SWOT Analysis Per Total Survivalist Blog.

It's nice to see a quantifiable chart that really simplifies a rather complex subject. The SWOT chart that Ryan over at http://www.totalsurvivalist.com/2018/05/evaluating-and-managing-risk-2-swot-and.html has offered up us very easy to use for simple tasks and complex lifestyles.

I'm going to go ahead and insert my 50k foot view of my personal risk assessment into it. I'm not going to do it in the practical chart version due to my normally long winded answers.

Strengths:
1. Well placed, sought after career that is recession proof in the near term.
2. Stable 17year relationship with a sugar momma.
3. One lightly trained fighting age son in the house.
4. Well stocked and diversified physical holdings.
5. Well balanced and diversified skill set for backup income.
6. Tribe that can be relied upon.
7. Legitimately needed by my tribe.
8. Zero debt.

Weaknesses:
1. WAY too close to a population center
2. Indefensible garden home on a freaking golf course.
3. Dealing with a foot and an arm injury.
4. Cardio training is non existent.
5. Carrying way too much weight.
6. Sugar momma has zero interest in defensive training.
7. Youngest son can't keep his mouth shut.

Opportunities:
-Booming Economy plays into strengths 1,2,5,8. Weaknesses 3,4,5 will hamper my ability to capitalize on more income. I'm just too beat up at the end of the day to deal with more work. Motrin is my friend.
-Low priced Precious Metals gives me buying power with 1,2 and 8. Weakness 7 and maybe 2 are at issue with large physical holdings.
- Low priced training benefit/cost ratio. Strengths 1,2,3,4,8 play into this, Weaknesses 3,4,5 make things very difficult.

Threats:
-Economic downturn is mitigated with 1,2,4,5,6,8 and only weakness 3 hurts me here.
-Loss of income has same weakness/strength issues
-Health issue Same as the two above
-Pandemic has Strengths 4,5,6,7,8 for helpers and weakness 1 as a detractor
-Social unrest really depends on how intense it becomes. I work near the town, but geographically separated by a large river and many sprawling industrial campus sites. Only middle class homes between my house and work. Wife works from home with limited travel. There will be inpact, just not sure how severe. DOD will ensure site safety, but getting there could get dicey if we start seeing roving road blocks and highway sit ins. Weakness 1,3,4,5 come into play if I'm forced to walk home, strength 5 is my helper. I'm well trained in navigation and E&E concepts. My get home kit would be considered as strength 4. I've also switched to a grey man vehicle. The big diesel sits now most of the time and I have a very capable small 4x4 utility vehicle for daily travel. It's about as grey as you can get. No chrome, gray in color, tinted windows, quiet V6, matte black wheels....

A little more on my injuries. I was hiking with the scouts on an urban hike in February and my foot fell through some ice and bruised the bottom of my heel. It's never healed right and hurts pretty much all the time. Need to get it looked at because favoring it has caused other issues with the foot. As far as the arm, well, I broke it. We rehabbed our in ground pool and I had to re-bond and rewire the entire thing. I was pulling wire for the automatic cover when one of the wire spools jammed and pulled the ladder over onto me. It was going to hit my kneecap so I blocked it with my ulna. It got a pretty good fracture, but no real movement of the bone structure. I decided to finish the job and see how it felt. The wife was away the next 2 days and I didn't feel like dealing with a cast so I just took it easy. The fracture was small enough that it solidified the next day and I had no bone movement so I just went about my business with a rather large, odd looking knot on my right arm about 5 inches from the wrist. It's almost healed. The main issue I have with that arm is carpal tunnel. I have a lot of very technical large and ultra small work to do on aerospace parts machining equipment. My productivity is hampered at times. Luckily I'm in a supervisory role and only perform on hot projects and troubleshooting. That will change when or if this project completes in 2020. My left arm was already fixed a few years ago. It needed far more work done so I did it first.

Resistance Is Futile

As a future Partisan, you have to think like your oppressor in order to defeat them. They don't have enough money to apply surveillance to every asset or area, so they concentrate on the areas that protect the oppressor, not the private citizen. After an 880 mile road trip, I noticed a lot of cameras at certain intersections, bridges, and high traffic areas. These do a couple things, they help traffic centers plan for expansion and can act as a forensic accounting device in the event of an attack or crime.

Why is this important? Your family. If you have decided to go off and make an example of some Marxist stooge, you can lead a footpath all the way to your family. They may not agree or choose your path, but they will have to deal with the consequences of your actions. The Austin Bombing suspect was backtracked and triangulated in a couple days, for example.

Every single electronic emanation and digital image you leave behind is a footprint you leave to track you. It's just a matter of time and resources if you leave too many for them to find and prosecute. They have unlimited amounts of computing power and man power if the crime is heinous enough.

Your job is two fold. Stay out of the net all together, or leave so little trace that it is ineffectual or misleading. Insulate your private information in such a manner that it would be impossible for you to be traced. For example, instead of driving your car or truck, drive a rental. If the rental happens to be in the most common color and model on the road, so much the better. The plates are also a tell tale sign, so if you could change them, so be it. More on that later.

Traffic cams can pickup facial features. Avoid the cams or change/hide your face. Both is even better. A beard and hat/glasses is the easiest way. Keep yourself under the radar by not speeding or driving aggressively. You might also choose to deploy some camouflage, such as a "baby on board" sticker or a child car seat. Cartoon window stickers or those sunscreens that apply to car windows to help hide the contents of your vehicle. Anything that helps you look more innocuous or less threatening is going to help you stay unnoticed. Change them around often or at certain intervals on your trip to help break up your trip image. Once in your AO, less is more. Keep identifying marks to a minimum, Especially when changing plates.

Stay off the interstates. It's well known that many toll roads, intersections and points of interest have plate loggers that will store plate info indefinitely. Same goes for police cars. Many police cars now have plate loggers built in to their squad cars. Avoid them if you can for several reasons. They are actively scanning for stolen cars, expired plates and unlicensed drivers. If your plates can't stand the attention, you are busted.

Plates are a huge part of this whole plan. You can't hide them. The best thing to do is have good plates. Plates that match the car and aren't reported as stolen or lost. Preferably from the rental car company you are using. Sounds impossible, right? Not even close. Most rental companies use the same color and model cars throughout their fleets. If you go to a large metro area, they might have 8 or 10 branches with a couple of the same car. Swap out a few plates from the local bowling alley or car lot, and you have a couple clean plates that match the car you have. Always use gloves and try to keep the plates you keep well hidden. Don't take all your plates from the same location or state. Use the 3 Card Monte trick when getting plates. Don't let the plates you keep get reported stolen. If you find a model/color combo plate from your rental company (GOLD), don't just take it and get it reported. Trade it out with another vehicle of different color/model and let that plate get reported, because it's not the one you're after. IF you do get pulled over or stopped, it looks like clerical error or prank, not a felony. It's best if the rental company has no idea any plate is missing, so leave with all the plates in place, regardless if they are right or not. Use different screwdrivers as well. The same one will leave similar tool marks, and a trail.

Most big name stores have some type of surveillance. Walmart takes your picture every time you enter and exit, from head level. Many others do the same or worse. Some even record your interaction with the help. Stay away from these locations. Go to the mom and pop stores with crappy video cameras and no time to notice you during peak times. Keep your clothes and appearance changing as you move.

Method of payment- cash. That means you can't rent a hotel room or pay by card at the gas station. So be it. Millions of people live that way their entire lives and get by just fine. You can sleep comfortably at local campgrounds in a small tent or hammock and do just fine. No ID needed for state parks and most private campgrounds. They have hot showers and a camp store with no video most of the time. People (even vegan snowflake hippies) hike the Appalachian Trail 2200 miles eating out of gas stations and campgrounds for 4 months. It's not that hard.

Have a cover story. Stick with it. Use your Grey Man principles. Don't get noticed. Don't leave a trail. Be deceptive on your approach. Don't panic. Don't be afraid to walk away.

Resistance is only futile when it's not well thought out and acted upon emotionally, not logically.