A random thought.

We have people who think if we find an amoeba on Mars, we have found “extraterrestrial life”.

Most of those same people think an unborn human baby with a heartbeat is not life.

And our tax dollars are used by a government that agrees. 

I want my money back.

Kim Jong Un in a coma.

 Media all over the world is starting to report that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is in a coma, probably on his deathbed now, and that his sister, Kim Yo Jong, is in position to take over the failed socialist state.

Sorry, guys... The name of the next North Korean dictator is not going to be heavily distinguishable from the last three.

Some months back it was being reported that Kim Jong Un was in bad health and rumors were flying that he was on his deathbed at that time too. In my opinion, and based on my previous intelligence experience working in Area 1 in South Korea during the time of Kim Jong Il's death, his health probably was very bad and he was possibly close to death at that point too. Prolonged, unexplained absences of major party leaders in the DPRK are usually meaningful from an intelligence analysis standpoint, even if they're not particularly interesting to casual readers. His absence earlier this year was probably meaningful and health related based on what I was reading at that time, and the recent reports of another coma and another forthcoming dirt nap sound like they have more evidence to them this time than last time. He's also known for having bad health habits anyway, and having the best medical care the DPRK has to offer probably isn't going to help his chances much.

In other words, I think this is the real deal, or a prelude to it. One thing to note is that we knew Kim Jong Il was dead at least several days before the media was able to confirm it. The DPRK Politburo has met with nearly unprecedented frequency this year and shuffled around some of the top officials into a more economic focused front. It would appear that there is some anticipation of a leadership change. To my knowledge there is no succession plan set in stone, and Kim Yo Jong may be a stop-gap plan as much as a long term leadership. We've all seen though how temporary leaders can tend to consolidate power and entrench themselves. The pattern of nepotism in the DPRK government is likely to continue.

As far as Kim Yo Jong, she grew up in North Korea in privilege and was schooled in Switzerland. Of course. She's had increasing public appearances over the past 18 months as well. Honestly, none of the personal information about her is significant or meaningful to you or me. Kim Jong Un's brother was possibly the next man up before he was assassinated with a nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur. Un's wife, Ri Sol Ju is the "first lady, but isn't likely to take the leadership herself.

The official number two man is named Choe Ryong Hae, and he is quite influential in the DPRK. However, the number two official does not often take over. Ri Yong Ho was high ranking general in the Politburo during my time in Korea and some thought he may try seize some large amount of power after Kim Jong Un took over. That was not the case. He was removed from his post and executed. I personally do not expect Choe Ryong Hae to take over unless he already has the support of the Politburo.

It remains to be seen what kind of approach our government will have towards the North Koreans if the change happens. I know the US forces in Korea are on high alert now, as they typically are, and my old friends in the G2 at CRC and 210 Fires up at Camp Casey are probably running through some exercises as we speak.

No rest for the wicked.

 “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.”

Isaiah 48:22

How I went from 235 pounds to 185 pounds with no added exercise

When I was in high school I was always very thin. I was 5'11" and I weighed around 130 pounds when I graduated. I was lean, able to do almost 90 push-ups without stopping and could hit 102 in two minutes. Likewise, I could do sit-ups without stopping up into the 200's and could get almost 130 in two minutes. I was running a 13:30 two-mile. Fast forward to joining the Army several years after graduating and I had put on weight. I was almost 200 when I started basic training and dropped to 165 by the time I graduated that.

Fast forward again to deployment in Afghanistan, and I weighed in at a healthy 185. I wasn't overly bulky with muscle but we had been training for deployment for well over a year and a lot of it focused on heavy weight bearing ruck marches in anticipation of getting attached to our long range surveillance unit, 2-38 Cav. During that time I was carrying the M249 SAW at least as often as I was carrying the M4. I also had the M240B assigned to me in addition to some extra intelligence gear that was heavier than it should have been.

Another fast forward. I leave the Army and over the next couple of years, I found myself at a whopping 230 pounds. I would touch 235 on a bad week. I was working night shift on a trauma-surgical floor and eating whatever we could get delivered at 2100 hours. That meant pizza, Chinese food or buffalo wings or burgers and fries. And that was at least three days a week. I was drinking mostly sweet tea or soda, ate fast food at least a couple of times a week, and I was past the age of 30. Not the age where you want to be playing catch-up on your health. I could still move and I didn't look as heavy as I was, which is probably why I let it get that way. I simply was not paying attention.

One last fast forward about 18-20 months, and here I am sitting at 185 again, with a goal of 180, or maybe somewhere in the 170's. Admittedly, I am exercising a lot more often right now than I used to, but exercise has almost nothing at all to do with how I got back down in weight.

It was 99.9% dietary changes.

First, I cut out all soda and all fast food, and started eating ONLY what my wife cooked. We cut our restaurant trips from twice a week, to about twice a month when other people invited us out. When we got restaurants, we decline appetizers and drink water, and I usually look for seafood first (I love seafood anyway). I started drinking a ton of water, at least 1.5-2 liters per day. We got rid of our pantry full of snacks and only keep fruit instead (which my kids prefer anyway). Aside from seeing our bank account get bigger, I saw my weight drop from 230+ down to 212.

After that, we stopped frying foods at home. Nothing at home is fried anymore, which is also nice for cleaning up. We use the grill at least three times per week. We replaced all ground beef with low fat ground turkey (93% lean/7% fat), which tastes exactly the same to us, and has a lot less grease to it. I started eating fish for lunch. We started taking a standard multivitamin everyday.

Next step was to train ourselves in portion control. Fill your plate with 1-1.5 normal sized portions of every item, and then when you're finished with it, wait 15-20 minutes before you get seconds. Often we find that we end up not wanting any more. We also have started eating bananas, apples or strawberries for snacks between meals. I find that the bananas do the best job of satisfying hunger at that time.

We switched white bread to wheat instead. Low fat mayo. Fat free cheddar cheese. Low fat mozzarella. Wheat pasta. Fat free refried beans on Mexican night with wheat tortillas.

The diet plan we are on is non-intrusive, easy, quick, doesn't leave you hungry, doesn't eliminate any particular foods (even though we have personally chosen to eliminate some), which means you don't have to give up your favorite stuff, and it has worked really well with me and my wife (who has also lost 30+ pounds) over the last five months. It has allowed me to start moving better and breathing better and feeling better and looking better. My blood pressure is back to normal and my heart rate is down from being irregular in the 90's to very steady in the 70's.

My email address is TheGrayMan314@protonmail.com and if you're wondering what the plan is that we are using, please email me. I assure you that I am not selling anything and I am not going to direct you to anything you'll have to pay for. I am willing to just tell you what we are doing and give advice and answer questions. I am not a trainer or a dietitian, but I am an ER RN and I have gone from 235 pounds at my worst down to 185 pounds today, and I only added more new exercise about one month ago by going to a Jiu Jitsu gym. That's it. I plan to continue adding more exercise in the form of the Wednesday WODs you see here on AP, but our weight loss up until now was entirely diet based.

Product Review: Great Footwear

Originally posted by the Gray Man at American Partisan.

I wanted to break for just minute and let you all know about the shoes I've found to be excellent for all kinds of applications. I've been wearing Merrell Moab hiking shoes for over five years now. I've found them to be excellent outdoors for hiking in rugged terrain, with the most recent test being in the Appalachians in Eastern Tennessee, and before that climbing the mountain at Cheaha in Northern Alabama. I've also taken Army PT tests using these when I didn't have running shoes, and they still performed well and weren't overly heavy compared to some alternatives. The Vibram soles are going to be familiar to a lot of you from previous military and police service, and these hold up extremely well, as expected.

The quality of the other parts of the shoes is great as well. I've found that by making sure I untie them before taking them off and not forcing my foot into the shoes while they're tied, I can make a single pair last 18 months or more with no problem. I'm currently on my fourth pair and I always keep my older pair for backup in case I need them, because they're still in adequate shape.

I wore a pair of these about two years ago when I was on a two-week FTX with my Army Reserve unit on the ranges and on a hideously swampy land nav course at Fort Stewart, and prior to that at Fort Rucker. Now and then the benefit of being in Army intelligence is that we can occasionally convince someone that we really need to be allowed to train in "civvies", which often means getting to wear tacticool 5.11 stuff on the range and feel like badasses for the day. Joking aside, my year old Moab hiking shoes performed very well. The material is breathable and even in hot weather, they never became uncomfortably hot.

The Moab line has several different types of shoes, from lower top shoes, to mid-height, up to higher topped boots for more support. I personally love the earth tones they use.

If you're in the market for new rugged footwear that is great for everyday use too, I highly recommend the Moab line from Merrell.

China is actively waging a 4th generational, guerrilla proxy war against the U.S.

Originally posted by the Gray Man at American Partisan.

It's said that the 20th century was the American century, or the century when America became the only superpower in the world, and defeated several other countries who were on their way, those being Germany and Japan in WWII, the Chinese in the Korean War and the Soviets in the Cold War. This century has turned the tide in the direction of China, and recently China has been conducting activities that appear to have the hallmarks of "winning a battle before fighting it", as Sun Tzu would have likely put it.

It's no surprise that China owns a huge share of the media and entertainment in the US. Chinese companies now control over 8,000 theaters in the US and have large parts of most of the major studios in Hollywood, allowing them to project propaganda in the form of entertainment. This is now evident on almost every major television show and movie. If it's not pro-China propagana, it's blatantly anti-American, anti-western and also anti-white and anti-Christian.

China has been working for decades to buy as much of the American supply chain and manufacturing capability as they can. Currently, Chinese companies produce over 95% of the antibiotics we use and at least 75% of the ingredients used in other medications. The supply chain for these items is always fragile (by design?) and it doesn't take much for Chinese exporters to stop shipments of drugs and other medical supplies bound for the US. Chinese megacompanies have also acquired some large US based food producers, such as Smithfield, which is the leading producer of pork in the world. Smithfield has been owned by a company based out of Hong Kong since 2013.

I've said many times that China's innovation abilities are based almost entirely on their ability to cheat and steal from western countries. They've gotten better at it over the decades, and it's well known that China widely funds American university research. The researchers are always careful on the disclosure of their ties to Chinese funding. Obviously, we are all aware of how China dominates the market of production of telecommunications technology due to their immense mining of rare earth minerals. This is why China buys infrastructure in places no one wants to be. Afghanistan is one example, where China has built hundreds of cell phone towers (Roshan). Why would anyone want to spend money on cell phone towers in Afghanistan? Using those towers, China is able to collect data and lay the groundwork for future ventures there. China is also involved in the proliferation of 5G towers in the US.

According to the Paulson Institute, which states it is geared toward creating a productive US-China relationship (productive for whom?) China currently owns controlling shares of over 2,400 US companies, including AMC, General Electric Appliances, IBM, Motorola, Riot Games (they've got your kids), Teledyne, Triple H (coal mining), etc.

As previously posted on American Partisan, it's been discovered that automatic rifle parts have been shipped across the US destined for Melbourne, Florida. The parts seem to have originated in Shenzen, China and passed through Detroit and were intercepted by CBP Louisville. What the purpose is is anyone's guess, but the nature of it wreaks of proxy/guerrilla warfare. So if CBP was able to intercept one container of over 10,000 parts, how many other containers made it to their destination and were distributed? It's also been found that seeds from China have been shipped to people in the US.

It is my belief that China's plan to become a global superpower starts with establishing regional hegemony, which I think has already happened. There is no military power in the region that has the ability or the willingness to counter anything China has done in the South China sea. Their is no economic power in the region that has the ability or willingness to counter anything China has done on the economic stage. The US Navy is losing the ability to project power abroad in the region due to the capability of Chinese anti-ship missiles, and due to the insane focus of the US military on ensuring above all else that women and gays are promoted to leadership and embedded into our warfighting units in order to combat global climate change.

American leadership of the international community has been eroded by Chinese influence via their ability to leverage economic power into political power. They've also used their theft of intellectual property to mimic an innovation advantage. Third, I believe the Chinese government advancing their position by attacking who is at the top. China is waging active fourth generational warfare against the US by supporting the BLM movement, AntiFa and BAMN. They're funding and probably equipping (remember those weapons parts) insurgent groups inside America as part of an obvious proxy war. If the US does not take decisive action to fight back, then the battle is already over.