Hey folks, I’m going to give you five critical steps to take before the polls close tomorrow. These steps are about being prepared, being smart, and taking action while we still can. Things are uncertain, and whether you believe this or not, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Here’s what I’d do:
1. Get Some Cash Out
I can’t stress this enough—withdraw some cash, especially in small bills. We’re all used to using cards or mobile payments, but if there’s a serious disruption, you’ll want cash. Banks could close, ATMs might be down, or you could get stuck somewhere with no way to pay for what you need. The last thing you want is to be standing in line for food or gas and not be able to pay. Grab a couple hundred bucks in smaller denominations. You might not need it, but if things go sideways, you’ll be glad you have it.
2. Fill Up Your Gas Tank
Gas is another one of those things you don’t want to be scrambling for when you need it. Top off your tank now—don’t wait until it’s too late. I know some people think they’re good until the light comes on, but trust me, that can turn into a huge problem. If the supply chain gets messed up or fuel deliveries stop, you're going to regret not filling up today. And if you're one of those folks who drive a diesel, make sure you've got extra fuel on hand.
3. Set Up Your Communication Plan
One of the most important things to think about is who you’ll contact if the situation goes sideways. This includes family, close friends, or anyone you may need to reach if there’s a problem. Do you know what to do if your phone dies? What’s your backup plan if the grid goes down? Have a plan in place to meet up, check in, or communicate in an emergency. You may never need it, but not having a plan can make all the difference if things get chaotic. Think about it—when cell towers go down or the internet’s out, knowing exactly where to go or who to call will save you time and a lot of stress.
4. Get Some Precious Metals (But Don't Go Overboard)
Here’s where it gets a little tricky. A lot of people are talking about investing in precious metals like gold and silver. Yes, they’ve been a safe haven for centuries, and yes, they could be valuable in the long run. But let’s be real: right now, they’re not going to help you when you're just trying to buy a meal or fill your car with gas. What you need first is cash on hand. Once you’ve got that, a small stash of gold or silver can be a hedge against things falling apart, but it shouldn’t be your main focus right now. And forget about buying novelty coins with political faces on them. Get silver and gold that people recognize—like gold coins or junk silver. Think about other essentials, too - consider adding your "supplies" or "resources" that might be valuable in times of uncertainty. Don’t make things harder for yourself by investing in things that might not be easily exchanged for necessities.
5. Pray About It
This one’s probably the most important. Whether you believe in God or not, there’s something to be said for taking a moment to ask for discernment. Before you do anything drastic, ask for wisdom. I’ve had too many close calls in my life where I wasn’t sure what to do, but prayer gave me a sense of direction. You can plan all you want, but in times like these, I’ve learned that trusting God for guidance is key. I’ll never forget a time when we were in a dangerous situation in Syria, and we decided to pray as a team. Afterward, we all felt led to leave a place we’d planned to stay. That night, the position we had planned to stay at was overrun by ISIS, and our decision to leave saved us. You might not get an audible answer, but you'll feel it in your spirit. Trust that, and follow it.
Bonus Tip: Make a Home Photo Inventory
One more thing to think about while you're preparing—take a full photo inventory of everything in your house. If anything goes wrong—fire, flood, theft—you’ll need proof of what you had. Snap photos of your walls, furniture, electronics, and anything of value. Don't forget serial numbers on big-ticket items. This is something we used to do once a month when our kids were younger. Eventually, it became a routine part of our emergency prep. Store those photos online, somewhere private (like a cloud service), so they're available no matter what happens. It could be a lifesaver in case you need to make an insurance claim.
Take Action Now
Time’s ticking, and it’s better to be prepared than caught off guard. And remember, if you’re thinking, I don’t know if this is really necessary, just pray about it. Ask God for discernment and follow your gut. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.
Lastly, if you haven’t gotten my book, Death of Civilization, go to ChuckHolton.com. It’s free for supporters, and it has tons of helpful checklists to get you prepared for whatever’s coming next. If you can't afford it, email my daughter Amy ([email protected]), and she’ll send you a free download. No excuses—get ready now.
Israel / Somaliland
Somaliland is also the only stable and relatively successful state in the region, that is self-sustaining and doesn’t rely on international aid or international peacekeeping to govern,” stated Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces.
https://www.jns.org/israel-is-first-to-recognize-somaliland-accords-spirit-says-netanyahu/
Merry Christmas, Chuck and family! May you have a blessed time with family and the "grand babies."
I have fond memories of visiting Beckley back in '93 to visit Appalachian Bible College and spend some time with my uncle, who was the pastor at Mt. Tabor Baptist, aunt and cousin. I left Beckley only to return home to a flood.
One other thing I remember: It seemed like everything bore former Senator Robert Byrd's name.
Thank you for everything you do. May God richly bless all of you!
Reminder: Live Call with Chuck Tomorrow at 12PM
Join Chuck Holton and the Hot Zone crew tomorrow, December 20th at 12PM for a special live call!
We’ll be announcing the winners of the Christmas giveaway and giving you an inside look at what’s coming next for The Hot Zone.
Breaking news this Saturday: three Americans are dead in Syria tonight, three more are wounded, and the attack—described by U.S. Central Command as an ambush carried out by a lone ISIS gunman—has once again dragged the Syrian war back into the American consciousness for a few brief hours, which is usually all the time the public gives it before the news cycle moves on and the families are left to carry the weight alone.
CENTCOM says two of the dead were U.S. service members and one was an American civilian contractor, and that the attacker was engaged and killed as well, with names being withheld until next of kin are notified, which is the right thing to do; but even with those official facts in hand, I want to slow the pace down a little bit and do what I always try to do here—put this in context—because in a place like Syria, the story you get in the headline is almost never the story that explains why this happened.
I’m not interested in reporting tragedy like it’s a scoreboard, and I’m not interested in repeating a paragraph of breaking news without the background that makes it intelligible; I spent eight years in the military, and I’ve spent more than twenty years following the U.S. military across the globe—Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria included, with more than a dozen trips into Afghanistan, roughly fifteen into Iraq, and seven or so into Syria—so when Americans die in a place most people couldn’t find on a map, I feel a responsibility to show you what the map actually means.
The reported location of the attack is Palmyra—Palmira on some maps—an ancient city in central Syria that sits on the edge of a brutal expanse of desert, the kind of wide open, sun-blasted country where outsiders assume nothing lives and nothing happens, when in reality it’s exactly the kind of terrain insurgents love because “nothing” is a perfect disguise, a perfect place to move, cache weapons, blend into small villages, disappear into wadis, and wait for opportunities.
Palmyra also sits inside territory controlled by Syria’s new administration under Ahmed al-Sharaa, and if that name makes you pause, it should, because this is where Syrian politics gets complicated in the way only Syria can do: al-Sharaa rose through jihadist ranks, he has a history tied to insurgent warfare against Americans in Iraq, he was captured and held for years, and he later returned to Syria and consolidated power with strong Turkish backing—so when you hear phrases like “new Syrian administration” or “transitional government,” don’t imagine a Western-style democracy that suddenly appeared out of the sand; imagine a patchwork of militias, alliances of convenience, old enemies wearing new uniforms, and a leadership class that wants international legitimacy while carrying a past that cannot be scrubbed clean with a new suit and a new flag.
Now layer on top of that the reality that ISIS is not gone from Syria, not even close.
U.S. estimates have long suggested there are still roughly 2,000 to 3,000 ISIS fighters operating in and around the central Syrian desert, and there are far more than that if you include facilitators, family networks, financiers, and the enormous number of ISIS-linked detainees and relatives held in camps and makeshift prisons; and while that fight has mostly slipped out of the American public’s view, it continues quietly, relentlessly, week after week, because the moment pressure is relieved in a place like this, the violence doesn’t fade—it regroups.
The United States currently has about 900 troops in Syria, a number that matters because it tells you how thin the margin is between “containment” and “collapse,” especially when the enemy has deep local roots and decades of practice living off the land and off the grievances of the people around them; and those American troops are there for one primary purpose: to keep a lid on ISIS so we don’t wake up one day to another wave of mass executions, terror-state governance, and regional destabilization that forces the world back into a far more expensive war.
That’s the mission, and it’s not abstract; when ISIS surged the last time, the human cost was staggering, and it wasn’t paid by politicians or pundits—it was paid by Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish fighters, civilians, and yes, Americans too—and the reason our presence in Syria still functions as a deterrent is that in a powder keg region, a small, capable American footprint has a way of discouraging ambitious actors from taking the final step that turns instability into open war.
But here is the part that doesn’t get said out loud very often: the mission in Syria is increasingly tangled up in partnerships that are, at best, uneasy and, at worst, morally and strategically risky.
I’m coming to you today from Panama, where I’ve been digging into a story that’s far bigger than most people realize. It involves a shadowy network of ships—1,423 of them at last count—that roam the world’s oceans moving sanctioned oil for regimes like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Some call it the dark fleet, others the ghost fleet, but whatever the name, it’s become a lifeline for the world’s worst dictators.
Out of those 1,423 vessels, roughly 920 are sanctioned themselves. These aren’t just ships doing business in a gray area—they are part of a global ecosystem of deception, fraud, and corruption that props up authoritarian governments and undermines the international rules that keep maritime trade safe. They spoof GPS signals, turn off their transponders, swap oil with “cleaner” tankers in the dead of night, operate under shell-company ownership, and sail uninsured—floating environmental disasters just waiting to happen.
And for years, not much was done about it. But that may be changing.
Just days ago, the United States seized a massive VLCC tanker—the Skipper—carrying 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude bound for Cuba. It’s a move that seems small on its own, but it hints at something larger: Washington may finally be realizing that targeting the dark fleet isn’t just desirable—it’s strategically powerful.
That raises a fascinating question: What would happen if the U.S. and its allies cracked down hard on these ghost ships—everywhere, all at once? Could it reshape global power? Could it even topple Maduro?
Let’s dig into that.
These ghost ships function by exploiting cracks in the global maritime system. They manipulate AIS beacons, swap oil mid-ocean, hide ownership behind layers of shell companies, fly false flags, and operate without legitimate insurance. The UN’s maritime regulator has warned that these rusted, poorly maintained hulks are ticking time bombs—and we’ve already seen “Ukrainian sanctions” in action when Ukrainian sea drones blew up several shadow-fleet tankers in the Black Sea.
Imagine what happens if one of these decrepit tankers explodes in a global choke point like the Strait of Hormuz. You’d see a shock to oil markets overnight.
And yet, that’s the system that keeps Venezuela, Iran, and Russia afloat.
The seizure of the Skipper wasn’t random. It’s part of a broader pressure campaign—one that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has openly supported. He said plainly that going after these vessels is a direct way to choke off the revenue Maduro depends on to stay in power.
Pompeo also noted something key: Maduro’s regime probably has “weeks, not months” of financial runway without this illicit revenue stream. And Cuba—already experiencing rolling blackouts—relies on Venezuela for about a quarter of its total energy supply. This single tanker seizure hurts Havana even more than Caracas.
But perhaps the most important variable is geography. Satellite data reveals dozens of sanctioned tankers parked just off Venezuela’s northern coast. In theory, if the U.S. waits for them to exit Venezuela’s 200-mile EEZ, it could legally seize many of them—especially the stateless ones.
Imagine the U.S. grabbing one tanker per day.
The ripple effects would be enormous.
