The Foundation-Squaring Away Communications Needs in 2017

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NCSCOUT over at the Brushbeater blog has amassed some of his older posts into a single, readable post for new and old operators to better access the information.

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I’ve received a number of emails over the last several weeks requesting info on various issues, recommended gear, etc…and while I certainly don’t mind answering the plethora of questions (it’s part of the reason I run this blog) much of the info has been previously addressed.  Due to the size and scope of the information contained, I know it can be cumbersome to find answers when you don’t even know what questions to ask, especially if you’re brand new to the signals and communications game.

So in the interest of the greater good, I’m compiling a list of previous posts to get you going. All I ask in return is that you use it, keep an open mind, and at a minimum try some of this stuff at home. Nearly everything I’ve written over the past year-plus in regards to commo covers field implementation and improvisation, sourced…

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Tactical Casualty Care for Civilians

From Prepared Gun Owners comes this article, What You Absolutely MUST Know About Tactical First Aid. WARNING there are some photos included from the Boston marathon bombing showing this type of first aid in action which may be disturbing to some viewers.

Do you know what to do to keep yourself from dying if you ever get shot?

Do you know how to keep your loved ones alive if they get shot?

What if you’re in a public place and a terrorist bomb explodes and now there are tons of mass casualties missing limbs and gushing blood?

Unfortunately, a standard Red Cross First Aid or general CPR class will NOT help in situations like this. You need to know tactical first aid that was developed specifically for battlefield injuries.

The World We Now Live In

 

Despite what anyone in the media says, it’s clear that the FedGov’s war in the Middle East — The Global War on Terror (GWOT) — is also being fought in America.

In short, many public places are now targets of opportunity for guerrilla warfare and you’re now a soldier in an asymmetric battlefield.

Unfortunately, because you’re a civilian and you’re not actively hunting terrorists, you don’t get to choose when the fight happens in this battle.

It will choose you.

It could be a mass shooting the likes of San Bernardino or the Orlando Nightclub or the small unit terrorist attacks in Paris. Or it could be a terrorist bombing, you just don’t know.

Along with training to defend yourself both unarmed and with various forms of tools — to take life if necessary — you should also train yourself to save life if necessary.

Having Life Saving Medical Skills Is Just Simply Good Common Sense!

Even if you’re not ever involved in a terrorist attack …

Or even if you never have to get in a life-or-death fight with anyone …

The truth is that having life-saving medical skills is just good common sense.

How many of us know someone that has had a MAJOR medical accident — like a saw cut off a person’s fingers? Or a chainsaw cut into a person’s leg?

Or how many times have you driven by a gruesome accident on the side of the road?

Having life-saving medical skills in your back pocket just makes too much sense for you to ignore it, especially when:

1. The information is FREE for you to learn how to save lives.

2. The medical gear is cheap and easy to learn how to use.

Introducing Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC)

Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) guidelines were developed by USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) to properly train non-medical personnel to deal with the preventable causes of death in the field. Now they’re being used by all of the U.S. military.

We’ll discuss more about TCCC later, but one of the most important things to understand is that the #1 cause of preventable deaths in combat is Hemorrhage from extremity wounds — responsible for 60% of combat deaths.
That means it’s super critical to stop massive bleeding in gun fights, which makes sense right? Bullets punch holes in humans, and humans bleed. Sometimes it’s a lot. Too much blood loss you die.

The good news is …

Because of these protocols, combat survivability is at an all-time high for US Soldiers. In the pic below you can see how the percent of the wounded who die in combat is now at the lowest it has ever been, mainly because of TCCC.
We may not be in combat, but as prepared gun owners, we need to know civilian TCCC.

Introducing: The M.A.R.C.H. Acronym For Civilians

When it comes to TCCC, you can actually get all the guidelines free online from the US Army manuals or other websites which I’ll link to in just a moment.

If you’ve ever had a medical class, you may be familiar with the ABC acronym that stands for “Airway, breathing, circulation”. Well, forget all that.

The new acronym to remember is M.A.R.C.H.

Massive hemorrhage – control life-threatening bleeding.

Airway – establish and maintain a patent airway.

Respiration – decompress suspected tension pneumothorax, seal open chest wounds, and support ventilation/oxygenation as required.

Circulation – establish IV/IO access and administer fluids as required to treat shock.

Head injury/Hypothermia – prevent/treat hypotension and hypoxia to prevent worsening of traumatic brain injury and prevent/treat hypothermia.

Specifically, as a civilian walking around, living your every day life, you may not have the medical tools or resources to take care of every one of these things (for example, the best way to open an airway is to stick this little tube called a Nasopharyngeal Airway (NPA) up a person’s nose. You should know how to do it, but aside from a full-size blow-out kit in your shooting bag, you probably won’t carry one around).

The #1 thing you CAN focus on — and easily carry medical supplies for — is stopping Massive Hemorrhage (aka stopping bleeding)….

Please click through the link to read the rest of the article and the two follow on articles (Part II and Part III).

Bundy Grazing Allotment Taken for National Monument

From Intellihub:

Designation of Gold Butte area could lead to another standoff with furious local land owners and patriots across country

(INTELLIHUB) — With a stroke of the pen President Obama has unilaterally declared vast swaths of land in Utah and Nevada as two new national monuments, thus putting them under control of the federal government.

Startlingly, the area in Nevada includes the site of the infamous Bundy Ranch standoff as well as land very close to the Bundy Ranch itself. With this move Obama has possibly triggered another armed standoff while also heading off any moves set to be made by incoming president Donald Trump.

A “fact sheet” put out by the White House reads:

Today, President Obama will designate two new national monuments, protecting sacred sites, spectacular scenery, and important natural and cultural resources in the desert landscapes of southeastern Utah and southern Nevada. The creation of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and the Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada follow years of robust public input from tribes, local elected officials, and diverse stakeholders, and draws from legislation introduced in Congress.

In addition to protecting more land and water than any Administration in history, President Obama has taken unprecedented steps to elevate the voices of Native peoples in the management of our natural resources.  Today’s actions build on this important work, and further demonstrate the President’s commitment to protecting sacred sites and our land, water and wildlife for future generations.

[…]

Gold Butte National Monument

Located in Clark County, Nevada just northeast of the outskirts of Las Vegas, the Gold Butte National Monument spans nearly 300,000 acres and will protect significant cultural resources, important geological formations, and vital plant and wildlife habitat. The monument will provide critical protections for important Native American historical sites, as well as areas that are currently used for traditional purposes by tribes. Notably, the area includes abundant rock art, archeological artifacts, and rare fossils, including recently discovered dinosaur tracks dating back hundreds of millions of years. In recent years these resources have faced increasing damage from threats such as deliberate destruction and vandalism, and today’s designation will help ensure that these cultural and archaeological treasures are better protected.

The monument will serve as an important connection between already protected lands, including Lake Mead Recreation Area and the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument across the Arizona border, protecting key wildlife corridors for large mammals such as desert bighorn sheep and mountain lions, and vital habitat for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise. Additionally, the monument will protect important historic resources. Structures that detail western ranching heritage can still be found in the Gold Butte area, as well as an early twentieth-century abandoned mining town and sites associated with Spanish explorers from the late eighteenth century.

Today’s action follows decades of local support from tribes, local stakeholders and conservationists, and draws from legislation that was first introduced in 2008.

Right now it is extremely difficult to confirm exactly how much of the land in and around the Bundy Ranch is now a national monument but a map put out by the Las Vegas Review seems to line up directly with the Bundy grazing allotment.

“Obama just designated the Bundy Ranch a national monument”

Vocativ is reporting that multiple individuals involved with the original Bundy standoff have already made it clear that they plan to stand up to this latest federal tyranny.

“Members of the self-styled militias that swarmed to the aid of Cliven Bundy outside of Las Vegas in 2014 — and who later joined the rancher’s sons to seize a federal wildlife refuge in rural Oregon — said they were readying for another showdown. Obama’s move on Wednesday to protect 300,000 acres of federal land around Gold Butte, close to the Bundy ranch, comes as two dozen people await trials for their roles in the Nevada and Oregon standoffs, which emboldened right-wing militants across America and became a powerful symbol of anti-government sentiment,” read the report.

“Get your gear ready,” wrote Jon Ritzheimer, one of the men who used handguns and assault rifles to hole up in Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for 41 days last year. “Obama just designated the Bundy Ranch a national monument.”

“Others with ties to patriot groups and militia movements online responded with a bit more force. “Locked and loaded ready to go,” wrote Chris Border, a member of the Cliven Bundy’s Army! Facebook group, which boasts more than 2,000 members. “Tired of this crap and time to do something.”

One has to wonder what exactly are the reasons for this new land grab by President Obama in the last days of his presidency. It’s extremely hard to imagine that it is not at least partially connected to the Bundy’s and the standoffs in both Nevada and Oregon.

More importantly, this area may actually include land that has documented precious metals throughout it as detailed in the video report below.

More information as to the exact implications of this massive land grab are sure to be released in the coming days and will be covered here extensively.

‘We’re teaching university students lies’

‘We’re teaching university students lies’ – An interview with Dr Jordan Peterson

An interview discussing free speech, hate speech, compelled speech, political correctness and more from C2C Journal, Canada.

Do you believe that society should draw the line at all when it comes to limitations on hate speech?

No. Hate speech laws are wrong. The question – not a question, but THE question – is ‘who gets to define hate?” That’s not to say there’s no such thing as hate speech – clearly there is. Hate speech laws repress, and I mean that in the psycho-analytical sense. They drive [hate speech] underground. It’s not a good idea, because things get ugly when you drive them underground. They don’t disappear, they just fester, and they’re not subject to correction. I made these videos, and they have been subject to a tremendous amount of correction over the last six weeks. I don’t just mean from my public response, but also partly from the university’s response, partly from a group of friends who have been reviewing my videos and criticizing them to death. This is why free speech is so important. You can struggle to formulate some argument, but when you throw it out into the public, there’s a collective attempt to modify and improve that. So with the hate speech issue – say someone’s a Holocaust denier, because that’s the standard routine – we want those people out there in the public so you can tell them why they’re historically ignorant, and why their views are unfounded and dangerous. If you drive them underground, it’s not like they stop talking to each other, they just don’t talk to anyone who disagrees with them. That’s a really bad idea and that’s what’s happening in the United States right now. Half of the country doesn’t talk to the other half. Do you know what you call people you don’t talk to? Enemies.

If you have enemies, you have war.

If you stop talking to people, you either submit to them, or you go to war with them. Those are your options and those aren’t good options. It’s better to have a talk. If you put restrictions on speech, then you can’t actually talk about the difficult things that need to be talked about. I have about 20,000 hours of clinical practice and all I do for 20 hours a week is talk to people about difficult things – the worst things that are going on in their lives. These are hard conversations all the time. The conversations that are the most curative are simultaneously the ones that are most difficult and most dangerous. Most normal people will not have those conversations. That’s why so many marriages dissolve. People don’t like to have those conversations. Part of that too, is because – let’s say you have a little tiff with your wife, and you know there’s more to it than the little thing that’s bothering her, and you ask ‘what are you REALLY upset about’? Try peeling that back. You might find she’s upset about something her grandfather did to her grandmother two generations ago that hasn’t yet been resolved within the family, and that’s the determining element of her attitude at the present moment. If you unpack it though, then you don’t have to live it over and over again.

There’s also this idea that you shouldn’t say things that hurt people’s feelings – that’s the philosophy of the compassionate left. It’s so childish it’s beyond comprehension. What did Nietzsche say: ‘you can judge a man’s spirit by the amount of truth he can tolerate.’ I tell my students this too, you can tell when you’re being educated because you’re horrified. So if its pleasant and safe, it’s like you’re not learning anything. People learn things the hard way.

Click here for the full text.

Occasional foul language.

Multi-state Concealed Carry Permit Class & Women’s Concealed Carry Class, Jan 7th, 2017

kaeryconcealedKaery Concealed is coming down to teach their multi-state concealed carry permit class and also a women’s concealed carry class on Saturday, January 7th, 2017 at 22202 N Hinzerling, Prosser, WA. The multi-state permit class will run from 9:00am to 1:30pm. Registration link.

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Multi-state Concealed Carry Permit Class description follows.

Our master instructors take the confusion and frustration out of the permit process to help you obtain the most advantageous multi-state carry permit(s) for your lifestyle.

This 4 hour classroom-only course (no live fire or test required) far exceeds the application requirements for the most sought after and desired permits in the country. Additionally, this course far exceeds the requirements to apply for an Oregon permit. A multi-state permit does not replace your home-state concealed carry permit.

The non-resident concealed carry permits issued by Arizona, Utah, and Florida are referred to as “multi-state” permits because both permits are recognized by at least 30 states. Please see our FAQ page for a list of states.

Although some people prefer to apply for both multi-state permits, it is not necessary to apply for both. Students typically choose to apply for whichever multi-state permit affords them coverage in the most states possible which is dependent on state of residence.

You will leave the course with everything you need to apply for the Arizona multi-state permit, the Utah multi-state permit, the Florida multi-state permit, and the Oregon permit (Oregon accepts only their own permit – which means if you want to conceal carry in Oregon you will need to apply for an Oregon permit).

Please understand that a multi-state permit does not necessarily or typically negate the need for a home-state permit – see our FAQ page for a detailed explanation.

What is included in the course:
During your course, we do a lot more than just cover the course curriculum, as we also provide: the multi-state applications; three completed fingerprint cards; 2×2 photos; required copies; proof of training certificates for the multi-state permits; training certificate to apply for an Oregon permit; and pre-addressed envelopes.

The only thing you will need to do after taking this course is include the state background check fee, affix adequate postage, and relax while you wait for your permit to arrive in the mail. Please note that the state background check fee is separate from the course and is paid directly to the state — see the FAQ page for details.

Topics Covered:
State and federal laws; handgun operation, safety and selection; ammunition and malfunctions; shooting fundamentals; concealment options and considerations; defensive use of force laws and implications; and many other topics are covered during the four hour course.

Kaery Concealed will also present a concealed carry for women course on the same day from 2pm-6:30pm. Registration link.

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Course description:

HER 1st SHOTS
Through the use of innovative training, state-of-the-art methods, and professional firearm instruction, Kaery Concealed offers the most relevant and dynamic, reality-based training for personal and home defense.
1st Shots is a course designed for individuals with minimal or no formal handgun training who desire the most effective knowledge and skills to confidently and proficiently defend themselves and those they love.

This one-of-a-kind, non-live fire course utilizes state-of-the-art SIRT training pistols (the same technology used by US Special Forces and law enforcement agencies) and software designed to provide superior results in a comfortable, familiar, and relaxed setting.

This is a quick-moving course emphasizes firearm safety and safe gun-handling while developing the necessary skills to keep, carry, and control a handgun and be victorious in a personal protection situation.
At Kaery Concealed, we are passionate about removing barriers to obtaining affordable, professional, family-friendly firearm instruction.  We do this by taking the instruction to our customers, and by offering top-notch self defense courses in unconventional locations like libraries, lunchrooms, community centers, conference rooms, small businesses, and even private homes.
All equipment provided.
Topics Include:
mental & situational defensive alertness
defense under stress
aggressive disengagement
handgun & ammunition operation
safe gun handling, storage, carrying
practical defensive marksmanship
Shoot-to-Live fundamentals
practical, useful pointers to make consistent concealed carry a reality
safely drawing from a variety of concealment option (holster, purse, KaeryBand™, KaeryWrap™)
learn how to use the KaeryBelt™ as a component of the most versatile, practical, and effective carry options
lawful concealed carry

Concealed Carry printable advertisement.

To take advantage of discounts for taking both classes or for couples taking the permit class, please email Kaery at info@kaeryconcealed.com.

Understanding Evil by Brandon Smith

alt-market

From Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com comes this article, Understanding Evil: From Globalism To Pizzagate.

…Evil is what we are specifically here to discuss. I have touched on the issue in various articles in the past including Are Globalists Evil Or Just Misunderstood, but with extreme tensions taking shape this year in light of the U.S. election as well as the exploding online community investigation of “Pizzagate,” I am compelled to examine it once again.

I will not be grappling with this issue from a particularly religious perspective. Evil applies to everyone regardless of their belief system, or even their lack of belief. Evil is secular in its influence.

The first and most important thing to understand is this — evil is NOT simply a social or religious construct, it is an inherent element of the human psyche. Carl Gustav Jung was one of the few psychologists in history to dare write extensively on the issue of evil from a scientific perspective as well as a metaphysical perspective.  I highly recommend a book of his collected works on this subject titled ‘Jung On Evil’, edited by Murray Stein, for those who are interested in a deeper view.

To summarize, Jung found that much of the foundations of human behavior are rooted in inborn psychological contents or “archetypes.”  Contrary to the position of Sigmund Freud, Jung argued that while our environment may affect our behavior to a certain extent, it does not make us who we are. Rather, we are born with our own individual personality and grow into our inherent characteristics over time. Jung also found that there are universally present elements of human psychology. That is to say, almost every human being on the planet shares certain truths and certain natural predilections.

The concepts of good and evil, moral and immoral, are present in us from birth and are mostly the same regardless of where we are born, what time in history we are born and to what culture we are born. Good and evil are shared subjective experiences.  It is this observable psychological fact (among others) that leads me to believe in the idea of a creative design — a god.  Again, though, elaborating on god is beyond the scope of this article…

Click here to read the entire article.

General Assembly Meeting, Thur. Nov 10th

The next Regular Meeting of the Whole will be held on Thursday, November 10th, at 7:15 pm at 22202 N Hinzerling, Prosser, with Sector Meetings held as early as 6:30pm (check with your sector lead).

ASSEMBLY MEETING AGENDA – NOVEMBER 10, 2016

1. Sector Meetings 6:30-7:15pm

2. Opening of Assembly Meeting 7:15pm

3. General business

a. Determination of quorum

b. Approval of Agenda

c. Acceptance of Minutes

d. Treasurer report

4. President’s Forum

5. Committee/Sector reports

6. Nominations for LVA Executive Board

7. Assembly Program 7:45pm

Preparing and Sampling MRE’s
(Just like mother used to make)

MEETING ADJOURNMENT 8:30pm

 

CBC: Inside the American Redoubt movement

The CBC has posted an article titled Hoping for best and preparing for worst: Inside the American Redoubt movement with the subtitle “Conservative, Christian and concerned — Americans fed up with government hole up in Pacific Northwest.”

Rawles sees the Redoubt as a place where mostly conservative, Christian Americans who are worried about the future should move and prepare for the worst. The goal is to create a safe haven where like-minded Americans, many of whom refer to themselves as “preppers,” can live off the land, be more self-sufficient and wait out the calamities to come…

Santos says many of the people coming through his shop these days are new arrivals looking for a fresh start and a quieter, more peaceful life.

“Many of the things that attracted my wife and I to this area are the same things that are attracting people today — people want to live in a place that feels like a community, people want to feel safe when they go out at night…”

For Lebaron, life in the Redoubt is about hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. It’s a mantra he adopted while working with FEMA, America’s disaster management agency, during the earthquake that rocked the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989.

“When bad things happen, people that you have called your friends for years are no longer your friends,” he said. “When people are cold, tired and hungry, they forget all about friendships.”

He expects the divisions this presidential campaign has reinforced across the country will remain long after the election and will feed some Americans’ desire to retreat to the Redoubt.

“There is very much a division or a schism in the United States today, where people are literally, ‘Which side of the fence are you on?'”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

The CBC also has two other related pieces.

WA State After Action Report for Cascadia Rising

Washington State has posted a “Final Draft” AAR (pdf) for the Cascadia Rising exercise held in June of this year. That exercise practiced a response to 9 magnitude Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Selected quotes:

There is an urgent need for residents to prepare
Despite the ongoing public education efforts and community preparedness programs, our families, communities, schools, hospitals, and businesses are not prepared for the catastrophic disaster that a worst-case CSZ earthquake would cause.

The typical response to incidents and disasters begins at the local level –dispatch, fire, law enforcement, public works, etc. Once the local level and mutual aid is overwhelmed, requests for support are elevated to the county, then state, and if required to the federal level. This is commonly referred to as a “pull” system, here the highest level of government pulls up only requests for support in order to respond. Cascadia Rising proved this approach is grossly inadequate

the clock is ticking to a humanitarian disaster.

The state’s transportation, communication, and energy networks which are essential to enable a catastrophic response and thus, saving and sustaining lives, are not survivable

There is no long-term recovery strategy or plan

The ability of the SEOC to collect and process information and act on it was overwhelmed.

Importance of CERT and light rescue teams to Urban Search and Rescue.

Ham radio specific:

Areas of Improvement
1.Emergency coordination centers are not prepared to operate in a degraded communications environment over an extended period.

Analysis: The exercise placed a focus on operating in a severely degraded communications environment which is expected based on the damages modeled to telephone and web-based infrastructure in Western Washington. Several local jurisdictions and the State EOC operated for a period of time without telephones or web-based communications (email, web pages, cloud services). The results were mixed. Some jurisdiction emergency management agencies are equipped with back-up forms of communication, with sufficiently trained staff, while others identified emergency communications as an area of improvement either due to lack of equipment, procedures, or training. For the State EOC, multiple forms of alternate communications were successfully used but procedures for effective interaction between the radio room and operations floor had to be improvised on the first day of the exercise.

At the state level, the successful employment of satellite phones, particularly among key leadership was inconsistent. Amateur radio was successfully employed by many jurisdictions and at the state level on a larger scale then previously experienced in recent exercises. The amateur radio teams are voluntary and their engagement and integration with emergency management offices vary.
Recommendations:

Continue training and exercising the professional and volunteer community on alternate communication systems, forms, and procedures.

Amateur Radio:
Emergency management agencies and their amateur radio support teams need to establish a habitual relationship and engage with each other on how ARES/RACES can support in both activations and drills. For a few jurisdictions, this engagement merely needs to be sustained. For most jurisdictions, this is an area of improvement. This engagement can be improved through training and drills (emergency managers need to integrate the ARES/RACES teams and provide the material to be used for radio messages); Support and collaboration on the use of formatted digital messages such as the ISNAP form used effectively by many jurisdictions to transmit reports and resource requests via HF radio during the exercise; conducting assessments of equipment and radios and discussionon ways to achieve effective systems as required. The state must develop a state-wide operational communications plan as part of the overarching effort to improve catastrophic planning. EMD should also develop an amateur radio SOP and sustain periodic training and exercises to foster amateur radio teamwork across 13 jurisdictions. Cascadia Rising demonstrated the need for jurisdictions in Western Washington and Eastern Washington to strengthen their capability to communicate effectively via alternate forms of communication (i.e. not telephone, email).

An article in The Spokesman-Review about the AAR has some good points about the importance of your local relationships in responding to this sort of disaster.

As Bob Wiese, coordinator for the Spokane area amateur radio system said, “If we do not know one another and each other’s strength as well as weaknesses, we cannot be expected to work seamlessly when we are called upon.”…

“The relationship piece is the key, not having to build a relationship in times of crisis lets you get down to the meat and potatoes of what needs to be accomplished on a quicker timeline,” [Lewis] said…

And that’s why the most effective preparedness is strong relationships… Neighbors will be the first responders in their own small piece of the world…

It’s not just the planners who need to think differently. It means consciously developing habitual relationships with neighbors, being individually prepared, knowing who needs help and who can provide help. And be ready to improvise.

If we’re going to survive and recover from a catastrophe, then we need to have already cultivated strong relationships with our neighbors and community. We need to be individually prepared so that we do not become a burden on those relationships, but can instead provide relief to those in need around us. This goes to the heart of what the LVA is about — building a strong, resilient community which can survive trying times.

An Unaware and Compliant Citizenry

From the Wikileaks release of John Podesta email comes an email from Bill Ivey, the former director of the National Endowment of the Arts under Bill Clinton and a member of Obama’s transition team. In this email, Ivey is discussing the danger of Donald Trump.

And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking – and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging.

Emphasis mine. “Compliance is…fading.” This is a problem demanding serious thinking, he says. This is what the elites think of American citizens; citizens are a problem who need to become unaware and compliant.