unjust economic and political systems. What he was saying is that by buying into the pressures to have more and more, you enslave yourself and put yourself under the control of others—employers, creditors, those you’re trying to keep up with, your own human built-in greed and lust for “things.” It’s that pulling vortex I mentioned earlier, the sucking whirlpool. He said it leads to people becoming “sleepers” who are eventually absent from their existence, forced into a life where they must get up each day and go through the same Matrix, Groundhog Day routine, and they become numb to it, joyless, stressed, numb to all the beauty and goodness in this world. And that was back in 1854! It’s so much more true now, on steroids. May he rest in peace.

Maybe all those words I read as a boy and later as a lost, disaffected young man after my military service are rising up through my subconscious, in rebellion, and have driven us to this pioneer path we’ve undertaken. My Side of the Mountain, On the Road, Walden, and other wonderful books I read during those times. Maybe it’s because we seem to be at the pinnacle of what those books, and other, more dystopian ones (like 1984 and Handmaid’s Tale) all foretold so long ago. Maybe Farawayer was the bubbling up of all that from within me. Maybe this alternative life is our escape—actually, it is, I’ll admit, and it’s wonderful.

Regardless, that path to dystopia in the books I read is indisputably happening not just here, but around the world. The USA is the grand prize, the big domino that would cause all others to topple. Evil knows it, big autocracy knows it, big money knows it. This has been a slow freight train, coming for a very long time. We can derail it, I hope. We need the young to rise up, finish what the hippies and beats started, and do it right this time. Take back their future, fight for it. Us oldsters need to try to gain penance for contributing to it, not fighting hard enough, and stand by their sides.

Let’s be clear—there isn’t any Doctor Evil/Gru evil genius superhero plotting all this behind a green curtain. It’s the organic outgrowth of out of control, unbridled greed, mostly now in corporate form, since they’ve been recognized as “people too” by the Supreme Court. “People” with zero empathy, knowing only greed, lust for more, more, more, and now driven by artificial intelligence. Giavana and I watched a western movie last night, and framed it in what life may be like to come, from a prepper perspective. Not many will survive that, we’re too soft, too reliant on tech.

Back to our visitors. When I’m with my adult kids, especially when I see what fantastic, amazing, loving parents they are, my mind always wanders to going back. I’d like to be their father now, with all I’ve learned since. How good I’d be! We have our children too young, again part of that societal programming: school, career, marriage, kids. We move from one form of being controlled to another, throughout our lives. Feed that tax machine for the wealthy, feed those collection plates, feed that military-industrial war machine with our working kids’ bodies and minds. Are you still figuring out why the wealthy are so against any form of birth control or women making their own decisions? It’s not their kids going off to get maimed and killed in those oil wars.

It’s a trap, always was. CEO pay used to be a reasonable three times average worker pay. Now it’s 344 times more! Wall Street profits have gone up 3,800% since 1980 (the beginning of the Reagan age of extreme greed) while worker pay has gone up only 16%. There used to be no billionaires, now they’re consolidating into their own hateful little unhappy space army. Three families here in the US have more money than half the 330 million population combined. The money you make and taxes you pay, your slave wage contributions, almost all go to corporate subsidies for big pharma, big military, and here you are worried that immigrants might get the meager Social Security they’re paying into, and some poor single mom might get food stamps until she can afford child care to get a job. Only one party is now back to fighting for the working people, fighting against all that, and it’s not the party led by a billionaire that’s trying to cancel overtime pay and socialist “entitlements” like unemployment payments, Social Security, Medicare, and veteran’s and other disability.

I digress. I long to go back and do it again, especially for those kids. I wish to be reincarnated, if that’s what it takes. Maybe.

I’ve posited in my musings here about spirituality and the afterlife. I’ve thought deeply on these topics since childhood, out of fear and wonder. After all I’ve seen and experienced in these many decades, and studying the experiences of those who have briefly passed and come back, I think I know the deal. The only thing that makes sense to me is that there is some form of afterlife, and it is utopian. This life is in preparation for that, because for utopia to remain perfect, only the perfected can pass into it. If you haven’t evolved sufficiently, you retain some of what you’ve learned in that secret subconscious and DNA programming, and you’re reborn to work at it. God doesn’t interfere, that would ruin the recipe, we’re at the mercy of our own decisions, fate and how we handle the circumstances that are thrown at us in random fashion.

The cookbook to perfection has been given to us in many forms (all corrupted by humans of course, to some extent)—the Commandments, the Beatitudes, Torah, Koran, on and on. It’s all the same song. Be good, be kind, be compassionate, be moral. If I’m wrong, what’s the down side—trying to be a more perfect person? I’ll take the ‘L’ there, if so. If I’m right, the reward is eternal. Read or listen to the book, After (and others like it) and tell me you’re not convinced. We don’t need to participate in unpleasant rituals we don’t understand, or support uber-wealthy cult-like organizations. We can be a religion unto ourselves, so much easier. Christlike.

Imagine the world we’d live in if more people adopted this theory, as well as similar ideas such as in Buddhist teachings. Semi-utopia, right here. No more greed, wars, mistreatment and violence of human on human.

We don’t know for sure if there is reincarnation. There’s plenty of evidence on that as well. We don’t know if there’s a God. We only choose to believe what we choose to believe. But I do know one form of reincarnation is real. We wake up every day reborn, after whatever happens in our sleep, the deep secrets in our subconscious taking over, perhaps adjusting us, guiding us, teaching us. Every day we arise, reborn, with the chance to begin anew, to be better, to fight off the stressors that certainly will come until we lay our heads down again. If we can just make it through that short period of a few hours, beatific, beautiful, a perfect person, being kind, generous, moral for just that few hours, perhaps there’s the chance that we’ll do it again the next day, and again, until it is habit. Until it becomes clear that this is the way to happiness.

“An honest man hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.” ― Henry David Thoreau

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Hey, we made it to fifty posts! Thank you so much for your support. It means a lot to us, honestly, especially when times are tough. It was great that last week’s post was on empathy, and what followed was the DNC convention, which focused on empathy, community, families, compassion, love, joy, and America. We might just be OK, but it’s not going to be all flowers and unicorns. It’s likely going to be rough sledding ahead. Given all that’s happened in the past few weeks, here’s how I see the potential violence to come playing out. And, it folds together all the themes of this journal—prepping, RV life, politics, spirituality, personal finance. Let’s go!

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

There are odd sensations when a big wave is about to form. There’s that sense of something pulling back, pulling away. There’s a gathering, strength building, a massing of energy. Then it begins to form, to take shape. First, a rolling bulge coming forward, innocent enough. Then it rises, fast! Rises, and begins its ominous curl. It’s a big one! The entire transfer of energy is so impressive. I could watch all day, from the beach, and ride those waves, ride that energy, until the last of mine is gone.

That’s how Giavana, Pia and I felt while watching all four nights of the DNC convention, culminating by that powerful speech by Kamala Harris. It was joyful. I’ve been following politics almost all my life. I was a small five-year old boy crying in front of the black and white TV when JFK was assassinated, seeing another small boy there, who no longer had a dad. This week felt more powerful than the rise of Obama, and that was spectacular.

The energy of this movement, the money rushing in from small donations, the massive army of people signing up to volunteer, are something to behold. Thankfully, they’re warning not to be overconfident. We’re seeing signs that states like North Carolina may come back to blue. This needs to be a blowout result in order to tamp down Trump’s inevitable whining about it being rigged. In a massive blowout, that’s not as effective. Hopefully, by then the cult is sick of it and starting to see reality. Those Q predictions never did come true, ever, did they? We were at one of Trump’s trial appearances this summer, and despite his begging his cult members to show up, there were only about five sad, quiet people outside.

I’ve been talking to some of these folks as a sort of side project, and they’re very dug in with all the conspiracy theories. They’re a fringe, but ready to do violence that will make Jan 6 look like a church meeting. For every violent lunatic that was there that day, there are a hundred who are very mad that they missed it, and dreaming of a second chance. Many are unwell, and very well armed, all around the country. The conspiracy sources, Fox, OANN, Newsmax, social media bots from Russia, have them well-indoctrinated.

They’ve been installed as part of the plan this time around—in community election boards, school boards, local, county and state level government positions. What they’ll do after election day is refuse to carry out what is normally a very routine, mundane task—barring evidence of any problems, just certify the election results in their neck of the woods as accurate. That tallies up from the local to county to state level, and the results are then ceremoniously counted in DC at a meeting of the state electors.

But, they’ll refuse to certify the results. Even without a reason, they’ll refuse. They’ll even refuse in areas that Trump won, just to slow down the process and achieve their goal. To prepare, some states are striking down laws that require them to certify election results in a timely manner. They are actively practicing in current elections to be sure to get this right. Trump is realizing he’s about to lose big in the election, and openly saying that this is the new plan. He had some of those new, corrupt electors from Georgia at one of his recent rallies, and hailed them as heroes, sitting in the front row.

There will of course be lawsuits to try to get them to do what they’re supposed to do, but each time they lose, it will go all the way to the Supreme Court, and we know what happens then. The goal is to prevent either candidate from receiving the necessary 270 electoral votes to win. If that happens, the backup process occurs. The House of Representatives picks the President, with each state getting one vote. That results in a very, very small portion of the population of this country picking our President, and it will be Trump, make no mistake.

I can imagine violent protests if that occurs. I can imagine being part of them, so it’s no fantasy. At that point, our democracy is gone, period, and we’re officially an authoritarian state. If their plan falls short for any reason, the plans for massive violence around the country are already in place—taking over of state capitols, police stations, National Guard bases (with all that military equipment and ammo), power grids, and more.

This is not sensationalism, these plans are already out in the open. The traitor General Flynn has been setting these cells up for years now, traveling around the country. They are well organized and well funded. Prepare. This may be their last and only chance to turn the USA into a Christian theocratic autocracy, despite planning back to the Reagan Moral Majority years and massive amounts of money spent. They are not simply going to let that all go to waste. It’s go big time for these lunatics. They are well-funded and know this.

Which brings me to us, your friendly pioneers. We began our journey over a year ago, when we decided to take advantage of ridiculous real estate prices and sell our house for a very nice profit. That was one reason, the other is we saw all this coming, along with the other things going on like just getting over a shocking, dystopian pandemic, and more and more climate-related disasters. It only made sense to begin prepping, downsize/minimalize, and set ourselves up to be completely mobile, to go anywhere we need to go to survive. We bought and moved into our RV in this small, remote paradise.

It’s all there in our back posts to a year ago, each step of the journey, all the mistakes, trials, tribulations, lessons learned. The prepping journals are invaluable. As we get closer, and more clear-eyed, this is what things look like and how we’re thinking.

First, we’re working hard to do our part. Phone banking, organizing, talking to people to try to get them to understand what they’re doing. We were out there with a few folks prior to Biden stepping away, but now it’s an ocean of them, ready to work. No, we we’re not going back to the 1940s.

We found a place outside of the country, and we’re going to go check it out for a week or so during the election. We can relax, get a foreign perspective, and familiarize ourselves with an escape route and lodging options in that area. Maybe make a few friends that will come in handy later. It will be a nice vacation.

By then, the path forward will be even clearer. We’ll see who the “winner” is and what actions are being taken by the losers. What the temperature is, so to speak. Maybe we’ll just stay there for a while if things are too hot here.

If we come back, we’ll be paying careful attention. We’ve looked at neighboring states from a geological, topographic, political, and other perspectives in case we decide to hitch up the pioneer wagon and go that way. If we decide to ride it out in another country, hopefully our scouting trips will yield benefits. We have friends around the world who have offered shelter, as well.

When the smoke clears, if all is well and this movement has dissipated, hopefully back under the rocks, we’ll get back to thinking about buying a patch of land and building that prepped-out off-grid climate-resistant cabin we’ve been dreaming about. I’m back to learning all about solar and water collection/purification systems. Hopefully, that’s what the future holds.

After the dopamine high of the DNC convention, Giavana and I allowed ourselves a bit of a break. We spent the weekend just relaxing here in pioneer heaven. There was an open-air free concert on a beautiful Friday night. Saturday night was spent just relaxing here at the homestead with a nice outdoor fire, some music and reading, and all our exterior RV party lights lit up. Heaven.

On Sunday we slept in a bit, went to a nice breakfast, did laundry, and spent more time outside during which a very large black bear approached our camp in daylight. Little Pia picked up the scent first, and alerted vociferously. She was ready to take on the big bruin! Thankfully, our wood picket fence stopped her. The bear was right there at the woods edge behind our RV, foraging for food in the forest. It was beautiful, and a perfect end to our weekend. Perhaps an omen of good things to come.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.” — Michelle Obama

“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.” ― John Lennon

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Once upon a time, when my son was still a kid, we participated in a racquetball tournament. He was up against an old guy who had braces on every joint. My son was always one of those angels with altruism wired into the DNA from birth. Anyway, the old guy missed a serve, and his ball dribbled away to the far end of the court. Seeing the guy’s condition, my son ran to grab the ball for him to serve again. The dude berated him.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

“Don’t you ever help your opponent. Your opponent is your enemy. That energy you just spent weakens you and hurts your ability to win. You allowed me, your opponent, to rest and conserve energy. I will use that against you.”

I’ll never forget that moment. I should have said something, but I didn’t want to end up rolling around on the floor with the old guy. He seemed to have some anger management issues and I certainly did at the time. My son and I talked about it on the way home. The guy had a point, if your thesis in life is to win at all costs, even stepping on the neck of your opponent. This is called zero-sum—you can only get ahead by causing others to fall behind, at the expense of others.

This strategy has resulted in massive fame and success for some of our most well-known athletes, politicians, musicians, actors, and others. Did you ever wonder why so many of them seem so very unhappy? Why they end up victim to alcohol and substance abuse and die young? Or, if they’re more fortunate, end up such miserable old people, despite all their success and money?

It’s because, inside, you can’t hide from who you are. You know. You can suppress and justify at the conscious level, but underneath, in your subconscious, it eats and eats away at your self-esteem, your self-worth. The guilt is there, somewhere in those deep, still waters of the mind.

As well, others notice. You may self-perceive as this badass super-competitive mofo, but completely unaware that others see you as a major a-hole. (Narrator: I know, this was once me). This can certainly work against you, and result in the opposite—others working hard to make sure you don’t succeed. Look at someone like Keanu Reeves, who seems to be the most well-known, super-successful Christlike, Buddah-like person. He’s done well, without being horrible. Mark Cuban and Taylor Swift as well, I’d venture to say.

My son later went to war, two tours as a Marine machine gunner in the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan. Certainly that’s a different situation. It’s kill or be killed. You’re responsible for your platoon-mates. But in everyday life, you’ll likely get ahead faster by being more empathetic.

When you’ve been around for as long as I have, you’ve learned quite a bit (often, the hard way). You see all kinds of trends, ebbs, flows, circumstances, actions and outcomes—not just in what’s happened with you, but those all around you. The life thing starts to take shape and make sense.

Often, when things take a downturn, a run of unfortunate circumstances, we’re understandably negative. You’re in that FML mode, and everything seems to suck. You pay more attention to the sucky things going on, and dismiss any good that’s leaking through, and it all feels like crap. “I can’t help anyone else right now, I’m struggling.” You’re in a foul mood, and much less tolerant of others. “Look at that moron with the baggy pants and his underwear showing.” You’re giving in, allowing the darkness to own you. I’ve been there. A lot.

What I’ve learned though, is that if I take a beat and rationalize my way out of it, things turn 180 degrees in a heartbeat. It’s important to put things in context. My kids are healthy. My grandkids are healthy. I’m still breathing. I have love. What more can you ask for? I measure my self-pity against what others are living through around the world and begin to count my blessings. It's motivating and puts my focus on helping those who are worse off, rather than woe-is-me.

Sometimes other people help me out of my funk. A simple smile by someone who sees my dour expression, someone letting me merge onto the highway instead of speeding up to prevent it, or a random gift from the person ahead of me in the drive-through coffee line can spark the reversal. These are the angels of this world, and if you do this, you are one of them. Thank you. You make a difference, and you will be rewarded.

When things are going well, of course we’re happier. We’re more likely to be the one giving that helpful smile or compliment, to buy that coffee for the person behind us. The world feels like our oyster, and we’re full of joy and hope. We want others to feel the same, at least the good among us, the non-zero sum gamers. (The zero-sum crowd would say, “It’s your damn fault you’re not doing as well as me, get your stuff together, loser.”)

There are zealous, hateful zero-sum gamers in the religious world, particularly in the recent upswing in Christian Nationalism. They feel no other belief should exist, and the country (then, the world) should be forced into a strict, fundamentalist Old Testament existence. “Empathy is a sin, a trick of the devil,” they’re saying. Sounds like Satan to me! They’re taking over a town in Idaho, and building cells around the country. They have taken over our ultimate authority, the US Supreme Court, and the leader of the House of Representatives is one of their leaders. They’ve written Project 2025, the blueprint to establish this dystopian doctrine beginning on day one of a Republican presidency, just a few months for now. “There’s more that’s not even in the document,” their lead architect said on hidden camera recently. (Narrator: That would be the part about taking the guns away, and more). They’re preparing for a religious civil war here in America, if necessary. More on that in my next post. Ironically, all of this is the complete opposite of what Christ taught in his short time with us. It’s the opposite of Buddhism.

So, what I know after sitting on this spinning rock for so long, is that empathy is the way, if you want to be happy and maybe even live longer. If you want to be remembered well, and want to leave a legacy, perhaps passing this happiness secret on to your kids so they’ll have long, happy lives.

Empathy is all the heroines and heroes we ever read about, cheered for, cried over when reading impactful stories or watching great movies. Zero-sum were the horrible villains in those stories. Which side did you root for?

Empathy is George Bailey, zero-sum is mean old rich guy Mr. Potter (It’s A Wonderful Life). And yet, somehow we see a third of the country rooting for the mean old rich dude who promises to take away their disability payments, their Social Security, Medicare, right to make decisions about their own bodies. You see veterans and “patriots” supporting him, despite his constant disrespect and trashing of those who have served, especially those who gave all. That’s how cults operate. Don’t hate them. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Help them see the light and work their way out of the dark.

Empathy is easier when you can relate to those who struggle, when you’ve been down and out yourself. Had that horrible fast-food job with the horrible boss. Had that trouble making the rent payment. Had that trouble finding someone to watch your kid so you can go to work and make that rent payment. It’s why some of those folks who have had to scratch and claw on the way up are the least hateful, the most giving. They know what it’s like. Country music fans were horrified long ago to find Johnny Cash was married to a black woman. I’m sure many were horrified at the recent Country Music Awards to see Luke Combs doing that tribute and incredible duo with Tracy Chapman. Luke knows what that song is about.

Empathy is harder when you’ve had everything handed to you, never been grocery shopping in your life. It’s easier to say, “It’s your fault you’re not successful like me.” Sometimes empathy is wired into the DNA, perhaps the enhancement of learning in past lifetimes, improving with each iteration, until we’re ready for the afterlife utopia.

Whether you’re spiritual, religious, or not, this is the key. I call it Christlike because I think Jesus was our best historical model—it’s all very well documented. Same with Buddhism. Look, you don’t have to join a pseudo-cult, follow a bunch of likely man-made rituals and ceremonies. You don’t have to wear your beliefs on your sleeve, or push it on others. We don’t know for certain if Christ was the son of God. That’s why it’s called faith, and Christians are called believers. Certainly he existed, and was an incredibly good person. There’s just too much historical evidence to deny that. Buddha existed, and has inspired so many to live good, altruistic lives. They are the exemplars, Keanu Reeves, Mark Cuban, and Taylor Swift are closer living examples, if you please.

Yes, those zero-sum folks will prey on your empathy, as that mean old racquetball player warned my son so long ago. Count on it. Buddhism says it will happen, know that it will, and deal with it. The consequences are between them, their God (if they have one), karma, their own self-esteem. Just know that the positives of empathy will outweigh those sometimes negative consequences of it.

I’m working hard on it myself. I’ve insulted those I’ve disagreed with on this journal, as recent as my last post. I always regret it immediately, but I won’t go back and erase it. It happened. It’s there to remind me to be better, to understand that people are often a result of the bad that’s happened in their lives, of what their parents or others have burned into them, and they need help. We’re all God’s children, we all have work to do. So I’m trying to fix that in myself, working on my language, stepping up my empathy and giving to those with less. Giavana? Heck, she’s already an angel. She inspires me.

This is the way to feeling good about yourself, to happiness, to making the world a better place for all of us. What if we all actually tried to follow that model, those giving principles, whether or not you believe in deities or an afterlife? Can you imagine the utopia we’d live in right here in this world?

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.”—Walt Whitman

“Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other’s good, and melt at other’s woe.”—Homer

“The only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them.”—Louis C.K.

“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”—Maya Angelou

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

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You can see it if you perch toward the top of a hill overlooking a music festival. That mass of synchronous humanity moving in unison to the rhythm like a beautiful school of fish. If you get caught up in the joyful excitement and move down to the stage, then look back at the crowd, you see the exuberant smiles. Joyful—that’s the word of the day.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

If you’ve been with us on this journey for the past year, you’ve seen a clear pattern. I whine all winter about being cooped up in the cold, and pine for the summer festival season and the beach. I love festivals—music, chili, art, pizza, doesn’t matter what kind of festival. They’re our humanity in a small space. It’s easy to feel the ebb and flow of emotion through the crowd at a festival. It’s contagious.

Festival season is now officially over (for me), and Giavana will get her husband back full-time. I’ll have to remember to ask her if that’s a good thing. She goes, but just not as relentlessly as I do. I love people watching at these events—a microcosm of society. I’m the guy sitting alone, comfortable and unbothered with my cooler and reading material, watching, watching.

Charlie is in that crowd, putting aside his recent cancer diagnosis for a day, and in fact feeling much better to be out in the open air, dancing, and surrounded by such joy.

June is in that crowd, thankful her boss finally agreed to a weekend off. Her kids stayed home to take care of the pets, urging her to go and enjoy herself with her partner.

Katelyn is in that crowd, finally feeling better since she and John lost the baby. She pulls him closer and whispers, “I think I’m finally ready to try again.”

Jack is out there too, finally able to push the pain of his lost promotion aside, the music uplifting him with new confidence to move on to a new company that will appreciate his work ethic. He vows to forego the luxury he thought defined him, instead seeking minimalism and the ability to escape his unhappy hamster-wheel go-go life far earlier than he ever thought possible. John is now FIRE.

Jesse is out there, pumping her bangled arms high into the air with the beat, thinking, “Bad freshman start be damned, I’m gonna slay this sophomore year.”

Dontrell is out there, grieving the recent loss of his father. He smiles when the band launches into Dad’s favorite song.

There is a blue one who can't acceptThe green one for living withA fat one tryin' to be a skinny oneDifferent strokes for different folksAnd so on and so on and scooby-dooby-doobyWe got to live togetherI am every day people—Sly and the Family Stone

They all dance like no one is watching on this hot summer day.

The most joyous crowds I’ve seen all summer, by far, were the ones at the Grateful Dead/Phish type bands. The message in the lyrics, the uplifting flow of the chord changes in this music, can’t help but make you feel good. Every face smiling, from the young hippies to the old hippies to the well-groomed manicured corporate weekend refugees in their neat slack shorts and Birkenstocks. All smiling and gyrating to the words, forgetting it all for a while. It is beautiful and uplifting in itself to behold. So many happy, joyful people it felt like a Kamala rally.

“Love will see you through”

“I will get by, I will survive”

"Remember that the only time is now"

“Well, the first days are the hardest days, don’t you worry anymore”

"I don't know, don't really care, let there be songs to fill the air"

“One way or another this darkness got to give.”

“Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.”

—Grateful Dead lyrics

I was at a festival in mid-July. This one focused on music with a bit of a harder edge. It was ridiculously hot, and people were drinking hard from early in the day. The mood seemed to grow a bit darker as the afternoon slid into evening. My mother called to say that Trump had been shot at. I prayed they wouldn’t say anything from the stage, and saw a few people holding up their phones to one another. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have much effect. I think more than half the crowd was already in a funk due to this being the height of stress with Biden being urged to not run, and the Republican basically pronouncing they were on the way to a landslide win. It sure felt like it.

Into the night, it seemed to get rowdier, the excessive alcohol and heat taking its toll on the mass human psyche. Someone sitting near me fell and had some kind of heart issue, leading to a swarm of paramedics, family crying, and lots of drunken confusion. It didn’t feel good there anymore, so I left early.

A week later, Biden made his courageous decision and a ton of stress and fear seemed immediately displaced by joyful exuberance. The party and country quickly coalesced around Kamala, and once again people seemed excited and happy. We began hearing about our greatness and our potential instead of hateful, negative bile about everything under the sun. I could feel the difference at these big events I attended since then.

I worry about the future for all these outdoor activities we love. Our big campground wasn’t that busy this season. The intense heat and constant deluges of rain have surely kept people away. Same thing at some of these festivals. When vendors have to pay to sell their goods, and people stop showing up, they’ll stop being able to rent those spaces. The festivals, fairs, carnivals, concerts, camping won’t be possible because they won’t be profitable. Entire days of big festivals this year were wiped out by unending heavy rain. Huge sold out headline concerts were canceled.

They can pivot to using indoor spaces, to ensure it goes off despite the weather. That won’t work well, because most people (like me) only go because it’s a chance to enjoy the fresh air of the outdoors, not filthy recycled unhealthy air conditioning. This is what’s happening slowly, before our eyes. We’re gradually moving to a dystopian existence where everything is indoors (like Florida in summer). We need to fight for our planet, for our climate, and turn those away that mindlessly pillage and make the problem worse out of their own greed.

It’s the same with expensive beach vacations. Ours this summer (booked way back in December) was mostly rained out. We were lucky—the week prior it was so hot it was dangerous to be outside, certainly not comfortable. You couldn’t walk on the sand barefoot. I don’t think I’ll book that far in advance again, it’s too much of gamble for that much money. I’m sure most people are thinking the same. It could lead to the collapse of those economies, our country’s economy. It’s getting too expensive to continually have to rebuild those beaches as they’re wiped out by severe storm after severe storm. Insurers won’t cover the homes, a disaster in the making.

Sunday night I returned home late and exhausted from that last festival concert, and was in a hurry to get inside to the sleep cave, where my beautiful Giavana and little Pia waited in peaceful slumber. I caught myself at the door to our pioneer RV. Wait. Take a beat. Listen. I took a moment in the hammock, looking up through the tall, tall trees to the stars above and listened to another concert. The cicada chorus sang using alternating chords in surround sound. An owl hooted an occasional fill. Summer was slipping away, but all felt right in the world. The new, joyful exuberance of the Kamala candidacy gives hope that maybe we’ll all survive.

Soon we’ll have to relocate to a winter camp, but until then we plan to take advantage of this pioneer paradise as much as possible, meaning long walks through our woods, peaceful nights by the firepit, cookouts and meals at our picnic table. Maybe some light music over our White House RV outdoor sound system, before the main show begins, featuring The Fabulous Cicadas and Madame Hoot.

"Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart"—Pablo Casals

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a donation or subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed. Half of all money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

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We went on another mission to a different big city. As we walked those streets, little Pia seemed in distress and not understanding why there was nowhere for her relief, only hard steel and concrete as far as the eye could see. It was a stark contrast to her pioneer home with us in the woods. She seemed sad, and I wanted to bring her home. She took note of the humans lying on the sidewalk, helpless, and looked up at me as if to ask why.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance.

I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it. If you read my ramblings, I’ll leave it to your conscience. If you get any value from my writing, consider a subscription, which is priced at a few dollars, the minimum allowed by Substack, or a donation. Half of all subscription and donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses.

You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

As we walked the city streets in the blistering heat, we passed countless glittering storefronts filled with $1,000 shoes and $3,000 bags, supermodel clothing worn by dead-eyed soulless mannequins. At the foot of each storefront lay a human being curled fetal on cardboard, motionless, covered in rags, the only sign of life a thin stream of yellow urine escaping into the gutter.

Other humans walked by, trying not to look, trying not to think of the horror of that poor individual’s existence, and the massive disparity in the quality of life of two biologically identical specimens on this tiny speck of a planet. Taking care to step over the stream of piss, they averted their gaze to their phones and maintained a quick pace, but not too quick as to dislodge their iEarbuds. “I have problems, too,” I’m sure many of them concluded. “That clown next door just bought the new iBeemer and I’m still driving that crappy 2023 Lexus. I’ll help people more after I hit my goals.” I’m sure some went with, “Ugh, why can’t someone get these gross people off the street, they scare me.”

I’ve been to some of the most impoverished places in the world. I saw small children squatting naked to defecate outside broken down huts just a block away from luxury fortress-like hotels in Mumbai, India. I walked past the rickety cardboard and plywood favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil with strings of incredibly dangerous makeshift electrical wiring weaving throughout. When it sparks, they die a horrible death.

It always brought me back to the time I was homeless in winter, as I described in my novel Farawayer. It feels hopeless, and you wonder why nobody will help. You vow, if you ever get back on our feet, to help others. That may be a reason that in my past professional financial life, there was always a clear distinction between how much average people gave to charity versus high-net worth individuals, and it always sickened me.

Giavana and I give monthly to a growing list of charities, and we just added The National Alliance to End Homelessness. I’m now giving basically any money I make from this journal to them as well. When I talk to others, it seems clear that people with money take an attitude that it’s these folks’ fault they haven’t “made it,” because after all, they did (forgetting, for many of them, that inherited silver spoon). They’re dismissive of the fact that most of the homeless are from impoverished backgrounds, and/or have been abused all their lives, and suffering from mental illness. It’s the folks who have been down and out, or currently struggling with their own everyday issues, that have empathy and tend to help.

The wealthy see the homeless as a nuisance, cluttering up their vision of 1940s utopia where smartly dressed Mad Men strut clean city streets to their three-martini jobs while their obedient doting wives spend their days vacuuming, gossiping, making dinner, and picking out something to wear at bedtime to please their hard-working man when he returns home from “networking” at the country club. Incredibly, we just saw a Supreme Court decision making homelessness a crime. “Lock them up!” as the chant goes on the right. They have mental illness, so let’s also teach them how to crime, of course!

There are reasons for impoverishment in some areas of the world, I suppose. But how can it exist here, this shining city on the hill as Reagan called it, the wealthiest country in the history of the world? This quote goes to the theory that those on the right fault these desperate people, and their continual policies that evoke their cruelty toward those less fortunate, or who are different in any way. Republicans continually slash funding for programs to help those in need. They see it as strategic—they can then say, “Look at these shitty democratic-run cities!”

Mr. “Shiny City On the Hill” Reagan left a legacy of doing great harm to programs for those with mental health issues and the homeless. Ironically, he was shot by one of them. As was Trump, another viciously cruel human being (and, incidentally, he was shot at by a registered Republican!) Even though it was clearly a small ear cut from a glass shard that magically fully healed in three days of applying a tampon to the side of his head, but that’s a story for another day.

I always frame these things by imagining Jesus walking among us, and wondering what would he do. It’s not hard to imagine, it’s actually what he did do—help those in need, those with less. It’s what we were asked to do. Hopefully, by now you’re wondering if you’re giving enough, helping enough. If you think you’re struggling, juxtapose your situation against those on the city streets we just visited, or those in Mumbai and Sao Paulo, dying in the blistering heat and other climate catastrophes we’re causing.

Have you noticed we’re just complacently sliding toward a life where we’re forced indoors, unable to do our usual outdoor things due deadly heat, torrential rain, lightning, thunder, extreme winds? Remember to tell your grandkids someday what summer used to be like. It will sound magical to them, but be prepared to answer when they ask what you did to help prevent this.

I wonder how this homelessness can be happening, when we have citizens of this country with immeasurable wealth, who literally make tens of millions of dollars a day and pay no taxes? When we have supposedly benevolent “religious” and “Christian” organizations that have immeasurable wealth around the world and pay no taxes? I’ll tell you how—greed, hate, and ignorance. The calling cards of the right.

This is where you see the stark contrast in the messaging of the two presidential candidates in the US. One is telling you those impoverished people are coming to take what’s yours, and should be locked up and/or killed. They promise to teach them a lesson by taking the nursing babies off their mother’s breast, forever. The other side is providing a message of hope. They’re saying that every family, every individual in this incredibly wealthy country deserves a minimum standard of dignity and standard of living. Pay attention to what they’re saying. We get there partly by making sure the uber-wealthy pay their fair share, whether they like it or not. Vote. Make sure your friends and family are registered and get a mail-in ballot if possible. Understand the assignment!

To help others, you have to get yourself right. Hopefully you get to a place financially where you can help more and more over the course of your life. I always recommend the book I love the most, Kiss Your Money Hello (and Financial Stress Goodbye) and also see the upcoming Plan Your Money Path by the same author. Build wealth the right way, and use it to help others. You’ll feel so good, such worthy self-esteem, set a good example for any kids you might have (involve them!), and maybe pave your way to that blissful eternity we’re promised.

This pioneer journey continues…

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels.

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio. Half of your kind help goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

There’s been a lot of chatter on the socials about how to leave the US for other countries—like, for good. It’s toned down a bit with the new enthusiasm around Kamala Harris. Let’s talk about it, since Giavana and I like to have options, and one of them is to do exactly that, if necessary. The ability to do something like this, if necessary, is a primary reason we sold our home and all our stuff a year ago.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others. If you enjoy this post, there’s a button below to leave a small one-time donation.

It’s comforting to have options—to have a plan. You don’t worry as much about power outages after you secure a generator and fuel, for example. You have a plan for that. As preppers, there are so many things to plan for! Climate disasters, forced migration, alien invasions, medical emergencies, power outages, economic collapse, water shortages, nuclear disasters, world war, dystopia, autocracy, civil unrest/rioting, on and on. A lot of that will remain a concern regardless of who wins the election this November.

As hard as it is, it helps to envision each situation and ask how you will get by. Do you have the tools, resources, and expertise necessary? Giavana and I have alarmed our family members, even angered some, with our talk of obtaining dual citizenships and leaving the country if Trump wins this election.

“How could you give up on your country?”

“Stay and fight!”

“How could you leave us behind?”

The answer is simple. From what we’ve seen, what we know, what the forces backing Trump have clearly said, right out in the open, is that America as we know it will cease to exist, in short order. So, we wouldn’t be leaving our country. Our country would be gone, replaced by the dystopian rigid unforgiving evangelical Christian theocracy they’ve carefully outlined. Project 2025 is their written roadmap for a new, severely religious autocratic country. Women, people of color, working people, LGBTQ+, non-Christians all shoved back into the shadows, out of sight, out of mind. Trump just said to an evangelical gathering that there would be no more voting if he wins. He’s said openly he’d like to be a dictator on day one. Giavana and I are too old, been free too long, to adapt to that sort of thing.

As well, we wouldn’t be abandoning our families. We are setting these plans in motion so they have a place to escape to, if necessary and if possible. That is our hope, out of love. So, this is just an option, should things come to that. It’s not the primary plan for our future, it’s a backup plan at this point. We hope it doesn’t come to pass that we need it, like our guns and all those survival items we’ve carefully stockpiled.

Selling our home and all our crap at the market peak of post-COVID housing hysteria to live in an RV full-time was part of that plan. We saw it coming back then. Unfortunately, we were right, so far. There is renewed hope for the election, given we now have a young, energetic candidate who is fully prosecuting the pure evil that is Trump and this right-wing movement.

I’ve talked about boosting our solar capability, water collection/purification, etc. We’re on hold for those things, because if we’re forced to become American refugees seeking asylum in another country (how ironic!), we won’t need to spend that money or undertake that effort. So, we wait.

We have gone from deep despair about the election to optimism and great hope. There’s a wave building, because very few people want to live in a country such as these right-wing lunatics are openly yearning and planning for. The problem is our bizarre system of electing leaders, where despite massive, multi-million vote wins in the popular vote, the loser wins. Where, due to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, vastly wealthy corporations have far more sway in our elections than regular old voters like us.

A lot will happen before the election. These forces yearning for a strict, severe, joyless, freedom-less country are very wealthy and very powerful. As well, the powerful, wealthy dictators in Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere (you know, Trump’s buddies) have a big stake in our coming election. Their dream of carving the world up into a dictator-pie is at stake. This is their cheap and easy shot at that, and they may never get another, without an expensive, bloody world war.

People like JD Vance, Peter Thiel, the Mercers, Leonard Leo, Kevin Roberts, Steve Bannon, Bill Barr, General Flynn, Rupert Murdoch, and Erik Prince all have strong ties to Russia and radical religious branches like the Catholic Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. Their goal is to jam their strict ideology down your throat, whether you like it or not.

Many of our states are already implementing the tenets of Project 2025, and taking steps to make it hard for the right (wrong) people to vote this November. They’re positioning their lawsuits to fire as soon as Harris is declared the winner. The problem is they’ve installed an openly corrupt Supreme Court.

I have confidence that Harris will win this election, aside from anything egregious the right comes up with at the last minute. It seems they’re realizing that’s a possibility too, with Trump pivoting quickly back to planting the “rigged” theme into his cult’s small brains, to ready them to die for him, for this goal. The right’s talk of civil war, violence, Jan 6 on steroids, has ramped up, to plant those seeds into simple, violent, or mentally unwell minds. Red states are preparing to isolate, maybe to try to secede. This is perhaps their last shot for a long time at the dystopia they envision for us all.

Because of that, we wait, we prepare, we keep our options open here in pioneer-land.

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

Big news! Free subscribers will now automatically get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels.

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

You can also support me by becoming a paid subscriber below, leaving a small one-time tip at the button below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Just beyond the chest-high legion layer of juvenile corn stalks, our valley sits, fronted by a sentinel forest of hunter green trees. Our pioneer home in the woods lays nestled behind, obscured. The rearguard mountain range runs behind us, striped by sparse cloud cover and the sun above in a brilliant space-blue sky. There is beauty all around, at least for now…

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others. Note: The audio voiceover/podcast for this post will appear this weekend when I'm back in the pioneer studio.

On the approach to our home, a lake shimmers, scattering the sunlight in tiny prisms on the surface. The small pond beside it resonates with croaking frogs. Humans are coming. Similar chatter from the trees, owls and everything with wings celebrating the gift of a new morning.

Just before dawn, Pia and I emerge from our White House RV home for her morning relief. Lately, there is more wildlife to greet us. Last week Pia abruptly stopped at the foot of the stairs, gazing at the wood’s edge at the rear of our home. A beautiful doe stared back, just thirty feet away. We all stood, transfixed. It was like those two were communicating on some wavelength imperceptible to me. They both broke off simultaneously, turning their heads as the telepathic conversation ended, to go about their business. It’s disconcerting when the wildlife begin to acts in ways other than we are accustomed. Perhaps it’s a harbinger. We probably won’t know for sure until it’s too late, unless we reverse course, somehow.

Sometimes we drive, often we walk, just to get out and appreciate the staggering beauty all around us. It’s incredible to behold, and it goes and goes, lush in every conceivable shade of green, without a visible trace of our human presence. Giavana and I chose this unique life out of fear for what may come, but it’s been a blessing regardless.

And now, this week, the immense ocean at sunrise, seagulls calling and feeding, no humans have come yet to litter the beach. The sun peeks up over the horizon from off to the east, to see if the coast is clear. The waves rush the shore, retreat, then hush for a moment, before doing so again, and again. The very cycle of it is familiar to me. It’s the cycle of the peaceful whispering breeze through the trees in our pioneer RV home. All this before the humans awake, and overtake nature with the violence of their presence.

If you look at our swirling blue and white globe from space, you can see—it’s apparent that it is one living organism, surrounded by the black void of space. As with all other complex organisms, it is composed of other organisms—a synergistic ecosystem of life, functioning in harmony. It is life. It is alive.

Our bodies are similar, harboring living things inside and on the surface, in the forest of our body hair, among our cells. Bacteria, viruses, microbiomes, fungi, even tiny insects call us home. We cannot survive without some of them, and some may consume us. There are ten times more microbes in our body than human cells. We take in a flood of them with every breath, every bite of food, every drink.

If any of these guests in our own biosystem steps out of line and attacks, the battle begins. White blood cells rush to defend us, to kill the invader that attempts to throw our systems into chaos and eventual demise.

It’s the same with our beautiful blue sphere. We are among the guests, along with those owls and frogs and trees and corn. The Gaia theory presents that the earth is a complex living organism comprised of many smaller life forms. It is synergistic, complex, and self-regulating, just like our bodies.

Nature heals us, the ocean always accelerating recovery from any mental or physical injury. It pampers us with compassion, but as we more and more become a threat to it, we see it lashing out, an angry parent that has lost its temper. Then she whispers with those rushing waves and whispering winds, a mother trying to sooth its child, hoping it will sleep, hoping it will behave.

It warns us with its violence in tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. The ocean rises up in warning, smashing the gaudy homes that have intruded too close, carrying those polluting people-viruses and their dirty diapers, and destroys them. Gaia. Then nature retreats, calm and peaceful once again, waiting, watching, hoping we’ll heed the warning, and use our alleged intelligence to take the hint and change our destructive behavior.

Some call it God, referencing those terrible Biblical floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, and fires. Perhaps they are one and the same, or two forces beyond our comprehension, working in harmony, sending a message we refuse to hear.

And now the same beautiful beach at sunset. Piles of trash in the sand, plastic and dirty diapers offending the gulls. Massive oil tankers on the horizon, spilling their waste into the water below and air above.

Nothing matches the peace and serenity of diving a tropical reef. The colors of the coral and marine life are spectacular, and there is no sound other than the breathed bubbles and occasional whale song. Everything moves in slow motion and flows in harmony down there—nature is eternal, yet it takes its time and we humans only rush and rush our short lives away.

In my last visits to those reefs that I’ve been diving for many decades, what I remember is gone. Grey coral now, bleached through the oceans we’ve warmed close to boiling. The beautiful fish that feed on the coral had left, of course. The few that remained stare bleakly, questioningly. Why, humans? To what purpose? It was stark there, like the deep winter up top, death and stillness. Beer cans and old tires prominent, without the beauty. I haven’t gone back since, because it figuratively broke my heart and my heart isn’t in the best shape for diving literally. Perhaps we fade out together, my beloved ocean and I.

We see it in the woodland too—morning’s peace broken by gaudy displays of blinking LED lights announcing someone’s preference for one thing or another, humans who come to the natural peace of the forest with their loud trucks and motorcycles, power tools and blasting music, their beer cans often strewn along the path. Chopping on the trees, screwing their flags and signage into the precious living bark and core. Seuss-like, comical if not so sad.

We are uniquely different from any other life form on this planet. Are we outcasts from another, faraway place and perhaps this terrible behavioral inclination is why? The native cultures respected nature above all, and were wiped out by those who did not, we who remain. The mighty dinosaurs once ruled, but were extinguished by nature. This is how it was before us, and how it will be after we’re gone.

The summer marches on, always begged ahead through the frozen gray sticks of winter, but moves too quickly, or we cause it to with our hurry. We seemingly get bored with it, the lush beauty, lured away by the peace of the kids going back to school, the spectacular fall foliage, football, Halloween, turkey, the warmth of the holidays, promise of a new and hopefully better year to come. It’s a trap, though, a lure to hurry us along to the cold emptiness of January to March.

Especially in this country, we hurry, we rush, we’re forced into a fast pace of stress by the capitalistic out of control forces hell-bent on more profit, more, more. People in countries like Italy and Spain live far longer, due to their refusal to work themselves to death, their long vacations, lunch breaks, easier flow, better health care. Our life expectancy in the US is now 79 and dropping fast, as our food and lifestyle kill us off early, along with the Gaia forces we’re bringing on ourselves with our abuse of this beautiful host planet we all share.

I’m hoping there’s more beyond, that our physical shell is a mere host for our spirit, and there is eternal beauty in the beyond like those peaceful coral reefs I enjoyed, and the companionship of those who have already moved on. It keeps me going, it helps me to forgive the ugliness I see.

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” —Jesus, Luke 23:34

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

Big news! Free subscribers will now automatically get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels.

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

You can also support us by becoming a paid subscriber below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

This post is to, for, and dedicated to those Gen-Zers out there. Please send this to any you know. You see, we need their help. We need them to save us.

Hey, I know you’re busy doing like, young people stuff, and, you should be. Like the old song says, it’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy (I hope). This is the free time in your life before you get sucked into the cycle of mortgages, bills, kids, careers. Or, maybe you’re early in that game. But, gimme a minute if you can, it’s important. Toward the end, I’ll tell you how to shape your utopia.

Cuz, I want all your youthful idealism, hope, and exuberance to be for real. As bad as that stuff I just said about mid-adult life sounds, it’s really not. It might be hard at times, but you’ll miss every minute of it when you get to be my age. Ask your gramps, serious now. It’s actually a long, beautiful kaleidoscopic journey through life, especially in a free country like our wonderful USA. You’re probably aware of what life is like for people like you in places like Gaza, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia. Quite different, and not in a good way.

Young people in those countries have no power to change anything. Their only choice is suffering through it all. It doesn’t have to be that way for you, but sadly, that’s the way it’s going. You have power (for now). It doesn’t take much to save yourselves—there are so many of you! It takes everyone doing just a little. I’ll explain in more detail shortly.

You see, kids (I’m old AF, so I get to call everyone “kids”), the idea right now is for you to live like those oppressed young people in those other countries. And worse, your children if you have any, and worse than that even, your grandchildren. The problem is, apparently most of these ridiculous, cranky-ass old people you’ve been dealing with in school, maybe at home, wherever, now want to cram a really messed up lifestyle down your throat, without any choice, like, forever. They want to take away your freedoms, your joy, your life.

I know it’s hard to pay attention to all the messed up stuff old people are up to. You’d rather just have fun and be patient until it’s your turn to take over the world, cuz that’s how it’s always worked, we all got to have that. They know this. They see the trending—how many of you there are, how against their hateful garbage you are, how tolerant you are. They haven’t won the popular vote in decades, so, they’re in a hurry to rig the game against you, before you can enjoy what you earned and fix this mess.

If you’re not up on things, the TL;DR is that the skids are being greased to end our 250 year old beautiful messy melting pot of a democracy and install an autocrat leader and theology-based government. Every barrier, every guardrail to prevent this, is being demolished. The plan is to make the USA a fundamentalist evangelical Christian version of Saudi Arabia. You know, the place where females have to cover in black head to toe in 100 degree heat. They even had the stones to write it all up and wave it around in public, because they’re so confident this is all in the bag. Read on it, Project 2025.

For real, here’s what it’s all about, at least the parts they’re telling us now (they say there’s even more we won’t see till “later!”) Much of the below is clearly stated in the Project 2025 document (which the Republican party and Trump have fully endorsed and participated in the design of), other parts of this are inferred in their various stated policy documents, statements in interviews, and hacked info.

* If you’re a female, you will take a back seat in virtually every way to anyone born as a dude, and your government will make decisions about what you can do with your body, even if you be dyin’

* Your socials will be over, for sure and for real, only approved and heavily state-surveilled communications permitted (no tikky no tokky)

* Your manner of dress will be far more modest—only outfits approved by the state

* You popping off with your opinion on stuff, will be, you guessed it—over (unless you like prison)

* The music and arts you may enjoy will be heavily censored and highly religiosity in nature

* You will spend your life in mass migration as your planet is burned to a cinder and flooded randomly as they suck it dry for corporate profits

* If you’re middle class, you’ll be pushed down into a lower-class, so you have no economic power to change any of this—you is either a “have” or a “have not”

* If you vote, well, that s**t is going to be over, goes without saying, we doing autocracy now, try to keep up

* If you’re any kind of “other,” including loving other, skin color other than white, religious other than fundamentalist evangelical Christian (the hateful type, not the actual nice kind like Jesus was), you will be sent away, or subject to “reprogramming,” or pushed to the shadows

* You WILL be a devout fundamentalist Christian (the hateful type, not the actual nice kind like Jesus was)

The good news is if you’re a wealthy, white, straight, male, fundamentalist evangelical Christian (the hateful type, not the actual nice kind like Jesus was), you all good, brah!! Otherwise, it’s kind of like that show where the Amish kids get to leave their plain, austere lifestyle and go nuts for a while (aka be like you) but in reverse, and permanently.

The problem is, we have monsters now. Like the kind you always imagined under your bed, but this time, for real. That sucks, but don’t be afraid. Like all monsters, they’re not all that, not what they seem, and they can be sent away, defeated.

That 20-year old kid was probably thinking about this when he decided to take his shot on Saturday. It was the wrong thing to do. Violence isn’t the answer. Usually, like in his case, it makes things worse. He gave his life. What you should do, is stand up. It’s your world, after all. Us old people are just living in it, taking up space, slow-drivin’, too many of us screwing it all up with our decrepit brains, bodies, and morals. Here’s another good old guy, making a strong case for you.

Want to slay this BS? You only need donate a few minutes of your time every once in a while. You can do quite a bit from home, a few minutes here and there. Find some orgs that are passionate and involved, they’ll guide you. Young Democrats, Indivisible, Swing Left, there’s a bunch. You guys are better than me at this stuff. Get out and protest (safely, non-violently). Educate on this. Make some noise. Make good trouble. Make your voice heard. Educate your peers, get them all registered and vote by mail if you can.

This happened in the 60s when young people got fed up about old people screwing up their world. They made a difference, until the movement got sidetracked by excess. Don’t make that mistake. The Occupy movement in more recent times made a difference before it fizzled. Everything is at stake now for you. Too many fought and died for you to be free. It’s your world, don’t let anyone screw it up on you. From what I’ve seen of your generation, you’re damn smart, compassionate, creative, and fully capable of putting this movement down.

And after that, please make our species the civilized, ethical, kind, compassionate, tolerant, non-hateful, non-greedy beings that we’re capable of being. Like that nice Jesus asked us to be. I’m sure there aren’t many of you on Substack, so maybe you can be the new, young leader we desperately need, share this on your socials, spread the word, Go!

All the way from WashingtonHer bread-winner begs off the bathroom floor"We live for just these twenty yearsDo we have to die for the fifty more?"

Mama's got cramps, and look at your hands acheI got a suite and you got defeatAin't there a man who can say no more?And, ain't there a woman I can sock on the jaw?And, ain't there a child I can hold without judging?

—David Bowie, Young Americans

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? Especially if they’re young Americans? If so, thank you!

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

Big news! Free subscribers will now automatically get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels.

You can also support us by becoming a paid subscriber below, or by buying my novels at wildlakellc.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or other fine book outlets in paperback, eBook, or audio.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

“It’s better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.” —Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

The violence in my last post might have been a bit hard to deal with. I’m sorry about that, but it’s important to drive home what’s happening, what could happen, and to prepare. The shock factor was to wake people up, to motivate them to become active, to hopefully, possibly prevent this. This post will be about how to protect yourself if it does.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

What’s New

Before we get into the subject of the week, I’ll get you caught up on our pioneer journey. Our White House RV has kept up well with the constant, oppressive heat. We’ve had to run the A/C quite a bit—another reminder we’re too reliant on the electric grid and need more solar equipment. It’s almost mid-July and so far, our fears of rowdy, drunken, loud campers has been unfounded. This place is beautiful, quiet solitude for the most part. We’ve chosen well.

We need to be able to survive the coming climate apocalypse, especially if Trump gets elected, because it will certainly come much faster than otherwise. Have you noticed that it’s much harder to get out and enjoy summer? Even in June! The heat is Florida-summer oppressive, even in the north. We’re smashing through every record.

Giavana and I went up on the mountain behind our pioneer home. We staked out the route, possible locations to flee to and hunker down out of sight, possibly set up camp, and if necessary make a last stand as I described in my last post. A cleared area that’s not visible from any road or path is optimal, especially with a high vantage point. Our little dog Pia would certainly notify us of anyone approaching. We’d place place trip wires, snares, and more around the perimeter.

I traveled to a reggae festival. Have you ever noticed that the most beautiful, hopeful, joyful music has come from the most oppressed populations? This is true of reggae, jazz, blues, R&B, and so on. Here was another festival, in 100 degree heat, filled with people rejoicing. It was very multiracial, gays, straights, young, old, people simply rejoicing together on a sweltering summer day. Nobody fighting, or shooting each other. “Don’t worry, ‘bout a thing. Cuz every little thing, gone be alright…” Here’s an excellent take on one of those hopeful songs, Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come. (Narrator: We’re still waiting…) I like it because it’s done by a bunch of young kids, carrying that torch.

I grew up in white suburbia, literally no black kids in my schools. I heard all the racists tales about black folk, passed down from racist parents to their kids. When I went into the military, I got a wakeup call. Turns out, they’re regular people, and there’s bad ones and good ones, like any other color of human. If you assume all black people are criminals because of something you saw one do on the news, do you assume all white people are school shooters? Serial killers who eat people like Jeffrey Dahmer?

So, I’m pretty tired of these pasty-white milquetoast silver-spoon trust fund baby country club golfing white dudes hating on everyone who isn’t just like them. Get out to some of these festivals and be among your fellow human beings a little, you hateful idiots. Or, get out of our beautiful diverse melting pot of a country and head to your utopia - Russia. You’ll be welcomed with open arms, a rifle, and one-way trip to the front lines. Enjoy your trip.

Lastly, it’s been big fun now that the evil, horrible Project 2025 plan is out of the bag, watching Trump and his acolytes try to distance themselves from it. Who? What? Never heard of it, never heard of them. Too bad it was architected by 140 of his top administration officials, and is subtitled, A 2025 Presidential Transition Project and A Mandate for Leadership. Yes, “Mandate.”

Violence: How to Protect Yourself

We’ve heard explicit calls for and threats of violence up through, during, and after the coming election. There may be violence at the polling places. There is violence at the stores, churches, movie theaters because we’re so divided. It might come to your neighborhood, or God forbid, your home. It could happen anywhere, and happen suddenly. People are still stressed from COVID, and on edge. The extreme Project 2025 fundamentalists on the right are calling for the next American revolution. A lot of innocent citizens died in the last one, and in the Civil War.

So, what can you do? A big theme of this journal is prepping, or “preparing.” I’ve posted before on this topic, so see those for tips on things like home security and other important aspects of this topic. What I want to discuss here, in more detail, is how to protect yourself from violence.

You’ve seen the standard advice on what to do in situations like a standard mugging. Making lots of noise is good move, for example. Learning a few self-defense moves may buy you a few seconds of separation to pull that siren alarm on your keychain, and/or pull a weapon of some sort. We’ll cover some of those. But, know this—you aren’t going to get into some kind of movie or TV-show martial arts battle with an attacker. Most fights begin with maybe a blow or two exchanged, and quickly turn into a grappling match. All that karate and boxing stuff goes out the window quick. Trust me, I know. If you want to learn useful skills, learn something like jiu-jitsu.

The kind of violence in the scenarios to come isn’t like a mugger waiting for you in the shadows. It’s likely to be chaos, lots of people involved. Blowing your whistle or siren won’t be much help, because everyone around, including any law enforcement, may be tied up in altercations. Most fights last only seconds. It’s the aftermath that drags on—court battles, physical and psychological healing, etc. Here’s how to stay clear, or what to do if you can’t.

Situational Awareness: First, get your head out of that phone. Good Lord. The number of people walking around transfixed on their phones, even when standing around, is a goldmine of targets. When driving, even! If something is about to happen, a situation is about to get dangerous, you are missing important clues and time to escape. Practice situational awareness, always. Be keenly focused on your surroundings, and more importantly, the people around you and what they’re doing. Even when driving, but more importantly in public settings. At home, make it a practice to pay attention to what is “normal” in your neighborhood. On your walks, get to know the cars, the habits of people, who your actual neighbors are. This makes it easy to pick up on anything that’s abnormal—strange cars, strange people, and so on.

No matter where you are, make a practice of asking yourself what the escape routes are. If a shooting starts, where can you take cover? How can you get to the exit without exposing yourself? Keep your head on a swivel, and exude confidence. If you look scared, you might be the first choice. We know how bullies are. Look tough, look like you belong.

If you get into a confrontation and hurt someone, and they cease to be a threat you need to call 911 and your attorney. Drop your weapons if it’s safe to do so. Give enough info to allow them to get there and render aid, but skip the details until you have advice of counsel. Make sure the authorities know you are the good person—hands up, no weapons. Make sure you aren’t hurt—adrenaline can mask that! If so, make sure you get aid before any attacker.

If you use deadly force, you better be able to back up in court that you were in genuine fear for your life or your family’s life or health. Castle doctrine means you can defend your home, but for example you can’t drag a body in there, or go outside and taunt or lure someone inside so you can shoot them. You normally have a duty to retreat, if possible. Again, laws around this are different in different states. Even if you aren’t charged criminally, you might get sued civilly.

Amazon Prime Days is upcoming, so I was tempted to throw some links in here for you. But, you should really go to a brick and mortar store to personally handle these types of items to find out what’s comfortable in your own hand, with your own physique. Talk to the staff, they’re usually quite knowledgeable. These items are sold at stores like Cabela’s, Bass Pro, Dick’s, Army/Navy, and hunting/gun stores. That way you’ll also be more assured what you’re buying is legal. Be very careful about leaving items in your car as you drive over state borders, because they may be illegal along your route.

That said, here are some excellent books. You might consider both the paper versions and the ebook as a backup, in case the paper is destroyed or lost in a crisis situation.

Prepper’s Armed Defense

The Prepper’s Blueprint

Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide

Complete Prepper’s Survival Bible

SAS Survival Handbook

Survival Medicine Handbook

Weapons: First, know the laws where you live and don’t violate them. Here are some ideas for items you can carry on your person and/or in your vehicle easily, if legal. Remember, these items are useless and more likely dangerous to you, unless you practice with them and get training. YouTube University doesn’t count, you have to develop muscle memory.

Expandable Baton: These can be used to disable, create space, or restrain an attacker. They’re compact and surprisingly lightweight.

Pepper Spray: This may buy you time, but consider you may end up with a more enraged attacker, as some of these are very inaccurate, defective, weak, and ineffective. The newer types use a streaming gel system that’s much more accurate and sticky, and may also have a dye to help law enforcement identify the perpetrator. The only strength measurement that matters is the CRC level. It should be at least 1%.

TASER: This is an electroshock gun that fires two metal probes attached to wires in the gun. Both probes need to hit the target for it to work, so proximity is an issue. Usually it’s about 15 feet max. Closer is better, but not too close, the target should at least be a few feet away. You might also miss, and most only give you one shot.

Stun Guns: These are hand-held devices that deliver an electric shock when pressed up against someone’s body. They’re good for up-close confrontations, and do work through clothing. This can be a problem if it’s taken away from you before you can use it! Many are disguised as everyday items.

Flashlights: Small, rugged flashlights are often also designed as a self-defense weapons, i.e. for bonking someone on the head, striking them in the face or other sensitive areas. They also typically have a strobe setting that can distract attackers, disable their vision, and identify that you’re in distress to bystanders.

Guns: Just the sight of one is often enough to get an attacker to back away. State laws are very important! In some states you can carry a concealed weapon, or an unconcealed one. Above all, the mantra of practice being critical appears here. Guns can kill in many ways, including being left out in the open in homes with children.

Most handguns are simple, but do involve a few mechanisms that make them useless if you aren’t aware of how they work, such as the safety, clip release, bolt, barrel, slide, etc. Assault rifles are designed for long-range killing with precise aim. If someone is invading your home, you’re much better off with a shotgun. Get professional help at a good local gun store and range, as there are many variables as to which is the best one for you. Memorize the four primary rules of gun safety:

* Always assume a gun is loaded

* Never point a gun at something/someone you don’t intend on destroying

* Never put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to fire

* Always look at what’s behind your target, because that’s what you very well may hit

Refer to my previous posts for more specific recommendations. You should practice cleaning and assembling/disassembling any weapons you own.

Bows, Crossbows, Slingshots, Blowguns: These can be lethal and effective weapons, especially if you live somewhere that you can’t have guns. There are likely places to buy and train on them near you. They can be used to deploy various types of projectiles to kill, maim, disable, cause fires, explosions, gas, etc.

Knives: These are typically fixed-blade or folding models. Folding knives are easier to conceal and safer, but do require that extra second (and practiced skill!) to open. Folding knives can break, as can fixed-blade knives that aren’t truly one piece (called a tang). It should have a strong handguard or hilt to prevent your hand from sliding down across the blade. A knife should be kept sharp, so make sure you know how to sharpen it. A lanyard wrapped around your hand helps to prevent it from being taken away from you. But, if not used properly, it can also be used to control and manipulate your body. For example, you stab someone, they twist around or fall, and you go to the ground with them.

Improvised: A rock or pool ball in a sock (um, not that ankle kind) can be a good weapon, on the cheap (please don’t steal the pool ball from your local bar, I hate that!). A can of hair spray can make an improvised flame thrower, but don’t burn your house down, please. Walking sticks can be used as batons, and some even have concealed blades or even shotgun shells in them. Remember all the creative things Kevin thought of in the movie Home Alone? Be careful out there!

Again, we hope none of this ever comes to pass. However, the calls for violence and likelihood grow louder.

Finally, if you think this is, again, sensationalism, here’s a pretty good take on how things could very well go down within a few months. It’s exactly what they’re saying they’re going to do, after all. The quote I led in with is significant in this regard! Be a warrior in a garden.

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

Big news! Free subscribers will now automatically get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels.

Hey, it took me a few hours to write this journal post for you. Can you spend a few seconds and post it on your socials or forward to others? If so, thank you!

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My Sweet Jessie,

The writer Hemingway once said that things happen slowly, then all at once. You don’t know of him, and you won’t, of course. Not now, as those works are long gone. When you visited our small paradise this past summer and we went on our beach vacation, it was the best of times. My final image will be your smile during our walks through the woods, and that beautiful picture of me you drew in the sand at the beach. All during those final times together, my sweet grandchild.

I’m writing this old school, pen to paper, and I hope it will someday reach you. I’ll send it out through the underground network. You must be aware that we’ve been taken. Giavana and I had spent so much time preparing, and it bought us time, but it all happened so much more quickly than we or anyone had anticipated. So many were caught unawares, and those frogs slowly boiling to death did doom us. I want you to know about us and how we fared, so you don’t grieve. We are finally at peace, certainly, by the time these words reach you.

It’s ironic how all the attention in those last months was sucked up by the crisis caused by the debate, and took the focus from where it should have been—what was happening out in plain view. They even openly telegraphed the “Second Revolution” and violence to come. In the end, that Biden decision didn’t even matter, the outcome was always going to be the same. The Project’s boldness was certainly a harbinger that the fix was already in, their supreme confidence telegraphing they already had it in the bag.

We thought we had until inauguration day to get out. We had done so much planning, but didn’t anticipate what was to come. When the election went to the House due to neither reaching 270 electoral votes, mostly because of all the disruptive violence keeping the right people away from the polls on election day, their fully owned courts moved swiftly and decisively. They’d spent so many years, so much money putting those corrupt judges in place, and it paid off in spades.

The Project forces came swiftly to our area, after taking DC. Who ever imagined so many in law enforcement and the military were acceptable to this brutal ideology and would turn coat so swiftly! The massive numbers they had already embedded facilitated it all so efficiently, it was staggering to behold, my sweet Jessie. The Flynn brothers set that terror network up so well in the years since Biden won. When the stuff hit the fan, Giavana and I were unable to leave as they’d immediately seized all roads. I tried to call, but the abrupt termination of internet, cellular, and satellite communication did not allow for it. I’m so sorry. Thus, this, my final letter to you, my sweet Jessie.

As we already knew from their gaudy décor, and as you remarked upon your visit, most of our fellow residents in this woodland campground were fans of Trump. And, of course, most had weapons as well. In their giddy excitement and delusion that they were somehow warriors in this fight, they immediately began their own search and destroy missions right here in our paradise home. We had stayed well under their radar, flying our proud American flags, but could never bring ourselves to post any Trump signage, and we knew this would be our mistake. Knowing what was to come, we decided not to hitch up our beautiful White House RV and simply loaded our most essential survival gear into Henrik’s bed, and began to navigate the dirt roads out of the compound, of course along with little Pia, who was scared beyond belief.

By this time, they’d posted one of their celebratory drunken, obese individuals at the campground’s exit gate. We saw him ahead as we navigated the long straight road out, standing there in the middle of the road, bedecked with the stars and stripes of the country he was betraying. His assault rifle was rested on his protruding gut, trigger finger splayed along the side as he’d seen in so many war movies. At this point, I’d slipped my 9mm from the center console. We pulled up and rolled down our window, professing a friendly exit for some groceries and beer. However, he had the fantasy of killing some libs in his head and whether by instinct or just making it to be what he wanted it to be, he became defiant and asked us to step out.

I need to be honest with you, my sweet Jessie. When he reached for his walkie-talkie to radio for help, Ms. Giavana and I both knew we had to decide. “Do it,” she whispered as tempers flared and Pia whimpered in the seat behind us. I must confess to you, and our God, Jessie, we had to save ourselves, so I put one in his forehead. I must also confess that not much else felt better in my life, to my shame, and I hope God understands and forgives, as I’ve already asked for that forgiveness many times.

So, we made our already mapped route up the paths to the top of the mountain, and found the spot we’d picked out in a small clearing, to make our stand. We had some time of peace, and once our perimeter was set up, made ourselves a small picnic, as if it were a peaceful day in the before time. Then, I mounted my assault rifle in the truck bed, and prepared for what was surely to come.

And soon, they did come, those raggedy militia forces with their Trump banners, my sweet Jessie. Giavana and Pia hunkered down in the rear cab of the truck, deploying the assets we’d prepared to confuse, distract, and cause fear in them. They sent gas, but we had our gas masks on. I’m sorry to say, sweet Jessie, in the midst of this chaos Pia became overwhelmed and escaped through the small rear hatch window, and ran. And to be honest, Jessie, so you know what you are up against, those b******s shot our sweet baby. They didn’t need to, but they knew the effect on us would hamper our ability to make good decisions.

I’d like to say I’m happy about how many of them we took out, as they advanced around our perimeter, Giavana was so brave, that Italian city girl emptying one clip after another from our handguns to keep them at bay. When the Project forces arrived to take over for the local militia, the drones came, and we had to lay down our arms and raise our hands. I still cannot understand why they didn’t shoot us on the spot, but they are conniving people, Jessie. They surely have other plans for us.

While locked in the transport vehicle with other patriots, we heard the announcement. As they’d secured the capital as much as they needed to be confident in their control, they then removed Trump and installed Supreme Leader Mike Johnson. It was announced that all civilian firearms should be turned in immediately. Of course, as we progressed in our journey, the militias of Trump cult members were getting word of this, and began attacking our armored Project vehicle. We watched their feeble, ignorant rage through steel-grated windows as the Project forces mowed them down. We could hear the grinding above as the gunner in the turret swiveled and fired, his gleeful war cries audible above the patter of spent 50 caliber shell casings raining down on the vehicle’s roof. “You fools,” was all I could think as I watched them die in agony, due to their ignorance and hatred.

So, here we are, my sweet Jessie. We’re in some kind of camp, not knowing if we’re to be gassed or burned like Hitler’s Jews, tortured, or reprogrammed, or used for some other devious agenda. The camp is split into populations—the LGBTQ+ folks they refer to as “pornographers,” the mixed race couples they refer to as “race betrayers.” All people of color in one area, called, “immigrants” despite living here for generations, look to be shipped out soon to further this Aryan race dream-vision of 1940s America. All Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims or non-evangelical Christians who don’t fit other descriptions, referred to as simply, “sinners,” are mixed in with the rest of us. I think those will be fine, as long as they accept the Project’s One True Faith. As of this writing, we do not know our fate.

As I am not optimistic, I am writing this goodbye to you, dear grandchild. I have had a good life, and I’ve seen the best and the worst of us. I never got to be a famous writer, but even better I got to know you, and I hope someday you can once again openly be yourself, create your beautiful art, and this world somehow survives. You are young, and I am full of hope for that outcome. After all, we did once defeat Hitler, against all odds.

I’m so happy you got away, for now. At least, that’s the last I heard, or maybe what I want to believe. Your daddy is a war hero and your mom is a badass. They’ll keep you safe as long as possible. But you must remember, my sweet Jessie, this is not like the before times. Sadly, you must protect who you are for now. Be private in your love.

Goodbye, my sweet Jessie. Be good, be kind, and we’ll share eternity. Until then, don’t let the b******s get you down.

Love, Papa xoxo

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” ~Yoda

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

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Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

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Don’t despair—prepare.

In our last post we talked about getting your mind right for what’s to come. Actually, we talk about that a lot! We also talk about the items you should have handy in order to be prepared. The other important ingredients in our survival recipe are your body and practice. Having all the cool prepper stuff won’t do much good if you’re not healthy enough to endure the hard times ahead, or able to carry that gear. Don’t underestimate how tough hard times can be on your body, in so many ways! I’m somewhat hardened (for my age) from a year and a half of woodland pioneer living in an RV, yet our recent move put me down for part of a day. Let’s talk about ways to mitigate that concern. It’s not that hard. We’re not going to push you to become a CrossFit junkie.

Pioneer Update

We’re mostly settled into our new digs in this small apartment. An attractive feature is the layers of security. I’m impressed that the other residents didn’t blindly allow us to tailgate in past security, as we were new and they didn’t recognize us. One new concern is that we’re on a higher floor (for security reasons)—too high to jump in case escape is needed. Always, always visualize the worst happening. What will you do? What will you need? We immediately purchased a collapsible fire ladder long enough to reach from our balcony to the ground. Problem solved (along with fire extinguishers and blankets, of course).

We have a prepper inventory Google sheet that lists every item we own, where it is, and what its priority is (for fast decision making). That’s been updated for our new location. You should do the same—things happen fast in a disaster, critical thinking skills are compromised, mistakes could be deadly.

I worry we’ll get soft in this new environment. It happens quickly! Yesterday I visited our wonderful White House covered wagon RV, to say hello, provide some TLC, and clean a bit. She’ll go to the RV spa for some routine maintenance in early April, then to her new nearby location to serve on standby in case we need an emergency bug out, or just for some of our fun summer festivals. Good, fun practice!

Get Your Body Right

It looks like Americans won’t have access to flu shots next winter, as the meeting of scientists to agree on and devise the formula has been canceled by the Trump administration. Our new “health czar,” the former heroin junkie who had part of his brain eaten by a worm, has told kids dying from measles to drink cod liver oil. New (to us) diseases, oldies but not goodies, are spreading around the country.

These spoiled, entitled folks in charge now are well known for their intolerance for those they view as the “great unwashed.” You know, those tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Trump has expressed his displeasure at being seen with disabled veterans, saying it’s “not a good look” for him. What they’re doing is a form of societal chemotherapy. Chemo attacks and kills cells throughout the body in hopes that the “bad stuff” will die off before the good stuff dies along with it. They’re stripping away Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, veteran’s disability benefits and health care in order to kill our elderly, our poor, our disabled.

That strategy will also kill off many folks who, in the eyes of the wealthy, “suck off the teat of government” for their “entitlements.” Narrator: far more money goes to corporate welfare and tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. After the bottom level of our society is dead, the middle class will effectively be moved down to the lower caste of Americans, albeit a healthier and prettier version of the “rabble” we had before, in the eyes of people like Trump and Musk. A kingdom of peasants and royalty will then be achieved, to our doom.

Things could get real hard in a hurry, especially if they then trigger a global war to help cure the deep recession we’re heading toward. This time, the bombs will fall here. Parts of the USA could be the new Gaza or Ukraine as our powerful former allies fight against us and our new Axis of Evil partners. Medicine may be hard to come by, which is why we recommend the excellent Jace Cases. We’re so happy we found those, it was a big gap in our medical preparedness.

Hopefully you’ve been following our advice over these seventy-seven posts and you have an emergency bugout bag near your door, and one in your car (perhaps a get-home bag). Imagine a circumstance where you’re forced to carry them (standstill traffic, vehicle trouble, etc). How far will you get? There’s one way to know—practice.

If you’re not already taking regular walks, now’s a good time. The weather is warming in these cold regions! Start the habit, build that muscle. Once you get in a routine, practice with your bags (one at a time!). Routine is good, but not always the same route at the same time—that can be a security problem. Especially if your pack looks military or valuable. We’ve recommended quality pepper sprays, alarms, and portable weapons for that purpose as well.

Need to drop some weight? It’s not unusual coming off a long winter of lower activity. Look, we obsess over body image. We all can’t or don’t want to look like the latest Hollywood action hero (they’re fake, anyway). We don’t need to. The healthy weight for you is the healthy weight for you. My BMI is 28 but there are plenty of folks with a much higher BMI that could run circles around me. Talk to your physician. The key is, can you carry that pack a reasonable distance? More robust body frames are likely be more successful, given they’re in shape.

Body type is built into DNA. Contrary to what society teaches, it's not bad to be any body type, just to manage that and be healthy. Do that. There's a whole lot more to someone than what shape they are. Your good soul will live on long after your body is back to dust.

This is important in person-to-person conflict as well. You can study all the boxing or martial arts, a great way to get in shape, but in reality most fights dissolve into on-the-ground grappling within seconds, and the victor is often the one who can outlast the other stamina-wise. Submission tactics are quite useful, however!

Same with extreme weightlifting. Fun story—in my younger days I worked installing chain link fence. We did that day in, day out, all year long in blistering heat and frigid cold—digging holes by hand with posthole diggers, mixing and lugging unbalanced wheelbarrows of cement, carrying huge rolls of metal fencing on our shoulders across uneven terrain. It was brutal work. Most of us were skinny but wiry from it. One time a new guy came on, fresh from the gym, massive mounds of muscles in his shoulders, arms, legs. Quite impressive. He couldn’t do the work—he was too used to the comfortable, balanced loads he’s been using in the gym, and wasn’t up for that level of pain and discomfort.

It’s a good lesson—apply it to your preparedness. Don’t just choose nice sunny days for your walks. Walk in all kinds of weather. It’s a good chance to make sure your all-weather prepper gear is comfortable and functional. Take your comms along and make sure they work at different distances and environments while you’re at it.

I keep myself at my desired weight with a very simple, inexpensive practice. It’s worked for my entire adult life. We have a good bathroom scale that measures all kinds of body metrics, including BMI. I get on it almost every time before I take a shower. If it’s not where I want it to be, I eat less and walk more for a few days and measure again. Boom. It works like magic. No expensive fads or scams needed.

Another way to be in tune with your body and what’s normal for you is to use a device like the Oura rings Giavana and I use. It will tell you when something is off, and provide an incredible wealth of tools to get your mind and body right. It alerted this nurse practitioner she had cancer long before she or her doctor had any idea. Not the actual cancer, but that something was very wrong with her body. It knew her well, what was “normal” for her, as ours do.

Work at getting your diet right. Due to standards being lowered due to the corporate food lobby and deregulation, we’re fed a steady diet of addictive garbage every day. That stuff won’t be available in a collapse. Wean yourself off it—learn to make some favorite meals from scratch like soups and stews. Get your body used to eating real fruit and vegetables. They may be all we have in the end, if that. We’ll start our small home gardening experiments soon—stay tuned!

Lastly, get any medical needs attended to now. That’s why I’m getting my hands fixed, they’re shot from those years of fence work, military, sports, and life. I’ll need them. Get your vaccines up to date. Do you need a measles booster? Might be a good time! You can get a simple titer blood test to see if you still have immunity. You don’t want measles, no sir. It’s incredibly communicable and spreading thanks to our new anti-science leadership.

None of the news is good—stock market way down, recession indicators blinking red, layoffs, inflation raging back. This may be the last cycle where we get real reports and data, before party propaganda starts assuring us everything is going spectacularly in those categories and everyone is immensely happy.

Pay attention—last night a permanent citizen green card holder was abducted from a college dormitory by federal agents, despite not having committed any crime nor being accused of doing so. His 8-month pregnant wife and his lawyer have no idea where he has been taken.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”—George Orwell, 1984

"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human."—Aldous Huxley

“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”—German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

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Free subscribers get a free copy of my book of short stories, Rambles and Daydreams. Paid subscribers will get all three books in the noir crime trilogy, Vigilante Angels. I no longer do paid-only posts, because it felt gross to leave people behind, especially those who can’t afford it.

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Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories we may get a teeny tiny commission, but it never affects your price or our judgement in linking to products we use and believe in. It helps pay for the costs in providing this (hopefully) entertaining content.

Project: Pioneer (Prepping, Politics, Afterlife, RVLife) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Giavana and I started this prepper pioneer journey a year ago, selling our home and all our crap to move into an RV in the woods. We did it because we saw red flags—big red flags. We’re not conspiracy people, we’re careful people. I think we both secretly hoped we were wrong, and this would just be a fun adventure. We were wrong about that, and unfortunately, correct in our original premise. On this 4th of July Independence Day weekend, it’s clear our 248-year beautiful experiment will end soon. I’ll explain why I’m very confident of that. This is not sensationalism. This is reality. My points are below. Change my mind, please. Otherwise, prepare.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others).

The cool woodland breeze wraps around our small RV home, breaching the windows, whirling gently around us as we work, nature’s pleasant and calming fan. It rustles the trees that encircle us, whispering and rushing sounds like the excitement in a distant sports stadium as the home team edges toward triumph. We see mother does and their fawns through the trees, grazing, along with wild turkeys and their chicks, and there are numerous black bear and cubs on the move. The deer stop and stare, eerily like in the recent Netflix apocalyptic dystopian movie Leave the World Behind.

The panoramic windows of our beautiful White House RV home make it seem as if we’re on a train car passing through paradise sometimes. Maybe enroute to that Willoughby I spoke about in my last post. But, we’re not. We have to accept that.

I won’t lie, it’s beautiful and peaceful here. But, it doesn’t alleviate the stark heaviness of what’s happening in the outside world. It would be good to just tune out and enjoy this, but perhaps fatal at some point in the not too distant future. We have elderly mothers, children, grandchildren.

In Project: Pioneer #1, I said one reason we’re doing this is “To be minimal and mobile if the stuff hits the fan or democracy and this rock we live on begin their collapse.” We had no idea how fast both would happen.

I also said in that first post:

When we look around, especially these tumultuous last years, we see harbingers that concern us. The pandemic was a shocking eye-opener and rough for everyone. There’s war in Europe, incredibly. The climate, planet, and democracy seem to be crumbling around us. Half our freedom-loving democracy has joined a cult—fanatics for a guy who openly lusts after fascist, authoritarian leaders and yearns to be one.

I hate sounding like Debbie Downer. You can believe what you like, put your head in the sand. You do you. We all react differently to major stress. I remember knowing in my subconscious at some point at the dawn of COVID that our lives were going to be very bad for a very long time, but somehow my consciousness was trying to push that thought away. When the reality hit home, it was a heavy, heavy feeling. Just like the day after election day 2016, just like on 9/11. This can’t be happening.

If more than one justice on the Supreme Court (the good ones) are saying they’re in deep fear for our democracy, as they just did, it’s a real thing.

We see more clearly when step back from the fires we’re fighting and take an overhead view. Forest for the trees. It’s easier to see what’s happening, why it’s happening, and often when it started. Let’s do that.

This all started in the late 1970s, when the Moral Majority was founded in order to inject huge sums of money into our political system in order to turn our country into a straight, white, male-dominated evangelical Christian theocracy. A government run by divine guidance, by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. As in, Old Testament type angry vindictive Punisher God type theocracy. You will submit, you will obey. Especially women-folk.

I wrote about Project 2025 in my last post, and today I saw the Superintendent of the Oklahoma School System being interviewed. The flat-out religious fanatic has required that all public schools must include the Bible in their classroom teachings. In public schools! The separation of church and state is gone. They are coming for your children, to jam their religious doctrine down your kids’ throats, to brainwash them in obedience. Soon to be President Mike Johnson has already equivocated our law with Biblical law. I guess that means cheating wives will be stoned to death (but not the dudes).

The Moral Majority faded as scandals rocked key religious figures like Jim Baaker (wait, they’re like, divinely guided sinners?) But the effort never went away. Others picked up the mantle—Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, etc. Now we see the new work product to achieve that theocracy dream, which is the dystopian and disastrous Project 2025 (which I summarized in my last post). This has been in the works for a long time, tons of planning and tons money. This is their moment of execution, it’s do or die with everything at stake.

Which is why it’s hard for me to believe they did all that planning, all that work, spent all that money, to leave it all to chance with elections results. That doesn’t make sense to me. No way. I don’t think they’d be out there like this, proud and bold as all get out, waving that 900+ page evil document around, gloating, if they weren’t sure it’s going to happen.

So I’m not sure the election will matter, sadly. How? They own the courts now, that’s clear. All the way up to a Supreme Court rife with the blatant stink of corruption. They’re not even hiding that, because it was part of the plan. The Dobbs decision was a big step toward putting women back in their place (they’re not done, more to come!), and the Chevron decision essentially gave them all the power they need to pull this off. The immunity decision this week was more icing on the cake—it creates an executive autocrat at the top with absolute power to do anything without legal repercussion. Remember Bush v Gore in 2000? When the Supreme Court threw an election? That was the pregame, nothing compared to what’s to come.

On the extreme side of things, keep in mind we’re just two heartbeats away from a President Mike Johnson by the close of business today. I fully believe these folks are capable of that. It’s called a coup, and it happens all the time. We’ve engineered plenty of them in our 248 years. Don’t fool yourself into thinking Trump is going to be their leader. He’s too dumb, too sinful, and they hate him—take that to the bank. I believe Johnson, a devout evangelical who keeps his wife in her place, will be their man. I explained that Honey Trap in detail in my last post.

Biden’s debate performance only made things worse. This feels like 2015 through 2016, when every single domino fell in place for Trump, seemingly in defiance of the odds. I wrote in a post recently about whether there is true evil. I’m not even sure I provided a conclusion. It feels like Satan is out there, directing all this, which could mean we’re heading fast toward The Last Battle and Rapture. Boy, won’t these sleazy, greedy, hateful “evangelicals” be surprised if Jesus comes back and asks them what part of the Beatitudes they were following when they did all this horrible, hateful stuff!

I don’t believe in Satan. I think the “evil” is just inherent in our own human flaws. Perhaps placed there as a test, going back to the Garden of Eden. Things like temptation, greed, lust. If you can be truly good, follow the Commandments and Beatitudes, perhaps then you’ve evolved sufficiently to earn paradise for eternity. If not, back to start, try again.

Back to the debate. Biden’s team is complaining about the bed wetters asking him to step down. But, he s**t the bed. In a big way. I love Biden. True American hero. Saved us. Good man. Trump lied through the whole debate. He's a monster with a cult following.

BUT

Biden's approval rating has been in the tank, the race dead even. Millions of critical undecideds, swing state voters, and Haley voters tuned in and saw that debacle. Fifty million voters. They've now made up their minds and will tune out and go back to their lives.

Putting him out there in staged gigs with a teleprompter and speeches someone else wrote won't fix it. They’ll say he’s back on his meds, jacked up. Look at the swing-state polls now, since the debate. Swinging wildly away from Biden and for Trump. 60-70% of registered voters said, after the debate, he is not mentally competent to serve.

I'm sorry, but this is the reality. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had an incredible legacy. But, she enjoyed her celebrity and stayed too long, and because of that all the good she did was (or will be) undone, because she couldn't leave the limelight well into old age. It was selfish, and a big factor in all this horror.

How do you possibly fix this, tell me? How do you get those voters back? You can’t. No way. Gretchen Whitmer said that Biden has lost Michigan. That’s game over. If the election will really count, which I’ve already say I doubt, a move needs to be made now. We can’t risk Biden having a stroke or other medical event just before the election and throwing everything to chaos in the final hour. Yes, making a move now involves some chaos. But it would be for the Republicans too, who would have to spend millions in a new campaign strategy and ads, since they were all centered around Biden.

If people vote for a Republican president, they’ll also vote down the line for House and Senate races. They won’t want a new president handicapped without a majority. And that will mean the authoritarian powers newly awarded by the Supreme Court along with the immediate implementation of Project 2025 and the end of our democracy. They’ve promised it, on day one.

I was at another music festival this past weekend, out in the country and country-rock themed as opposed to the urban one I was at and wrote about last week. Lots of drunken Bubbas, traitorous confederate flags, the whole rednecky thing. A beautiful song came on, moving some to actual tears around me.

Forget your lust for the rich man’s goldAll that you need is in your soulAnd you can do this, oh baby, if you tryAll that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfiedAnd be a simple kind of man —Simple Man, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Buck-shooting bros and country hoes singing that song, and yet pledging allegiance to a rich trust-fund baby with a gold toilet, ready to turn our beloved country over to a man that’s only ever destroyed everything and everyone he’s touched. And another line says, “And don't forget son, there is someone up above.“ They all pointed skyward at that one. Amazing. But, here we are. It feels like a foregone conclusion. We will fight on through November, but we are preparing.

What will we do? Fight through November. Our dual citizenship and exit to another country is a backup plan. It would be hard to leave our mothers, kids, grandkids behind, even though we feel it would give them a place to go. Perhaps, like in Handmaid’s Tale, Canada will have some kind of asylum project. I bet they’re already working out what they’ll do. They’re fighting right-wing fascism there too, as is France and Italy. France—a country that was obliterated and conquered by fascist Nazis! Incredible. Yet, here we are.

Giavana and I are always planning. We’ll take a scouting trip to Canada and maybe elsewhere. We’ve mapped out the trails and refuge areas on the mountain behind us. We’re taking inventory of our supplies, our readiness, adding to our ammo stockpiles, and hitting the shooting range. We’re tagging all our stuff with color coded labels as essential, important but not essential, non-essential so we can move quickly. We may stay in our current area until we can’t or don’t feel safe, and then hitch up the wagon (RV) and become mobile. We need to up our solar and water collection/purification game, and soon. And ham radio as well, if there’s time.

If the above scenarios don’t work out (taking out Biden/Harris so there’s an immediate President Johnson or taking the election through the courts) I’m sure there will be lots of violence. Perhaps civil war, as promised by the lunatic fringe and Trump/Project 2025 leadership. It’s already being encouraged, and now it won’t even be illegal. Texas is already creating its own stock exchange in preparation for secession, and they already have their own (crappy) energy grid. I can imagine Florida right behind.

We watched the new movie Civil War. It’s hard to watch stuff like this with it actually happening around us in slow motion, but it’s part of preparing. We got a lot of ideas. The most chilling line was a camo’d up crazy with an assault rifle confronting a group of reporters and asking them, “What kind of American are you?” before shooting several of them in cold blood because he didn’t like the answer. We are a mentally unwell (especially after too-recent COVID) nation that’s armed to the teeth with incredibly violent tendencies. Not a good recipe, with all this stress and planned divisiveness.

Perhaps it’s that subconscious at work and the mind attempting to prepare me for what’s to come and what we’re about to lose, but I wrote about illusions recently and I wonder if this beautiful experiment was all an illusion anyway.

Were we really a great country, a beautiful experiment when we:

* Perpetrated mass genocide on native Americans and broke every single treaty

* Enslaved other human beings

* Subjugated women, who couldn’t even get a credit card without their husband’s approval until almost the 1980s

* Interfered in countless other countries, assassinating their leaders, causing chaos

* Had a President and leadership who laughed and did nothing while over a hundred thousands gays died from AIDS in the 80s

* Conspired at the top to lie to the public in order to start a war in Iraq with no basis that killed over 5,000 US servicemembers and killed over 300,000 innocent women, children, and men.

* Bombed two Japanese cities and killed over 200,000 innocent women, children, and men.

* Support Israel’s genocide of innocent women, children, and men in Gaza.

I raised my right hand and pledged to die for my country during the Viet Nam era in the 1970s. I never had to go, but my son and son-in-law fought in combat for this country, and my father and grandfather served. Was it all for nothing, all to be lost to this fringe lunatic group about to take it over?

Let’s get to the point. Enough dystopia. What I would like to see happen is for President Biden to take the stage on our Independence Day, July 4th, in a national address, and announce he will step down at the end of this term. He should fully endorse his vice-president Kamala Harris, for a quick non-drama no fighting transition. She’s tough (former prosecutor), whip-smart, an incredible debater, and she’s Trump and Project 2025’s worst nightmare—a confident, accomplished, smart woman of color.

That’s our way out of this debate debacle. Biden rides out as a savior, his incredible legacy intact, a true American hero. I think it rallies the woman vote (even more, after Dobbs), the Black vote, rallies all the young folks who are currently sick of watching ancient white men as their only choices.

What’s Next?

Things are moving fast. We have a lot of work to do here, to prepare even more than we have over this past year. With, incredibly, a CAT5 hurricane that formed in June, not September or October, I’m dubious about the one thing I always looked forward to most—a week at the beach. It’s coming up, and I’m wondering if it will happen with the storm forecast from NOAA.

I doubt I’ll make that reservation again (if we’re not in Trumpistan by then), because it’s just too risky. These beach communities just can’t afford to continue to rebuild their washed out beaches after these severe storms.

The summer schedule is winding down, events checked off, thankfully complete. The long 4th weekend is ahead, it’s a nice break and I hope to get to the beach here at our paradise location, more time outside with those whispering trees to contemplate more, or maybe just try to be silent and meditate.

I’ll keep you in the loop as our solar and water collection/purification build-out transpires. Stay tuned for lots of prepping tips and techniques! And, please keep fighting for democracy. Join an organization like Swing Left or Indivisible, write letters or phone bank from home or get out there in the summer weather with some campaign canvassers. I know this post was a bummer, but don’t give up hope, I truly haven’t!

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

“So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” ~George Orwell

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Giavana, Pia and I are on the road, once again, to a different state capitol in order to process docs to hasten our escape. As I’ve been urging, you and your family should also think hard about what’s to come. It turns out, we’ve all been duped into focusing on the wrong thing all along.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. You can listen to and subscribe to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others).

“Honey Trap, you say? Whussat?”

A honey trap is an alluring trap that’s sprung to catch a cheating spouse in the act. Maybe porn, maybe an exotic dancer, you get the idea. I’ll tie that in and make my point shortly. There’s a closely related term, “honeypot,” that’s related to my prior IT security and ethical hacking background. Same deal.

And, I’ll get back to our regular programming, full-time RV life, prepping and all that in the next post, but this is more important. Urgent, in fact.

I’m sure folks think I’m trying to be sensationalist in these posts, and likely think I’m sensationalist because that’s what sells newspapers. But, guess what. I have hundreds of subscribers, but very few have actually paid anything (thanks, Mom!). It’s not about that, and it’s proof I’m not being sensationalist for profit, cuz there is no profit. It feels bad, but I get it, free is free, and maybe it’s not regarded as worthy of a few measly bucks. Whatever. We all have bigger fish to fry, and my goal is to build awareness, to help people escape what’s coming, to fight it, maybe prevent it, and have a plan in case we can’t.

I was at an urban music festival in the oppressive heat this past weekend. While I sat enjoying the music, all around me were typical regular people doing the same. Joyful and dancing, even in the heat. Kids of all races running through an open hydrant with a sprinkler attached, laughing together. This looked like America. There were biracial couples, same-sex couples, adults of all colors enjoying the music and engaged in casual conversation and laughter. There were street vendors cooking up all manner of delicious ethnic foods. I’m sure many of them were those “evil” undocumented individuals we keep hearing about, working their butts off over those stoves and smokers in the hot, hot, hot weather. No red hats, and no hatin’ goin’ on. Imagine all the people, livin’ life in peace. Nobody got raped or shot. What a great day, but I couldn’t help but think, “This is all going away very soon.” Read on to discover why.

All us normal and decent folk have been hyper-focused on Trump, the vile human being (?) he is on every level of, well, humanity. He’s that sexy hooker to all those cult-like followers who were previously in a relationship with “conservatism” and conservative idols like Ronald Reagan. The problem with Reagan, the “former spouse,” was that good ol’ Ronny was no dummy. Coming from California, he understood how critical immigrants are to our economy, especially the illegal ones who are forced to pay billions in taxes for stuff they can’t use. Bazinga. Reagan gave amnesty and a path to citizenship for 3-4 million illegals. OMG!

That’s the problem with that former “spouse,” if you’re a common immigrant-hating racist “conservative.” Now here comes this new sexy (?) guy, with a long history of blatant racism against black and brown people, spouting off about, well, hating on and abusing immigrants (not the white kind from Europe). Very racist-alluring!

And so, we got the crowning of King Trump, the new leader of millions of cult members, taker-over of the whole dang Republican party. It’s always been curious how a man of such low intellect, who’s always only ever crapped on an actual golden toilet, could become the hero of so many downtrodden working-class folks. But, hate is hate, and hate is strong.

But here’s the thing. I was never quite satisfied with that. There had to be something else at play. It turns out, Trump is just a stooge, as most dim-witted folks are. He’s being played as hard as he’s playing his followers for petty cash, souvenirs, and cheap love.

The truth of this came to Giavana and I as we sat one morning last week watching an interview on TV. This dude who immediately reminded me of Voldemort (evil guy from Harry Potter) was a guest on a left-leaning program. We were working, but as his words started to penetrate through our work focus, we both pivoted to rapt attention.

He’s the leader of the Heritage Foundation (the org that’s been feeding Trump his Supreme Court picks) and Project 2025 (the playbook for what will be implemented immediately if Trump wins and takes office).

It became clear in a heartbeat. He wasn’t even trying to sugar-coat it or be evasive in any way. Watch it yourself if you don’t believe me. I’m not sensationalizing. The whole plan is online for anyone to read (or, choose the Wikipedia).

It’s called a “Mandate.” They’re not fooling around. They’re not hiding the incredible plan they have for you, your kids, your grandkids.

It became apparent their goal is to transform America into a white, Christian-fascist version of Saudi Arabia. They dream of a return to 1940s Mayberry RFD neighborhoods, people of color tucked back into the shadows and ghettos, out of sight. Or, maybe even further back, to the infamous Willoughby (my favorite Twilight Zone episode).

Narrator: It was just an illusion, here’s what that was really like:

Here’s what it will really be like, instead, for you—a dystopian hellscape like in Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian countries they want to replicate with Christo-fascism here in the US:

* Uber-wealthy country, but wealth concentrated in just the ruling class at the top.

* No income equality—only royalty and peasants. No pesky middle class.

* No elections. Totalitarian, authoritarian regime and religious doctrine jammed down your family’s throat and ruling with an iron fist.

* Rules for thee but not for me. You can even butcher journalists in other countries with no repercussions.

* No pesky immigrants or religions other than “the one.”

* Straight white folks only, other in the shadows.

* Women covered at all times, relegated to kitchen and bedroom. No interfering with important man stuff like drinking, sports, gambling, whoring, businessing.

Think I’m foolin? Here are the “highlights” of Project 2025:

Abolish the Dept of Education. This means your kids have one choice—expensive paid, private schools and for sure they will shove that national and evangelical Christian doctrine right down their throats.

Abolish the Dept of Justice. No pesky law enforcement to hold the ruling class accountable for their criming. They plan to fire massive numbers of expert civil servants all through our government, and replace them with sycophant golf buddies and low-IQ Trump lackeys. This is what we saw in Trump’s administration, the chaos of scandal and screwups as he put his Mar-A-Lago golf buddies in charge of critical government agencies.

Unitary Executive. This means, essentially, “The President is king, and everything is under the king’s control.” Imagine that. Trump in your bedroom! Ew.

Immigration. Project 2025 calls for the immediate rounding up and deportation of around eleven million undocumented immigrants, even the “dreamers” who were born here, have never lived anywhere else, and many serve in our military. That means no more people out there in the fields, hence no more fresh groceries on store shelves. No more of those people like the ones that died doing roadwork at 5am on that bridge that collapsed in Baltimore, because nobody else could be found to do that work. The Heritage dude in the interview was giddy when discussing this. And yes, immigrants commit far, far, far fewer crimes than regular old citizens, like say, Trump and his family.

Economy. The above items mean the collapse of our economy, but that’s ok, it’s the plan, because that’s how you eliminate the middle class and create that whole royalty and peasants thing. And, by the way, sixteen (!) Nobel Prize winning economists just got together and warned that the policies being proposed by Project 2025 and Trump will result in inflation far, far worse than that we saw after COVID (which Biden has nicely mitigated since, thank you), as well as economic collapse.

Climate. Abolishment of all climate controls, and drill baby, drill. The good news is that we won’t be miserable for long, cuz we’ll all die sooner. The royalty will be in their climate-proofed castles and bunkers, or on their way to the next planet in their spaceships.

Second Amendment. They’re not going to put that in the plan because the cult is passionate on this one. But seriously, dude, you think you’re going to keep you guns? No autocracy allows that. Yes, they’ll gleefully pry it from your cold, dead hands.

Women’s Rights. Right this way ladies. Please relegate to the kitchens and bedrooms. Preferably barefoot and pregnant so there’s more working class taxpayers and bodies to use as spent ammunition in wars. Defer to your husbands, as Mrs. Alito recently put it. I went to the beach when I was visiting the Middle East. It was hot as hell, beautiful beach though. The men were all basking in Speedos, and the women were covered head to toe in black on their beach chairs, with just slits to see through. High fashion, ladies! You’ll have more time to please your man because picking your outfit for the day and shopping will be less time-consuming. Your Commander will love it.

Arts. Completely defunded, as they just already did in Florida to get a head start. Pornography is banned, which they consider basically all forms of art that isn’t about religion, and then maybe some of that. Do you want Mitch McConnell deciding what’s porn and what’s art? Of course, the ruling class will have a healthy stock of porn and all banned substances, as always.

LGBTQ+. LOL. Death sentence, or else good old “Christian conversion therapy.” Back in the closet, no soup for you.

And that’s just what they’re admitting to. Sound like fun? As I always say, if you’re not a straight, white, male, wealthy, evangelical Christian, you ain’t in the club, you’re being used if you’re supporting the right. Like the poem says, they’ll eventually come for you, too.

And I’ll ask this of you good Christians. Do you actually believe, if he were standing among us today, that Jesus would approve of any of that? What kind of “Christian” are you, anyway?

Poor Trump. They know he’s an illiterate, elderly fool. To circle back to my point, he’s the Honey Trap to bring in all those ignorant, hateful, drooling, knuckle-dragging dolts for their votes. He’s the useful idiot, his supporters are the useful idiots for him, like the ones that ended up ruining their lives and going to jail over what they did “for him” on Jan 6. They’ll be used up like sheep for their ignorance and hatred, then cast aside. The brain trust behind Project 2025 will dispense with Trump as soon as this is all in place, and pick someone far more intelligent. They’ll blame the cratered economy and destruction of the middle class on Trump’s stupidity, use him for a scapegoat, while merrily high-fiving themselves in the back rooms after he’s finally gone. Trump is the Honey Trap, the Honeypot. In fact, I don’t really think this is about the election any more. I don’t want to be presumptuous or overly optimistic, but I think Trump will lose. but a lot will happen between now and early November that could change that. There are a lot of dirty tricks in the works.

I fully expect violence if Trump loses. It may be too late for that to matter. This 2025 plan is being lauded, and too many ridiculously wealthy people in control are looking at this “mandate” like Trump scanning a room full of naked 14-year old beauty pageant contestants for his next wife or his next guest at Epstein Island.

Some of the overthrow will involve violence (don’t forget, far too many in law enforcement and military are on board with Trump and this doctrine) and the rest of it will be through political/legal maneuvering like the kind they had set up for January 6, 2021. It almost worked then. This time they’ll ensure their ducks are in a row. The replacement fake electors that only got turned away at the very last physical door they had to go through in DC are now real electors, ready to subvert and go against the will of the people they’re supposed to represent. County officials are already, this year, refusing to certify election results they don’t agree with. This is how it will happen. Chaos.

We came incredibly close to losing our democracy on Jan 6, 2021. That was just a sample test run. The very few brave folks that stopped it are out of the picture now. The ones who will complete the overthrow this time are already entrenched in their positions, all the way up to the Supreme Court. Don’t forget, the Supreme Court already overthrew an election in 2000, and they’re far more corrupt these days, firmly in the pocket of the folks who put them there, the Heritage Foundation. Yes, they’ve thrown some bones out recently to give the illusion of being fair, but I think that’s because they know if this comes to pass, it will all become undone very soon.

If you’re reading this, head entrenched in sand, saying, “It can’t happen here,” you’re a fool. I’m sorry. That’s what folks thought in 1930s Germany and so many other dynasties that eventually collapsed over hate and greed. Now it’s our turn. I fear it’s a foregone conclusion. Stay tuned.

What’s Next?

Giavana and I are sitting in a Barnes and Noble, my happy place (after the beach, that is) waiting for the last documents we’ll need for dual citizenship to be processed. We’ll head on back to our wooded pioneer RV home after that, and keep hustling and planning our escape from the dystopian hellscape I just described.

I laid out our phases of planning in the last post. As they say, plan for the worst, hope for the best, but this is feeling very much like beyond hope, I’m sorry to say. Prepare. Read my previous posts to learn how.

Also, I was just notified I’m going to be audited, big fun ahead. I wonder if that’s somehow tied to my opinions! It’s just another in the recent barrage of difficult things to deal with, but we’ll push through it.

The debate is tonight. Watch carefully as one person tells you how much America sucks, compared to that beautiful American experience I had this past weekend at the festival. Watch how he tells you your faucet drips out water, when you know that’s not true. Watch how he b*****s, whines, and complains while the other tells you about all the progress we’ve made in four years, and how wonderful our democracy is.

This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact!

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

—Sinclair Lewis

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Don’t despair—prepare.

Before we get started on this week’s pioneer update, my urgent plea is for you to find some way to get involved. There is no more time left to save this country—it gets worse by the day, they make progress by the day in tearing it down, stealing our assets, aligning us with evil. Someday, your kids, grandkids, great grandkids will watch the “old” movies about the USA standard, the USA way of life, and ask you what you did to save it for them, to prevent the Russian dystopia they may well be living in at that time. You can do a lot from home, but every able-bodied American needs to get out there and be seen. Give money, whatever you can. Pick one or more of these sites and get to work. 5calls.org, indivisible.org, citizen.org, moveon.org, aclu.org, fiftyfifty.one, resist.bot, nosmallact.com

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the world—the good and bad places—the real places, not the dressed up tourist zones. I saw society in every state from good to bad, from strife to utopian. The forces that have overtaken the United States did so with a vision of white picket fence, Mayberry RFD, 1950s White America. The “Golden Age.” What they’re driving us toward is the soup lines, disease, and struggle of peak Great Depression. They are aligning with and driving us toward the stark, bleak, desolate life I’ve seen when traveling to Soviet satellite autocracies in eastern Europe and other places around the globe. It’s always the same.

Pioneer Update

Just when we thought we were almost moved into our new (to us) little apartment, we got word we need to clean out the rest of our stuff in storage. Another round of brutal lifting and moving of boxes ensued, and of course cold and high winds were there (out of nowhere) to make it a hundred times harder. It was pretty brutal this weekend, just when we thought we could catch our breath. We’re minimalist by US standards, but we’re realizing we still have too much crap. It’s enabling another round of cleansing ourselves from old and broken things. Memories are in the mind. This phase of our spiritual existence is a very brief flash. None of this is important.

Buddhism teaches that suffering is part of life—and we should learn to deal with it through acceptance of that fact, mindfulness, and spirituality. Do the right things, and experience joy in eternity. I say often that I believe this place we’re in is a kiln, a miasma of trials and tribulations, temptations, to get us to see the light, to forge to shape our spirits into what would be acceptable in a perfect eternity. Jesus came here as an example of that, the perfect human, to show us the way, a living exemplar. Our bodies are a form of embryo, an egg to house our spirit during this physical journey.

Stress and suffering make that hard. That’s the point. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. We had to go into overdrive this weekend. Back out to the White House RV, back to storage, loading Henrik the pickup, unloading her, all in high wind. I hurt myself, rather bad. Tons of extreme pain. I failed the test—I lost my temper and yelled at my precious, beautiful Giavana. I let her down, I let myself down. It’s further proof I still have work to do, spiritually. This is all a test, and I failed it. I need to be stronger, because it’s only going to get harder from here. I fail when the pain is too much, and I need to think more about what it must have felt like up on that cross, bleeding to death in the sun.

As I was down for the count the rest of the evening, I returned to watching episodes of The Chosen. It’s such an incredible series, entertaining, and it grounds me. I went back to reading my Buddhist books. I had gotten away from all that in these recent whirlwind times, and it goes to show you need to practice, you need to practice faith, to stay sharp. I have made my apologies, begged forgiveness, and feel refreshed and invigorated today, mind and body (somewhat!).

Where It’s Going

Don’t fall for the psyops. You’re seeing our national anthem booed in other countries. We love our country, so this is hard. Use your mind, not your emotions. This is what Trump, Vance, Musk want. They want you to hate our allies. It’s a psyop to get you to embrace the enemy, Mother Russia. They’re not booing the real USA—me, you, most of us. They’re booing our “leadership,” and with good reason, as we’ve betrayed the free world to align with Russia, China, North Korea, and the other miserable dictatorships around the world.

What we’re seeing is an extreme form of societal chemotherapy. Trump and his minions are going to subject “the rest of us” to extreme pain—financially, health-wise, emotionally. They’re taking away Medicaid and other resources with the full knowledge people will die. They want that. They want the bottom crust of society to die off because they despise those beautiful people. To the elite, those are the great unwashed, the “dirty” people in steerage, and they want them gone. At the same time, moving the middle class down to the lower tier of society, broken but at least somewhat cleaner. At that point the goal is reached—a two-tier caste system of peasants and royalty. Autocrat/oligarchs and people with no power. This is what you should be out protesting and defending against, for those you love, now and to come. Go through my posts over a year and a half as your guide. Prepper Jim Cobb has a new magazine out, a few bucks well spent.

I promised some Biblical context. Listen, I’ve been all over the map in terms of spiritualism and religion. I’ve written about my journey plenty of times, particularly in my road novel Farawayer. I’m practical, I’m analytical, my nature is to be skeptical. I just feel there’s too much evidence to ignore, not to mention the cost too great.

As well, faith can help you prepare for the times to come, right? Isn’t this all about preparing? We can buy all the things, train and practice, but we have to train our mind, our spirit, in order to endure, or it’s likely all for naught. It’s a secret weapon to get through the worst of things, mentally and emotionally. You don’t have to join a cult-like organization or practice inane rituals. Just—be good. Believe, have faith, it will carry you through, give you hope, improve your self-esteem, set a good example for others. That’s all. Start with those Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. They’re incredibly inspiring—the greatest speech ever given. Otherwise, the below might at least prove interesting from a historical perspective.

So, what does the Bible say? It seems to be very relevant in these times, as we swing the door open wide to disease, war, lawlessness, climate disaster.

"This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled"—Jesus, Matthew 24

“There will be epidemics of terrible diseases." Jesus, Luke 21:11

“There will be an increasing of lawlessness"—Jesus, Matthew 24:12

“Mankind will ruin the earth."—Revelations 11:18

The end times will include plagues, wars, persecution, and other destruction.

The Bible speaks of great suffering in the end times due to our human path. This is referred to as the great Tribulation. Perhaps it’s all part of the plan. When times are this bad, the weak will cave and submit to the evil, disavow their faith, leaving only the most pure and faithful perhaps to move on to what is promised. Perhaps it will give evil folks one last chance to repent. For the rest? Perhaps back to another kiln, another forge, to further develop, if that’s even an option at this point.

Maybe this is the final deciding, maybe we’ve blown our last chance, after other Biblical resets like the Great Flood. At least, on this planet as it might not survive what’s to come either. We’ve reached a technical evolution, where one lunatic can press a button and wipe out a good part of the planet, just at the time we’ve lost our morality and ethics, which makes it all the more likely it will happen.

In my Vigilante Angels noir crime trilogy, I wrote about the rise of a politician-as-antichrist and a cancer-ridden ex-cop that decides to assassinate him for the sake of humanity. Is Trump the antichrist? Let’s look at some signs (here’s one of many in-depth analysis by theologians). In summary, from the paper I just linked (please read that great piece by Benjamin L Corey for much more detail!), the antichrist will be:

* The leader of a military superpower with the ability to destroy the entire earth.—Daniel 7:23

* Arrogant and known for giving boastful speeches.—Daniel 7:8, Revelation 13:5

* Someone known for making a lot of public threats against people.—Revelation 13:2, Daniel 7:4

* Obsessed with winning.—Revelation 6:2

* Someone who causes people all over the world to be filled with wonder after he receives a head wound that heals, and follow him.—Revelation 13:3

* A political outsider with despicable character who wins an election unexpectedly.—Daniel 11:21

* Someone who gives speeches about “great things” that only he can do.—Daniel 7:20

* Someone who comes to power through collusion with a secret alliance and who uses disinformation to help him win– even though he has a minority number of supporters.—Daniel 11:23

* Someone who immediately finds ways to make himself and his friends richer– and he will do it in a way no president had ever done before.—Daniel 11:24

* Someone who will make fake news popular and will be a chronic liar. His followers will believe his delusions because they hate the truth.—Daniel 8:25, 2 Thessalonians 2:10

* Someone who will reward those who are completely loyal with powerful positions and lucrative real estate deals.—Daniel 11:39

* Someone who draws strong support from many Christians as if they are willfully blind and outright delusional.—Matthew 24:24, 2nd Thessalonians 2:10

* Someone who will not care about what is legal or constitutional, because the laws of the nation will not apply to him- he will be above the law.—2 Thessalonians 2

* Someone who has an ongoing feud with the leadership of the nation on his southern border.—Daniel 11:25

* Someone who gets angry at his neighbors to the north (Canada) and east (Europe) and threaten to destroy them.—Daniel 11:44

* Someone who holds power while there is an evil ruler in Israel who will wage war and cause cities to become desolate (see:Gaza).—Daniel 9:26-27

* Someone who will form an alliance with the ruler of Israel and will desire to occupy the coastal area (see:Gaza).—Daniel 11:16-18

* Someone who will rule during a global pandemic that will kill many people.—Revelation 8:10

* Someone who will rule when there will be food shortages and huge spike in food prices, but will be a surplus of oil that remains cheap.—Revelation 6:6

* Someone who will use his armed forces to remove people from the area surrounding a church and will do something detestable in front of it.—Daniel 11:29-33

* Someone who will cause a mass disappearance of agricultural workers.—Matthew 24:40-41

* Someone who will rule while Christians act religious but will become cruel and hate what is good.—I Timothy 3

* Someone who will worship border walls.—Daniel 11:37-38

* Someone who will be firmly resisted by those who truly know God.—Daniel 11:32

Is that not enough? The time is nigh, friends. Prepare those you love and get yourself ready. There is power in numbers.

So, this is where Giavana, Pia, and I are currently in our pioneer journey. Stay tuned! This pioneer journey continues…

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