For the last six years, I have been supplementing my retirement income by working as a rideshare driver. At first, I was a little apprehensive about picking up complete strangers and all of the potential danger that might entail. After almost 20,000 rides, I can honestly say that there was only one experience where I thought my personal safety was at risk and it was relatively minor. Since those early days, rideshare companies have greatly improved their safety tools for both drivers and riders. Although I did not begin driving as an exercise in preparedness, it quickly became one.
The one instance where I was somewhat concerned for my safety happened in the first month of my driving experience. I accepted a ride and proceeded to a neighborhood that I would consider to be middle class and relatively safe. As I pulled up to the address, a man exited the house and approached the car. Although the rider’s name on the app was female, this was not unusual as often times you pick up multiple passengers. My suspicions were aroused when he asked about the destination. I informed him that I would not know that information until I started the ride. A young lady then exited the house and approached my car. As she opened the door, he got in on the other side. They proceeded to argue over where she was going and who she was meeting. She swore that she was just going shopping. He, however, was convinced that she was cheating on him with another man and refused to get out of the car. The conversation never became heated and I remained calm and just let it play out. When she told him he was wasting this man’s time, meaning me, he replied: “You think I give a f*** about this man’s time?” After a few more minutes of this back and forth, he exited the vehicle. As we drove away, she called her lover and told him what just happened. Sure enough, she was going to his house.
I learned a valuable lesson that day to be prepared and never take for granted a seemingly innocuous situation. It can change in a heartbeat. I commiserate with policeman who routinely have to deal with domestic situations on a daily basis. In spite of the rideshare company’s prohibition, I decided right then that I would never put myself in that situation again. From that day forward, I have always carried, just as I do when I am not driving! I can always get another job, but I only have one life and would prefer to grow old watching my grandchildren grow.
I have met a lot of fascinating people from all over the world and it is always interesting to hear from them about the events in their countries, as opposed to how our legacy media portrays those same events. Nigeria and covid would be one of the best examples of this phenomenon. If you remember, in the early days of covid, American media was filled with gloom and doom predictions for the African continent, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, because of the lack of modern medical facilities and medicines, poor sanitation, as well as a largely uneducated population. After a few months of this fear-porn, the fear mongering completely disappeared from the news. Why? It turns out the population is quite healthy, eats a lot of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and fresh meat. Also, obesity is quite rare in the countries that make up sub-Saharan Africa. They routinely walk everywhere and still perform a lot of manual labor, unlike in the west. Additionally, much of the population takes either Ivermectin as a treatment or a prophylactic for onchocerciasis (river blindness) or they take Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment or a prophylactic for malaria. Both of these medicines have proven to be a very potent anti-viral, highly effective in treating covid.
Because of all the news stories back in the early months of covid in 2020 and knowing Lagos is very densely populated, I asked a young lady from Nigeria how her family was doing. She told me that she was in college at the time here in Texas and they had gone to remote learning. She feared the worst for her family given all of the crazy stories in the U.S. media about the pending doom of Africa. But when she called home to check on her family, she said that her mom actually said “covid, what is covid?” When she explained to her mother what was transpiring here in America, her mother said “that’s crazy!! We are living our lives here just as we always have!” Turns out, the lack of obesity, fresh food (as opposed to ultra-high processed foods), manual labor, and either Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin was the perfect combination to ward off covid. Which is why those news stories rapidly vanished from American media as the millions of deaths never came close to materializing.
Over the time I have been a rideshare driver, my knowledge of my city and surrounding county has grown exponentially, as has my situational awareness skills and defensive driving ability. I am always in a heightened sense of alertness throughout my driving day without regard to whether it is twelve noon or twelve midnight, good neighborhood or bad, and clean cut or rough looking passenger. Whenever I am waiting for a passenger, I always keep my foot on the brake and the car in reverse in order to keep my rearview camera engaged. This allows me to maintain a clear picture of anyone suspicious approaching from the rear. I never look at my phone regardless of the time of day. I am continually scanning what is in front of me, beside me, and behind me utilizing me mirrors and rear-view camera. I keep my hand on the gear shift and can shift gears to drive in order to quickly speed away, if needed.
Fortunately, I have never had a need to escape from a suspicious situation. When entering rougher neighborhoods or public housing projects, I have learned to identify the drug or police lookouts loitering about in concealed areas and those “working on” a car, usually it the same car, time and again. After thousands of trips and tens of thousands of miles, I know every street, alley, dead-end, and pothole in this town. In the future, when things go sideways following a breakdown of society, I know countless alternate ways to travel from any given point in this city to another. I know all of the likely chokepoints and how to avoid or reroute around them. This knowledge could prove invaluable one day. I never would have had such an extensive knowledge if not for driving for a rideshare.
Almost routinely, I must take defensive action to avoid an accident. Every week or so, someone pulls out in front of me, slams on their brakes, or turns the wrong way down a one-way street heading directly for me. Thankfully, I was once a delivery driver for a few years for one of the largest deliver companies in the world. Their driver training and defensive driver training has served me well over the years. I have continued to hone these skills while rideshare driving. If you have never experienced how amazingly well anti-lock brakes work, I suggest you take a defensive training course and practice standing on your brakes at 40-50 miles per hour, while steering to avoid one or more vehicles or objects. Get some practice before you have to do it in real life! Although it is common sense for most preppers, my portable air compressor, a can of Fix-a-Flat, tire plug kit, and self-jumper have served me well over the last few years. “Don’t leave home without them!”
Regardless of how you feel about the politics of legal and/or illegal immigration, I can tell you that being a rideshare driver has opened my eyes to what is actually happening. I live in a large city in Texas roughly seven to nine hours from the border. During the Biden years, I twice picked up military age men traveling alone. One was from India. Two others were from China. The one from India felt the need to give me the packet he had been given from the Department of Homeland Security. In it was a letter instructing TSA to allow him on his flight to California in spite of the fact that he had no identification. The two Chinese men had the same packets in their possession. Given the rumors circulating at the time, it was not hard to piece together that these men had traveled from the other side of the world, crossed into Texas from Mexico and released into our country by the Biden administration and given permission to travel anywhere they wanted. I am just a random driver, hundreds of miles from the border. If I experienced this, how many millions of times was this repeated during the Biden years?
Additionally, our government and corporations are definitely selling us out. Well over half of the truckers I pick up at truck stops cannot speak English. They are not just Hispanic, either. Judging from their dress, names and the language they speak on their phone calls, many are from India and the Muslim countries of the former Soviet Union, such as Georgia or Kazakhstan. The accidents and deaths caused by these foreigners driving big rigs with a non-domiciled CDL, has become well known to the American public over the last several years. The Trump administration has been doing everything possible to eliminate this practice. But many blue states are not cooperating. However, I suspect that the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that freight brokers can be held liable for accidents caused by the unsafe carriers they hire will hopefully make our highways much safer and raise the rates that good old American truckers are paid.
In the areas where I drive, there are an inordinate number of small, neighborhood convenience stores owned by foreigners. The individuals who work there are all of the same nationality. Why? Is there a shortage of Americans willing to own or work these stores. No! The federal government is allowing them to immigrate here and purchase these stores thru SBA7(a) and 504 loans. Chain migration is then utilized to bring their family members over. They often live in the same crowded house, driving up rental rates and do not hire Americans. Additionally, if a computer programmer from India loses his tech job, they do not return to their country of origin, but rather go to work for their uncle at your local convenience store. You would be surprised how many of the workers at your local small neighborhood store have masters’ degrees in computer science or engineering. They stay here and continue to apply for tech jobs in America. Is it any wonder so many recent American graduates with tech degrees cannot find a job!
Recently, I have noticed a trend of increasing numbers of Indians (from India — not Native Americans) working in the food processing industries. They are taking jobs that are traditionally held by green card holders from Mexico because they can speak English and are even more compliant with work rules and low pay. They do not want to go back to India. And the Islamification of America is real! Over the last six years, there has been a notable increase in Muslim riders and mosques being built in the metropolitan area I call home. To be clear, many of these foreigners that I have met are extremely nice and grateful to be here in America. Regardless, they are taking jobs and business opportunities from American citizens and they rarely assimilate into American culture. Their cultures and their beliefs are in direct opposition to traditional American culture. We cannot allow the United States to go the way of Europe!!
Overall, the people I have met and the experiences I have had have been a rather mixed bag of both good and bad. I am encouraged by the young people that I have encountered who value hard work and education and are striving to make a better life for themselves and consequently a better United States of America. I can tell you that they are not all entrapped by the propaganda that traditional big news and social media spew forth on a daily basis. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered by those who are consumed by the vapid music, entertainment, and propaganda, contently living their lives in the matrix until that next government pellet. At times, I will admit that I get discouraged about prepping. Why am I doing all of this? Is it really necessary? But all in all, my experience as a rideshare driver has taught me that ours is a very fragile society and just a few meals from total anarchy. It has shown me that I must stay the course and continue on my preparedness journey!
If you want to truly learn what is going on in your area, I would encourage you to become a rideshare driver and see the reality of your city firsthand for yourself.
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