Ok, forgive the formatting. This was originally a greentext post for all the /b/tards at 4chan. It's also a long read but if you can get past that then it is actually a quite interesting story that happened to me years ago.
be 22 active duty air force assigned to Nellis in Las Vegas not disclosing job, but no stranger to weapons and tactics get pulled in to supervisor's office one day told I've just been "voluntold" to participate in a training exercise with DOD no other information given other than reporting instructions pretty much any question I asked was answered with "I have no fucking idea " report to conference room at base hotel next morning per instruction see about 12 other guys from my unit also voluntold to be there five guys enter room in civilian clothes introduce themselves as the "WHITEBOX" Group Assume it's an acronym for something, but never explained told we will be upgrading our security clearances hours of paperwork, only told we are participating in a force on force exercise released back to our unit crack jokes about how the exercise is a lie and we will be experimented on return to regular job and time passes eventually assume that it was canceled and forget the whole thing
about 2 months later supervisor pulls me aside and tells me that I need to report to a briefing the next day says it’s about "some WHITEBOX exercise" has no idea what it is and doesn't seem to care. once again report to base hotel with the other 12 guys WHITEBOX guys show up and pick us up in a van driven off base to some random office building and escorted into the offices of the Department of Energy, WTF? mystery only deepens, what the fuck is happening? what if this actually is some evil experimental shit more hours of paperwork and security/safety briefings by random suits had to fill out and sign a non-disclosure agreement and that threatened arrest if violated required to turn in cell phones and any other electronic devices in our possession our cell phones get locked in a cabinet while the office phone in the room gets unplugged WHITEBOX guys finally return and fire up a power point briefing first slide just titled WHITBOX Exercise 0X slide also labeled in bold red letters "CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET / NOFORN / ORCON this is really starting to feel serious
WHITEBOX Exercise finally explained told that for the next two weeks we will be role playing as OPFOR (opposing forces) we will try to attack and penetrate a DOD facility and carry out a simulated act of sabotage facility is protected by a contracted privately owned security force security group is required by the DOD to carry out this exercise in order to audit their protection every couple of years if we succeed, security company fails the audit and looses the contract the exercise is the conclusion of a two week inspection of the security contractors and their procedures every exercise a random military unit is chosen as OPFOR "reminded that we are silent professionals and that this isn’t something we should be advertising shaving wavers granted and civilian attire only FUCKYEAH.jpg power point scrolls to a page with a google earth screenshot on it instantly recognize the picture it's Area 51 holyfuckingshit.exe are we are being told to break into Area 51? can't be real random unit bro pipes up out of nowhere "Is that fucking Area 51?" we are all fucking stoked later told not to call it Area 51 as that just makes you a total chode Groom Lake, Paradise Ranch, or Homey Airbase are the acceptable names many insiders simply refer to it as “The Base” also reminded of the possible legal action via UCMJ if we go around telling everyone about it One of the WHITEBOX guys is now our designated "insider threat" exercise is designed to simulate that someone inside has been comprised by a foreign government he will provide any information that we ask for that he has knowledge of or access to other WHITEBOX guys handle will handle exercise logistics they will provide any weapons or equipment that we request to carry out mission "within reason" told this is not a COD loadout screen
ground rules established... will only be provided with weapons that we are certified to carry weapons will be armed with blank rounds or completely empty also no vehicles will be utilized by us within the DOD property landmarkers simulating road chases are not authorized our insertion is simulated so we will already be escorted/processed through various checkpoints and dropped off near the base no impractical equipment requests, so no tanks, helos, surveillance drones, or scud missiles, lol any explosives we intend to simulate will be assessed by WHITEBOX so if we want to blow the perimeter fences we will tell them before hand, they will calculate the weight of the bang we would need, it would be simulated by rocks, and then someone would need to hump the weight number 1 rule established and stressed with a very serious tone we will be escorted by WHITEBOX evaluators at all times within the DOD landmarkers at no point are any of us authorized to be alone in the facility actual security is not laxed because of the exercise, nor is this a free pass to roam security personnel can still use real force in the event that we deviate from the established protocols shown various pictures within the airbase that most will never get to see a specific hangar is designated as our target building. we will need to gain access to that hangar and carry out an act of sabotage for our sabotage we will need to ///REDACTED/// obviously we won't be doing it for real so we will actually need complete a random task inside the hangar task will be designed to be as complex and time consuming as the real thing all while being hunted by the security force insider threat briefing continues, various elements of the base security procedures and day to day operations explained however, get the impression that the chosen source is someone with a generic admin position and is not actually involved with security we are also encouraged to do our own research and scour the interwebz for info about the base told to supply the URLs to WHITEBOX if we find anything of interest. sorry if we got your Alex Jones or Art Bell conspiracy blogs taken offline briefing finally concludes, we are reminded of our non-disclosure policy and taken back to Nellis and dismissed for the day
next day we all meet at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada we will be using this location to build our plan of attack and do rehearsals/dry runs it's actually pretty cool because it's on us to plan our op, just a bunch of random Airmen periodically grill our insider with questions and start asking our other WHITEBOX guys for gear we tried to have our insider take pictures of the interior of our target hangar, but he got caught IRL he would be arrested and interrogated by the feds, and the whole op would be dead instead though the guys that caught him received kudos from the inspectors, and he just tells us nope have to rely on a whiteboard sketch of the inside decide to keep it simple, M4 riffles only however I am certified on the Barret M82 .50 cal. we decide that I will carry that heavy mother fucker as well as an M4 and provide overwatch from the distance kind of bummed out because im not going inside it will be on me to neutralize certain security positions that we have previous identified we remind our WHITEBOX guys that the M82 is an anti-material weapon with the ability to disable vehicles they tell us that I will just need to call my shots to the evaluator that I will be partnered with he will radio to the vehicles that they are destroyed and will need to stop driving guess I should mention that is also part of the disadvantage we have we will all be paired with WHITEBOX evaluators who will sort of act as referees during this simulated battle however they will all be wearing bright orange reflective vest identifying them as exercise officials that really fucks our ability to stay hidden and stealthy, but it is what it is also should mention that this is a daytime raid despite our objections sounds like they are setting us up for failure, but they remind us not to think of it like that this is all being done just so the evaluators can get a good look at the security's incident response procedures it's not an unannounced drill, the military doesn't really like to do that kind of thing especially with large scale exercises such as this everyone on the base know we are coming, there's no element of surprise here except with what kind of attack we prep it would be a real hot clusterfuck if the security contractors failed the audit heads would roll, people would get fired, and numerous officers would be relieved of command I still get to attack Area 51 so don't care as this is the coolest thing I've done in the military
our plan is starting to come together over the days decide to sacrifice one of us in a suicide bomb attack figure out which of us is the most "FNG" or lowest ranking and make him do it he will approach one of the ECPs (entry points to the base) on foot wearing a rucksack loaded with rocks (make-believe explosives) he will be wearing a uniform and will identify himself as Air Force and will franticly yell that he needs help we don't anticipate that he will make it that far or that the security will actually swallow this ruse however his goal is to get as close as he can to the ECP and yell allah ackbar and release his dead man's switch and try to take out what he can his evaluatoescort will drop a GBS (ground burst simulator) when he detonates GBS is a little miniature explosive device that just makes a really loud boom anyone who’s been through any type of military training is familiar with them, they are used to add stress and create excitement we are hoping this will be a distraction and will get as much security as possible to converge on that location the rest of us will assault from the other side of the base and try to breach the perimeter several of us will also be rucking explosive rocks for the breach chose a breach point that will have us crossing only a minimal portion of the flightline (place where aircraft operate) if we successfully simulate breaching the perimeter the exercise will be paused and we will be inprocessed through the ECP and brought into the base exercise will resume and we will continue to assault towards the target hangar I will stay outside in my sniper position and try to smoke what I can inside the hangar the team will cover the doors with simulated claymores and take up cover two guys will carry out the simulated sabotage act while the rest cover the doors WHITEBOX doesn't have any inert claymores to provide so the will be simulated with small weighted ammo cans the weight is really starting to become problematic so we abandon the claymores and decide to just cover the doors with firepower would really help if we had a vehicle, but not happening to be fair, vehicles wouldn't make it that close to the base if they tried to attack IRL armored or not
week one down, plan looking solid considering how much of our attack is simulated two weeks of planning is actually excessive not complaining though cause two weeks of hanging out and smoking and joking compared to normal work at Nellis only downside is the hour drive back and forth each day to Creech AFB casino right outside that base with awesome steak and eggs so not too bad though one of the WHITEBOX guys tells us he's actually employed by the Department of Energy he doesn't actually work at Groom Lake, he works at the Nevada Test Range the massive amount of Nevada landscape that is restricted and owned by the feds is actually impressive contrary to popular myth there is road access to Groom Lake via the adjacent test range, but not too many people actually make that drive. the 737 shuttle from McCarran Airport is how everyone gets there since the drive is long as fuck the main paved road through Rachel Nevada that all the tourist flock to doesn't really have any operational use anymore allegedly we will be driving there through the test range via a convoluted series of paved and dirt roads route is CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET, not kidding
DOE dude gives us a tour of the test range one day load cases of water in back of van drive to Mercury Nevada and stop at checkpoint inprocessed inside, get pictures taken and issued escorted visitor passes also required to wear radiation badges once inside get to see all that shit from The Hills Have Eyes, fake towns that were blown up with atomic bombs not as intact as they are portrayed in films though, they are pretty rekt or deconstructed show us a massive crater called the Sedan Crater in the 50's they experimented with using atomic bombs for mass excavation projects hoping they could just nuke the ground and build shit instead of fucking around with bulldozers pretty stupid and impractical but they didn't know any better back then they buried an atomic bomb a half a mile underground and blew it up Sedan Crater left behind as a result and the fucking thing is huge. they allegedly herded cattle down to the bottom of the crater afterwards to test the post fallout effects pretty fuckin savage, and it was actually stunning to look at two hour drive to Groom Lake though endless desert roads now see why we loaded the water, we’d be pretty fucked if the van broke down or got stuck get first distant look at the base without having to enter their checkpoints holyshit.mp4 very few people get to actually see what we are seeing to be honest though, looks like any other air force base I've ever seen except smaller besides the obvious fact that it is in the middle of bum fuck nowhere and its main runway is long as fuck also realize one of the reasons they didn't want us operating vehicles most roads are dirt and the entire lake bed is surrounded by "moon dust" everywhere moon dust is the ultra-fine sand found in certain parts of the desert with the consistency of flour it's also a total bitch to drive in and the security patrols getting stuck is a somewhat frequent occurrence told that they even have some of the AAFES fast food joints there that you find on any other base imagine working at a Burger King that you need a Top Secret security clearance for, how the fuck does that work??? noticed that despite being authorized to be here, we are still being watched by distant security patrols wonder if they know we are the bad guys that are going to be attacking the joint make some minor adjustments to the plan since the google earth pictures lack some detail conclude tour and take the 3 to 4 hour drive back home, most of us slept in the van
arrive at Creech next day and see that more WHITEBOX guys have been added to the mix, now there's like 20 of them for the past two weeks they have been inspecting the security contractors and its procedures you can tell a lot of them are ex-military based off of language and the people that are dipping and spiting in empty water bottles the mood is light, all of the exercise planning is finished, nothing to do the last two days we managed to borrow an empty hangar at Creech and used it as a mockup of our target hangar to run rehearsals no longer asking our insider questions about security, instead start asking completely ridiculous questions about conspiracies for lulz accuse some of them of being reptilians to see how they react, some of them get legit uncomfortable before you go sounding off, doubt they are hiding anything, some folks just don’t get military humor one does, however, and shows us a velcro patch that he wears on his rucksack it's one of those standard patches you spot on a pilot’s flight suit that has the name, rank, branch, and blood type his blood type seriously says reptilian it's obvious that they embrace and poke fun at the reputation this base has, in fact they thrive off of it
the day finally fucking arrives, time to attack this bitch wake up at 0400 and drive an hour to Creech dressed to kill decide to wear DCU "desert combat uniform" pants and a sand t shirt with my personally owned Blackhawk tactical vest to carry spare M4 mags sometimes the military issues some real shitty gear so our unit is somewhat lax and allows us to personally buy our own better equipment if it has command approved use and doesn't break SOPs also wear my empty gas mask pouch attached to my hip and use it to carry spare M82 .50 cal mags also wear a black turban for lulz that I bought off an ANA (Afghani Northern Alliance) dude downrange used to have a guile suite but it got lost on a deployment so that's a no go unfortunately arm up with an M4 with M68 red dot sight and attach a BFA "blank firing adapter" to the muzzle, and load six mags of .556 blanks also provided with my trusty Barret .50 M82 and five mags there is no BFA for the Barret that I'm familiar with so carry that with empty mags, guess I get to cheat with the weight load up in the vans with WHITEBOX team and drive another hour to Mercury get inprosscessed through security checkpoint and receive visitor badges for the test range drive another 2 hour on random roads passing more checkpoints /// REDACTED /// forced to surrender cell phones, personally owned electronic devices and CAC cards (military ID cards) again receive our escorted visitor passes for Groom Lake and now continue down some of the most forbidden roads in American history start unloading as close to our start point as the terrain allows and hump the rest of the distance on foot with our escorts suicide attack bro hangs back in the van with other escorts and is driven to his start point the terrain is favorable and allows us to set up out of sight hence why we chose the spot I break off and try to set up my nest at my chosen OP "observation point" as discreetly as possible not really stealthy cause I'm being followed by a guy wearing an orange reflective vest that says STAN EVAL and he's just casually walking he tells me to set up the Barret, but just simulate your shots by firing the M4 blanks now in a spot where I can observe base activity and provide cover fire for the breach, but I am also the most easy to spot sniper ever now wait for confirmation that our distraction on the other side has happened, taking a real long fucking time
my escort's radio chimes to life and starts talking "attention all WHITEBOX, we now have proper authentication via CASTLE ROCK for initiation of a detachment level exercise" voice on radio proceeds to spit out a long winded exercise safety briefing realize it's been about 40 minutes and we are just now fucking starting another 10 minutes and finally get word that suicide bro is approaching his target escorts all inform us that the security force is responding to reports of an explosion outside of the ECP later find out that suicide bro was stopped and challenged at gun point about 50 meters outside of ECP by a mounted patrol he then just fuck it and started sprinting towards the ECP until they opened fire with blanks and his escort set off the GBS he actually managed to take out the vehicle that stopped him and create several casualties (we gave him the heaviest explosive rocks loadout) overall our distraction was pretty fucking successful give it a another minute or two and finally start shooting and calling my shots to my escort/evaluator he's talking on his radio and relaying my simulated violence, "inform Merc-17 that they are dead from sniper fire" etc... I have predetermined targets to engage based off of what poses the biggest threat to the breach team I actually do some damage and get confirmation of casualties from my escort it's about a 600 meter run to the base perimeter in the open desert so it's on me to try and clear their path as much as I can the plan is to try to lure some security vehicles to our position then eliminate them with the Barret while they are en route the dead vehicles can then serve as points of cover for the breach team as they assault towards the base breach team was also aiming to see if they could snag any security radios from the dead patrols so we can monitor their comms didn't really work out that way however, in the end we simply didn't have all the info about the anticipated security response without giving away too many sensitive details, we all got ambushed by the security from unexpected locations forced to abandon my nest and the Barret to start moving towards another location to back up the breach team that was under fire trade some shots with security until my escort finally announces "ok dude, you're dead. go ahead and lay down" that's it, game over
play dead for about 20 minutes while security cleans up the area breach team gets rekt, we managed to get within 100 meters of the perimeter couple of security dudes approach me and perform a dead combatant body search on me it's a specific type of search designed to search a dead body while also checking for possible explosive booby traps pretend to be dead and let security dudes run my pockets finally one of the evaluators shouts "PauseEx" (pause exercise) we got fucking annihilated, no chance this attack was going to be successful our evaluators tell us that everyone did a great job, HOWEVER.... we are going to continue the exercise because they didn't get the chance to observe much of the internal security components we are going to resume the exercise assuming that we were actually able to get inside that target hangar this will give the evaluators the opportunity to observe the security's recap and recov procedures (re-capture and recovery) we all get magically resurrected from the dead I realize that I am actually going inside Groom Lake! Fucking Awesome...
spend about 15 minutes policing up the area for brass which means wandering around and picking up spent cartridges board vans and get driven around to ECP. realize that only half of the security force is playing in this exercise the rest are still armed with live weapons and are still performing regular protection duties forced to show our visitor passes, names and badge numbers are compared against a master list that the security has /// REDACTED /// /// REDACTED /// notice a homemade sign hanging on the wall at the security center it’s got a picture of an alien with a red X through it that says "no extraterrestrial entities or relics beyond this point" like I said earlier, everyone enjoys the reputation this base has drive to our target hangar, holy fuck! I am now inside Area 51 use of blanks not authorized indoors, everyone is told to clear out weapons rest of the exercise will use simulated firing, the equivalent of pointing your empty weapon at someone and yelling bang sadly not the first time I trained like this, military does it all the time it’s ridiculous and awkward every time, looks like a bunch of kids playing backyard soldiers with sticks security has already reset its posture, they know we are attacking but doesn't know the building we are hitting we all enter the hangar, get the impression that it doesn't actually get used IRL anymore reeks of mildew and no power inside, dust everywhere in the center there is a pickup truck covered with a tarp and roped off with red rope and stanchions, signs posted identifying it as a controlled area told that this is a simulated military asset and this is what we are sabotaging WHITEBOX evaluator pulls a box out of the bed of the truck remember when I said we will have to do a complex and time consuming task to simulate our act of sabotage? it’s a fucking Star Wars Lego kit! I shit you not! evaluators tell us we will need start building it and reach page 12 in the instructions without errors or mistakes kind of wish we went with our earlier plan and brought claymores cause I spotted some sweet chokepoints outside the building to set them up also wish we had the idea of bringing padlocks and chains so we could lock down the hangar and make life more difficult for the security force set up our spots to cover the doors, we are well versed with building clearing tactics so we know what spots to cover to make it hard
WHITEBOX evaluator authenticates over the radio with someone by passing letters and numbers back and forth, process known as sign/countersign voice on radio announces that the detachment level WHITEBOX exercise has resumed showtime! Two unit bros start opening the Lego kit and sorting parts me and the suicide bro weren't supposed to be in this hangar or even on the base to begin with so we don't have points to cover inside come up with idea and ask one of the escorts if we can go out the back on to the flightline plan to walk to two separate buildings in opposite directions and see if we can create distractions evaluators approve the plan, but tell us we can't approach or enter other buildings, nor approach any parked aircraft decide to leave firearms and my tac vest behind for clever reasons if we are unarmed the security will most likely apprehend us, and search us this is more time consuming than just shooting us and will keep them away from the hangar longer exit the back of the hangar on to the flightline and just start casually walking down the tarmac with my escort eventually hear the sound of police sirens in the distance getting louder, hear they come! get the urge to start sprinting but decide not to since it would most likely result in me being tackled on the pavement, fuck that later realize distant sirens are actually responding to hangar after reports of a silent alarm being received so much for the distraction plan
decide not to return to hangar since there is not much I can do unarmed, and continue walking down flightline all the parked aircraft I see are just normal military aircraft, although some do seem to have “enhancements” or cosmetic features that I haven’t seen before ask my escort where they keep all the flying saucers, he smirks and just replies "underground" wonder if there are actually any subterranean levels to this base, suppose a lot of these buildings could support that ask my escort if there are really underground levels, he facetiously says “who knows” white pickup truck with police lights approaching fast pretend not to notice and keep walking voice starts barking at me over a loudspeaker "stop right there! do not move! get your hands up! security mercs climbing out of vehicle with rifles drawn, don't see magazines in the riffles, they are part of the drill they actually try to challenge both of us, escort has to remind them that he is out of play security goons bark at me, "face away from me NOW! keep your hands up!" they are actually pretty intimidating, I comply proceed to have me lay on the ground face down with my arms and legs stretched out yell at me to put my hands in the small of my back, palms together, fingers up big black guy approaches me and actually puts his knee on my neck George Floyd style "don't fight me, don't resist me, or you are gonna get hurt" he says puts me in zip ties and picks me up, see other guards still have weapons drawn on me overall whole thing similar to a gangbanger getting rolled up by the cops black guy puts me in some weird and uncomfortable arm hold tells me to start walking while he steers my body with the arm hold and walks me off the flightline taken to a grassy area, get put back on the ground and searched and questioned /// REDACTED /// I try to bluff and say that the hangar will blow if anyone goes inside, see if that stalls them he tries to question me about it, but I can tell he’s not biting, I decide to tone it down and stay quiet cause the dude really looks like he’s going to fuck me up actually overhear his partner talking on the radio, he’s telling others to exercise caution and beware of possible explosive booby traps lights out, realize that someone put a bag over my head evaluator calls out "EndEX" (end exercise) all portions of the exercise are terminated, it's all over
black security guy cuts my zip ties, takes off the hood and sets me loose later find out that security retook the hangar with no problems my guys inside struggled with the Legos since it was so dark and hard to see instead of immediately going in, security tossed inert CS gas canisters inside none of us brought gas mask since it was something our insider failed to mention evaluator let us build legos for another 30 seconds then yelled “GAS, GAS, GAS” unit bros in the hangar were told to lay on the ground and pretend to be incapacitated security swarmed the place with gas mask and guns, kicked away weapons they got a similar treatment to what I received on the flightline and got hauled out of there we all regroup at the base's main visitor center for the AAR (after action review) overall security responded quite well, only some points were critiqued, nothing failing smoke cigarettes and crack jokes back and forth with the security dudes, finally get to see the human side of the guy who snagged me on the flightline tell him he’s one scary mofo, he smiles and we shake hands security dudes leave, head to base theater for full debrief WHITEBOX guys thank us for our participation, time to head home wait a sec, let’s see some fucking aliens WHITEBOX guy smirks and says he’ll give us the dollar tour another day drive back to Mercury knowing full well that we are not going to hear back from them, especially about a tour return radiation badges to the Mercury office told that if we never hear back from them that it’s a good sign told that if they do call us then our Tricare (military health coverage) will get put to good use whole experience was cool as fuck one of the evaluators hands out business cards for ///REDACTED/// and tells us to look them up when we separate from the military starting pay for the security force is pretty fucking dope and only certain military backgrounds are considered for it return to Indian Springs and hit up the casino for drinks with the original 5 WHITEBOX guys ask if any of the prior OPFOR units actually pulled it off and broke in told that a group of CCT guys from the 24th STS was the closest anyone’s ever gotten but even they still failed makes sense, I’ve heard that those dudes are legit operators tell war stories and get drunk actually receive a letter of appreciation from the Air Force Test Center Detachment 3 from Edwards Air Force Base, California about a month later it thanks me for my participation in an exercise but makes no mention of Groom Lake my participation in a vaguely worded “DOD exercise” actually gets mentioned as a bullet in my annual performance report mfw I attacked Area 51
tldr - me and my coworkers "broke" into Area 51 with automatic weapons so we could put together an X-wing starfighter out of Legos
Thanks for reading. I should mention that I have intentionally withheld a lot of details and even altered a few. I'm not trying to blow up anyone’s spot and compromise shit. Just wanted to share a true story about some cool shit I got to do in my youth. For example WHITEBOX is a completely fabricated name while the whole operation actually went under another random weird name. It still ranks as some of the most cloak and dagger shit I got to do in the military. I actually don’t really tell too many people because it is no one’s business and no one would believe me anyways. I finally figured that enough time has passed and like I said, I have specially tailored this story to avoid leaking any sensitive shit. Overall the base was actually kind of underwhelming. I didn’t really see any earth shattering secrets there. All of the alien and reptilian conspiracy theories were openly mocked and made fun of there. It’s really just a base that gets an extra layer of discreetness and physical security for more sensitive assets and projects to be kept there. The CIA, JSOC and other intel gangs from Washington even have offices out there because it’s just a quiet tucked away place to do business. I will say that their security is no joke and that they have some truly fascinating techniques to detect and deny intruders. Hope you enjoyed.

TL;DR - I use the craft beer industry as a way to understand Capitalist Propaganda, how Capitalism and Socialism are inextricably linked to each other, and how through the use of propaganda, companies use the "illusion of choice" to coerce you into believing that you prefer the products that are most favorable to them. In order to change this into the consumer's favor, you need to be an informed consumer in the free market, and raise class consciousness to overthrow the tyranny of Capitalist Propaganda, that is called "Marketing".
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You can't understand Capitalist Propaganda unless you have a solid understanding of what Capitalism is beyond the literal definition of the word, which is just an abstract ideal. Propaganda plays off of the discrepancies between the ideals of Capitalism, like the free market, which is another abstract ideal, and the reality of Capitalism in practice in America, which can be characterized as Trickle Down Economics. Capitalism sought to be a pragmatic alternative to its economic predecessors, a fact which drives Capitalist Propaganda. However, through layers of abstraction throughout the years, it has become more of a religion, as critics refer to the increasingly ideological concept as "Supply Side Jesus", meaning you give all the money to the rich, it'll trickle down to the poor, and they can "vote" on the actions of the capitalists through monetary interactions in the free market.
Capitalist Propaganda is engrained in America, because at the time of our founding, Adam Smith wrote "Wealth of Nations", which is considered the Bible of the Free Market. This groundbreaking work utilized Newton's Laws of Physics, which were en vogue at the time, to describe how interactions in the marketplace would balance each other out, just as the laws of Newtonian Physics do.
The very noble purpose of Wealth of Nations was not create the oligarchy we have today, but to do the opposite. He wanted to describe a system that would protect individual freedoms and be truly democratic. Just as Lenin and Stalin bastardized the works of Marx, so too have capitalists in America bastardized the intentions of Adam Smith.
Capitalism and Socialism are best learned side by side, in my opinion, to avoid falling into the trappings of either ideology that our brains like to do. Which one is better? It depends on the market, but the answer is almost always somewhere in between.
Through learning how Socialist concepts can be applied to problems in Capitalism, you can cut through the propaganda and will see for yourself that these problems can be solved if we just drop the labels and do what's best for society and the individual. The problem is always finding the proper balance.
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WHAT? CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM ARE JOINED AT THE HIP?
Yep. You can never live in a pure economic system. Purity is always an illusion. If you want something to be pure, you have to put a lot of energy into making it that way. Nature likes to mix stuff up. This is why ideologies around racial purity and fascism always fail. There are people who want a "pure" economic system, but they are usually the people at the top and would only get richer from more purity while the rest of society loses freedom and slowly starves.
In a nutshell, Capitalism promotes laws that benefit those with money, while Socialism promotes a safety net that benefits everyone. Every single human is born into Socialism. As a baby, you need food, someone else works for it and gives it to you, but then at some point, you are expected to exchange labor for capital, and buy your own food. See? The two are forever bound as the yin and yang. You can also grow your own food, but for that you need land, which is capital.
These interactions are very tricky. I only want to tell you enough so that you can start to see Capitalist Propaganda, because right now, you're like a fish in water that can't see water. I often use this line to describe a person who can't see their own homegrown propaganda. The best way I found to study Capitalism is by relating it Socialism, the "air" above the "water" of Capitalism, if that makes sense.
I always find it best to look at a microcosm to understand these concepts. And today, that microcosm is beer.
Mmmm....Beeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr.....
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CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE
Before I poison your mind with my own propaganda, picture you're on vacation and you walk into a bar and want to order a beer. If you really want to understand the power of propaganda in your own life, really think of this before we break this all down. Really think, what makes you decide which beer to order? Do you like to look at the labels on the tap or bottle? That's obvious propaganda. It has absolutely nothing to do with the taste or quality of the beer itself, but sways your opinion toward logos you've seen before, which is why you see so many beer advertisements, which means that money that could've gone into quality is instead going into propaganda, and you're already biased towards an inferior product. Interesting. You really can't help being swayed by marketing, but at least you can be conscious of that fact, and that's important in order to be an informed consumer.
Do you ask the bartender for a recommendation? Why would you do that? You don't know the bartender any better than the beers in front of you. How do you know they aren't paid more to offer you a beer that sucks and is 12 years old and the owner wants to get rid of it? Do you ask for a certain style of beer? Do you ask for a local beer? And once you finally narrow it down to a few choices, do you ask for samples so you can make up your own mind? You should always do this. Then we get into "flavor propaganda", which we'll discuss later. Jeez. Did you every realize there was so much complexity behind being an informed consumer and just ordering a simple beer? Maybe you'll give in and just tell the bartender to pour whatever. Choice is difficult sometimes.
If you really visualize this and take a minute to let this sink in, you'll start to understand how external forces hijack the processor in your mind to manufacture desire through the illusion of choice. However, your health and enjoyment of the beer is not the goal for these external forces, they only want you to purchase. The perfect example is fast food. They know their product sucks, but they know you'll keep buying it, but that doesn't keep them from lying about how delicious it is in their ads. There is far more at play behind the curtain. There is a science behind addicting you to things, this is reinforced by a corporate tax and subsidy system that contorts the free market pushing centralization of production through homogenization and use of chemicals to hide the homogenization, and simply because there is more than one option, they make you feel like you have choice. This, in a nutshell, is how the illusion of choice works in the free market. It's not about what YOU want. The producer manipulates you to think you want what they have. Through this, they deceive Americans into buying products with a list of ingredients that a person would never freely choose to consume. So if you want to order a beer with no shit in it, then you're shit out of luck in America. You could in Germany, but we'll discuss that later.
While you're standing at that bar, you aren't conscious of the fact that your interests are in direct opposition to those of the bar owner's. Capitalists hide this fact with their perfect smiles, but Marx described this in detail. You want the best beer for the cheapest price, and the bar owner wants to sell you the cheapest beer at the highest price you'll pay. It doesn't stop there. The bar owner flips roles in the same situation with the beer distributor, who does the same with maybe another level of distribution, and continues to the brewer, then goes to the brewer versus supplier, supplier to farmer, and even though you'd think it stops there, the farmer has to deal with suppliers of equipment and seeds, and on and on.
Add to this list their auxiliary staff of HR, drivers, managers, brewers, bottle/keg makers, and of course owners, none of them care whether you actually like the beer you're drinking as long as you keep buying more. That's the big driver here.
Did you ever realize that every time you buy a beer, your own capital is partially responsible for creating and sustaining all of these jobs involved? You, my dear beer drinker, are the true job creator. Budweiser can brew all they want, it means nothing without buyers, who are the true engines of capitalism. Instead, you're treated as a rube by suits in a boardroom somewhere.
Capitalist Propaganda tells us the billionaires are job creators, but this is a lie. Jeff Bezos can't drink enough beer to sustain all these jobs. So why do we let him hoard all the money? Wouldn't the economy do better if we spread out Jeff's money so more people could buy more beers and more jobs would be created? According to Socialist Economics, yes. That's actually, quite simply, a Socialist Free Market. Did you even know that existed? The power hungry greedy people who are too lazy for manual labor go to such great lengths to make sure you don't learn it. They want you to think that only Capitalism allows you choice in the market. I'm sure you can guess why they say that.
Capitalism maintains itself by exulting the wealthy who use their economic power to punch down. The only way this system won't fall into fascism and fail is if the consumers start to punch back. Where Marx envisioned the Dictatorship of the Proletariat as they usurped power from the Bourgeoisie, a modern alternative is just teaching people to understand the system we live in, so that we can just start making changes in the way we live and to whom we give our money.
See that? Capitalism and Socialism can get along nicely, so long as the consumers are informed.
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CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE ALIENATION OF LABOR CAUSING LONELINESS IN SOCIETY
What I described within the previous section is what Marx called "Alienation of Labor". Each step in the process of making your beer is isolated from the others, so no one feels ownership over the end product or a true connection to the consumer, or job creator. Even the bartender selling it is alienated from the profit of their labor in serving the beer, so they only focus on the service aspect of giving you the beer, because that is where they earn their tip. They can't really fix anything about a shitty beer other than to offer you a different brand. The capitalist owner is usually not there. Their only interaction is setting the rules for everyone in the bar to follow, and pay themselves more than everyone who has to follow those rules. This is part of the conflict between the classes. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just pointing it out. The bar owner themself has to spend money on propaganda to attract customers that could be spent in other places, so has to find ways to cut costs. Unfortunately, they buy cheaper beer...and this is why you end up with IPAs. No one is connected to the products, so they only look at prices and find the cheapest, passable product. This is the race to the bottom of Capitalism.
Compare this to when brewpubs were a new thing. The brewer would come out and talk to you about the beer, you would give feedback that could effect future batches and it connected everyone to each other through commerce. It makes business "social" and I think nearly everyone enjoys that, but it is losing out in competition with chain breweries that enforce isolation and make cookie cutter propaganda and cookie cutter business models so they can turn owners into managers and suck all the profit back their corporate headquarters and offshore accounts. They kill the experience and make everything transactional. And all the kitsch they hang around their cookie cutter chain bar is just to hide the fact that no one in that place cares about anything other than not getting fired. Everyone is effectually alienated from everyone else. It's worth a read to check out this page on Marx's Theory of Alienation.
This alienation is the root of a lot of misery in society. Humans are communal animals forced to live in a society of individuality and alienation. As they mope around, they seek an escape. And that is why advertising is so nefarious. It seeks to manipulate you in that state. Imagine driving home from your alienating job to you empty home, but looking up and see a billboard with bunch of actors laughing and drinking beer. They take pictures that make these actors look like friends. It's just for show. They aren't selling beer to those laughing people in the picture. They're tempting lonely people to drown their sorrows. Capitalist Propaganda is used so your brain doesn't understand what it wants. It wants friends, then sees the words Bud Light. So when the bartenders asks...Make it a Bud Light. Look at how much money they spend to manipulate and capitalize on people's suffering.
Propaganda in Communist countries is controlled by the government, so it's clear who the enemy of your freedom is. Capitalist Propaganda hides behind the layers of complexity of the same economy you rely on to survive, so you never know what's propaganda or where it's coming from. Marketers find every way imaginable to get their disinformation in front of your eyes, even enlisting your friends on Facebook in annoying MLM schemes. Propaganda invaded everything that can be legally monetized. It's in the media, and not just commercials anymore. There's product placement, stories injected into the news, and even movies and social media created an entire industry of "lifestyle propaganda", telling you how to live your life and indulge in overconsumption. It's REALLY hard to get away from Capitalist Propaganda. There is so much money and research behind it and so much depth, even this long post is only barely scratching the surface. I just want to open your eyes to it.
I can't make you see all this. No one can. I can only describe it as best as I can. What you will experience when you understand this is what I call "Economic Enlightenment", similar to what Marx called "Class Consciousness". Once it happened to me, the world looked amazing, and the shitty propagandists selling us false hope all look like clowns in a very odd circus of vanity, despair and mediocrity.
Once I understood this, I saw clearly how we are increasingly trapped in a form of Corporate Slavery, led by seriously ridiculous oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg, who thinks he's the reincarnation of Augustus Caesar or something. That's why he has that haircut! This is a guy who stole a company and hired "screen psychologists" from Las Vegas to get you hooked on Facebook the same as casinos do with slot machines. He wants to be the funnel for propaganda throughout the world. He wants to be the kingmaker, decide what people buy, who they like, what views they hold. He can only do this because so many companies spend so much money to put their propaganda on that platform. They can only have this much money because the free market is not actually free. It's bought and paid for on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. The money that was supposed to "trickle down" is instead being spent on Capitalist Propaganda on these platforms, to get the proletariate to trickle their money up through endless, nonsensical online purchasing and local businesses who send the town's money to people who can't do anything with it but buy up properties that increase your rent and cost of living.
When people get drunk on the power of propaganda, they forget the lessons of the past. Propagandists always fall prey to their own delusions over time. In reality, your life is better without Facebook. There isn't anything on there that is healthy. Even if you just want to talk to a few friends, you are going to fall for the propaganda there. You can't help it. And if your bar advertises on Facebook, just think, that money could've gone into purchasing higher quality beer then sold at the same price, instead of going to Mark Zuckerberg so he can drop $30 million to buy the houses around him so no one can spy on him while he spies on you. You really gotta watch out for a guy who combines spying and propaganda all into a single app and thinks he's going to bring 200 years of peace to America. History is littered with knuckleheads like that. It's best to get off Facebook and encourage everyone else to do the same. Zuck only wants to lead himself to the Promised Land, and he's using your ignorance to fuel his own delusions by deluding you into thinking you want what he has to offer.
Let's get back to beer.
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IPAs AND THE FREE MARKET VS THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM
I like beer. When I worked in Germany, it was easy to walk into a bar and, like Farva, just order a liter o' beer. Often, there would only be two choices, light color or dark. As a matter of fact, even at the most famous beer festival in the world, Oktoberfest, people mostly drink the same standard type of beer, and no one complains about the lack of choice. It's quite easy. You can order with one finger. No need to see a menu or ask what's in it. It's simply beer. This worked for centuries. Consumers are fine with it. Prost! Have you ever shared a story like this and people say, "Oh, that would never work in America. Americans want choice." Yeah. Because we are flooded with Capitalist Propaganda.
So if consumer choice isn't pushing for a selection, why would a free market call for it? Imagine there are two bars and one of those bars says "30 beers on tap" and the other doesn't. You're more likely to choose it, and the other bar will have to compete in some way, often by copying. This forms trends, and people mistake this for something customers wanted. Trends are always marketing. Don't believe me? What happened to fidget spinners? So now you have a bunch of beers that no one asked for, yet will now demand. Competition creates more Capitalist Propaganda to create demand for something you never even wanted, but makes you think you do. And that's the best propaganda. You think you are thinking for yourself. This is the fallacy of consumer choice.
If you want to understand just how important that last paragraph is, consider this, "consumer choice" is the same propaganda they used to get you to carry around a device that spies on you 24/7 and sends that data to people you don't know, and you can't stop it, can you? You chose that. You wanted it. Not only that, but you paid $1,000 for the device to opt into their spying program, for the privilege of being mind controlled by the propaganda their AI selects for you. Did you read the Terms of Service? As bad as you may have thought Communist Propaganda was, Capitalist Propaganda is far better, and far stealthier. You believe you have freedom of choice. But your only choice is usually take it, or leave it. Oh, you need it for work? Maybe find a different job. Or just succumb to mass surveillance, and next year, you can drop another grand on a device with a marginally better camera.
There is a way to free yourself. You just have to understand the nature of propaganda. It took me a while, but I eventually broke free. Under Socialism, there would be laws against the exploitation of consumers. Capitalist Propaganda tells you that this takes away your freedom. This is a lie. Regulations give you the freedom to not have to worry whether the beer you're drinking has poison in it.
Germany has a lot of regulations on beer. It has the Reinheitsgebot (purity order), a law passed in 1516 that states that beer can only consist of water, hops and barley. Note, this is a different use of the word "purity" from earlier, as beer is itself a mixture of things. Historically there have also been regulations where beer could only be sold regionally, so no matter what part of Germany you were in, you only got a certain brand of beer at the bar, but it didn't matter because they all had the same ingredients. They could make wheat beers or unfiltered, but they were generally variations of pilsners and lagers. One meaning of the word "Lager" in German is "storage", meaning the beer was brewed in a way that it could be stored, allowing them to brew in bigger batches and store it.
Lagers use a more complex brewing process, so only larger breweries would make them, but this worked because of protected territories. America has a similar system, because each state has its own regulations on alcohol, but this is changing as corporate lawyers fight to homogenize the rules favorable to them, but the consumer loses control. Big brands tend to be lagers as they have general appeal to a wide audience. Did you notice this is the second time I pointed out that corporations create homogeneity? Without regulations, corporations create Fascism. That is why I tell people that we already live in the NWO but corporations rule the world instead of governments. Why do you think so few conspiracy theorists make this connection? Propagandists are paid a lot of money to keep even our small community confused about the reality of what's happening. Now, check out conspiracy and you'll see what I mean. They are spreading propaganda for the NWO over there and don't even know it. I tried to point that out and they finally banned me. Oh well. They'll figure it out in their own time.
In America, in 1978 it became legal to brew beer at home. This is what led to the explosion of new beers in the US decades later. Americans don't have purity laws, so could test new recipes. But people didn't generally like IPAs before, so how did they become so popular that they control 30% of the market? Marketing, of course. Create the market and tell people what they want.
IPA stands for India Pale Ale. It was invented by the British as an easy way to make a beer that they could drink in India. People only drank it out of necessity, as the other beers couldn't make the trip. IPAs are very easy to make and very forgiving, because if you mess it up, it already tasted bad anyway. As people started trying to get into microbrews, they often didn't have the capital to make lagers at small scale, and also wanted a simpler process so they didn't have to hire or train expert brewers, IPAs are cheap and easy to make at smaller scale.
In order to make it drinkable, brewers experimented with many different flavorings. This created a cult following of craft IPAs, where people would drive hours to stand in line for hours to try the newest concoction. The trendy nature of the craft beer world kept people training their palate to adapt to the taste of an IPA, making people start to actually like them. The flavorings made people think they were different, so even if they didn't like it, marketing tactics kept people coming back to try the latest blend. Your palate can adapt A LOT. Swedish people love Surströmming, but watch this video of Americans trying it for the first time. They tried to get me to eat it several times, but I would rather sit in a sauna until Tuesday to avoid smelling it while watching them eat it. It really smells that bad.
IPAs enticed people with popular, aromatic ingredients like bananas and pineapple. This is what I call "flavor propaganda". It's not bad in and of itself, but it can be easily misused to cover issues with quality or hide the taste of preservatives. Since we don'e have laws like Germany, you're left to rely on the knowledge and honesty of the bartender to find out. They don't make this info readily available, which is another form of Disinformation.
So if you think you actually like IPAs, just remember, you are just like a Swede eating rotten fish. A lot of propaganda went in to making IPAs popular, but it's the cheapest, easiest product to make that can be sold at the highest price, so they become popular. This is what business students call a business plan. To overcome the bad taste, IPAs were marketed as "classy" to shame you if you choose the more expensive to produce and more appealing pilsners and lagers, which were given a bad name due to being associated with major brands like Bud Light. This makes it harder to market microbrew lagers, which can only fetch a certain price due to association. And this is what is referred to as the "race to the bottom" in Capitalism.
Instead of trying to innovate ways to produce the beers you want, they just figure out how to get you to pay more for an inferior product, just like they do with BBQ. They make you think you want it. From this you can understand why "food" is full of junk that you wouldn't feed your dog. Whatever legal poison helps cheapen the product is considered "smart business", another propaganda term designed to hide the reality of doing immoral and harmful things to other humans for profit. If you make money on it, it's good. As if there aren't better choices we could come up with if there truly were a free market with an informed consumer.
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STRENGTHEN THE FREE MARKET BY BEING AN INFORMED CONSUMER
We don't need a Communist Revolution to make positive changes, so take off your ski masks and put your Antifa flags down. I like microbrew culture and still enjoy IPAs, but understanding the marketplace is how I do my part as an informed consumer and job creator to help create the world that I want to live in. I encourage you to do the same. Vote with your dollars. Don't let the Zuck-type sociopathic, corporate people in a distant land decide what you consume by looking at ads on his platform. Visit local breweries and talk to the brewmaster. Don't reinforce alienation from labor. Connect with the people who make the things you buy. Support independent entrepreneurship. These are the paths to a brighter future where we share in the abundance of wealth.
Discover Economic Enlightenment for yourself and realize that We The People are ultimately in control. Wealth inequality is greater than it was in France before the French Revolution. Don't let this train take us into the depths where another Lenin will arise and spend the night shooting people.
How you choose to spend your money today is what decides what will become the society of tomorrow. And remember, you always have the choice to buy nothing at all. I never saw a billboard that said that.
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LET THEM DRINK BEER!
I hope this gave you a glimpse behind the curtain of Capitalist Propaganda. Propaganda isn't just political, it has invaded everything and it's at full blast right now. I hope you can piece together how Capitalist Propaganda is actually designed to make you subservient by controlling what you want so they can maximize their own profit and teach you to accept whatever they offer, the homogenization of choice. However, your life is your own and you should remain in control of all aspects of it, including your desires.
Richard Wolff is an economist who studied at three elite universities in America and discusses how he was not able to even learn about Socialist Economics in the ivory tower, even though Capitalist Propaganda calls universities leftist. He found no department in America that is even willing to teach it or study it. Capitalist Propaganda censors these ideas, especially at the university. People in power don't want the serfs to learn about themselves. Check him out on YouTube. You'll realize that unchecked Capitalism leads to Fascism and Slavery, which is why they want to get rid of the minimum wage, so that we can return to sharecropping which is already increasingly happening in America under different names, like "student debt", "mortgages" and "insurance". Don't you think it's odd that a person has to go into debt so they can generate profits for corporations who really ought to be paying for this education themselves? If you have to go into debt before they'll hire you, it's much easier to negotiate against you.
If you want to see other examples of propaganda, check out this random tweet from one of America's Top Capitalist Propagandists. These are very odd pictures, and the only thing I can see in them is that they must be promoting those outfits, likely the blue dress, maybe those men's outfits as well. One thing you know is that she didn't become a billionaire by letting any single opportunity to enrich herself at the expense of others pass her by. I didn't look it up, but I am certain they sell that blue dress, or whoever does paid her to post this.
That's the main reason celebrities use social media. It's marketing. Their whole schtick is to sell garments made in a sweatshop in a foreign country by people who can't even afford a beer to Americans who are facing bankruptcy and homelessness themselves.
Read the replies of the tweet. These people have influence that vastly outsizes their understanding of their impact on the world. There are guillotines in the comments. There usually are. I'm seeing them a lot lately.
This type of propaganda is everywhere. And it's destroying America. Just like propaganda led to the demise of Nazi Germany, we could be looking at the same thing, but worse. It could start off as famine.
If you're having trouble deciding between the beers you are being offered, it's probably because you don't want anything at all, in which case the proper choice is: nothing. Or, try tap water. Maybe you're just thirsty. Now ask yourself, when you envisioned yourself at a bar, did you ever think to order water instead? Did you entertain the idea that you didn't even want a beer. That's the power of suggestion.
What if the rest of the world just cut America off from the means of production outsourced to areas with cheap labor? We would have our own famine and likely war. And if we have a revolution here, with the masses in the country being so disinformed about everything and not having any sort of class consciousness at the moment and instead stuck in alienation, the leader that rises here will likely lead to something horrifying. And we censor ourselves from pointing out the simple fact, that the only way America will survive is to tax the deluded royalty like Kim and Mark back to reality, so they can't indulge their reckless, childish delusions by selling off the very fabric of our nation to the highest bidder.
That doesn't make me a Socialist, that just makes me honest.
Enjoy your beer!
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Thanks for reading and I hope I helped you understand how you can empower yourself. I'm excited about the one I wrote for Election Day tomorrow to keep our NOPOL spirits up while all the politics clouds the airwaves. Cheers!

Understanding the Security Guard Officer
When hiring a security guard officer it is important to completely understand their specific job description, what type of services they can offer, and whether they work for a private or public company. APS is a private company, which means that we offer a range of security services to various corporations, events, and for personal protection. (Public companies are employed by the government and its agencies, and offer security to the public at large and include law enforcement personnel.) The number one objective of APS’s security officers is to protect people and their property, and to maintain a safe and secure environment.
Responsibilities of a Security Guard Officer
When working as a security guard officer it is important to completely understand your responsibilities, what qualifications are ideal in a security officer, and the accountability that comes with this position. There are many important factors when considering security officer responsibilities, and APS takes these responsibilities and your safety very seriously. Most importantly, the number one responsibility of our security officers is to ensure that the people and property we are responsible for are protected, and to maintain a safe and secure environment. Security guard officer responsibilities can include:
* Providing armed or unarmed protection for specific organizations
* Securing premises and personnel by patrolling the property
* Looking for irregularities and reporting incidents or problems
* Checking doors, gates, and windows for signs of unauthorized entry
* Monitoring surveillance equipment
* Inspecting buildings, equipment, and entrance points
* Informing violators of policy and procedures, and detaining when appropriate
* Controlling traffic by directing drivers
* Responding to alarms and ensuring that the alarm systems work properly
Different Types of Security Guard Officers and Job Locations
The actual security guard officer job description can vary quite a bit, depending on the type of security guard they are, whether they are armed or unarmed, and whether they are protecting personnel or property. APS offers several different types of security officers including personal protection, corporate security guard, event security guard, temporary security guards, etc. Work locations can vary quite a bit as well. APS Security officers may be hired to work at businesses such as schools, colleges, hospitals, banks, shopping centers, casinos, concert/sports venues, airports, train stations, etc. Security officers may also be hired on a personal level, or smaller scale, and provide one-on-one personal protection, or work surveillance at parties, weddings, babat mitzvahs, and other special events. In addition, security officers can be stationed at desks or in gatehouses, and others may patrol in vehicles, on foot, or even on a horse.
APS ensures that our Security Guard Officers understand their responsibilities and provide you, your organization, and/or your property the best service available so you feel safe and secure anytime you utilize our services. You never know when the need for security will arise, however, it is important to understand the security officer description to ensure you have the right type of security officer, in the right place at the right time. Please visit Security Officer Description or Security Officer Responsibilities for additional information.

"The Black Panther has been a protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle passed from warrior to warrior. Now because your friend murdered my father, I also wear the mantle of king. So I ask you, as both warrior and king, how long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?"
Born to King T'Chaka, T'Challa was raised in the public eye as the next in line to lead Wakanda, one of the poorest nations on earth with a strange lack of trade or diplomatic ties to any other country. In reality, Wakanda's isolationist policies were used to disguise how advanced their society was from the rest of the world due to the abundance of vibranium it was founded upon, and T'Challa didn't only inherit the throne from his father but also the mantle of the Black Panther: A figure that protected the country with physicals enhanced by a herb grown only within its borders. Accepting this role shortly before Tony Stark publicly announced he was Iron Man, the Black Panther didn't appear to the rest of the world until the bombing of a UN meeting left T'Chaka dead. Following his experiences uncovering the plot of Helmut Zemo, as well as coming to understand Killmonger's views when he attempted a hostile takeover of Wakanda, T'Challa renounced his predecessor's methods, opening Wakanda up to share its technology with the world.

Legend

Movies

CW - Captain America: Civil War BP - Black Panther IW - Avengers: Infinity War End - Avengers: Endgame

Other Sources

BPP - Black Panther Prelude

Heart-Shaped Herb

As with all Black Panthers before him, T'Challa gains his enhanced physicals through consumption of the heart-shaped herb, a plant exclusive to Wakanda through the vibranium meteorite spreading its metal throughout the soil and affecting its plant life. It is consumed through being crushed into a liquid, after which the consumer needs to be completely buried (usually sand, though in this example snow is used). For a brief period, the consumer is sent to the Ancestral Plane, where they can commune with their deceased relatives. Following this, they emerge from their burial in a brief panicked state with enhanced physicals. In this example, T'Challa was comatose and minutes away for death if not for the snow around him, and was healed by the experience.^BP
This power can be painfully stripped of a user through the consumption of an unknown liquid. While the powers can usually be regained through repeating the above process, Killmonger ordered the heart-shaped herbs destroyed upon becoming king, so should his Black Panther abilities be removed once more he would not be able to get them back.^BP

Strength

Striking

• Knocks back Bucky with a flying kick^CW
• Kicks Bucky into some crates^CW
• Sends a person flying back with a swipe^BP
• Kicks a man away^BP
• Presumably hits a person back, denting a car with him^BP
• Swings around a large rhino's horn and elbow strikes it, knocking it over and causing it to drive through the ground^BP

Cutting

• Uses his claws to slow his descent down a building^CW
• Cuts through a metal bar Bucky uses to defend himself^CW
• Easily cuts Clint's bow in two^CW
• Destroys a connecting part on a crane^BPP
• Slashes through a pole a gun is mounted on^BP
• Slashes open a car roof^BP
• Cuts through a car door^BP
• Scratches Captain America's shield^CW

Leaping

• Jumps up a storey^BP
• Leaps from a building he was thrown onto back towards the road and onto Klaue's car^BP
• Covers a large distance while jumping towards an oncoming army^IW
• Jumps a large distance to hit a fleeing Bucky Barnes^CW

Other

• Lifts an object in front of him to block a blast from Klaue^BP
• Throws a vibranium spear at a jet, hitting an engine and making it crash to the ground^BP
• Pulls open a car roof he cut through^BP
• Tilts a car he's on the roof of, balancing it by driving his claws in the road, allowing it to make a sharp turn at high speed^BP

Durability - Suitless

• Is punched in the chest by the Winter Soldier's metal arm^CW
• Gets blasted back by the explosion on the Vienna International Centre that ruins the room he's in, and seemingly immediately crawls through the wreckage towards his father^CW
• Without his powers, powers through a spear wound to the shoulder to force another Wakandan chief into submission^BP
• Gets thrown back after blocking a blast from Klaue with an object, falling down a storey and breaking a casino table, though he's taken out for a short while^BP
  • Klaue's arm can destroy bulletproof vibranium cars^BP
• When without his powers, gets thoroughly beaten in a fight against Killmonger and can still get up to make wild attacks before getting thrown off of a cliff into a river. He survives and is brought back to another Wakandan clan, but is comatose and minutes from death without the snow around him^BP

Durability - Original Habit

Blunt Force

• Thrown through the air by Wanda through the side of a jet bridge^CW
• Gets kicked back by Bucky Barnes^CW
• Tumbles back after being kicked by Captain America^CW
• Punched back by the Winter Soldier's metal arm^CW
• Has Cap's shield thrown at his back, rolls, and immediately continues running^CW

Other

• Jumps down from a bridge^CW
• Drops from a Wakandan jet above the tree line and is next seen waiting in a tree, unharmed^BP
• Is bulletproof^BP
  • Was pierced by a vibranium bullet^BPP
• Unharmed by a machine gun mounted inside a helicopter^CW
• Has two explosive arrows go off by his face^CW
• Seems to be unaffected by a grenade^BPP
• Only briefly stunned by electricity from Black Widow's gauntlet^CW

Durability - New Habit

An upgrade to his suit design created by Shuri given to him in Black Panther. This version is noted to be able to store kinetic energy to later discharge, which may further reduce damage dealt to him by attacks on top of the durability his old suit gave him.^BP

Blunt Force

• Exchanges blows with Killmonger^BP
• Gets sent flying a great distance after being rammed into by a war rhino, tumbling briefly on the ground before slamming into rocks^BP
  • One such rhino smashed through the flaming wreckage of a crashed jet^BP
• Gets clipped by a train and sent flying. While he was being subjected to sonic dampeners at the time, which causes his suit to disappear and reform in patches, it's not fully clear whether his suit's integrity was impacted when he was hit or if it was getting hit by the train that caused his suit to need to reform^BP
• Gets held by Thanos before being punched in the head, knocking him out for a short period^IW

Other

• Falls a large distance after tackling Killmonger off of a ledge, and recovers from landing fast enough that he gets out of the way of Killmonger's strike when he jumps down from a higher platform towards him^BP
• Continues to be bulletproof and takes an explosive launched by Killmonger's gun which throws him into a wall^BP
• Gets ganged up by a group of Wakandans, being repeatedly slashed by presumably vibranium weapons before blasting them away^BP
• Knocked over by Thanos' thrown weapon, quickly getting up^End
• Is seemingly in a jet as he causes it to crash^BP
• No-sells close range energy blasts^End
• Only slightly phased by a blast from Klaue's hand, though the suit needs to reform where it hit^BP
  • These blasts can destroy bulletproof vibranium cars^BP

Speed

Reaction

• Dodges several close range arrows from Hawkeye before catching two simultaneously^CW
• Standing a short distance behind Zemo, puts his hand over his pistol barrel before he can commit suicide with it^CW
• While everything's moving in slow motion, snatches a spear he blasted into the air with a kinetic pulse and throws it at a jet^BP

Movement

• Outruns cars in a Vienna tunnel^CW
• After being thrown off of a destroyed car, runs a few steps up a wall before leaping off^BP
• Outruns the Wakandan army alongside Captain America^IW

Skill

• Throws a group of EMP disks onto the hoods of a convoy of cars, though there could have been something in the disks that helped target them^BP
• Performs a triple kick in the air^CW
• Fights the Winter Soldier^CW
• While without powers and with a spear wound to the shoulder, forces a Wakandan chief into submission^BP

Panther Habit Abilities

Kinetic Energy

• Stores kinetic energy of physical blows in the suit, allowing it to be redistributed later. While this can be seemingly activated by striking the same spot twice, it can also release an energy pulse around the suit utilising all of it stored energy, as shown when all the force absorbed from a mass of bullets was released, causing a car he's on to flip^BP
• Seems to discharge kinetic energy in his fist to amp a punch^IW
• Creates an energy burst with a kick, while still seemingly retaining some kinetic energy in the suit^IW
• Sends a large group of people flying back^BP
  • Knocks Cull Obsidian over^IW
  • Clashes with Killmonger's suit, creating a large energy burst which sends both flying back^BP
  • Blasts back Chitauri and Chitauri gorillas^End
• Getting blasted into a wall by an explosive causes the suit to harmlessly lose its stored energy. As the suit took harder hits later in the same movie without this happening, it's possible that the explosion temporarily hindered the kinetic absorption in some way^BP
  • Loses its stored energy after being punched to the ground by Thanos, the blow also knocking T'Challa out^IW

Other

• Is stored in the teeth of a necklace and can be activated with a thought of its user. It burns through any clothes the person may be wearing at the time^BP
  • Can just remove the helmet while keeping the rest intact^BP
• His claws are retractable^CW
• Has claws on his feet^BP
• Seemingly utilizes shoes which absorb all sound it creates^BP
• Vibranium in its raw form is rendered inert and safe to transport at high speeds when subjected to sonic force. The updated Black Panther suit, when applied with constant sonic dampening, constantly disappeared and reformed in patches as it tried to keep its form^BP

Other Equipment

• Kimoyo Beads, bracelets made of several balls which have a variety of functions, such as being able to make and receive calls with realistic holograms of the other person. Two bracelets can merge their images if they're taking the same call^BP
  • Records videos with a holographic screen that comes from the beads^BP
  • Scans Vision, looking at his programming and whether it's possible to remove the Mind Stone from him^IW
  • Calls down a jet and makes it visible^BP
  • Okoye uses them to activate vibranium-transporting trains in Wakanda^BP
  • Used to stabilize Agent Ross after he had been shot with a bullet in his spine^BP
  • Alerts the wearer when Thanos' ships enter the atmosphere^IW
  • Can be turned off to avoid being found^BP
• EMP devices which stop cars after being thrown on their bonnets. These can't be pulled off by regular people^BP
• Uses communication devices described as having unlimited range. They can also be used for audio surveillance with T'Challa placing it on the back of Agent Ross' shoulder, allowing him and anyone else with the device on their neck to hear what's being said in an interrogation room^BP

"Wakanda forever!"

Hi! I have compiled a big list of challenges your players can encounter during the adventure.

• These challenges can be used as sub-goals the players will need to achieve on the path to their main goal, as obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
• Most of them can also be used as the primary goal, an idea for the whole adventure (just make the stakes higher, make it important/interesting/exciting to accomplish, make it more difficult, add sub-goals and obstacles players need to get through to achieve it).
• Challenges can be mixed and matched. In one adventure, challenge A can be the big primary goal, and challenge B can be a step towards accomplishing this big goal. In another adventure, it can be the other way around. In one adventure, the players need to obtain an item (a powerful weapon) to slay a monster, in another, they need to slay a monster to get their hands on the valuable item. In one adventure they need to rescue someone who has a clue to the mystery, in another they need to solve a mystery to be able to rescue someone.
• Use multiple challenges together to add more depth, make the adventure more difficult/interesting, get players to fight on several fronts. Combine challenges to make them complications for each other, or use conflicting challenges that are incompatible with each other to create difficult choices. Players need to protect a person while also being on the run from the law, they need to spy on someone while traveling through the dangerous environment, they need to fight for political power while pretending to be someone they're not, they need to slay a big monster in the middle of the city while protecting people and avoiding collateral damage.

If you find this list useful - please help me to improve and extend it!

• Share more challenge ideas, how can these challenge lists can be extended?
• What other big challenge categories could I add? Please share a few challenge examples in those categories.
• Share interesting examples for each kind of challenge.
• Share interesting complications and combinations of challenges.
• Share feedback/advice/ideas on improving this project.
• Share good resources (books, random tables, articles) I can use to extend this list.

Action/Adventure Challenges

• Defeat a villain and his minions.
• Defeat a monstecreature/horde.
• Obtain a McGuffin (item, vehicle, money, magic artifact, spell, your lost/stolen valuables, etc)
• Obtain Information (an ancient book, a piece of gossip, a clue, secret codes, a way to break the curse).
• Protect/Escort /Guard a person/creature (a rich merchant, a researcher, a young prince targeted for assassination, a last of its kind monster, tax collector, witness).
• Deliver a person (make sure they don't escape).
• Rescue a person/creature (rescue a hostage or a kidnapped person, break them out of captivity).
• Track, Find, Chase, and Capture/Catch a person/creature/vehicle (a criminal, a runaway, a ship, a lost pet, an escaped experiment, the infected).
• Find and save the missing person (lost kid, caravan, courier, spy.
• Deliver a valuable/fragile item/cargo and protect it from danger (artwork, cursed artifact, mysterious crate, a treasure map, a message).
• Destroy the target (an object, a cursed item, enemy weapon or infrastructure, the enemy base, a piece of blackmail on someone, a source of infection, close a portal).
• Sabotage a plan (disrupt a ritual, prevent a prophecy, undermine the invasion, stop villain from achieving their goals).
• Capture and secure the base/location (enemy city, friendly city under siege, a building, a military target).
• Defend a location (protect a village from monsters, a city from the enemy army, prevent enemies from passing a bridge or a tunnel, protect a crime scene, meeting site, warehouse, protect a ritual to ensure it will get completed).
• Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies. Survive under siege, liberate it.
• Robbery/Heist (rob a train or a blimp, abduct a person, commandeer a ship, steal diamonds from the casino, steal wand from the mage tower).
• Protect many innocent people (save people from a natural disaster for example, release the prisoners/slaves).
• Win a competition (Complications: your team is bad, the other side cheats, you can only win by cheating, the event is more deadly than it was supposed to be. You are competing for other purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, to spy on someone, or to get into the place where the event goes down, to prevent villain from winning, to prove yourself, to impress someone).
• Prepare for the mission. Get equipment/supplies/transportation/funding.
• Deal with the consequences of a botched/evil magic ritual.
• Distract the enemies. Act as bait for the ambush/trap.
• Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
• Build or repair an object (by collecting McGuffin ingredients).
• Perform a Ritual.
• Law Enforcement - act as a police for a town.
• Intercept a delivery, escort, communications.
• Prepare and execute an ambush.
• Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).

Exploration Challenges

• Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc).
• Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
• Travel through multiple locations to reach the target.
• Explore the location (to learn about it, to map it, to figure out what happened here. To find bandit camps, enemy encampments, monster nest, a way through, resources).
• Find a lost location/person/item/treasure/clues.
• Scout for information, survey the location/region (ahead of group, enemy territory, monster infested territory, uncharted wilderness).
• Clear location of danger (creatures, traps, haunting ghosts, curses, infestation).
• Track something/someone, find a trail.
• Deal with a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
• Survival (without food/water, deal with harsh weather, diseases. Find shelter. Repair a ship or a radio. Find a way to get back home.)
• Enter a guarded area (overcome defenses, defeat security, sneak in unseen).
• Escape guarded location (break out of prison).
• Use environment to your advantage (start an avalanche to block a pass, assume the most optimal position for combat).

Social/Intrigue Challenges

• Convince/Persuade a person to do/say/give you what you want.
• Intimidate/Manipulate/Blackmail/Force someone to do what you want.
• Befriend/Seduce someone, make allies.
• Gain confidence or forgiveness of a person who doesn't like you.
• Find a non-combat resolution.
• Get caught lying/cheating/sneaking, and rectify the situation.
  
• Persuade a group of people (an organization, an angry mob, snobby nobles. Persuade the army to take a route that will slow them down/lead them into an ambush, convince the bandits to raid the enemy, convince farmers to donate food).
  
• Gain social status, power, political influence (prove your worth, gain respect, impress someone, get elected).
  
• Change someone's social status (make them look good/bad, get them elected, overthrow a ruler).
  
• Run a kingdom/village/team/organization/business, lead an army (build a new one, restore the failing one to former glory).
  
• Change the society/group/organization (raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption).
  
• Gain control over the territory (invade a country or repel the invasion).
  
• Put down or incite rebellion/mutiny/conspiracy.
  
• Negotiate a deal, bargain (political compromise, hostage negotiations, trade information, convince them to sign a document).
  
• Resolve conflict, broker peace, unite rivaling factions, settle dispute.
  
• Establish political/trade relationships .
  
• Navigate a strange culture/customs (without offending anyone).
  
• Cause conflict/rivalry/war, pit people/factions against each other (get enemy minions to mistrust each other).
  
• Deceive a person.
  
• Set someone up, shift the blame to someone else.
  
• Infiltrate a group, conceal your identity (cult, bandits, enemy citadel, thieves guild).
  
• Find the spy/traitomole.
  
• Deal with being blackmailed, spied on, threatened, manipulated.
  
• Deal with a nasty rumor or important information/secrets about yourself being out there.
  
• Defend someone (or yourself) in the court.
  
• Prosecute/judge someone in the court.
  
• Put on a show, entertain.
  
• Redeem or corrupt a person (teach someone a lesson, seduce someone to the dark/light side).
  
• Recruit people to your cause.
  
• Find a way to get someone to owe you a favor, find a way to repay the debt you owe to someone else.
  
• Enforcement - apply pressure to a person to get them to do something or behave in a specific manner, without killing. (Calm down the rowdy gang, collect the debts).
  
• Get enemy soldiers/minions to defect and switch sides.
  
• Create a disinformation/propaganda campaign (feed it to the enemy spy, destroy someone's reputation, saw fear in the hearts of the enemy soldiers).
  
• Perform a con.
  

Mystery/Investigation Challenges

• Investigate a crime (murder, assault, theft, threats, blackmail, destruction of “x”, disappearances, corrupt law enforcer).
• Spying/Surveillance, gather information on a person/creature/location without being noticed. (Are they up to something shady, are they who they claim to be, discover their secret techniques, how are they bypassing security, how do they create “x”, involvement in “x”, what secrets are they hiding, where are they hiding “x”, where do they keep disappearing to, enemy troops, ).
• Search for clues and put them together to reach a conclusion.
• Find and interview witnesses, interrogate suspects.
• Figure out what's going on, unravel a plot.
• Figure out what happened in this location.
• Find evidence (proof of innocence or guilt, expose a corrupt official).
• Find out if the person is lying or keeping secrets, and what they are.
• Figure out someone's plot/motives.
• Figure out who's behind the plot.
• Do research (find and read ancient texts, talk to old wise people).

Stealth/Heist Challenges

• Steal (or plant) an item/information (modify enemy maps, plant disinformation. Plant clues to frame a person).
• Escape from danger (overwhelming force, ambush, pursuit of the law or criminals).
• Hide, cover your tracks, lay low.
• Sneak through undetected (sneak past enemy lines to deliver a message to allied forces, sneak past the bouncers into a party).
• Assassinate stealthily (sneak into the king's chambers, lure them out, use poison, make it look like an accident).
• Deal with getting noticed / drawing an unwanted attention.
• Clean up evidence (yours, someone else's).
• Exchange a real item for a fake or vice versa.
• Return a (creature, item) before anyone notices it's missing.
• Sabotage (device, ritual) without being noticed.
• Smuggle (creature, person, item) into or out of a location.
• Security Testing - breach the clients security unnoticed.
• Frame a person/group/nation for a crime.
• Fake someone's death.

Villain's Moves

• Personally confront the players.
• Send minions after the players.
• Hire a rival team of adventurers or thugs to go after players..
• Send an assassin.
• Send a spy.
• Set a bounty on their heads.
• Set a trap.
• Setup an ambush.
• Take hostages.
• Threaten an NPC players like.
• Frame players for a crime, declare them traitors/outlaws.
• Reveal player's secrets, crimes they have committed.
• Bribe the authorities/police to act against players.
• Convince authorities/police that players are evil.
• Make the public dislike the heroes.
• Have a "dead man switch" that will hurt people or destroy something valuable if the villain is killed.
• Know some information valuable to the players (like where hostages are kept, where the treasure is hidden), so players can't kill them, and must negotiate.
• Set a time-bomb. Something horrible will happen unless players do what they're told.
• Possess/blackmail/threaten an innocent person into doing their bidding.
• Pretend to be someone else to deceive the players.
• Befriend players to use them and betray them later.
• Kidnap one of the players.
• Join forces with another enemy of the players.
• Plant false clues, create decoy trails.
• Frame someone else for their crimes.
• Kill hero's mentoally.
• Cause mistrust, disorder, confusion, infighting among players or general population.
• Hire people to commit crimes while pretending to be someone else to create mistrust/conflict among two parties. (Example: the bandits "from another country" attacks "local merchants", Start a plague in an uneducated city and have the "foreign merchant" sell snake oil cures, "native patriot" kills a "alien anarchist, etc.)
• Put difficult choices in front of the heroes (like forcing Batman to save one of the ferry boats, to save Harvey Dent or Rachel).
• Take away resources from the players (steal their items).
• Give people the wrong idea about his powers/weaknesses.
• Push player's buttons, play on heroes' flaws, temptations, fears.
• Develop a good public image, make friends in the government, be beloved by the public.
• Seduce player's allies to the dark side, convince/threaten them into betraying players.

Complications

• Do it under time pressure (before the ritual is complete, before people run out of air, before reinforcements arrive, before or during the event, in transit, while you still have the chance).
• Do it while competing with the rival team.
• Unrelated people are interfering with the objective.
• Do it stealthily (don't attract attention, don't leave clues, no witnesses).
• Do it while pretending to be someone else.
• Do it without revealing that your client is involved.
• Prevent collateral damage, protect the innocents who are around.
• Avoid violence. Defeat/capture the villain/creature without it being harmed.
• Mitigate the risk, there's a high probability of causing a lot of damage if you're not careful.
  
• Two challenges conflict with each other (you must break your stealth to help someone in trouble, capture criminal or save people who are currently in danger).
  
• Difficult choice. Choose lesser of two evils, choose which people to rescue. Requiring personal sacrifice, risk, compromise.
  
• Opportunities that come with a difficulty, cost or have negative consequences.
  
• Resolve moral dilemma (the creature is dangerous but doesn't deserve to die, you're working for a bad guy, both sides of the conflict have valid points, completing a quest will harm people/environment).
  
• Do it with incomplete information.
  
• Do it with limited resources or without preparation.
  
• Do it without access to powers you're used to having (while sick/injured/debilitated, in an area where magic is outlawed/disabled, having lost your equipment).
  
• Locals here are unhelpful/hostile to you. You have low social status.
  
• You can't trust anyone.
  
• Doing it is illegal, or against authorities best interests, or is threatening a powerful group.
  
• There are regulations/restrictions on what you can do hindering your progress.
  
• Do it while being supervised (the media is all over you, a brilliant detective is on your tail, you are under suspicion, the enemy knows you're coming, you have a spy/mole).
  
• Do it despite your flaws/temptations/fears.
  
• It causes conflict/infighting within the team (player characters will have opposite goals/reactions to it).
  
• Do it while working together with antagonist or someone else you don't like.
  
• The side you're working for turns out to be evil.
  
• The villain is someone you know/like/respect.
  
• The villain is a respected public figure, celebrity, is liked by people or has authority over you.
  
• Bad guy has a dead man switch, if he dies the others will suffer or treasure will be lost. Bad guy is the only one who knows the valuable information.
  
• The people you're helping don't want your help.
  
• Vital information turns out to be wrong.
  
• Deal with the betrayal.
  
• Mission has been rigged to fail from the start (PCs may be used as a scapegoat).
  
• Objective is stolen before the PCs arrive.
  
• Objective must be undamaged.
  
• The important item has been transmuted and needs to be changed back, locked in a safe and needs a code to unlock, is a mineral that needs to be refined by a specific process. A book or a message is written in a foreign language that requires a translator.
  
• Only a bad/unpleasant person can provide the item/information/favor you need.
  

Please leave a comment and contribute to this project!
Edit:
I've had a few pretty huge epiphanies while writing this post:

• Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. Roleplaying is fundamentally about problem solving. This is the fundamental "game loop" of RPGs - GM puts a problem in front of the players, and they find creative ways to solve it, that's what gives them fun stuff to do and feels satisfying to accomplish.
• Adventure Ideas are fundamentally problems. They create an exciting, challenging, important goal for the players to accomplish.
• Big problems are broken down into small challenges. But fundamentally, the big climactic adventure/campaign goals and the small challenges players encounter on their way are the same thing. Every scene the characters solve a small problem, and it drives them towards solving the big problem. That's what plot points are - players solving or failing to solve a problem, which moves them closer to or farther away from the goal. Which feels exciting/valuable/dramatic.
• Conflict, obstacles, social/exploration/combat encounters are fundamentally just sources of problems. There probably are other sources that can generate problems.
• It's all just nested challenges: Campaign Problem > Adventure Problem > Scene Problem. And any challenge can be used on any of these levels.
• Therefore, the list above is a list of adventure ideas and plot points at the same time. Make any challenge very important/difficult/exciting to accomplish - and it becomes an idea for the adventure or a campaign. Make any adventure idea relatively small and simple - and it becomes a scene challenge (encounter). Put a number of smaller challenges in front of the players - and you've got your basic story structure (a list of encounters, the gameplay). Because goals and challenges are fundamentally the same, just the nested problems, they can be combined in any order to create any number of unique adventures.
• Also, it means that you can take big story ideas from movies, TV episodes, published modules, and use them as ideas for small encounters. Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Jaws, Incredibles - they can be big campaign ideas, small adventure ideas, or just a thing characters do in a scene (escape from the prison, hide from a monster, defeat a big golem).
• Game mechanics are also challenges. If there's an RPG system that gets players to do something awesome (GM moves in Dungeon World, Favors/Debts and Social Status mechanics from the Undying, Weak Moves from Dream Askew) - you can use those as challenges too.
• Even a single challenge can create an unlimited number of unique stories - you just change the concrete details. McGuffins, NPCs, locations, etc.

Edit 2:
Wow, this is taking off. If you like this post, you will probably enjoy my posts on Adventure Writing Process, Adventure Template (a list of the most important questions to answer when designing an adventure), and Making Combat Awesome. If you want updates on my future posts - follow me here.
Edit 3:
Created a little "Story Generator App" that will pick the random challenges for you.

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update September 29, 2020
Notes by mr_tyler_durden and Daily Update Team
Register for your Absentee Ballot here!
Watch here:

• Youtube: Update (YT Channel)
• Facebook: Update (FB Page)

Headlines

• 67,856 Cases (+1,018), 1,170 Deaths (+8)
• New cases by county: 226x Jefferson, 143x Fayette, 58x Laurel, 29x Warren, 28x Barren, 26x Christian, 26x Madison, 22x Hardin, 19x Calloway, 18x Boyd, 16x Rowan, 15x Kenton, 14x Henderson, 14x Scott, 13x Boone, 13x Franklin, 11x Carter, 11x Union, 11x Whitley, 10x Daviess, 9x Greenup, 9x Pulaski, 8x Bullitt, 8x Lincoln, 8x Magoffin, 8x Pike, 7x Bourbon, 7x Boyle, 7x Nelson, 7x Oldham, 7x Trigg, 6x Anderson, 6x Clark, 6x Garrard, 6x Hopkins, 6x Jessamine, 6x Logan, 6x Muhlenberg, 5x Campbell, 5x Grant, 5x Graves, 5x Harlan, 5x Marshall, 5x Morgan, 5x Shelby, 4x Adair, 4x Allen, 4x Bell, 4x Clay, 4x Floyd, 4x Hart, 4x Knox, 4x Leslie, 4x McCracken, 4x Mercer, 4x Ohio, 4x Perry, 4x Todd, 3x Breckinridge, 3x Caldwell, 3x Fulton, 3x Johnson, 3x Knott, 3x Larue, 3x Lyon, 3x Menifee, 3x Montgomery, 3x Owsley, 3x Spencer, 3x Wayne, 3x Webster, 3x Woodford, 2x Breathitt, 2x Carroll, 2x Estill, 2x Grayson, 2x Green, 2x Hancock, 2x Jackson, 2x Marion, 2x Martin, 2x Meade, 2x Rockcastle, 2x Taylor, 2x Trimble, 2x Wolfe, 1x Casey, 1x Edmonson, 1x Elliott, 1x Harrison, 1x Letcher, 1x McCreary, 1x Metcalfe, 1x Monroe, 1x Nicholas, 1x Powell, 1x Simpson
• New deaths by county: 68 M Hickman, 71 F Henderson, 77 M Floyd, 86 M Bullitt, 86 F Kenton, 85 F Floyd, 87 F Kenton, 93 F Belle
• Fast 4 at 4:
  • 1: Jobs Announcement: The latest company to join Kentucky's manufacturing sector is Chapin International, a manufacturer of metal compressed air sprayers based in Bavaria, New York.
  • 2: Vote!: So, as a reminder the deadline to register to vote is on Monday, October 5, visit http://govoteky.com/ for information on how to request your absentee ballot. Voting absentee is the safest way to vote this year because of COVID-19. So if you do not have access to the internet, you can call your county clerk's office to request your absentee ballot. The clerk's office will complete your absentee application over the phone with you. So that's an even easier step to be able to vote this year.
  • 3: PPE: As we all know PPE is a vital part of protecting Kentuckians during this pandemic and I am proud to report that, as of this week, our Department of Public Health warehouse has completed the stockpile. There is enough PPE in Kentucky for a 120 day surge.
  • 4: Mask Up KY
• Dr Stack: And then if you look at Kentucky, we had a nice long plateau, almost three months, at about 50 new cases per million per day. Then we surged up, and we have now reached a plateau of 150 to 160 new cases per million per day. But here's the challenge: the good news is we're not exponentially growing, the bad news is, if you were to draw a line against this, we have a general upward slope which means that actually over the last four to six weeks we're losing ground, it's getting worse as we go on.
• Dr Stack: The next thing is you have to get your flu shot. Flu spreads the same way can mask, you get your flu shot, there's a good chance we could shut down influenza this year. Again, if you're sloppy and careless it’s going to be impossible to know who has the flu and who has COVID, and people who are uncertain about their status are going to be subjected to a lot more needless worry, angst, and probably inconvenience, while they go through additional testing.
• Dr. Stack: if you have a cough, a cold, runny nose, a fever, chills: do not leave your house, do not go to work, do not go to school. This, of all years, is not the year to be casual and spread any kind of infection, because you know what? If you’ve got a cough and a fever people aren't going to assume you’ve got the common cold, they're going to be worried you have COVID-19. Don't do it, if you're sick, stay home. If you're sick enough to need medical care, contact your primary care provider and seek advice.
• Dr Stack: Please go get tested, now there's over 230 sites https://kycovid19.ky.gov
  • Northern Kentucky
  • Louisville
  • Norton (in Louisville)
  • Lexington
• Is the 15-minute test going to become available in KY? -- So the White House announced, I think it was yesterday, that it's going to be shipping a very large number of Abbott rapid tests, and there's another word that's in there, because there's been two types of rapid tests, to the country. It will be about 100 million more to the entire country. Kentucky will receive its portion based on our population. We are going to receive them all between now and December 31st.
• Will the state offer any further extension on renewals of driver's license similar to what was announced in July? That order expires September 30th. -- Yes. Tomorrow, I'll be signing an executive order that allows for people to renew their driver's license by a dropbox or by mail. You still have to renew it in one of those two fashions, all the way up to February of 2021. It doesn't automatically extend
• Do you have a progress report on the job Ernst & Young is doing on unemployment? -- We can provide- we will work on that tomorrow an update on E&Y's work on unemployment. It's been absolutely necessary to prevent us from falling further behind. We are gaining ground but there continue to be a significant number of claims that we are working through.
• Slides from Update

Full Notes

• Lt. Gov: Alright, good evening everybody. I'm going to kick us off today with the Fast 4 at 4, lots of good news to share.
• First is a jobs announcement. The latest company to join Kentucky's manufacturing sector is Chapin International, a manufacturer of metal compressed air sprayers based in Bavaria, New York. Chapin plans to invest nearly $5.5M, and create up to 100 full time jobs in the years ahead. The location will manufacture and distribute metal compressed air sprayers for industrial use, agriculture, home and garden, and other applications. This is a great project, located in Rockcastle County, Kentucky. Representatives from Chapin reached out to our local and state economic development teams just over two weeks ago, and the company has already found a home in an existing former manufacturing facility in the Rockcastle business park. This is a testament to Team Kentucky's dedication to helping businesses find the best fit for them, as quickly as possible. Kentucky's logistical advantages and ideal geographic location were major factors in our ability to bring Chapin to the Commonwealth. We are at the center of a 34-state distribution area in the eastern United States, with the existing infrastructure necessary for companies to ship products to customers as quickly as possible. It's one of the many advantages Kentucky offers companies, and we're glad to have the opportunity to help Chapin International business. Investments like this one from Chapin will help us to build a better Kentucky.
• Alright, second up is voting. As many of you know I'm a former civics teacher and so one of my favorite things to do was to talk to my students about the democratic process and how important it is to be a responsible citizen and vote. As we all know there is record turnout expected all across the country for the 2020 general election. And as a mom, it's very exciting for me because this is the first presidential election in which Emma, Will, and Nate will all get to participate, Evelyn is the only one that doesn't get to and she's only eight months old, so. Our family has engaged in many discussions about democracy and how lucky we are to live in this country at a time when we have the right to vote. So, as a reminder the deadline to register to vote is on Monday, October 5, visit http://govoteky.com/ for information on how to request your absentee ballot. Voting absentee is the safest way to vote this year because of COVID-19. So if you do not have access to the internet, you can call your county clerk's office to request your absentee ballot. The clerk's office will complete your absentee application over the phone with you. So that's an even easier step to be able to vote this year.
• Third, we have more good news about PPE. Kentuckians have continued to answer the call in the fight against COVID-19. It is this team Kentucky spirit that makes our home so special. I can tell you that spirit of unity, despite a global pandemic, is on full display through the Commonwealth from Paducah to Pikeville, and from Maysville to Monticello. Two weeks ago governor Beshear and I visited the Department for Public Health's warehouse to show the success in securing PP for frontline workers, and other Kentuckians. As we all know PPE is a vital part of protecting Kentuckians during this pandemic and I am proud to report that, as of this week, our Department of Public Health warehouse has completed the stockpile. There is enough PPE in Kentucky for a 120 day surge. Governor Beshear has talked about the time, earlier in the pandemic, when he spent days on the phone trying to secure PPE. He will tell you, he was not sure that this day would come. This is one of the successes for Kentucky in our battle against COVID-19. Our team has worked diligently to secure the protective equipment we need in our hospitals, in our long term care facilities, and other crucial frontline jobs. We appreciate those workers, our corporate partners, and everyday Kentuckians who contributed to make sure that we could reach this point.
• And last but not least, we're going to talk about Mask Up Kentucky and show some really good examples from across this Commonwealth of folks who are wearing their masks and doing the right thing.
  • So first up, we have a group of kindergarteners, who are social distancing during their PE class. And so this is an example of how even our youngest learners are willing to do their part, and they're willing to be leaders in their schools, so we appreciate that.
  • Next up, we have an example from a Knox County School where they have put a mask over their mascot, that says “Can't mask our pride” and we just really thought that this was a great example of that team Kentucky spirit so thank you Knox County.
  • Third, we have a picture of a workout from a University of Kentucky women's basketball team practicing for their upcoming season. They want to play, and they know that they have to be responsible enough to prepare in a safe and healthy way for their teammates, for their coaches, and for their supporters and so as a basketball coach that we might need to give some love to the women's basketball players in Kentucky.
  • And last but not least, not to be outdone, is a women's basketball practice at the University of Louisville. This is where the women's basketball team is trying to set a good example for all of us with their conditioning and that you can see that they're all masked. And I know that these women are far better athletes than I ever was, but it'd be really hard to work out and have a mask on at the same time, so I got to give them credit for going above and beyond to do the right thing, to keep themselves in shape, and to protect all of their teammates, coaches, and supporters. So thank you very much.
• Alright, thank you to our Lieutenant Governor. And today, continuing school pride here in the Commonwealth, I'm wearing Knox County Public Schools. This was sent to me by their Director of Communications with a really nice note talking about how their community had come together to fight for each other, to protect one another, and I love- this is this the line they have under their letterhead: “Inspiring leaders and changing futures one child at a time.” So thank you to Knox Public Schools. Also want to let you know we have a new member of our production team, who is Jim, who's helping us out here, moving forward, so now we have Kenneth at home. We miss you Kenneth. We don't miss the slides, but we miss you, James, who is here working on that and now, Jim as well. Now, I've known Kenneth for a long time, he'll take that in good humor or we'll find out about it on Twitter here in just a little bit.
• Alright, while that's good fun- today's COVID report is not.
• Today we are reporting our second highest total that we have had since March the sixth at 1,018.
• Positive cases today: 1,018 - What that means is that we are on pace to have even more cases than last week where we set a record number of cases.
• Probable cases: 8,312
• Total confirmed cases: 67,856
• Children Under 18: 157
• New cases by county: 226x Jefferson, 143x Fayette, 58x Laurel, 29x Warren, 28x Barren, 26x Christian, 26x Madison, 22x Hardin, 19x Calloway, 18x Boyd, 16x Rowan, 15x Kenton, 14x Henderson, 14x Scott, 13x Boone, 13x Franklin, 11x Carter, 11x Union, 11x Whitley, 10x Daviess, 9x Greenup, 9x Pulaski, 8x Bullitt, 8x Lincoln, 8x Magoffin, 8x Pike, 7x Bourbon, 7x Boyle, 7x Nelson, 7x Oldham, 7x Trigg, 6x Anderson, 6x Clark, 6x Garrard, 6x Hopkins, 6x Jessamine, 6x Logan, 6x Muhlenberg, 5x Campbell, 5x Grant, 5x Graves, 5x Harlan, 5x Marshall, 5x Morgan, 5x Shelby, 4x Adair, 4x Allen, 4x Bell, 4x Clay, 4x Floyd, 4x Hart, 4x Knox, 4x Leslie, 4x McCracken, 4x Mercer, 4x Ohio, 4x Perry, 4x Todd, 3x Breckinridge, 3x Caldwell, 3x Fulton, 3x Johnson, 3x Knott, 3x Larue, 3x Lyon, 3x Menifee, 3x Montgomery, 3x Owsley, 3x Spencer, 3x Wayne, 3x Webster, 3x Woodford, 2x Breathitt, 2x Carroll, 2x Estill, 2x Grayson, 2x Green, 2x Hancock, 2x Jackson, 2x Marion, 2x Martin, 2x Meade, 2x Rockcastle, 2x Taylor, 2x Trimble, 2x Wolfe, 1x Casey, 1x Edmonson, 1x Elliott, 1x Harrison, 1x Letcher, 1x McCreary, 1x Metcalfe, 1x Monroe, 1x Nicholas, 1x Powell, 1x Simpson
• Total tests conducted: 1,446,385 (PCR: 1,362,929, Serology: 55,904)
• Positivity Rate: 4.24% - That's a positive thing.
• Total hospitalized: 5,250
• Currently hospitalized: 589
• Total in ICU: 1,520
• Currently in ICU: 129
• On a ventilator: 81 - Please pray for those individuals
• Total recovered: 11,792
• New deaths today: 8 - Sadly we are reporting a loss of eight additional Kentuckians due COVID-19 or that COVID-19 was a contributing factor to their deaths.
• Total Deaths: 1,170
• New deaths by county: 68 M Hickman, 71 F Henderson, 77 M Floyd, 86 M Bullitt, 86 F Kenton, 85 F Floyd, 87 F Kenton, 93 F Belle
• Let's remember and think about those families, let's make sure we turn on our green lights, and let's also know when we have 1,018 cases it means we're going to lose more people moving forward. 1,018 cases is far too many. It does mean we're doing a lot of tests, and that's important; because we got to find those positives- we got to make sure that we can either quarantine them or get them the help they may need in the hospital, finding those positive cases, it helps make sure that we can get them better. But 1,018 cases is going the wrong direction. So, we need you to wear a facial covering. 1,018 cases ought to be a wake up call if last week's 5,000 almost 5,000 cases wasn't. We can't let this thing get out of control again because maybe we're tired. We know the steps that it takes and I think tomorrow we'll be back again with our revised top 10 rules to defeat COVID-19, because we probably need to talk about them more and again. But, but this mask. We really need you to where it really needs you to wear it.
• Racial breakdown of all cases: 80.32% Caucasian, 11.84% Black or African-American, 1.54% Asian, 5.80% Multiracial
• Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 89.17% non-Hispanic and 10.83% Hispanic
• Racial breakdown of all deaths: 83.55% Caucasian, 12.80% Black or African-American, 1.12% Asian, 2.52% Multiracial
• Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 96.41% non-Hispanic and 3.59% Hispanic
• Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 38 new residents and 23 new staff positive from yesterday, and 3 more deaths, 1 new facility.
  • Total facilities: 339
  • Total deaths: 670
  • Active cases: 576 residents, 437 staff
  • Total cases: 4413 residents, 2928 staff
• K-12 Update (PDF): 15 new students and 14 new faculty/staff positive, 12 new schools from yesterday.
  • Total facilities: 576
  • Active cases: 746 students, 348 faculty/staff
  • Total cases: 1138 students, 411 faculty/staff
• Again, this is our, our, our audited version, you're going to see the dashboard, which will have more up-to-date numbers, more immediate numbers, again remember our dashboard is what's reported by schools for the day before. It hasn't gone through the vetting of the local health department and through us but it's a way to have some immediate idea of what we may be seeing in your school or your community. And this is after it's gone through our process which can lag for five days.
• University Update (PDF): 303 new students and 2 new faculty/staff positive from yesterday, 3 new facilities.
  • Total facilities: 58
  • Active cases: 1374 students, 48 faculty/staff
  • Total cases: 3244 students, 87 faculty/staff
• I said yesterday that I believed we were at the start of a new escalation, we're certainly seeing that in today's numbers. That means we got to work harder. Now this is a war and we've won many battles. We can't walk away from the battlefield. We can't stop doing what it takes and I really need your help. In the Fall, and I think Dr Stack, who's back with us today after getting a week off, which I know is needed, will tell you that right now, moving into the fall, has the potential to be the most dangerous time we have seen in Kentucky. And it doesn't have to be, because we know that there is a vaccine in our future we just have to get to the point where we can prove that it's effective and deploy it to enough people. So are we willing to do what it takes to protect one another, until that point in time? I think that answer is yes, but we’ve got to prove it. Alright, I'm gonna ask Dr Stack to come up. He's got a couple of different things to come over to go over and then we'll answer questions.
• Thank you Governor, it's good to be back. And I know that the people watching this will appreciate it was nice to go somewhere where no one recognized me for a change. So, I enjoyed my time away. I have a few updates I want to go over, So I'm going to start with the schools. So, for K-12 schools yesterday was the first day that the self-reported data from the schools went live as a public dashboard. So this was a screenshot that I took before I came here, you'll see a huge spike up on the data on the right hand side, that's what you would expect. In the interest of clarity, the schools were asked to report yesterday, the 28th, data for the first 24 hours. So information reported them in the last 24 hours, I didn't want to- this was not a tag; you're it moment, I'm not trying to go back in time, we're going to get a new steady state as we go forward. So, people may have had folks in quarantine last week or new cases last week that won't be captured here, it's a snapshot in time and it's beginning on Monday, the 28th. As I understand that we have about 2,000 K-12 schools in the state of Kentucky, that's public and private, of those we have about 1,700 plus in our database so far. Those who are not in the database we're getting outreach and emails. Thank you, we appreciate that, and we expect it, and we will add you if your name is not presented the way you want it presented, we will update those things. So we're working through those details, but it just went live yesterday.
• We have over 1,300 schools who have reported data into this. So I'm satisfied that this is a good first step, but clearly when we're little over 1,300 reporting, when I just told you there's almost 2,000, we've got a ways to go. But for being only the second day that we've been doing this, thank you very much, I appreciate the effort. For those in the general public and for those who work in schools, K-12, this is a tool for you, more than anyone else. So we have other surveillance tools that I'll use for public health and I will definitely look at this but this is for the public. For those of you who have children in K-12 schools, you should be able to go here, you should be able to find your school by name, and you should be able to find the data that they've reported. If you don't find data here, I encourage you to call the school and ask them and enquire and work in partnership with them. Remember we get through this better if we work together. No one wins when we're pointing fingers at folks. This is all about trying to be honest, as open as we can, acknowledging the data, as we understand it, and being honest about that, and working together in good faith. So this is a tool for the public to try to help you be informed, at least in some closer to real-time situation as to what's going on in the school. We will report that the dashboard will update every morning with data from all the way through the previous day. And that's how that will be updated, and we'll go from here and see how that progresses over time,
• Those of you who saw me discussed this a couple weeks ago will recognize this. This is the color-coded metric-based dashboard for schools to determine the mode of instruction they should be in for school. The way this works, you're supposed to look, if you're a superintendent or someone responsible for school, every Thursday we recommend it at eight o'clock at night because we update this around dinnertime or late afternoon every day. You look Thursday evening at the map that we have on our website, I didn't put the map in here, it's published right on the main page of the website every single day, you match the color of your county to the color on this map, it's that simple, and then you do the things that are down the column. Now those are recommendations and folks have asked for these recommendations or these requirements. So, the reporting I just talked about, and a metric along these lines, part of this comes from a KRS statute that talks about how schools behave during epidemics. This is all to give public health guidance so that superintendents can decide whether to have their students in person, virtual only, or hybrid instruction, and there are instructions and guidelines down there and a wealth of KDE documents. The Kentucky Department for Public Health continues to work with the Kentucky Department for Education so thank you for that partnership. We did make one change to this today, and this rests with me. I did not like that in some states, they used a 14 day criteria that when they closed to in-person instruction, they had to shut down for two weeks. I wanted to use the metric as much as possible to guide decisions to open and close and not pick, you know, an arbitrary number of 14 days. So I put in there, instead of a 14 day metric that when you hit the red level which is a very high level of disease that you had to get back down to yellow before you should consider resuming in-person instruction. I described that as Chutes and Ladders you hit a long chute and if you remember that game and you went down a couple levels. I have removed that part so now you just follow when you check on Thursday night whatever color, your county is what you should do for the following week, and you don't have to get back down to yellow. I have said from the beginning, it is not our intent to strand people in the wrong categorization. The tool is intended to identify when the disease is particularly active in your community, the entire community, that involves K-12 schools but it also involves nursing homes, and businesses, and also restaurants, and bars, the whole community has to come together- it's a community based problem, and the community has to come together to do what needs to be done to improve the situation. So the one change we made today was you don't have to go all the way back down to yellow to consider resuming in-person instruction. But we do strongly urge you to read everything that's on there, follow the guidance that's posted. And I have to place this in context before I go to my next slide. We have to take this seriously folks, it's about to get colder, people are going to go indoors more, the disease is still out there. Every place, every place on the planet Earth where people have gotten lazy and lax about following the things we recommend has seen a surge in disease, every place. And we've had some improvements in hospital care and some improvements in treatment, but we have not had any massive breakthroughs. So we are in a position where if we take our eye off the ball, we're gonna get in trouble real quick, and I'll make that point on the next slide.
• So you've seen me use these, those of you who watch these briefings on a regular basis, over and over. This is from the 91-Dovic, the COVID-19 backwards website. And what it shows is, adjusted by population, the number of new cases per million people in your state on the seven day rolling average. So if you look New York got smacked hard and badly at the beginning, in fact to this day it's one of the areas that was the hardest hit in the entire United States and probably in the world, other than maybe Wuhan in the very beginning. New York has still managed to keep their disease burden relatively low, but even New York is still running that line down there, I think it’s at 50, so it's still running active disease, but it's much more suppressed. If you look at Kentucky, we're at about 152, now actually 160 new cases per million people per day. You’ll have to take my word on this, is really hot, that's running very hot. Remember this is a disease that when it gets out of control it starts to double rapidly. And so, the little simple math here you go from one to two to four to eight to 16 those numbers are still relatively small. When you go from 150 to 300 to 600 to 1,200 those are big numbers. So as you start getting those bigger numbers, that's more people sick, and after people get sick, hospitalizations follow, and after hospitalizations, that's when you can have deaths. And so what I put in here is New York as the red line. Who's relatively well controlled by comparison, if you were looking at Germany, on a different map- I can't put those that I found yet on the same map, countries and the States. If you were to take Germany, New Zealand, South Korea places that have lowered the disease and really kept it there, they would belong down near that black line at the very bottom. They've controlled the disease so well that in that country- if you didn't follow the rules you could walk out in public and you'd have a very low likelihood of getting sick but the reason it's that safe, is because they followed all the rules and they kept things closed down so that people in those countries are remarkably safe. But it's because they have very strong adherence to the things we're recommending be done. So, the US overall is the orange line. And if you look, we had a surge in the beginning, and a plateau and a surge and then it came back down and now it's on the upswing. I don't remember the latest data but as recently as the last 48 hours there were at least 26 states who are having a noteworthy positive increase in cases.
• And then if you look at Kentucky, we had a nice long plateau, almost three months, at about 50 new cases per million per day. Then we surged up, and we have now reached a plateau of 150 to 160 new cases per million per day. But here's the challenge: the good news is we're not exponentially growing, the bad news is, if you were to draw a line against this, we have a general upward slope which means that actually over the last four to six weeks we're losing ground, it's getting worse as we go on. And it's getting worse at a time that schools are going back into session, colleges and universities are in session, bars and restaurants are open. Remember we said we tried to take a multifactorial decision making approach to this, we looked at a lot of different things, we recognize the importance of the economy, and people's wellness, and being at work, and activities, but we can't afford to let this get out of control. Here's the thing for those who like casino metaphors, the house always wins. So here's the thing: people may flaunt the rules and disregard the rules and you know what? You may luck out, and it may work out okay. But the bug, the virus, is the house here. I don't know what county, or what city, or where, but if we ignore the rules someone's going to get bitten and they're going to get bitten bad. I don't have to guess on that, I can tell you that with absolute certainty: Everywhere that people got sloppy the virus got out of control and took a lot more lives. So please, when I talk about these wrap up points I'm going to make here, please take this seriously. I hope you've seen over the last six to seven months, we have gone through a period in the spring where there was so much we didn't know, and there was legitimate reason to be terrified of what could happen. And now we've gotten into this phase where we know that if we take certain simple steps that we can control the spread of the disease. Now people are really tired of this, they're fed up with hearing about this stuff, and they want to get back to their lives, but I'm going to tell you, that's not happening until we get to some time next year and probably not until past the summertime, because even when we get the vaccines- and I'm glad that things have gotten revised at the federal level because now it's aligning with what I was saying for weeks before, is that we're not going to have sufficient amount of quantity of vaccination materials to get everybody until we get to the summer or beyond next year. Hopefully we'll get something in late December or early January, but it'll be a small amount and it will be for the highest risk or highest targeted individuals, and then we'll move forward from there. And when we get to a better place where we have more information and it's appropriate we'll update you on vaccination plans, which we're actively working on too. But until then, we've got to wear masks, we have to physically distance more than six feet, you have to wash your hands. You've got to do three other things, if you have a cough, a cold, runny nose, a fever, chills: do not leave your house, do not go to work, do not go to school. This, of all years, is not the year to be casual and spread any kind of infection, because you know what? If you’ve got a cough and a fever people aren't going to assume you’ve got the common cold, they're going to be worried you have COVID-19. Don't do it, if you're sick, stay home. If you're sick enough to need medical care, contact your primary care provider and seek advice.
• The next thing is you have to get your flu shot. The United States apparently ordered 200 million doses of influenza vaccination this year which is higher than the 170 million they did the year before and even that was apparently a peak of sorts. You have to go out and get your flu shot. Let's make sure we use all those doses and force the government to order more of them, because if you get the flu shot, it's going to reduce the burden of flu. And if you wear your mask you know what? Flu spreads the same way can mask, you get your flu shot, there's a good chance we could shut down influenza this year. Again, if you're sloppy and careless it’s going to be impossible to know who has the flu and who has COVID, and people who are uncertain about their status are going to be subjected to a lot more needless worry, angst, and probably inconvenience, while they go through additional testing.

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