Tag: history

Nuclear War Won’t Kill You First—People Will

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Emergency Preparedness, Nuclear SurvivalLeave a comment

The beginning of a nuclear war will not look like the movies. There won’t be heroic music, clear villains, or a neat countdown clock. What you’ll get instead is confusion, panic, misinformation, and millions of scared, selfish people who suddenly realize the system they trusted is gone. The blast is terrifying, sure. The radiation is deadly. But people? People will be the real danger from minute one.

I’ve spent years preparing for disasters because I don’t trust society to hold itself together when things get ugly. And nuclear war is the ugliest scenario humanity has ever engineered. When it starts, the rules you think exist—laws, politeness, morality—will evaporate faster than common sense in a crowded city. If you want to survive the opening phase, you need to stop thinking like a citizen and start thinking like a survivor.

The First Hours: Panic Is Contagious

When the first alerts hit—whether it’s sirens, phone warnings, or social media exploding—you’ll see mass panic almost immediately. People will rush to gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, and highways. Not because it’s logical, but because panic spreads faster than radiation.

Your biggest mistake would be joining the herd. Crowds are dangerous in normal times. In a nuclear crisis, they’re lethal. People will fight over fuel, trample each other for food, and pull weapons they barely know how to use. All it takes is one loud noise or rumor to turn a crowd into a riot.

If you are not already in a safe location when the news breaks, your priority is simple: get away from people, not toward supplies. The supplies will still be there later—assuming anyone survives to use them. Crowds, on the other hand, will get violent fast.

Shelter Is About Distance From People, Not Comfort

Everyone talks about bunkers, basements, and fallout shelters. What they don’t talk about is who else wants to use them. Public shelters will be chaos. Shared shelters will become power struggles. The more people involved, the faster cooperation turns into conflict.

Your shelter doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be discreet. A quiet, low-profile location away from main roads and population centers is worth more than the most well-stocked shelter surrounded by desperate neighbors. The less visible you are, the less likely someone will decide you have something worth taking.

Noise discipline matters. Light discipline matters. Smoke, generators, and loud conversations will advertise your location to people who are already on edge. In the early days of nuclear war, attention is a liability.

Trust No One—Especially at the Beginning

This is the part that makes people uncomfortable, but comfort died the moment the missiles launched. At the beginning of a nuclear war, trust is a luxury you cannot afford.

People you’ve known for years may turn on you if they think you have food, water, or shelter. Strangers will lie without hesitation. Some will cry, beg, or tell convincing stories because desperation strips away shame.

That doesn’t mean you become a monster. It means you become cautious. Help can wait. Survival cannot. If you give away your supplies or expose your shelter in the first wave of chaos, you’re signing your own death warrant.

Later—much later—small, trusted groups may form. But in the opening phase, when fear is at its peak and information is nonexistent, isolation is often safer than cooperation.

Information Will Be Weaponized

During the early stages of nuclear conflict, information will be wrong, delayed, or deliberately misleading. Governments will downplay damage. Social media will amplify rumors. People will repeat anything that gives them hope or justifies their panic.

Following bad information can get you killed. Evacuation orders may send you straight into fallout zones. “Safe routes” may be clogged with abandoned vehicles and armed opportunists.

Your best strategy is to assume that official information is incomplete and public chatter is useless. Make decisions based on preparation and observation, not headlines. If you prepared in advance, now is the time to follow your plan—not improvise based on someone else’s fear.

Resources Turn People Into Predators

Food, water, medical supplies, and shelter will instantly become currency. And where currency exists, so do predators. Some people will organize quickly—not to help, but to take.

Looting will start almost immediately. At first it will target stores. Then it will move to homes. Anyone who looks prepared becomes a target. If you look calm, organized, or well-supplied, someone will notice.

This is why blending in matters early on. Do not advertise preparedness. Do not show off gear. Do not talk about what you have. Scarcity turns envy into violence.

Movement Is Risky—Staying Put Is Usually Safer

In the early phase of nuclear war, movement exposes you to people, fallout, and bad decisions. Every mile traveled increases the chance of confrontation. Roadblocks—official or otherwise—will appear. Some will be manned by authorities. Others will be manned by people with guns and no rules.

If you have shelter and supplies, staying put is often the best option. Let the initial wave of chaos burn itself out. People will exhaust themselves panicking, fighting, and fleeing. Those who survive will slow down eventually.

Moving later, when desperation has thinned the population and patterns have emerged, is safer than moving immediately into the storm.

Self-Defense Is About Deterrence, Not Heroics

If you think the beginning of nuclear war is the time to play hero, you won’t last long. Self-defense is not about winning fights—it’s about avoiding them.

A visible ability to defend yourself can deter some threats, but it can also attract others. The goal is to look uninteresting, not intimidating. You want to be the house people pass by, not the one they think is worth the risk.

If confrontation is unavoidable, end it quickly and decisively. Hesitation invites escalation. But understand this: every conflict increases your visibility and your risk. Violence is sometimes necessary, but it always has consequences.

Psychological Survival Matters

Anger will keep you alert, but despair will get you killed. The beginning of nuclear war will crush illusions—about safety, about society, about human goodness. That realization hits people hard.

You need to accept the reality quickly: the world you knew is gone, and no one is coming to save you. Once you accept that, you can focus on what actually matters—staying alive, staying hidden, and staying disciplined.

Routines help. Silence helps. Purpose helps. Panic is the enemy.

The Hard Truth No One Likes to Admit

Most people are not prepared. Most people are not mentally equipped for collapse. When nuclear war begins, those people will do irrational, dangerous things. Not because they’re evil, but because they’re scared.

Your job is not to fix society. Your job is to survive it.

The beginning of nuclear war is not about rebuilding or community or hope. That comes later, if it comes at all. The beginning is about enduring the worst behavior humanity has to offer while the fallout settles—both literal and psychological.

If you can stay out of sight, out of crowds, and out of other people’s plans, your odds improve dramatically. The bombs may fall without warning, but human behavior is predictable. Panic. Greed. Violence.

Prepare for that, and you stand a chance.

Following Railroad Tracks After SHTF Leads Straight to Your Final Destination

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn SHTF, Sutvival NavigationLeave a comment

If you think railroad tracks are your secret navigation hack when everything collapses, then congratulations—you’re already halfway to being a ghost wandering through the ruins of a world that never cared about you in the first place. I know the fantasy. Movies, old adventure stories, nostalgic childhood daydreams—they all painted railroad tracks as some kind of dependable path through chaos. A beautiful, overgrown trail leading to safety, civilization, or at the very least some forgotten town where you might scavenge a can of beans.

But let me drag you back down into reality, the same reality we preppers stare into every day while everyone else scrolls on their phones pretending the world isn’t circling the drain. Because post-SHTF, when society has finally finished its swan dive off a cliff, railroad tracks won’t be romantic, helpful, or safe.

They’ll be a map, alright—a map straight to your final destination.

And you won’t like what’s waiting at the end.

The Railroad Myth Is the First Thing That Will Get You Killed

In normal times, railroad tracks feel harmless. They’re predictable, linear, and easy to follow. So people assume that in a crisis, they’ll be even more useful—leading survivors to towns, bridges, depots, or some imagined sanctuary.

But what people forget is this:
If it’s easy for you to follow, it’s easy for everyone else to follow.

And in a world where desperation replaces morality, you don’t want to be funneled into the same predictable routes as everyone with an empty stomach and a loaded weapon. You think you’re “navigating,” but you’re actually putting yourself on the most obvious human migration corridor that will exist after the collapse.

People will cling to anything familiar, and railroad tracks are a beacon for the unprepared masses. You won’t be alone out there. You’ll be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with every hungry, desperate, panicked soul who believed the same stupid myth you did.

You won’t find safety.
You’ll find crowds, conflict, ambushes, and disease.
You’ll find people who want what you have.
And they’ll take it—because tracks don’t offer any place to hide.

Railroads Will Become Predators’ Highways

This is the part most people refuse to think about. In a post-SHTF world, predictable travel routes become hunting grounds.

Predators—human predators—are always looking for the easiest place to find prey. And what’s easier than a narrow, linear path where all travelers are forced to move single-file with nowhere to escape?

Following railroad tracks makes you the deer walking into the wolf’s jaws. No cover. No elevation. No escape routes. Just you, exposed, visible against open gravel or steel.

And don’t kid yourself—if you can see a half mile down the tracks, so can someone else. Someone who might be hungrier, colder, and far less patient than you.

When the world falls apart, people get territorial, tribal, and vicious. Some groups will set up along these tracks intentionally, knowing they can pick off stragglers like fruit hanging too low on the tree.

But hey, sure—keep walking the magical steel path from fairy tales. See how that works out.

Railroad Infrastructure Becomes a Beacon for the Worst Human Behavior

Railroad depots, maintenance sheds, abandoned stations, bridges, and tunnels all become choke points. They look like shelter and supply hubs, which means they’ll attract exactly the kind of people you don’t want to meet.

Think about it:

  • Bridges funnel you into a single narrow crossing
  • Tunnels turn into traps where sound echoes but movement is limited
  • Depots become contested territory
  • Rail yards become sprawling zones where ambushes are easy and escape routes are confusing
  • Abandoned stations become squatter camps full of people who lost more than just their homes

It doesn’t matter how tough you think you are. Every single one of these spots becomes a risk multiplier.

Railroads don’t guide you to safety—they guide you directly into conflict zones.

“But Tracks Lead to Towns!” Yeah—Destroyed, Picked-Clean Towns

Let’s knock down the next fantasy. The idea that railroad tracks will lead you to towns and therefore resources.

Here’s the truth:

If a town is connected by a railroad, it will be one of the first places scavenged, looted, or burned.
Rail access means easy movement of goods pre-collapse—and easy movement of desperate survivors post-collapse. That means:

  • Stores emptied
  • Homes stripped
  • Hospitals overrun
  • Local police overwhelmed or gone
  • Rioters and gangs taking over
  • Fires left uncontained
  • Disease spreading

Railroad towns are not charming havens. They are graveyards filled with reminders of how fast civilization fell apart.

But hey, if you want to be the thousandth person to show up looking for supplies, be my guest.

Walking Tracks Drains Your Energy and Sanity

Everyone imagines railroad tracks as level and easy to walk. Try it in real life sometime. Walk five miles on uneven gravel with heavy gear, then come back and tell me how “easy” it is.

Now imagine doing it after the collapse, when:

  • You’re running on limited calories
  • You’re dehydrated
  • You’re stressed
  • You’re hyper-alert
  • You’re carrying your life on your back

Railroad ballast tears up your feet and ankles. It slows you down. It exhausts you faster than dirt trails or roads. Energy is survival, and tracks drain it with every step you take.

But the fantasy hikers will still tell you it’s a shortcut to safety.

Railroads Offer Zero Concealment, Zero Cover

And this one is simple:

You have nowhere to hide.

Dense woods? Nope.
Rocks? Nope.
Structures you can duck behind? Not really.

Railroad tracks are open wounds cutting across the landscape. You are visible from a distance. You are predictable. You are exposed.

If you want to survive a post-SHTF landscape, staying hidden is life. Walking along railroad tracks is a declaration of your location to every living thing within a mile radius.

In a World Without Rules, Tracks Are a Liability, Not a Lifeline

Movies have lied to you. Nostalgia has lied to you. Childhood memories have lied to you.

In the real collapsed world—the one preppers think about while the rest of society sleeps—railroad tracks are not a rescue line.

They are:

  • Funnels for refugees
  • Highways for predators
  • Snares for the optimistic
  • Dead ends for the naive
  • Markers of desperate travel
  • Predictable, dangerous migration corridors

In other words:
They’re a map straight to your final destination—just not the one you hoped for.

If you take nothing else from this angry rant at humanity’s collapsing sense of reality, take this:

When the world finally burns, the safest path is the one no one else is dumb enough to walk.

And railroad tracks?
Everyone will walk them.

Which means you shouldn’t.

Not if you want to stay alive long enough to see whether the world manages to claw its way back from the ashes.

How To Stay Safe and Survive During a Riot in Illinois (Mainly Chicago)

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Chicago Riots, Illinois, Illinois SurvivalistsLeave a comment

Let’s be clear — if you’re waiting until a riot breaks out in Illinois to figure out how to stay alive, you’re already behind. I’ve spent over a decade training in survival tactics, martial arts, tactical weapons, and real-world defense scenarios. Riots are chaotic, fast-moving, and unforgiving. Whether it’s Chicago, Springfield, or a rural town seeing unexpected unrest, your preparation and mindset will determine if you make it out in one piece. This guide is for those who take survival seriously.

Understand the Environment: Illinois in Crisis

Illinois has diverse terrain — from crowded urban centers to isolated farmland. Riots can erupt over political unrest, police action, economic crashes, or even sports events gone sideways. In cities like Chicago, the density means escape routes are limited. In more rural areas, law enforcement can be slow to respond. No matter where you are, the principles of riot survival remain the same: stay informed, stay mobile, stay armed (legally and effectively), and stay smart.

8 Critical Self-Defense Skills You Need to Master

You don’t need to be a black belt to survive, but you damn well need to know how to protect yourself when things go sideways. Here are the eight skills every survival-minded person should have locked down:

1. Situational Awareness

This isn’t just “keeping your head on a swivel.” It’s about reading a crowd, spotting tension, locating exits, and identifying threats before they become problems. Train your eyes and ears to work together.

2. Escape and Evasion Tactics

If a riot breaks out, your first goal should always be to get out of the area. Learn how to move through crowds, blend in, use alleys, avoid bottlenecks, and even climb fences or navigate rooftops if necessary.

3. Verbal De-escalation

Sometimes, you don’t need to fight. You need to calm someone down or talk your way out of a bad spot. Practice using a calm, assertive voice and body language that shows you’re not prey, but also not a threat.

4. Krav Maga Basics

Krav Maga was built for real-world violence. Learn basic strikes (palm heel, elbow, knee), how to disarm an attacker, and how to neutralize threats quickly.

5. Improvised Weapon Use

In a riot, your fancy self-defense weapon might be confiscated. A belt buckle, pen, tactical flashlight, or even your keys can be used to protect yourself. Practice turning everyday objects into tools of survival.

6. Knife Defense and Offense

Know how to use and defend against a blade. Learn grip techniques, slashing and stabbing targets, and how to block or deflect a knife attack. Blades are common in street fights — train accordingly.

7. Ground Fighting

You might get taken to the ground. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) or basic wrestling moves can save your life when you’re pinned or overwhelmed. Learn to break guard, choke escapes, and how to use leverage.

8. Firearm Handling Under Stress (Legally)

If you’re in Illinois and legally carry, you must train with your firearm under simulated stress. Shooting paper at the range is not the same as drawing your weapon while under attack. Learn trigger discipline, aiming under pressure, and when to shoot — or when not to.

3 DIY Survival Weapons You Can Build at Home

These weapons are for last-resort defense. They’re legal to possess in most places if built properly and used only in self-defense. But check Illinois laws before creating or carrying any of these.

1. PVC Pipe Baton

  • Materials: 1.5″ PVC pipe, steel rods or sand, duct tape
  • How to Build: Fill the PVC with steel rods or sand for weight, cap both ends, and wrap in duct tape for grip. It’s light, concealable, and hits hard — perfect for keeping attackers at bay.

2. Tactical Sling Weapon

  • Materials: Paracord, nuts or ball bearings, sturdy pouch
  • How to Build: Create a basic sling with a paracord pouch that holds heavy ball bearings. With practice, this becomes a silent, ranged weapon. Aim for knees, elbows, or the face to incapacitate.

3. Nail and Board Trap (Home Defense)

  • Materials: Wooden board, 3” nails, hammer
  • How to Build: Drive nails through the board, spacing them out about 1” apart. Hide it under a welcome mat or near entry points to slow down intruders. Simple deterrent when you’re stuck in place.

Urban Survival Tactics: Illinois-Specific Tips

Here’s where things get tactical. Riots aren’t just about physical fights — it’s psychological, logistical, and geographical.

1. Know Your Urban Escape Routes

In downtown Chicago, avoid major arteries during civil unrest. Stick to side streets, alleyways, and pedestrian bridges. Learn which parking garages connect via underground tunnels. In Springfield or Peoria, use railways or canal paths as quick exits.

2. Blend In or Go Ghost

Wearing tactical gear may make you a target. Dress like the locals, move with the crowd, and don’t draw attention. If needed, stash a change of clothes in a bug-out bag. Ditch bright colors, logos, or military patterns.

3. Build a Bug-Out Bag for Riot Scenarios

Include:

  • Gas mask or N95 respirator (tear gas/pepper spray)
  • Compact crowbar or Halligan tool (for barriers)
  • Energy bars, water, lighter, gloves, and first aid
  • Burner phone (no tracking)
  • Compact trauma kit: tourniquet, gauze, hemostatic agent

When to Stand Your Ground — And When to Run

Let’s not play Hollywood hero. If you can leave, do it. If you’re trapped and cornered, you defend your life with everything you’ve got. Remember this rule: Don’t die on the sidewalk over someone else’s cause. Live to fight another day, preferably somewhere safe.

If you’re protecting your family or property and cannot flee:

  • Fortify entrances with furniture, cords, and makeshift barriers
  • Cut power and silence electronics to avoid detection
  • Arm yourself with legally allowed weapons and know how to use them effectively
  • Keep lights off, stay silent, and use shadows to your advantage

Psychological Warfare: Controlling Your Fear

Fear is natural — but panic is fatal. Train your body through stress drills. Run with a weighted bag. Do pushups after holding your breath. Learn to control adrenaline. If your heart’s pounding and hands are shaking, your survival chances drop fast.

Practice staying calm by rehearsing “what if” scenarios. The more your brain runs simulations, the less it freaks out under pressure. Mindset isn’t fluff — it’s your most powerful weapon.

Final Thoughts from a Prepared Mind

Surviving a riot in Illinois isn’t about being paranoid — it’s about being prepared. You don’t get a second chance when chaos comes to your door. Know the law, train your body, sharpen your mind, and keep your gear ready.

You can’t stop a riot. But you can survive one. And for those of us who live by the code of self-reliance, that’s what matters most.

12,000 nuclear warheads : Nuclear Warheads by Nation

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Nuclear War, Survival Prepper, survival-skillsLeave a comment

Global Arsenal: Nuclear Warheads by Nation

By a Survival Prepper Who Hates War

You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the writing on the wall. Just look around. The world is bristling with nuclear weapons—hundreds here, thousands there—all prepped to unleash hell in an instant. I’m not some warmonger or doomsday cultist. I’m a survivalist. And I prepare because history tells us time and time again: when you trust governments with this kind of firepower, you’re rolling the dice with human existence.

Today, I’m breaking down the global nuclear arsenal. Not because I admire it. Hell no. But because knowledge is power—and knowing who holds these weapons, and in what quantities, tells you where the flashpoints are. And where not to be when it all goes sideways.

1. Russia – Approx. 5,889 warheads

Let’s start with the bear in the east. Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on Earth. Most of these are part of their strategic arsenal—intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and long-range bombers. Thousands are retired and awaiting dismantlement, but don’t be fooled: around 1,550 are deployed and ready to fly at a moment’s notice.

Russia’s doctrine has shifted toward tactical nukes too—lower-yield weapons designed for use on the battlefield. In a conflict, that makes escalation a lot more likely. You toss a so-called “small” nuke into the mix, and it’s only a matter of time before someone responds with a bigger one.

2. United States – Approx. 5,244 warheads

Right behind Russia is the U.S., with thousands of nuclear warheads scattered across land-based silos, submarines, and air bases around the world. We’ve had these things since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and instead of phasing them out, we’ve modernized them. New delivery systems, faster response times, more precise targeting.

I don’t say this with pride. I say it with fear. Our own government talks about deterrence like it’s some magic shield. But deterrence is just another word for mutually assured destruction—MAD, they call it. Fitting, isn’t it?

3. China – Approx. 500 warheads (and growing)

China used to be a distant third, but they’re catching up fast. The Chinese Communist Party is building new missile silos in the desert, expanding their submarine fleet, and investing in hypersonic weapons. Analysts think they could have 1,500 warheads by 2035.

They claim a “no first use” policy, but policies change. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that doctrines mean squat once the missiles start flying.

4. France – Approx. 290 warheads

France likes to remind the world that it’s independent—and its nuclear deterrent is part of that mindset. Their warheads are primarily deployed on submarines, with a few air-launched options. Small arsenal, relatively speaking, but still enough to end millions of lives.

You don’t need thousands of nukes to destroy civilization. A few hundred well-placed warheads can collapse global infrastructure in a matter of hours. EMPs, radiation, firestorms—choose your poison.

5. United Kingdom – Approx. 225 warheads

The UK relies heavily on its Trident submarine fleet. Like France, their arsenal is smaller, but just as deadly. They’ve recently announced plans to raise the cap on warheads—a reversal of disarmament trends. That tells you where we’re headed. Not toward peace, but rearmament. All it takes is one spark—one miscalculation—and boom. Goodbye, London. Goodbye, humanity.

6. Pakistan – Approx. 170 warheads

This is where things get especially dicey. Pakistan’s nuclear posture is India-focused, but the region is volatile. Border clashes, terrorism, political instability—you name it. And let’s not forget that Pakistan is a country where the military holds major sway, and where extremist elements have occasionally infiltrated institutions.

They’ve developed tactical nuclear weapons too—designed to be used in battlefield scenarios. That scares the hell out of me. Tactical nukes lower the threshold for use. Once the line is crossed, there’s no going back.

7. India – Approx. 164 warheads

India and Pakistan are locked in a nuclear arms race that gets less press than it should. India has a no-first-use policy, but again, policies mean little in the fog of war. They’ve got missiles that can reach deep into China and Pakistan, and their triad—land, sea, and air-based delivery—is developing fast.

We’re talking about two countries with historical animosities, border disputes, and major populations packed into small geographic areas. If a nuclear exchange broke out here, the global fallout—literal and political—would be catastrophic.

8. Israel – Estimated 90 warheads (undeclared)

Israel doesn’t officially admit to having nukes, but everyone knows they do. Their policy of “nuclear opacity” is strategic—keeping enemies guessing. But it’s also dangerous. In the Middle East, where trust is thin and grudges run deep, opacity breeds suspicion.

Israel has submarine-launched missiles, air-based delivery, and possibly land-based systems. Their focus is deterrence, particularly against Iran. But if things spiral, that deterrence can become devastation.

9. North Korea – Estimated 30–50 warheads

This is the wild card. North Korea doesn’t just have nukes—they broadcast them like trophies. They’ve tested ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland, and they’re refining their warheads for miniaturization and deployment.

The scariest part? We don’t fully know what they’ve got or how stable their chain of command is. In a crisis, logic and strategy might take a back seat to desperation.

The Bigger Picture

In total, we’re looking at over 12,000 nuclear warheads across the globe. Even if only a fraction of those were used, the result would be apocalyptic. According to scientists, just 100 nukes dropped on cities would trigger a nuclear winter—blocking sunlight, destroying crops, and killing billions through starvation.

And yet, we keep building more.

That’s the insanity of it. We’re stockpiling civilization-ending weapons as if it’s business as usual. Politicians talk about modernization and defense budgets like they’re upgrading smartphones. But we’re not upgrading—we’re gambling with the only planet we’ve got.

Why I Prep

I’m not prepping because I think I can survive a full-blown nuclear exchange. No one really “survives” that. I prep because it gives me options. A remote homestead, clean water, radiation filters, food stores—these aren’t luxuries. They’re necessities in a world where the next war might be the last.

But more than prepping for survival, I speak out because I still have hope. Hope that sanity will prevail. Hope that people will realize the madness of nuclear brinkmanship before it’s too late. I hate war because I love life. I love the land, the forests, the animals, the sound of a creek in spring.

Nukes don’t just end wars. They end everything.

Final Word

Here’s what I’ll tell you, prepper to prepper, citizen to citizen: don’t trust any nation with your future. Know what’s out there. Know who holds the keys to Armageddon. And keep your gear ready—not because we want this war, but because the ones in charge sure don’t seem to mind flirting with it.

Stay alert. Stay prepared. And above all, stay human.