But the first-aid kits you’s find in your local drug store are usually pretty lackluster. You’ll get some basic bandages and ointments, but nothing that’s going to be of much use if things really hit the fan. Thankfully, my friend Tom Rader makes first-aid kits that don’t suck through his company, Medical Points Abroad (MPA).

Tom served as a Navy medic alongside Marine Recon in Afghanistan, and now he’s an instructor with Wilderness Medical Associates International. He’s seen stuff much gnarlier than you’ll hopefully ever seen.

Veteran readers of Unprepared.life may remember that I reviewed MPA’s individual first-aid kit and what was then known as the Big Ass First Aid Kit.

Since then, MPA has partnered with Swiss Military Brands and made things more professional. The Big Ass First Aid Kit is now sold as the more (less?) family friendly WHACK in the Box.

The WHACK in the Box is pretty much anything you’d need outside of a major trauma center, all packaged in a spacious hardshell case. It’s the go-to kit in my house, and then I keep an MPA IFAK in each one of my vehicles.

The WHACK is a pretty pricey kit, but now is the time to make the investment, because from now through December 7th, 2024, you save 15% off by entering code 2024bf15off at checkout. That code applies to anything in the first aid category, like the Bad Day Blowout Kit .

Here’s another tip: If you have an FSA, HSA, or ICHRA, they will reimburse you for your first-aid kits. If you have extra medical funds that have to be spent by the end of the year, this is a great way to invest some of those dollars.

If it’s still out of your budget, you might check out the Everyday First Aid Kit Plus, which has all of the essentials for under $25. On the other end of the spectrum, if you or a loved one spends a lot of time on the road, consider the Vehicle Trauma Kit, which features everything you need to stabilize someone in the event of a roadside medical emergency.

Like I said, I own four of Tom’s kits—one of the WHACK kits and three IFAKs, and other than one IFAK, I paid for the rest with my own money (and the help of an ICHRA account), and I heartily recommend them.

First aid is one area you don’t want to skimp out, but do take advantage of coupon code 2024bf15off to save 15%!

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If you have yet to vote, please make a point to do so today, no matter your affiliation. Despite what you may think, it matters. Even if your vote doesn’t budge the electoral college, it has an impact on the popular vote, which reflects the legitimacy of the outcome. One of my great regrets is skipping the 2020 election.

In 2020, I was unhappy with every presidential candidate on the ballot. I was displeased with Trump’s COVID response and the general chaos of his term. Joe Biden’s mental decline was already apparent. Even the third-party candidates were deeply unappealing. So I declined.

Even though Biden’s politics have never quite lined up with mine, I liked him as a person, at least on a surface level, and assumed that he would surround himself with competent advisors and govern as a moderate. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The past four years have been some of the most stressful of my life. My family has been absolutely wrecked by inflation. We live simply, but our grocery bill is now double that of our mortgage. I’ve had to practically work myself to death to keep up. On top of this is a pervasive threat of another world war, possibly a nuclear one. In fact, in many ways this publication exists because of the persistent failures of the Biden administration.

Biden’s mental decline finally became apparent to all after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump, and while he’s no longer on the ticket, I have no reason to believe that Kamala Harris would govern differently. She has said as much.

That’s why this year, I voted for Donald Trump at the earliest opportunity, and I didn’t hold my nose or feel any shame in doing so. I had always been ambivalent about Trump, often critical. But several things have happened over the past few months to soften my view of the man and give me hope that his second administration will be far greater than his first.

The Kernel of Trump’s Character

We’ve heard so many stories about Trump over the years, and it’s often difficult to discern the truth. Many of the accusations against him have turned out to be false, such as the RussiaGate hoax and the infamous “pee tape.” Remember when over 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation? They were lying, it was all real. Even recently, Trump has been accused of threatening Liz Cheney with a firing squad, which even Snopes—no friend of Trump’s—has debunked.

Trump is often painted as a dishonest character, but his opponents are even more so.

It’s hard to determine a man’s character even in the best of circumstances, and there are only a handful of situations in a man’s life where his true self can be seen by all.

One of the most obvious tests of a man is when he’s under fire. Many unassuming men are sent into war zones to find they’re made of much sterner stuff than anyone imagined. Alvin York comes to mind. Others talk a good game but utterly fall apart when things get real. We all like to think we’ll rise to the occasion, but we truly don’t know until we’re tested. As the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

On July 13th, we saw Donald Trump put to the test in a way that many of us never will be. After he fell to the ground, a stunned nation assumed he was dead, only for him to rise up, raise his fist and shout, “Fight, fight fight!” In that moment, it became clear who Donald Trump is.

You may recall many years ago when a man charged the stage during a Trump rally, and Trump rapidly spun around until the Secret Service intervened. Trump’s fans said he was ready to fight the man. Trump’s haters claimed he was ready to run away. Now we know the truth.

Trump is, as we all are, a sinful and flawed man, but in that brief moment in July, we saw Donald Trump as he is when everything is stripped away except for his gut instincts. Trump is a man who boldly confronts danger, ready to lead. No reasonable person would have judged him for running for cover, but instead, he took a brief moment to rally and reassure the crowd. And grab his shoes.

The Candidate of Technology and Preparedness

I was stunned to see that Trump was endorsed by none other than Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step foot on the moon, and one of our greatest living Americans.

“For me, for the future of our Nation, to meet enormous challenges, and for the proven policy accomplishments above, I believe the nation is best served by voting for Donald J. Trump. I wholeheartedly endorse him for President of the United States,” Aldrin wrote.

Aldrin’s endorsement reflects one of the major polar shifts we’ve witnessed in this cycle. It wasn’t long ago that the Democrats were the party of technological progress, but that has changed rapidly under the Biden administration. Tech companies—one of the bright points of America’s post-industrial economy—have struggled under Biden.

Under Biden, tech has been threatened by vague and onerous regulations, or threats of regulations. Most notably, the burgeoning crypto industry. In fact, many friends of mine in crypto, law-abiding citizens and often loyal Democrats, have suffered harassment and unwarranted investigations. Biden’s SEC refuses to offer clear legal guidances, positive or negative.

Perhaps one of Biden’s most foolish moves was spurning Elon Musk. I have many issues with Musk, but no one has done more in the past two decades to advance space travel and popularize the electric car. Musk has also done more than probably anyone to advance personal preparedness, thanks to his promotion of at-home solar power and the incredible Starlink network, which proved invaluable in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Speaking of preparedness, I have been especially impressed by J.D. Vance. My wife—a former lifetime Democrat—is a huge fan of Hillbilly Elegy and was over the moon when Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate. I was skeptical. But after watching his Sunday morning appearances, his debate against Tim Walz, and his recent interview with Joe Rogan, I’ve been impressed by his vigor, mental clarity, and thoughtfulness in approaching even the toughest issues.

But what impressed me most about with Vance on Rogan was his thoughts on how to prepare the United States against an EMP attack:

“But the answer to the question about the grid is, this is actually, it's one of these things where, if we had a functional government, it's pretty easy to develop the systems. Because if you do like an EMP attack, right? Ron Johnson, who's a senator from Wisconsin, is really preoccupied with this.

You know, it doesn't take down the whole grid. What it really screws with is the power transformer system. So what we should have is basically a backup power transformer for every major system in the United States of America just sitting in a warehouse that's turned off.

And because it's turned off, it won't be affected by an EMP pulse. And then if there is an EMP attack, you just get those transformers to swap out the ones that were destroyed, and then the grid is back up and running. It's actually a scandal, I think, that the federal government has not just at one point, with all the money that we spend on defense and everything else, just said, we're going to spend $15 billion to buy enough power transformers to have a backup for every transformer in the country.”

$15 billion would be a relatively small sum for the federal government to prepare the United States against an apocalyptic attack. That’s barely a single payment to Ukraine.

I will feel much better about living in a country with a man like J.D. Vance in power.

The Candidate of Health

One of my biggest concerns over the past few years has been the pervasive pollution of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Years ago, I reviewed Count Down by Dr. Shanna Swan, who has spent decades studying endocrine disruptors in our environment. In the book, Swan outlines her research into these pervasive chemicals and how they’re causing lowered testosterone levels in boys, birth defects, obesity, and declining fertility rates.

Swan warns that if these chemicals continue to spread, it could very well mean the end of the human race.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one of the few noteworthy figures on this planet who takes seriously the danger we are in, and thanks to his unlikely partnership with Trump, he could be our one hope of reducing endocrine disruptors from our environment.

It’s not an exaggeration that the continuation of the human race could depend on a second Trump term. Kennedy is an odd man in many ways, but when I met him, I was impressed by his thoughtfulness and breadth of knowledge.

Personally, I don’t care how odd his ideas seem. This is the man I want in charge of our country’s health:

The Candidate of Virtue?

I’ve never considered Trump to be a virtuous man. He brags, he exaggerates, he lives an opulent lifestyle, and he’s often just plain mean.

But as we’ve entered the final days of this campaign, the messages from the two camps could not be starker.

Trump and his surrogates are on the campaign trail promoting science, technology, fitness, security, and prosperity. The Trump vision is one of conquering challenges, solving problems, and advancing both America and the human race.

God has a strange sense of humor, and in an ironic twist, a man once famous for lurid tabloid exploits has become a man calling the nation to virtue. But is it so odd? John F. Kennedy called the nation to strength, vitality, and public service while sneaking hookers into the White House. Martin Luther King, Jr. had similar proclivities. Benjamin Franklin, the man practically synonymous with American virtue, himself led a fairly scandalous private life.

Perhaps one of the things that makes a great man great is an ability to inspire others to be greater than himself, even in spite of his own flaws.

Meanwhile, the Kamala Harris campaign is campaigning on humanity’s basest instincts.

In one commercial, a man is shown vigorously masturbating, only to be stopped by a mean old white man in a suit. In other, a man accidentally ejaculates into a woman, and he’s horrified to discover that he may be responsible for a child.

Other ads encourage voters to lie to friends and family members, encouraging them to publicly say they’re voting for Trump, only to sneak in a vote for Kamala Harris in the privacy of the voting booth. Kamala Harris is apparently such an embarrassment that her own campaign admits that it’s shameful to admit voting for her.

The choice for America could not be more stark. Trump promises a path to greatness. Perhaps not an easy path, but one that will create a greater world for our children and grandchildren. The opposition promises comfort and convenience. The easy road, a warm, semen-crusted blanket. A life of frivolity, nothingness, and a slow, pleasant death. A suicide pod for the nation.

We must all ask ourselves if we can rise above our basest instincts and passions to strive for something greater. I believe Donald Trump, in his own way, has. Here is a man who lived that life of comfortable ease. He was rich and beloved, and had everything a man could ever want. Instead, he chose the hard road uphill.

It would have been very easy for Trump to have simply given up. I’m sure he was given the choice after 2020. Maybe with a bit of massaging and the right messaging he could have been let back into his celebrity circle, or at least have been left to play golf in peace.

Instead, he marches onward, despite the lawsuits, the impeachments, the criminal trials, and the gunfire. No matter whether you love him or hate him, no matter who you choose today, he is the man who has defined the 21st century.

Vote for the One with the Smaller Horns

Every election year, Americans lament having to choose the lesser of two evils. But the reality is that, like it or not, in January either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will be sworn into office. Your vote—or lack of one—helps determine which one it will be.

• Ron DeSantis is not on the ballot. He wants you to vote for Trump.

• Ron Paul is not on the ballot. He wants you to vote for Trump.

• RFK Jr. may be on your ballot, but he also wants you to vote for Trump.

Trump is not a perfect man, and I’m sure he won’t be a perfect president. He will disappoint us, and I will be the first to call out his failures. But regardless of his flaws, I believe he is the best hope not only for the United States, but for the human race. May God help us.

During the 2008 election, a group of people approached Elder Ephraim of Arizona and asked who they should vote for. He told them John McCain. Many of them didn’t like hearing this, and pointed out McCain’s many misdeeds. Elder Ephraim said:

“Look, they both have horns, you have to vote for the one with the smaller horns.”

It’s now up to you to decide who has the smaller horns. I have made my case, and I hope you’ll consider it in the voting booth.

The guys at all three sites have absurd amounts of domain expertise, and one of the first things I wanted to do was leverage that to create helpful buying and how-to guides. Of course, anything outdoors is by nature seasonal, so much of our early focus has been on bowhunting, since in much of the US, bow season for deer comes before rifle season:

• The Best Beginner Compound Bows

• The Best Hunting Bows

• The Best Bow Sights

• The Best Compound Bow Stabilizer

• The Best Rangefinders for Bowhunting

• The Best Ground Blind for Bowhunting

Of course, you can’t be editor-in-chief of an outdoor site without doing outdoor stuff, so I’ve dusted off my vintage yard sale bow, and I’m going to take my two boys bowhunting for the first time. My deal with myself is if I can bag a deer with this old bow, I get to buy a new one.

Tree Stand vs. Ground Blind

You have to have something to conceal yourself while hunting. Most guys around here use a tree stand, which is sort of an adult version of a tree house. High up in a tree, you’re out of sight and smell of deer.

I don’t like tree stands for a few reasons. One, I’m terrified of heights, and I don’t think I’m cowardly or unreasonable in being so—there are a lot of good ol’ boys around here in wheelchairs because they fell out of a stand. Expert outdoorsman Hank Parker recently fell out of a tree stand. Thankfully, it seems Hank will make a full recovery, but it goes to show that it can happen to anyone.

Most commercial tree stands are all metal—which is extra slippery in the wee hours when it’s dark and everything is wet. The ladder rungs are usually round and thin, which doesn’t help things. Then you get to the top and sit on 5 square inches of metal. No thanks.

Plus, I’m bringing two hyperactive young boys along. So, instead, we’ve set up a deer blind in our woods. A blind is basically a tent, except there’s no floor, you can see through the windows, and you can easily pull them down to shoot at things.

Blinds have some other advantages:

• You have a roof over your head in case it rains

• You can stash gear in there

• Your clothing and scent aren’t quite as crucial as when you’re out in the open

• You can run a small heater inside

Of course, it’ll probably make my hunts more difficult than they would be in a tree stand, but at least my kids won’t fall (or jump) out of it.

Ostensibly, the CAP Barbell Power Rack is a squat rack, and for that purpose, it’s pretty sub-par. It’s lightweight and easy to move around (or tip over), so if I wanted to use it for its intended purpose, I’d want to weigh it down and anchor it, as well as add some safety catches.

However, as a cheap outdoor pull-up bar, it’s amazing. If it rusts, I’ll spray paint over it, and if it gets ruined, I’ll just replace it.

Throw on some cheap gymnastic rings, and you can do all sorts of other bodyweight workouts, like ring dips.

And you get to work out in the sun and fresh air. Given how pale I am this summer, I’m in desperate need of that.

But as it turns out, having a sort of hanging platform is useful for so many other things on a farm. I took an old wooden plank, drilled a couple of holes, added a couple of cheap thin s-hooks from Walmart, and boom, instant hanging gun target.

I placed it in front of a hill, so it has a perfect backstop.

It will also come in handy when it’s time to process rabbits and chickens. It’s a perfect platform to hang their carcasses and process them, much preferable to using the kids’ swing set or a ladder. I could probably hang a whole deer from it.

It also includes rudimentary holders for a barbell and a stack of weight plates. Maybe one day I’ll buy some to use the rack for its intended purpose. Cheap ones though, since they’ll be out in the elements.

Overall, the CAP Barbell Power Rack is a super-handy item to have on your property, and for just a little over $100 even when not on sale, it’s a great value.

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OK, let’s clear the decks with some quick advice:

• Iran: Don’t worry about it yet. Even if Iran strikes Israel, it doesn’t immediately affect you unless you or your family live in Israel. Iran may have struck a U.S. base in Iraq yesterday, but I doubt we do much about it.

• Market meltdown: Unless you need to cash out soon, why do you care? Buy the dip. I bought some extra Bitcoin to mark the occasion.

• Recession fears: Don’t keep all your eggs in the same income basket. If you work remote, stack some jobs. Find side contract work in your field. Make connections—that’s part of why I went to the Bitcoin conference last week. And let me tell you, after hauling a dead bear around NYC, a certain Mr. Kennedy owes me a favor.

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Now that I’ve solved all of your problem, let me add one more. Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin has made a big name for himself since he was elected to Congress in 2017.

In a short clip circulating online, he bluntly states his intention to block Trump from office—even if he wins the election—and admits that it will likely spark a civil war.

“It’s going to be up to us on January 6th, 2025 to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified, and then we need bodyguards for everybody in civil war conditions,” Raskin told the audience.

A lot of people have been throwing around the term “civil war” for years, but it’s another thing when a sitting Congressman—allegedly a “sane” one—throws it out.

How do you prepare for a civil war, exactly? There’s no great answer to that, because it’s a situation you very much do not want. However, I do have some expert advice on that front, and the draft is ready to go. It’s simply a matter of whether I get permission to share it or not.

Personally, I’m taking the time to double down on my physical fitness investments. I’m trying a new diet I’ll write about soon, and I’m alternating gym days with kettlebell and ring work at home. Even if nothing happens, it will pay dividends.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank you. I was admittedly pretty fired up after Trump was shot, and that cost me some subscribers, some of whom left some nasty messages. But more than enough of you signed up for paid subscriptions to make up the difference.

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Speaking of which, the Fight shirts are still available for only four more days. The shirts were my wife’s idea. About an hour after Trump was shot, she declared, “I want a shirt that says Fight!” I told her I could make that happen, so we got to work. It was a nice distraction from the news, and when we were done with the design, I thought I’d see if anyone else wanted one. Some of you did, many of you don’t, and that’s fine with me either way.

Indeed, the fight has only just begun.

One shooter is apparently dead, along with one bystander. There may have been two shooters. Trump is reportedly fine and was just hit by glass fragments from a teleprompter.

Meanwhile, the media is trying to downplay it.

Unbelievable. The audacity.

When Teddy Roosevelt was shot during a speech, he proclaimed, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose,” before continuing the speech.

If you’ve spent years stirring up the rhetoric against Trump, get ready, you’re about to get what you asked for. This morning, I was listening to King Nothing by Metallica, and the lyrics seem eerily apt:

Careful what you say

Careful what you wish

You may regret it

Careful what you wish

You just might get it

Limited Edition Shirt

I was inspired to design a shirt. It’s only available to order until the end of July when orders ship.

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This story has been covered in the mainstream press, but I don’t think they’ve properly conveyed the severity of this cyberattack. That’s why I turn to niche experts like Car Dealership Guy, who can provide insider insight. “Without a functioning DMS, dealers must rely on paper alternatives to conduct business across multiple departments, heavily handicapping their ability to serve customers at normal volumes. A long-term disruption could even have an impact on the U.S. GDP, of which automotive sales comprise 3% to 3.5%,” he said.

The CDK hack could have major economic implications, and it’s hard to understate how much chaos this caused at dealerships.

“Ya. I went to get a part I ordered from a local Toyota dealership and it was a mess in the service department. Basically low level panic,” said Jeff Boldrick.

“I spoke with two new car dealers on Wednesday, one located in Virginia and one in North Carolina both with multiple rooftops that have CDK as their operating system. They cannot print a repair order in their service departments, they can’t sell a part much less sell a car or even obtain financing for a customer. Both dealers said they were better off to have just closed their dealerships on Wednesday till this was resolved because they simply cannot conduct any business. Now faced with this again on Thursday,” said Charles Brandon Boyd.

Cyberattacks seem to be growing in frequency and severity. This one follows the shutdown of several hospitals. At what point will authorities start taking them seriously?

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Return.life: The difference between and EMP and cyberattack

I’ve been contributing to Return.life for the past year or so. When I started, it was just another Substack, but now it’s been bought by The Blaze and incorporated into their brand. I never imagined being a writer for The Blaze, but I like the folks I work with there, like James Poulos and Peter Gietl.

Back in February, I wrote a guide to telling the difference between a cyberatack, an EMP, or a solar flare.

FarmHopLife: Prepper origin story

Back in April, I appeared on Matt Derosier’s FarmHopLife podcast to talk about my origins in prepping, as well as why Millennial farms are ugly, why I moved into the sticks, and how to deal with raccoons.

HearthFathers on Orthodoxy and rural living

Ryan B. Anderson’s HearthFathers podcast has an interesting concept, focused on traditional fatherhood in rural settings. I joined Ryan last month to discuss the Orthodox faith and rural fatherhood. I recounted the story of how I was called by St. Seraphim of Sarov, and I told a story I haven’t shared with you yet, about how how family had to miss our baptisms and chrismations, which were originally to take place on Holy Saturday, and was a devastating event for our family.

Prepping tips around the world with Dr. Chris Ellis and Glenn Beck

I’ve been working with Dr. Chris Ellis since I was at The Prepared, and he’s just an all-around impressive guy. He’s an Army colonel with four masters degrees and a PhD, and might be the foremost preparedness expert in the entire U.S. government. So when Chris asked me if I’d like to partner up on a post for glennbeck.com, I said sure.

We settled on the topic of four preparedness lessons from around the world. Chris largely took the initiative here, and I just filled out my 5 entries. But it’s fun to be able to say I wrote something for Glenn Beck.

This is America’s “crossing the Rubicon moment.” A former president has never even been charged with felonies, much less convicted of them, much less while they’re running for another term in office.

Make no mistake, this verdict is wildly destabilizing for this country. Anywhere from 40-50% of Americans now seen the system as illegitimate.

Legitimacy, in political science lingo, is the underpinning of a stable government. The “consent of the governed” and all that. In plain English: we put up with arbitrary rules and taxes only because we get the sense that the government acts through consent and not coercion. Of course, all power flows from the barrel of a gun, but once the illusion is shattered, things fall apart very quickly.

Let’s look at 3 factors in this trial that could cause half of the country to question whether the government is legitimate.

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The System Clearly Plays Favorites

Let’s be really clear about something: our system of “laws” is incredibly arbitrary. There are so many laws that no one can really keep track of them and you’ve undoubtedly broken a bunch yourself. Ayn Rand isn’t my favorite author, but she had some banger quotes, and this is one of them: “There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them.”

You see this in action whenever you hear about someone getting arrested for something fairly small and then having a few dozen more random charges piled up on them. If the system wants to nail you, it will, and it has the tools to do so.

A recent example is golfer Scottie Scheffler, who was arrested and charged with a felony for the crime of… trying to get to a golf tournament. Thankfully, those nonsensical charges have been dropped because he’s Scottie Scheffler the world’s top golfer and not Scottie Scheffler, bus driver.

OK, I stole that joke from Chris Rock, who said of the recently departed O.J. Simpson: “Because if O.J. wasn't famous he'd be in jail right now. If O.J. drove a bus, he wouldn't even be O.J. He'd be Orenthal the bus driving murderer.”

That joke is nearly 30 years old, but it conveys an essential but uncomfortable truth: the justice system is not applied equally. Modern conventional wisdom would tell you that it works much better if you’re white and rich, though it seemed to work okay for Orenthal the football-playing murder.

It’s also worked pretty okay for another notorious figure of the 1990s, Hillary Clinton, who—along with her husband—have dodged more scandals and criminal suspicions than any political family I’ve ever seen1. As you might remember, her big scandal in 2016 was running her own email service (in a bathroom)2 during her tenure as Secretary of State.

The common refrain for this is “butter emails,” but mishandling classified documents is a big deal—they raided Trump’s home over it. Clinton’s bizarre handling of classified materials was concerning enough that the FBI investigated it.

Those who watch politics closely have not forgotten then-FBI director James Comey’s statement, in which he basically admitted that Clinton committed felonies, but that they wouldn’t charge her, well, because she’s Hillary Clinton:

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

In short: did she break laws? Yes. But we don’t feel like charging her. I also think the “regarding intent” phase is hilarious, because judges love to rattle off about how “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Intent wouldn’t have been considered if Hillary the Park Ranger had been routing her employee email through a bathtub Synology.

Besides, I don’t know if Trump intended to commit… wait, what did he do, exactly?

The Average Person Can’t Explain Trump’s Crimes

Some of my readers are lawyers and will probably be happy to itemize all 34 of President Trump’s felonies, but I doubt 99% of Americans could name a single one.

In fact, any time I tuned in on the trial or the media coverage, the focus was always on Trump cheating on his wife with Stormy Daniels, which is wrong but isn’t a crime3. The end result is most people have the impression that Trump is possibly being locked up over something that isn’t even a crime.

Tom Gara, who used to be an editor at BuzzFeed and is no friend of Donald Trump’s, admitted that he has no idea what his actual crime is. Imagine what the typical person who doesn’t watch the news thinks.

In the marketing world, this is what we call a messaging problem. When you’re doing something as extreme as making a former president and current candidate beloved by millions a felon, you need to do an impeccable job of explaining why you’re doing that. Solid charges. Solid evidence. Something like: there is a dead porn star with multiple stab wounds and we have a clear photo of Donald Trump standing outside her house holding a bloody knife.

So what exactly did Trump get convicted of? In the simplest terms, as I understand the case, Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen (apologies to my friend Michael Cohen who is unrelated), paid Stormy Daniels six figures in hush money so she wouldn’t talk about sleeping with Trump.

That’s not a crime. The crime is that the Trump Organization shuffled around business records to hide it, which is only a misdemeanor.

So how did that become a felony? The convoluted legal reasoning is that since Trump was running for office, it counts for election fraud.

But don’t take my word for the legal reasoning being convoluted. That’s the opinion of a left-leaning law professor.

The Trial Looked Sketchy

The entire trial, start to finish, looked incredibly fishy. I won’t wade into the argument about whether Judge Merchan’s confusing instructions were misinterpreted or not. Instead, let’s look at the opinion of a legal expert who is opposed to Trump.

Law professor Jessica Levinson, writing for MSNBC—not exactly a Trump-friendly outfit—wrote:

“Let’s be honest with each other. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case was convoluted, and the jury convicting Trump shows that he got lucky in this case.”

“But by itself, the falsification of business records is a misdemeanor. So to kick this up to a felony, prosecutors needed jurors to keep clearing hurdles.”

“Add to that the fact that this was a complicated and serpentine case that most prosecutors probably wouldn’t have brought at all.”

Levinson, who recently did a podcast on “The MAGA Ideology,” seems thrilled with the verdict, even if she’s baffled by the case itself, writing, “That’s why today’s verdict feels like a catastrophe averted for those who believe in the rule of law and have been screaming from the rooftops that our former president threatens it.”

If someone like Levinson thinks the trial looks strange, imagine how it looks to the average American.

This Election Is Win or Die

On top of how arbitrary and political the prosecution looks, it’s now kicked this election into high gear. It may be Donald Trump’s only chance to dodge what amounts to a lifetime prison sentence. And Joe Biden is in a similar boat, because he undoubtedly fears revenge against himself and his family if he loses.

As the show says, when you play the game of thrones you win or you die. Except in this case it’s almost certainly true, and this election suddenly got a lot more dangerous.

Personally, I’m all for locking up as many politicians as possible. But after decades of letting the likes of JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and W get away with various and sundry crimes, it looks arbitrary to suddenly throw the book at a former president over questionable charges. It’s not as if Trump brought hookers into the White House, made up a fake attack to escalate a war, spied on political opponents, sold weapons to Iran, sold access to the Lincoln bedroom, trashed the Oval Office on his way out, committed war crimes, or ordered drone strikes on American citizens.

Maybe it’s time to file criminal charges against more politicians and presidents. After all, it’s only fair.

Unless you’re just fabulously wealthy and what my friend Jon Stokes calls “post-financial,” you’ve not only noticed, but felt, skyrocketed prices, alongside smaller packages and lower quality.

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Unfortunately, there are a slew of “expert” who, for political reasons, want to convince you that this isn’t happening. I could point to dozens of examples, but the most recent one is from The Guardian: “Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden.” Personally, I love the Axios spin on it: “There is no recession. And the economy is in good shape.”

I could pick this entire article apart, but let’s focus on inflation and cost of living:

The poll underscored people’s complicated emotions around inflation. The vast majority of respondents, 72%, indicated they think inflation is increasing. In reality, the rate of inflation has fallen sharply from its post-Covid peak of 9.1% and has been fluctuating between 3% and 4% a year.

In April, the inflation rate went down from 3.5% to 3.4% – far from inflation’s 40-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 – triggering a stock market rally that pushed the Dow Jones index to a record high.

According to The Guardian, 72% of people are just wrong and need to be corrected, which is laughable. Let’s pick out a couple of things about inflation rate claims:

• The rate of inflation just indicates how much inflation is going up. In other words, if the rate of inflation is 3.4%, that means it’s still going up, just at a slower pace than it once was.

• When the average person cites “inflation,” what they really mean isn’t some arbitrary statistic, but the overall trend in prices. “Inflation” is relatively easy to measure, but also easy to manipulate. A sense of the cost of living is harder to measure, but also impossible to argue with.

• Usually, when the government and other authorities talks about “inflation,” they use the Consumer Price Index, which tracks the prices of a somewhat arbitrary basket of goods, a method many economists criticize.

To add further confusion, there is also what is known as “Core CPI,” which excludes food and energy, which are both pretty darn important for living.

All of this is to say that these are very malleable figures, so it’s no wonder the average person doesn’t trust them, especially when numbers on a chart conflict with their own lived experience. And when you constantly hear a narrative that conflicts with that experience, you might feel crazy, a phenomenon called gaslighting.

How much have real prices gone up? Let’s look at some figures.

TheStreet examined how much fast food prices have gone up since 2020, measuring prices at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, In-n-Out, Burger King, and Jack in the Box. They found that, on average, prices increased 77.4%. McDonald’s was the worst of the lot:

• Cheeseburger: 215% price increase

• McChicken: 201.6%

• Medium French Fries: 134.1%

The Wall Street Journal recently looked at changes in household net worth in the Trump vs. Biden years. It’s equally eye-popping:

Real estate listing site Zillow recently conducted a study finding that the income needed to afford a home has increased by a whopping 80% since 2020 while median income has risen only 23%. In straight numbers, you need $47,000 more per year to afford a home than did you did four years ago.

On X, Michelle Barrett has been tracking her own grocery prices:

I picked a random Walmart order made on December 30, 2021. 14 items. Subtotal was $66.66.

Same items today? Some of the items are no longer available because the unit quantity has changed.

Cake mix was $1.24 for 15.25 oz. Now, the box is $1.58 for 13.25 oz.

The 12-pack of paper towels was $15.94 with a total area of 649 sf. Now, it's only $15.84, but for 594.9 sf.

Adding those to the cart anyway and I get a subtotal of $81.42.

That's an increase of about 22% in only 29 months.

Across the board, we’ve seen price increases ranging from 20-200%—much more than the 3.5% official figure. One counterargument is that wages are rising to keep up, but even the most optimistic estimate on wage growth is about 12.1% per the Economic Policy Institute.

So, no, you’re not crazy: everything is dramatically more expensive and your wages aren’t keeping up.

Another counterargument I’ve heard is that this isn’t inflation, it’s simply companies gouging their customers. Here’s what I say to that:

• We’re seeing prices increase on everything from food to software to housing. Is there a worldwide collusion conspiracy to bilk consumers?

• If so, why isn’t the federal government investigating?

I don’t know how we fix this problem, but I can say this much: it begins with acknowledging reality. The American people know they’re being lied to, they’re angry about it, and they’re ready to reelect Donald Trump in November. To the so-called “experts” desperately trying to stop that: You can lie to the people about many things and get away with it, but you can’t argue with their budgets and bank accounts.

Lai Ching-te was sworn as Taiwan’s new president on May 20th, and Red China is already rattling its saber.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the China/Taiwan situation, here’s a quick rundown: when the commies took over mainland China, China’s deposed leaders fled to the small island of Taiwan and successfully kept it independent. Red China has always insisted that Taiwan is its territory, much like Putin insists that Ukraine belongs to Russia, except that China wields a larger stick. Everyone’s so scared of Red China that it was an international scandal when then-President Trump took a call from Taiwan’s president after taking off.

Back in the present day, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is firm on the island’s independence, and Red China isn’t happy, as expressed through the communist party’s mouthpiece, the “Global Times”:

The speech was filled with hostility and provocation, lies and deception. In it, Lai took an even more radical and reckless stance on "Taiwan independence," vigorously promoting separatist fallacies such as the so-called "sovereign independence," "both sides of the Taiwan Straits are not subordinate to each other" and "the future of Taiwan will be decided by Taiwan residents." He desperately sought the backing and support of external forces, attempting to internationalize the "Taiwan question," and continued to "seek independence by relying on foreign support and by force." This speech is a thorough confession of "Taiwan independence." As the successor to Tsai Ing-wen and the new leading figure of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority, Lai's actions once again revealed his "independence" nature, with an extremely arrogant attitude and more radical propositions.

Tom Shugart, who built an impressive resume over his 25 years in the Navy, called the “editorial,” an “explicit threat of war.”

So why doesn’t China just take Taiwan already? They own the manufacturing and every other country is terrified of them. Simply put: Taiwan controls the spice. And by “the spice,” I mean the vast, vast majority of the world’s computer chip production. (Everyone likes Dune now, so I can make those references)

ASML is a Norwegian firm that supplies Taiwan’s semiconductor fabs, and according to Bloomberg, it can remotely destroy its machines in Taiwan:

The remote shut-off applies to Netherlands-based ASML’s line of extreme ultraviolet machines, known within the industry as EUVs, for which TSMC is its single biggest client. EUVs harness high-frequency light waves to print the smallest microchip transistors in existence — creating chips that have artificial-intelligence uses as well as more sensitive military applications.

About the size of a city bus, an EUV requires regular servicing and updates. As part of that, the company can remotely force a shut-off which would act as a kill switch, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Veldhoven-based company is the world’s only manufacturer of these machines, which sell for more than €200 million ($217 million) apiece.

So much like Paul Atreides, chip suppliers are threatening to nuke the spice fields if China takes Taiwan. The question is: would ASML actually do it? The cynical side of me says that Taiwanese firms like TSMC would try, China would swiftly get them working again, and everyone would carry on with business as usual.

But is that a chance China is willing to take? Likely not, or they would have already done it. We saw semiconductor production briefly grind to a halt in 2020, and the results were worldwide shortages of common products and unfinished vehicles piling up on lots.

Sooner or later, China will pull the trigger, but until China has a solid answer to the semiconductor problem I don’t see them going for it. They have plenty of time to wait.

I hate that I’m turning into a crotchety old conservative guy grumbling about the Democrats, but a running theme throughout Unprepared.life’s history is President Biden’s continual draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices.

A few ago, I was going to actually give Biden credit for refilling it, but I’m glad I held off, because it turns out he didn’t.

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This is from chemical engineer Robert Rapier writing for Forbes:

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden Administration made the largest withdrawal in SPR history in an effort to curb the oil price spikes that happened in the wake of the invasion. Between Biden’s inauguration in 2021 and mid-2023, 291 million barrels were sold from the SPR. That 46% reduction took SPR volumes to a level last seen in 1983.

Since hitting a low level of 347 million barrels in June 2023, the Biden Administration has returned about 14 million barrels of the 291 million removed (4.8%).

The DOE has consistently promised to refill the SPR as market conditions allow. Although previously indicating they would refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by the end of 2024, the DOE recently canceled solicitations.

So the Biden Administration slashed the SPR by nearly half and then refilled not even 5% of it. The Department of Energy canceled a contract to buy more oil last month due to rising prices. They also delayed another plan to refill the SPR in late summer of 2023.

Now they’re about to drain even more: the Associated Press reports that Biden is about to sell off another million barrels to lower gas prices going into election season. The oil is coming from a reserve set up in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

And in case you think I’m being overly cynical, both Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited lowering gas prices as the reason why the administration is selling the oil. Prices aren’t even that bad at the moment, but it’s an election year and Biden is doing everything short of sending people $100 bills in the mail to buy votes.

I remember the W years when gas shot over $4 a barrel, and I was all for price relief then, but China also wasn’t rattling its saber in Taiwan’s direction, which will likely be the topic of tomorrow’s post.

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an enforcement alert warning the nation’s municipal water systems of increasing cybersecurity threats. “EPA is issuing this alert because threats to, and attacks on, the nation’s water system have increased in frequency and severity to a point where additional action is critical,” the news release said.

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Here are some key bits from the report:

• “Cyberattacks against CWSs are increasing in frequency and severity across the country.”

• “Possible impacts include disrupting the treatment, distribution, and storage of water for the community, damaging pumps and valves, and altering the levels of chemicals to hazardous amounts.”

• “Over 70% of the systems inspected by EPA since September 2023 are in violation of basic SDWA 1433 requirements including missing specific sections of the RRA and ERP. When on site, EPA inspectors have identified alarming cybersecurity vulnerabilities at drinking water systems across the country and taken actions to address them.”

• “For example, some water systems failed to change default passwords, use single logins for all staff, or failed to curtail access by former employees.”

• The federal government has issued several advisories regarding nation-states trying to hack water systems, including China, Iran, and Russia.

• The EPA is stepping up inspections and enforcement actions to increase cybersecurity compliance.

I’m no fan of the federal government or the Biden Administration, but honestly, good on both for stepping in here. Cybersecurity is something that many local government simply don’t take seriously, but it’s of the upmost importance.

When I was at The Prepared, I wrote about hackers who used an unprotected VNC connection to spike the lye levels in the water. Thankfully, a watchful operator caught them in the act.

As always, I recommend storing water: at least 3 days worth for everyone in your house, and ideally two weeks’ worth. Estimate one gallon per person per day. More on food and water storage here:

Homeschooling is growing increasingly popular, so naturally it’s under attack on several fronts. Democrats don’t like it because it hurts teacher unions and takes control from the government. Republicans don’t like it either because every student not enrolled in a public school means lost funding, and for most Republican politicians, money is the only thing that matters.

A talking point I hear repeatedly is that homeschooling is bad because homeschooled children are “weird.” No one can ever quantify what they mean by that. And after reading about the suicide of 10-year-old Sammy Teusch, I’m okay with my kids being a little “weird.” He was repeatedly taunted by students for his hair and teeth. His parents took it up with the school 20 times. The school did nothing, his parents didn’t do enough, and now he’s dead. I’d rather my kids be weird.

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Earlier generations of homeschoolers could definitely be a bit odd, but every homeschool family I know goes out of their way to have their kids be around other kids their age. There are many “tutorial” programs where homeschool kids meet once a week for in-person classes and socialization. There are many homeschool groups that get kids together to play.

However, homeschool kids are a little different in some ways, and there always seems to be friction between homeschool and public school families.

In my own observations, the kids public schools are pumping out are downtrodden, moody, and easily frightened by the boisterous vitality of the homeschool kids. The public schoolers go hide while the homeschool kids climb trees, shoot Nerf guns, laugh, and generally act like children.

If that’s weird, I’m okay with my kids being weird.

However, there are downsides to everything, and there’s one aspect of homeschool families that drives me nuts: everyone is so used to marching to the beat of their own drummer that coordinating group activities can be infuriating. The event says it’s from 10-12? Everyone will show up at some point between 9:45 and 12 and the event will end when the vibes run out.

In any case, that’s a pretty minor downside. I have yet to see a homeschool child that couldn’t adapt to the time requirements of a job.

Read more about homeschooling in these two articles:

In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard that three-time Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker is this week’s “main character.” Butker is a traditional Catholic, and he recently gave a very traditional Catholic commencement address at a traditional Catholic university.

Long story short: he told young women that their highest calling is being a wives and mothers—a very traditional Catholic sort of message. Through tears, he credited his wife with all of his success, which to me seems like a very sweet and normal sort of thing to say, and he’s often said how being a husband and father triumphs over his NFL career.

Given the reaction, you would think Butker had shot someone’s dog. (Write your own Kristi Noem joke, I’m juggling enough controversy here.) Butker and his family have been doxxed, sent death threats, and he’s been trashed all over the mainstream media. I’m not saying there isn’t room for thoughtful critique of his points, but the response has been just insane.

Why am I even writing about this in Unprepared? For those of you new to the newsletter, my initial claim to fame here was a silly Twitter thread I wrote reassuring my loyal readers about the threat of nuclear war. At the time, the Russia/Ukraine war was breaking out, people were freaking out, and I was inundated with panicked messages about the possibility of armageddon.

You can read about that little bit of history here:

I received literally thousands of angry replies and quote tweets, many from high-status accounts. I received death threats. So-called journalists wrote ugly articles about me despite never having talked to me, which is kind of an important aspect of journalism.

Meanwhile, friends were messaging me asking why everyone was so angry with me. I hadn’t said anything terribly offensive. “Hell if I know,” was my usual exasperated reply. I tend to laugh off harsh words and “death threats,” but the sheer amount of noise this little bit of fame added to my daily life was stressful.

Eventually, some of my many critics took to our Discord server to give me a piece of their minds. I think they were disarmed by how kind and welcoming we were, even after they charged in figurative guns a blazing. Personally, I was excited to have actual discussions with members of the angry mob, because I was baffled as to why they were so damn mad.

One woman finally admitted that she was just scared and my tweet had hit a nerve. It’s really just that simple. But why did it hit such a nerve?

I think it’s because I challenged a deeply instilled conventional message: that nuclear attacks equal doomsday and there’s zero chance of survival. I wrote about some reasons why that may not be true in Nuclear War: Hollywood vs. Reality and Nuclear War: A Beginner's Guide to Survival.

(For the record, I still think nuclear war is bad. Very bad. Sorry to be so controversial.)

In the case of Butker, I think the same things apply. He struck a nerve for challenging the now-conventional narrative that women must aggressively pursue careers PLUS he triggered a deep-seated fear of many that they missed out on spending enough time with their kids or missed out on kids all-together.

Other than my own experience, I don’t have direct evidence, but I do have an observation: most of the attacks against Butker are by people are who are typically not big fans of capitalism, and if capitalism is so bad, would you not applaud those encouraging others to drop out of such an evil system, even if other values aren’t aligned? Is our intrinsic value as human beings nothing more than a number in a bank’s database?

I certainly empathize with women compelled to work during their children’s most formative years. I often miss time with my kids in order to support them financially—I’m missing one of my son’s baseball games as I type this.

As a husband and father, those two roles are my highest callings. I would have meager career ambitions if not for my wife and kids. I’d be perfectly happy doing the bare minimum to afford rent, ramen, cigarettes, and video games. There would be no Unprepared.life or Take Control books or the many articles I’ve had published over the years. As it is, I work very long hours seven days per week to ensure that my wife can be home with our children.

Why? Because motherhood is the greatest of all pursuits, and every other job and industry exists merely to support the most precious of roles, the one calling that keeps the human race going. I’m a mediocre father so my wife can be an excellent mother.

Unless you’re a veteran hunter, you might be shocked by the sheer amount of power game wardens wield in many states. They can walk onto your property at any time and even set up cameras on your property without a warrant or any sort of notice. In some places, they can pull anyone over and search their vehicles at any time. How deer cops gathered such an extreme amount of unconstitutional power is beyond me.

Thankfully, this is being called into question, at least here in Tennessee. Outdoor Life reports:

In its unanimous decision, a panel of three judges determined that the state’s game wardens were taking these powers too far, and that the current statute allowing for warrantless searches on posted private property is unconstitutional as applied by TWRA. The judges even drew comparisons between TWRA’s past actions and the tyrannies colonial Americans were subjected to under British rule.

“The TWRA searches, which it claims are reasonable, bear a marked resemblance to the arbitrary discretionary entries of customs officials more than two centuries ago in colonial Boston,” the judges wrote in their decision. “The TWRA’s contention is a disturbing assertion of power on behalf of the government that stands contrary to the foundations of the search protections against arbitrary governmental intrusions in the American legal tradition, generally, and in Tennessee, specifically.”

The decision stems from a lawsuit filed in Benton County Circuit Court by two Tennessee landowners, Terry Rainwaters and Hunter Hollingsworth, who claimed that TWRA officers conducted multiple warrantless searches on their properties, ignored “No Trespassing” signs, and even installed trail cameras there. With legal representation from the Institute for Justice, Rainwaters and Hollingsworth argued that these actions violated their rights under Article 1, Section 7 of the state constitution.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has 60 days to appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and I’m sure they will. I hope this goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court so it can be struck down nationwide.

But then I noticed that people seemed to get annoyed when I would put out a post just for the sake of hitting my schedule. Writing a paid newsletter sounds like a fun gig, but the feedback is immediate and often unforgiving. Send out one post someone doesn’t like and they smash the unsubscribe button.

Then I dialed back to two posts per week, and that held for a while, but there were times when life overwhelmed me or I just didn’t know what to write.

So posting for the past year or so has been somewhat irregular. I try to put out at least one post per week, but that doesn’t always work out.

The truth is, I don’t think anyone knows the optimal frequency of Substack publishing. If you look at the most-successful Substack publications, some publish ever day while others post infrequently.

Recently, I’ve been working through some mental and spiritual issues, which I’ll write about when it’s appropriate, and the conclusion I drew was that much of my misery in life, as well as my own roadblocks, comes from pride.

As a stereotypical “gifted” Millennial, I was raised with two notions:

1. I was smarter, and thus much better than everyone else, and I had to constantly prove it or otherwise be a disappointing failure.

2. That the world had a bright future and things would only get better.

The end result of these attitudes:

• A tendency to give up too easily

• Being overly hard on myself

• Being overly harsh and uncharitable with others

• Constant disappointment

• Depression

• Ingratitude

If you looked in my Substack account, you’d see 30 or more incomplete drafts that I’ve abandoned because I didn’t think they were good enough. But I think that was my own pride talking. You probably would have been happy to have read those missives, and maybe even disappointed that you didn’t receive them.

The good thing about being 40 is that those childhood pressures are finally gone. No one is going to mistake me for a boy genius these days. By and large, no one cares at all what I do, outside of my inner circle, my coworkers, and you, the reader.

And I realize that if I ever want to find actual joy in life, I have to cast away my pride and humbly accept my life and its many blessings, such as people who want to read the stray thoughts I scribble down.

So I’ve decided to try putting out a post every weekday, in part inspired by my friend and supporter Julie Fredrickson, who has been publishing blog posts every day for years now. Some posts may be short or not very good, but again, this is an exercise in exorcising my pride.

I informally polled some folks on Twitter and in our Discord and there seems to be support for this. Let me know what you think.

That’s not going to happen. At least, not now. Both of my little ones have coughs and fevers. But many of our friends will be received Saturday, so I’m going to swallow my bitter disappointment and go cheer them on. In all humility, I must accept that the Lord has decided this is not the time. And maybe I need that correction.

But right now, I have little patience for nonsense, like these campus protests that have sprung up across the country. Presumably they’re protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestine, but it seems like whenever I see an interview with one of these protestors, they don’t know what they’re protesting. It seems like it’s mostly an excuse to skip class and party, which is what most of these things amount to.

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