This is the tactical redneck podcast, real gear, real life, and being ready for whatever shows up. We don't deal in hype and we don't pretend. We just dish out honest talk about skills, mindset, and taking care of your own. Welcome to the Tactical Redneck podcast. All right, guys. I am Ron Lyons and your host for at least the next little bit right here on the Tactical Redneck Podcast. And we try to do these things fairly often because there's so much stuff going on out there that affects and influences our world. And what is our world? Well, it's law enforcement, it's tactical, it's prepper, it's survivalist, it's all the above. And all of those things are so closely related. Like we're not just talking to police officers, we're not just talking to preppers. There's a little bit of crossover among all of us because by default, if you're a cop, you're a survivalist. If you're a cop, you're probably a prepper, uh, to different levels, to different extremes. Everybody's kind of got their place and they like to, you know, live a certain way. You get to define that, and at least for a little while longer. We do live in a free country, and a lot of the guys out there that are preppers, tactically minded people, survivalists, would make really good cops. So there's just an awful lot of crossover. But what I want to talk about today is the fact that everything has changed so much. And what I mean is like six years ago when we were doing this podcast, you thought about like bugging out or doing any sort of survival type stuff under a situation like a nuclear bomb or a dirty bomb or some sort of deal like that. Sometimes we talked about things like natural disasters, but for the most part, it was expected that it might be some sort of terrorist related event. And I can just tell you right now that everything has literally changed in about the last six years. And what I'm talking about is this. You don't have this big threat like you used to, of like nuclear bombs coming over and stuff. As much as you have the threat that people in your own city are gonna take to the streets and riot, now, they're literally gonna go out in the streets and chant and riot and potentially burn things to the ground, their own businesses and shops and neighborhoods, hoods. And I doubt that most of us that would listen to this podcast are the kind of people that are gonna go out and do that kind of destructive protesting. And I fully support the right of people to assemble and to protest and do stuff like that. That is very, very American. What's not American is the way that we're actually doing it. Now, what I'm, what I mean is exactly what I'm saying. They're burning these cities to the ground. They're literally assaulting peace officers. And the anti-ice protests that are going on right now are literally next level things. It's even gotten to the point now to where they actually have paid protestors. Like you can make a fair amount of money being a protestor now. And so the whole environment has changed. Now, before you were worried about things like, you know, somebody is gonna do some sort of a terrorist attack. We might have a dirty bomb, you know, Russia might send over a nuke, you know, that sort of thing. Now, that hasn't gone away, but you have a whole different element that's like literally right here and in your face. Now it's all over the news and it's in all of the major cities. So what I want to talk about is how now you need to be more prepared for things like that. And to an extent, what we're seeing a lot of, and I'm literally living it right now, is more like natural disasters, because those seem to be more prevalent. Now, you don't have to live on the east or west coast of the United States and have a hurricane situation or an earthquake. You don't have to have that. You can literally live in the middle of the United States, like in Texas, and you can have great weather where you're wearing shorts and flip flops, and then all of a sudden one day, guess what? We've got ice predicted for the next three or four days right now. Now by the time you hear this, maybe this ice storm that I'm on the front side of right now, maybe that'll be past, or maybe you're gonna listen to this real soon, like right after I release it. Maybe you know a little something about this. We don't know how catastrophic it's gonna be right now, but let me just tell you this, it's been something else going into the stores and seeing people snatching up things like heaters and propane and milk and bread, and for whatever reason in the world that I'll never understand toilet paper, if anybody out there has any idea why we all have to go and grab all the toilet paper when something happens, I'd love to have a great explanation for that. I was talking to somebody earlier today and I said, is it, is it that we've got like wipe our asses more when there's like a, a hurricane or a some like we is that automatically the tornado hits and now we all gotta go wipe our butts? Maybe, maybe, maybe it's a bad tornado. Maybe it causes that reaction in a lot of people, but it just doesn't make sense to me. We have ice coming, I get it. Go get yourself some emergency supplies. I'm a huge believer in that. Clearly, clearly it's a big part of my life. So go get that stuff, make that stuff happen. But I do not understand the need to go out there and literally by, you know, like 48 rolls of toilet paper. This ice event that we're facing is supposed to start essentially tomorrow night, Friday night. We're on a Thursday right now, and it should be mostly cleared out and starting to get better by next Monday. So we have Friday to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday, Sunday to Monday. We've got three days. We've got around 72 hours of potentially not amazing weather. Now how much butt wiping you gonna do in 72 hours? If you need 48 rolls of toilet paper, I don't really want to know , I think that might be a problem. I think that might be a big problem and we need to get, uh, get you hooked up with a doctor or something. But it's been eye opening to watch all of the shelves in places like Tractor Supply and at the local grocery store just get cleaned out. As a matter of fact, yesterday I was talking to some folks at Tractor Supply who actually worked there. Their, their in management, and they said that they had hit their sales target for the day by 9:00 AM and I believe they opened at eight. So within an hour in one day, they did what they would typically do in many, many hours of a day. And that's what happens whenever you don't have all of the supplies that you need in advance, and you've gotta rush out and buy all of that stuff all at once. Everyone's going out getting faucet covers, they're buying cases of water. They're buying all of, of this propane and propane heaters because if you lose power, then obviously, you know, you need some form of heat. And so this is kind of what's going on out there literally right now as we speak. Now I happen to have lots and lots of propane, propane heaters. I've got all of that stuff. The only thing that I didn't have a lot of right now, because we've kind of been going through it lately, is bottled water. And so today I thought, well, I'm gonna go grab some bottled water. Just, just in the event that the, the pumping station, the local pumping station, the power goes down, the grid fails locally, then I'm gonna have this bottled water. And guess what? Walmart had completely sold out of bottled water. And the local tractor supply that usually keeps about a pallet of bottled water all gone the grocery store, no water. And it was kind of a big deal locally when the local Lowe's made an announcement that they had like two pallets or three pallets of bottled water in, and there were people rushing to Lowe's in getting cases of water, loading it up in their cars, in the parking lot. And I went over there to get some, because that was the only place that I knew of where you could definitely go get it in the moment. And it was just crazy to watch these people coming out of the store with all of this water. I'm glad, I'm glad that everybody's taking care of their families. I'm super glad that everybody's looking out for their people. That's the name of the game. But I'm just shocked at how rapidly the shelves cleared out. That should say something to people like us that should speak to us. A lot of people say, well, oh, you're a prepper. You're a little, uh, paranoid. You're this, you're that. The titles get thrown around a lot. You know, you've heard them, you've probably been called them. And I agree that there is a line that you can cross that's a little too far in all things. You can be a workout and fitness person, you can love to eat healthy and you can do all that stuff. But there's a point where it's also probably too far. Like it's extreme, it's excessive. And if you're goal, if you're a body professional bodybuilder, and that's the way to get there and all that kinda stuff, then you know what? God bless you and knock yourself out. But if you're not, if you're like a casual person who's lived a normal life and then all of a sudden you start discovering how important it is to work out and to have good health and to eat right, and you go on this extreme transition into something completely different than what you've always been, that literally dominates your life. All of your thinking, all of your conversations, it's all you read about, you dream about, you talk about maybe that's too much. And that's what I'm talking about with the things in our circles. I love all of this stuff, don't get me wrong. I mean, I love it so much that I actually, you know, make a partial living out of it. I'm not getting rich or anything like that. But here I am spending my time on a microphone when normal people are out doing something like shooting pool or, you know, grabbing bottles of water at the local lows or whatever the heck they're doing tonight. And I'm sitting here talking about this. So clearly I care about this. Clearly I think this is awesome, but I do think you can go too far. So I'm not talking about that. I do believe there's a healthy level of preparedness that we all need to strive to attain so that we're not the people going out and clearing out the shelves and stuff. You may not always have a hundred percent of everything that you need in your supply system, in your kit, whatever. I get that, Hey, you know what? I had all this, you know, whatever, kinda like in my case, the water cases and cases of water, but at a certain point, believe it or not, even those bottles of water have expiration dates on them and you better start using them and then you replenish them. So that was one of the weaknesses in my, in my recent little adventure here with this ice storm coming. But seeing all the shelves open and empty and watching the people go and, you know, not fight. There's not been any fights or anything. It hasn't been that sort of thing. It's been very peaceful. But you let things get a little more scarce than that. You let some people start going hungry, you start taking away people's ability to have their basic needs met. And guess what? That's when you would start seeing people get way more aggressive. And so I think it is part of the responsibility for us. And, and I'm gonna say this, 98% of my audience is male, 2% female, and uh, and 0% unknown. And that should tell you everything you want to know about my audience right there. We don't, we don't have the unknowns in here, but we got 98% male. So I'm just gonna speak to all the guys out there. You have a duty and a responsibility as a man to take care of and protect those who are part of your family, part of your circle, your your immediate family, your community, et cetera. That's who we were wired to be. We're not the, we're not the, uh, the, the cooking and the, you know, mending and, and all that stuff. We're the, we're the hunters and the fighters we're the warriors. And so that doesn't mean that you can't have, you know, crossover. And, and it's sad that I have to say that right now, but I don't want the, I don't want the alpha female out there writing me a, a text or an email or whatever and saying, Hey, girls can do that too. I can probably do more pushups than you. That's not what I'm talking about. God bless you, sweetheart, for being out there and doing what you do. Welcome to the club. It's awesome. Certainly not trying to, you know, throw shade at anybody whatsoever. I'm just saying that by default, 98% of this audience is male. And as such, we know that we're wired a certain way. Doesn't mean you can't be a nurturer, doesn't mean you can't, you know, do things like that. It just means that your primary mission in life is probably related to guarding, protecting, sheltering, defending, doing things like that. Love it, hate it. It's just the way I see it. So when all of this stuff is going on right now with this, and I'm gonna call this a natural disaster, even though it's really not a disaster yet, There's been a loss of life. There's been no infrastructure damage, there's not been anything like that. We're just prepping as a community or as a, a state of Texas all the way up through the northeast actually. So a big swath through the middle of the United States is literally in the exact same boat. And where I'm at, I'm right here in North Texas. This doesn't happen that often. And so seeing this happen should tell you that this is actually possible. Another ice storm could come. As a matter of fact, they're already, you know, saying that there's gonna be one next weekend as early as, you know, less than a week away, this may happen again. There could be other things that happen as well there. It's like nature has kind of gotten spicy lately. Nature has kinda changed. She's not nearly as predictable and peaceful as she used to be. And no, I'm not a climate change person. I do not tend to believe that we're damaging the environment, especially not in the United States. Are there countries like India and China and places like that, that do not adhere to the same standards we do? Absolutely. Are they doing damage? Quite possibly. Quite possibly. So I'm not saying that, oh, all of this is climate change and we need to, you know, start shutting down factories and laying people off. Definitely not my belief. I do not believe that at all. I believe we need to be responsible stewards of everything that God's blessed us with, including this planet, of course. And I bet you feel the exact same way, but again, not being extreme, not going super super far so that we end up shutting down, you know, the livelihood of families taking away jobs and shutting down entire industries because, you know, there's some bird in this particular part of the country that is gonna have its habitat disturbed. I love the birds, but I love people more, and I love the fact that people can provide for their families more. So that's kind of where I stand on that. So just be clear when I say this, I'm not saying that, you know, everything in the world nature wise is changing because we keep doing damage to Mother Earth. That's not what I'm saying. It just seems like lately we get a whole lot more natural disasters and we have a whole lot more of that kinda stuff going on than maybe we've had in a long time. Or maybe I'm just getting old and paying more attention. I don't know what it is, but it happens. And so there's, there's a reason right there, to be prepared to have your survival stuff, your survival state of mind, the supplies, the knowledge, all of those things you need, all of those things. And oh, by the way, we've turned into a country that literally seems to hate each other. Now, if you're on the left or if you're on the right, it, it really is. That's kind of what it is. That's the two camps. So we can sit here and play around and say, well, it's, it's more this or it's more that I'm not gonna be all politically correct. That's not who I am. It's left and it's right. Left doesn't like the right, the right doesn't like the left, the left thinks that the right's, a bunch of Nazis and, uh, you know, all the other things, bigots and phobes of any sort of word you can put in the, in the front of the word phobe. They think that, you know, it's that sort of thing. And then all of the people on the right think that the people on the left are just a bunch of wacky, you know, tatted up, blue-haired, nose pierced, pronoun confused, gender confused idiots who, you know, see things very, very differently. And, and that's, that's fairly accurate on both sides. It's fairly accurate. You've got more traditional conservative, right-leaning people on one side, and you've got very progressive people on the other. And now you have social media right in the middle, so you don't have to go get in someone's face anymore physically. You can literally do it all online. That happens, that makes more people comfortable with that. And then it turns into a thing where this is just how we are now. We tear each other apart on social media. We say a lot of things and we behave in certain ways that we would never do to a person's face, at least in many, many cases. That's true. Now people are getting a little more brave. You see that going on? I did, I did a lot of years in law enforcement and I did a lot of years on the street doing patrol and doing drug interdiction and all that kind of stuff. And there was respect for the most part. On occasion you would run into somebody that was disrespectful. Now it's almost like a badge of honor to, you know, treat a police officer with major disrespect. And let me tell you, one of the problems with that right now is the fact that law enforcement can't do anything about it. We actually made, you know what, some people are gonna call progress. I'm gonna say not progress. Whenever we started putting cameras and body mics and you know, all of these things on these officers so that you literally have them hobbled and restrained so much now that they can't actually do their job. Now, I agree that it helps when you do have one of those bad apple cops out there, it helps to expose the kind of behavior that that cop's engaging in maybe the unlawful things that that officer is doing. I fully agree with that, but I love the fact that the majority of police officers are not like that. They don't need that oversight. They don't need big brother in their car watching their every traffic stop, et cetera. Because here's the thing, in law enforcement, especially back in the day, and if you're an older person like I am, I'm late fifties, then you know that there used to be a thing called street justice. And street justice means that you kind of had a fearful respect for law enforcement. You really did not want them to get their hands on you. And they wouldn't, they wouldn't do things like they wouldn't abuse you, they wouldn't like snatch you off the side of the street and beat your. But just the sheer fact that they might, the fact that when that cop looked you in the eyes and said, boy, if you do that one more time, if I catch you shoplifting again, we're gonna have trouble. Man, I don't, I don't need you to define trouble for me. I see it all over your face, sir. And guess what I'm not gonna do? I'm not gonna shoplift again. I'm not going to do anything wrong because I don't want you coming down on me. And you know what? They can't do that anymore. If a cop were to talk to a citizen like that and do what I'm calling street justice, like real police work, right there, like truly be the authoritarian and truly try and help shape someone's life into a better direction, they would literally be brought up on charges themselves. Because you can't talk to people like that. You can't threaten them with physical violence when you're a peace officer. And so it's a hard thing to talk about with this, because unless you've actually been there, been in it and done it, this sounds really, really insane that you know, okay, you're a cop and you're literally sitting here saying, a cameras aren't always the best thing in the world to have with all these officers out there. And b, you're telling me that cops need to be able to threaten people. Yes, sort of, yes. Sort of back in the days when you could appeal to peace officers to get into the job because they wanted to do something wonderful for the world. They loved their communities, they loved all that stuff. They were raised with the right values, and yeah, they knew how to be a little tough. A lot of former military guys, et cetera. And man, did they make a difference? There's so many cops in my background that helped shape exactly who I am, and they're not out there now like that. The kids today, the, the, you know, people out on the streets don't get the benefit of that anymore. And it's unfortunate. So here's how this all ties together. You have the public now who's willing to challenge the police officers. They're willing to go out there and riot, protest and burn things, loot break things, flip cars over, and fight back. The, the cops show up. People don't calm down or scatter like they used to. They start throwing bricks and bottles and worse at the law enforcement that's there. So you have situations now between mother nature getting real, real, real pissy in these last few years and the way that the world has changed now, creating these new circumstances that we need to be ready for now. So I'm not expecting old Putin to send a missile over here as much as I'm expecting the idiots in the closest downtown to where I live, to take to the streets and start acting foolish or for there to be some other silly thing come along like an ice storm that makes people go out and empty all the shelves in the store. So bearing those things in mind, yes, I am validating for you right now that it is okay to have the mindset of a survivalist or of a prepper. And the reasons may have changed just a little bit, although those old reasons aren't gone. We still have China, we still have Russia, we still have those threats, terrorist attacks, absolutely possible. But guess what? We've added a new element now. Now, your very own neighbors may take to the streets and create disruption and chaos. You may be locked down in your home or at work. You may need to survive for a while until you can get home, or you may need to escape your home. If you live in an urban area, like a downtown area, and lots and lots of people down the streets, you better know how to defend yourself. You better know how to move through crowds. You better know how to get resources and all of that stuff because it's madness and chaos out there sometimes. Or if you live in an area where mother nature decides she's just gonna stick her foot up your backside, then guess what? You need to be ready for that too, because that is a distinct possibility. Now, I'm literally about to step into about three or four days of subfreezing temperatures with lots and lots of freezing rain and lots and lots of sleet and lots and lots of snow and ice and all of that stuff. And the chance that we're gonna lose, we're gonna have local grid down stuff going on. Power lines. When you have quarter to half inch of ice, you start losing power lines, tree limbs fall and take out power lines. Power lines themselves fail because of the weight, the sheer weight on them. You get a good north wind going and you've got a half inch accumulation of ice, guess what? You may be, uh, running off of whatever supplies you have. And they're gonna be plenty of people who are not prepared, who do not have those things. They don't have this mindset. They, they have this really blind faith in the system that the grid's gonna stay up, that there's never gonna be any civil unrest or anything like that close to them, and they're gonna be caught in situations that are not gonna be amazing and not gonna be awesome. So there you go. You have your validation, collect your resources, get your mindset right, be prepared for these two new elements that have popped onto the scene a little more recently. And we've had riots going way, way back, go to go to the 1960s. I mean, we've had them, we've had natural disasters since, you know, the, the dawn of time. I'm just saying that things are now, they are reaching a pinnacle now, and they're much, much more local to all of us, no matter where you live in this country. So get your stuff together, get your mindset right. Don't go extreme. I'm not, I'm not saying that at all. Don't go extreme. Keep a healthy level of preparedness, a healthy sense to survive. Get that tactical mindset and let's be ready for whatever comes our way. All right guys, that's gonna wrap it up for today. I'm right up against that 30 minute clock right now, and I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna say, Hey, please go to tactical redneck.com. Tactical redneck.com. That's it. I'm tack red, that's my nickname, tactical redneck.com. And if you wanna support us, there's like $25 t-shirts. There's like some $20 ball caps and stuff like that. All of those things help us do exactly this. Put together these shows, put together lots of videos. We're, we're on YouTube and we're growing. We were really happy just like a day ago. We surpassed a thousand subscribers, which is a great comeback for us. If you know our story, you know exactly what I'm talking about. How we, you know, got de platformed and we're on our comeback mission right now, and already today we're like 400 more than we were just like two days ago. 400 more subscribers, 400 more people putting their trust in what we have to say, what we are sharing. And that's amazing. This is an incredible community. We have so, so, so many things available. There's a whole ecosphere here. There's the website. We have a Facebook group where you can literally get in there and chat and talk. We have a Facebook page where we post things, of course we have the podcast, we've got the YouTube stuff like, you know, obviously. And then we even have something on the school platform that is like our tactical redneck academy, where for $9 a month you can join that and get tons and tons of insight and education opportunities to learn skills and things like that. Now all of it is just in its infancy right now, but you can hop into the middle of this ecosphere and be part of the og, the people who helped build it into what it will one day be. So guys, I welcome you to that and I welcome you to our next episode. It's coming soon. We got a lot to talk about, guys. Be ready for whatever comes. But until then, stay safe and God bless.
