To Hoodat, asking "Where the hell have you been for the past 14 months?"
Spending a lot of time online ... mainly on militia or quasi-militia websites, then involved with a quasi-militia organization that lasted about a year and then collapsed, because its leader had taken on too much.
Trying to argue that, yes, we need to prepare for possible terrible, dramatic developments in our country; that Mao was right when he noted that poltical power (all power really) comes from the barrel of a gun; that we are not yet at the point where peaceful and legal options have been exhausted, not by a long shot; and that we have to be very careful about how we use language -- things said, in half-anger, half-jest may, when read out to an unsmiling jury, get us into big trouble. And that there are a fair number of grifters out there taking advantage of the patriot 'market' -- starting junk news websites and buying legitimate ones, with the sole aim of making money.
Anyway, for my troubles I got banned from a couple of militia sites, tried to help build a quasi-militia group which then crashed (as mentioned).
So now I'm back on various patriotic forums, preaching the same message: 'Prep', for sure, but also organize your community. Don't say stupid things. Choose cool-headed people for your local group leaders, preferably pessimistic and cynical old combat veterans, advised by someone with good legal knowledge. Above all, no 'leaders' who need to demonstrate their manhood. (Which is why having women in the leadership is a good idea. Although, of course, they are the deadlier of the two sexes and may need to be restrained from being too cruel in real warfare. See Kipling's
The Female of the Species. [
https://www.poetry.com/poem/33429/the-female-of-the-species ])
Don't go down the 'ethnic nationalist' road -- stay with 'civic nationalism', and -- in the spirit of the Salvation Army ('Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?'), work to be ... inclusive. If your group, after a year, is still all white Anglo males, you're doing something wrong.
(How I hate what the Left has done to our language. [Old Russian joke: a few years after the Bolshevik seizure of power, two elderly peasants from a very isolated region visit Moscow ...the first time they have been out of their village. They go to the zoo. They stop in front of the cage with the giraffes, and stare in wonder at these animals, whose existence they had never known about. Finally one shakes his head sadly, and says, "Just look, Pavel ... what the Bolsheviks have done to our horses!"] The Left has done that to our language. I can't see the phrase 'diversity and inclusion' now without wanting to vomit.)
Be prepared to wage 'sub-lethal warfare' if the riots start up again. That is, defend our marches and rallies and communities, but keep firearms hidden away as a last resort, to be used only if the enemy fires first, and law enforcement is overwhelmed or -- under Democrat control -- withdrawn. And every group must have one member who knows upside down and backwards the law, including the actual enforcement of it in practice, governing 'deadly force. Many patriots are under serious illusions about things like "citizens' arrests". Three good men in Georgia are going to prison for a long time because they didn't understand this.
Before then, be equipped with helmets, shields, soft body armor, visors against bear spray, signs which can double as shields, and come to where the action is in well-organized groups, which have trained beforehand for these situations ... and know how to absorb bear spray and thrown objects, and how to reply in kind. With a chain of command, discipline, and auxiliary support teams: legal, PR, comms, medical, transport, logistics and intel.
The French know how to do this: their unions and mass political parties have groups called the
service d'ordre, which provide security at their marches and rallies.
This means there are one or more people sitting at telephones somewhere else, with your people having their phone numbers to report injuries or arrests. All your people also have the phone number of a lawyer on retainer, and know what to do if they are arrested, or injured.
Have an intel team posted at good observation spots. Maybe even mixing with the enemy, although this is tricky.
Lots more to say here about how to attend a demonstration and act in a professional way, so that you avoid getting ambushed, getting your cars sabotaged or even photographed, so that you can relieve yourself during a long demonstration, and also have something to eat. Arrival and exit are co ordinated.
Knowing the weather forecast so that you aren't caught out if it rains. So that late arrivals can find your command team (a tall pole with an American flag and distinct top ornament so that it can be seen from a long way away). Maps with non-standard grid-coordinates so that your intel people can report events at locations, without eavesdroppers knowing where they're talking about. Telephones, but also Baofengs so that you're not dependent on the phone network.
Plans B and C ... 'if this happens, we will do that'. Regroupment points if people get scattered due to a riot, a bomb, whatever.
But 'first, do no harm'. And the 'harm' will come if you get an infiltrator who will try to sucker you into conspiring to commit a felony, or appearing to. Or a hothead who will do that work for free.
Anyway, that's me and what I've been doing.
We live in interesting times. How I wish we didn't.