It’s even more of a concern because our current occupant of the White House is responsible for the precipitating incident. My Islamic friends are horrified at what will happen after these lone wolf terrorists do more of what we saw today. A local community recently refused to allow a new mosque to be built there. I’m so scared for them.
That’s one of the ugliest parts of this cycle...the people who had nothing to do with lighting the fuse are often the ones who end up living with the backlash.
And...yes… what makes this even more dangerous...is that the precipitating event didn’t come out of nowhere. It was the product of CHOICES. Political CHOICES. Moral failures. Strategic recklessness.
When leaders help create the conditions for violence...like this asshole has...ordinary families and vulnerable communities pay the price.
Your point about your Islamic friends...yeah...that is exactly the kind of thing too many people miss. After an attack, fear doesn’t stay neatly contained. It spills outward. It looks for NEW targets. Mosques, immigrant communities...anyone already viewed as “other” ...becomes more exposed.
That’s why “we lit the match” is such a powerful way to put it.
Because this didn’t happen in a vacuum...and neither will the consequences.
Thank you for understanding. I did not say it well, and I apologize for that. It just feels so familiar in the moment - so needless and destructive - and all on the whim (or because of the manipulation,or both) of someone whose only concern is his own interests. The last time something like this happened Iwas on my way to make arrangements to drive to NM with a wonderful (converted) Muslim travel nurse who was afraid to travel alone across Texas. She decided to take a closer assignment, so felt more comfortable traveling on her own, for which I was glad. Her husband had managed to meet her there which made us both feel much more comfortable.
Your Substack is a place where I know I can safely spew until I can settle down.
Thanks for providing that for us. I’m sitting a gorgeous, big ol’ doggy who has talked me down. ☺️
Cherae, I hope your friends will be safe and that everybody everywhere will be safe. If prayers are answered, it should help tremendously.
I would phrase “who lit the match” as being the person whose identity we know. We did not do that ourselves, and we care about all people. May we all stay safe! May every person who feels unsure or who has anger be blessed with reasoning and decide to be peaceful and helpful instead!
We spent decades trying to help people feel good about themselves and toward other people and life itself. We tried so much to help the people we knew, so it is hard to understand that there are, or why that there are any individuals who do not have a better self image and a desire to help.
Beautifully said, and thank you, Judy. You are kind and gracious, and I’m glad we are acquainted here.
I’m not religiously affiliated, but I do believe strongly in the power of our intentions to shape the vibratory realities around, among and within all that is.
Cherae, you’re welcome, and I thank you! Thank you for being here and for sharing your lovely ideas.
It means so much to be able to share here, and you express your thoughts so well. Lucky you to have a wonderful big big dog by your side! That gives me a warm smile! I don’t have a dog, but my warm comfort in calming the thoughts tonight will be having another cup of hot tea!
I don’t have pets of my own. I do some petsitting now that I’m on Social Security. It’s a wonderful way to spend me my time. I make a little cash, but mostly share the pure love that animals offer in their unique way AND have made some of the best friends I’ve ever had this way. It wasn’t planned, but it’s open up whole new worlds. They’re good medicine!
I love it that you’re so experienced in these matters- and share that with us. ( Also hate hearing it, at the same time). So— was domestic terrorism the handlers plan, as the result of Iran bombing? I think so. God help us. We have fallen so far down.
Beverly...you’re asking the right question. You damn sure are.
I think a lot of people feel that same dread right now...because when leaders make reckless choices...ordinary people are the ones left exposed.
What we can say for SURE is this: when conflict is escalated...the odds of domestic backlash..lone-wolf violence...and symbolic attacks here at home go up too. That part is real...and factual.
Your larger point lands; we really have fallen a long way. The atmosphere is darker, more unstable...and more dangerous than it should be. No question about it.
God help us is right. But...so is staying AWAKE to what’s happening!
THANK YOU JACK!! Our son & family are planning a trip to Disneyland during the Easter break and I’ve asked him to reconsider the trip right now…but with his usual bravado, he announced that he won’t let potential terrorism force him to live afraid. I agree with that but right now, at this moment it is more dangerous than it has been for years and years! I have shared your post with him…and I am going to take a screenshot of certain tips, highlight and re-send them! Thanks to the arrogance and ignorance of this regime our lives have just become more dangerous…I’d say “unbelievable” but I expected this when he returned to the Oval Office, and I expect worse is yet to come!
I think you’re handling it exactly the right way...not with panic...but...with clear-eyed REALISM.
Your son is right that we can’t hand our lives over to fear. But...you’re also right that refusing to live in fear is NOT the same thing as refusing to recognize when the landscape has become more dangerous. Those are two VERY different things.
Refusing to allow fear to keep me from driving is irrational. However, becoming too fearless (careless), I stop wearing my seatbelt...that's just old-fashioned stupidity.
That’s why your instinct to pull out specific tips...highlight them...and send them along is such a smart move. Not “don’t go.” Not hysteria. Just: go in with your eyes open...pay attention...and take the right precautions. That’s the adult response.
Yes, your larger point lands hard. A lot of us saw this kind of increased vulnerability coming the minute this regime returned to power. The arrogance. The recklessness. The willingness to WEAKEN the very systems that help keep ordinary families safe. None of that was hard to foresee.
I really like the way you put it: I’d say unbelievable...but I expected it. That’s exactly the feeling so many people are sitting with right now.
You’re doing what good parents do: trying to protect the people you love without surrendering to panic. That matters!
Christie, best wishes for safety to all of you! I understand both points of view and believe that precautions and having awareness like Jack is suggesting are so important!
Jack Hopkins is correct on every structural point that matters. He is correct that radicalization now requires nothing more than a phone and an algorithm. He is correct that the barrier to violence has collapsed — that a car, a grievance, and a justification story are now sufficient. He is correct that the University of Maryland’s terrorism tracking database lost its federal funding precisely as early 2025 data was signaling a significant rise in incidents. And he is correct that when you stop measuring threats, you don’t eliminate them — you simply lose the ability to see them coming. The attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield was not random chaos. It was targeted anti-semitism, carried out against 140 children, in an environment where the rhetorical guardrails against such hatred have been deliberately loosened by the people sworn to maintain them.
Where Hopkins is careful, I will be direct. This is not negligence. When a government defunds terrorism prevention, removes counterterrorism analysts, and redirects national security resources toward immigration spectacle — simultaneously, deliberately, while radicalization accelerates — that is a policy choice with predictable consequences. History is unambiguous on this point: leaders who benefit from fear have little institutional incentive to reduce it. The children in that Michigan synagogue were not protected by a deportation flight or a political rally. They were protected by one security guard — doing his job without the database, the funding, or the institutional infrastructure that a serious government would have preserved. Hopkins is right that prepared citizens are harder to terrorize. But citizens without institutional protection are also harder to save. Both things are true. And only one of them is being addressed.
Jack, I’m sorry. Please know that when I asked questions of HKJANE at the end of my reflections in responding to her, it was a matter of being caught up in the thoughts her comment had brought to mind. As she rightly pointed out, I should have asked you, and I was in no way trying to bypass you. I was just involved and asked as they came to me.
So I expect you will tell us when you are ready or within still more of the wisdom you share. Still, here are the questions I had and am pasting here for you. Maybe they seem more rhetorical than anything. It’s a matter for me of wishing, caring, hoping, and simply wanting to know.
What do you foresee or anticipate happening to help reverse the losses, the hateful mindsets, and to help rebuild our country and the humanity of mankind toward each other? You know people’s ways, patterns, and much more, Jack,
as I realize. I also realize that not a one of us is a fortune teller. That fact does not stop me wondering though, and your thoughts are based on wisdom, training, history, and experience! That is wonderful. Anything I might project, and I do not feel that I can, would not have those needed backgrounds. Part of me feels that there can be no answer specifically, so maybe I should not even ask, or so it seems as I think more about it. I simply am yearning for everyone to be good and everything to be better for the sakes of everyone.
I hope to live long enough and well enough to see us come out of these times and to be better than before. I hope we can all look forward to a better present in the future.
HKJANE, yes, we have seen each step along the way being built into an environment of hatreds, of manipulations of minds of followers, of ways to use other people’s minds and assets or work, while destroying much along the way, while trying to acclimate ways of thinking, to guide some people not to even notice what is happening, or maybe some people would not have noticed anyway, yet devastating harm
has come to so many people. That possibility that some followers do not even notice or even care seems inexplicable. However it is, here we are.
What do you foresee or anticipate happening to help reverse the losses, the hateful mindsets, and to help rebuild our country and the humanity of mankind toward each other? I hope to live long enough and well enough to see us come out of these times and to be better than before. I hope we can all look forward to a better present in the future.
Thank you for your kind words — but this question belongs to Jack, not me.
I can reflect his research and Hopkin’s framework. But the lived journalism and hard-won perspective on where we go from here — that’s Jack’s work, Jack’s career, and Jack’s column to answer.
Please take this question directly to him. It’s exactly why he writes.
I might add when the ‘leader of the free world’ takes his orders from one of the most evil dictators instead of from the American people, this is what we must expect. Trump lives to destroy us…..all of us.
My late husband was a very protective, proactive law enforcement husband and dad. He had no problem saying “I love you” when my kids and I would go out and about or when I had to travel extensively for work. We had no problem saying “I love you” when he left for the streets of Phoenix. What we did, as a reminder of familial love but more importantly, our collective bond to get safely back home was to remind one another to be aware of our surroundings and to watch, without paranoia, the who, what and when of other people’s actions. Our reminder from my husband was a hug and the simple statement of “don’t be a crime statistic!” This reminder still resonates with me, especially as I live alone these days.
My kids and I would remind my husband that his job was to get back home at the end of his day…..and it would not be unusual for me to laughingly remind him that I would never allow the City of Phoenix to dictate his last rites! I’m as feisty as my husband was introverted.
All kidding aside, Jack, you are kind and caring to share your wisdom of being prepared but not paranoid, to be aware of your situation and surroundings without being irrational.
As the Brits coined in WWII during the blitz “Keep calm and carry on!”
Diana...what a beautiful memory of your husband. I can feel the love and discipline in the way your family lived.
“Don’t be a crime statistic” may sound blunt...but...what he was really teaching was EXACTLY what you described: awareness without paranoia. That’s the sweet spot. Eyes open...instincts on...but still living your life.
I also love the image of you reminding him that Phoenix wasn’t going to get to plan his last rites. That kind of humor is often how families in law enforcement...carry the weight of dangerous work.
I love the old WWII line...keep calm and carry on. That spirit matters. Prepared, aware, bonded to the people we love… and determined to make it back home at the end of the day!
Your husband clearly lived that ethic...and it sounds like it’s still guiding you and your kids today. That’s a powerful legacy.
And what Black families have been saying for years, stay Woke. Pay attention to your surroundings. The definition has morphed into something more in line with empathy and compassion, but the original meaning is still important as well.
Thank you. This is reality. I look forward to reading your next article about how you and your family stay prepared for terrorist attacks. I recall your article on survival after Trump was elected.
You’re exactly right, this is about dealing with REALITY... as it is...not as we wish it were.
Awareness and preparation aren’t about living in fear. They’re about making sure the people we love...are a little harder to catch off guard.
I’m glad that the earlier piece resonated with you, too. The same basic principle applies here... stay calm...stay informed...and focus on the few things that actually improve your odds.
I’ll be sharing the specific precautions my family uses in the next article...the practical ones that matter most...and how to decide which ones make sense for you and your family.
Jack, thank you so much for explaining the aspects of such situations. It is hard to recognize it as our country, but we absolutely need to know. I look forward to reading more, of course. It is a blessing to receive your wise and helpful newsletter!
You’ve identified the hardest part for many of us: recognizing the reality of the moment while still holding onto what’s worth protecting about this country.
That tension is uncomfortable...but facing it honestly is how we stay steady instead of overwhelmed.
I’m grateful you’re here, reading and thinking through it with me. I am.
And...yes... #HOLDFAST is EXACTLY the right spirit!
Thank you so much, Jack! Your experience, wisdom, and outlooks are amazing! They certainly make me feel less isolated in going through these situations.
Yes, I agree Judy, Jack is truly a blessing. Not for those who prefer fluff and fantasy,but for those of us who are grounded in our present day reality.
The historical precedents here are worth remembering. In WWII, German U-boats prowled the American East Coast almost completely unopposed during Operation Drumbeat — tankers burning within sight of Miami Beach and New York Harbor while locals watched from the shore. The coastline was wide open, the populace oblivious, and the losses staggering before anyone got serious about it.
Meanwhile, Japan launched Fu-Go balloon bombs — roughly 9,000 of them — carried by the jet stream to reach the continental U.S., killing an Oregon family and reaching as far inland as Michigan. Most Americans have never heard of either campaign.
The lesson both enemies absorbed was the same one every asymmetric adversary since has understood: you don't have to match America's strength, you just have to find the gaps.
Geography used to provide a buffer. It doesn't anymore. Oceans that once took weeks to cross are now irrelevant when radicalization happens over a phone, financing moves digitally, and the "weapon" is a rented truck or a kitchen knife.
The deeper problem is cultural. Decades of uncontested dominance — military, economic, geographic — have produced a population that is, frankly, fat on comfort and arrogant about its own invulnerability. We are a target-rich environment in every sense: dense crowds, soft infrastructure, a media ecosystem that amplifies every attack for free, and a public that reflexively assumes these things happen somewhere else.
The asymmetry is the whole point. It costs almost nothing to attack and an enormous amount to defend everywhere, all the time. Until that math gets more serious attention than it currently does, the trend Jack describes is only going one direction.
We do what we can to prepare, but until it happens we don't know how we will respond. We do know how Trump will respond: martial law and a crackdown on rights, attacking the vulnerable, and stealing as much as possible.
J Hardy...you’re bringing up some powerful historical examples... and...you’re absolutely right that adversaries have long looked for gaps, rather than trying to match American power head-on.
Operation Drumbeat and the Fu-Go balloons are EXACTLY the kinds of episodes most people never hear about...yet...they illustrate that the homeland has NEVER been completely insulated from outside threats.
Your point about asymmetry is also well taken. The imbalance between the low cost of attacking...and the high cost of defending everything...is one of the central challenges security planners have always faced.
That’s why awareness, resilience...and preparation at the community level...matter so much alongside whatever governments do.
I appreciate the way you framed the larger lesson; geography and past dominance can create a sense of invulnerability...that...isn’t always realistic.
Staying alert to that reality...without surrendering to fear...is exactly the balance we’re trying to encourage here.
Regarding "...but until it happens, we don't know how we will respond" in the paid article. I agree, most people don't know how they will respond until the shit hits the fan, but...it is certainly possible to BE someone who knows what they will do...beforehand. The right kind of training offers that...to those willing to follow through.
Thanks, Jack. At the very least we should carry trauma bandages in our vehicles and be prepared to help the wounded. When you read about people in Northern Ireland during the late 1970s, there was a watchfulness that one only develops in a war zone. Same in middle eastern countries where suicide bombing is a common practice. The goal is disruption and panic, and if we keep our heads (especially if we can get some training in the meantime) we will be in a better position to help. We're overdue, and unfortunately innocent people are the props who will be hurt by this.
From my days as a general aviation flight instructor, I've learned to value emergency preparedness. Students were taught to use checklists preflight and pre-takeoff. We practiced all sorts of emergencies -- a lot. A student called me after a solo emergency he'd practiced for, and he did just fine.
Nowadays, when I'm at the theater or a musical performance, they always open with a recorded announcement to note the nearest exit and silence your cell phone. I do actually look for the nearest exit. And I actually look at the safety card in the back of the airline seat and note my exit. Each time, I'm hoping it's thirty seconds of my life I wasted and will never get back.
Homeowner's insurance was a big waste of money for 40 years. Then my house burned down in the Eaton Fire last year. Yes, precautions matter!
Margaret...that’s a PERFECT way to think about it.
Pilots understand something the rest of the public often forgets: you prepare so that if the unlikely happens...your brain ALREADY knows what to do. Training and checklists turn panic...into muscle memory.
I love that you mentioned still looking for exits and reading the safety card. Those little habits seem trivial...until the day they aren’t.
Your story about the fire really drives it home. For forty years, the insurance felt like wasted money… until the one day it wasn’t.
That’s EXACTLY the mindset here: most of the time, preparation feels unnecessary...until suddenly... it’s EVERYTHING.
trump said he’s been briefed on Iranian terrorist sleeper cells inside the US: “We know where most of them are, we’ve got our eye on all of them - I think.”
Nothing to worry about if you have a bunker.
But Jack, you are not worrying about cells necessarily, but lone actors. Much harder to track. But the ICE will start zeroing in on innocent families and individuals at mosques. Bringing more terror.
The trauma kit makes much sense. A couple of bandaids and an elastic wrap from a first aid kit won't do much to stop arterial blood, or even venous.
I have a hard time blaming Iran for this escalation.
Organized “cells” are one thing. They leave trails...communications...logistics. Intelligence agencies know how to hunt those.
Lone actors are a completely different challenge.
A phone, a grievance...and a story in their head can be enough. That’s why I focused on that risk in the article.
You also make an important point about the trauma kit. A basic first-aid kit really isn’t built for severe bleeding. The difference between Band-Aids and a tourniquet or proper pressure bandage can literally be life and death.
Elisabeth, thank you. I’m glad you’re thinking about it in exactly that way!
Preparation is the right response. Not panic, not fear...just clear-eyed awareness and taking a few practical steps to keep the people you love a little safer.
That mindset...alone...puts you ahead of most people. Way ahead.
It was a real gut punch today to drive by a different synagogue in West Bloomfield today and see every entrance barricaded by the police. It was just a few miles from the attack, but as a precaution it was being guarded. At the time I wasn't aware of the attack but quickly got up to speed. The realization that this is just the beginning of our new reality, that was what struck me. I wasn't surprised just saddened that is where we are today.
When 9/11 happened, 44,000 flights were cancelled in the USA that day and the days following, if I remember correctly. 44,000 which were not targeted, 44,000 planeloads of people flying every day who arrive safely at their destinations. I like those odds. Of course, the 2700 lives lost on 9/11 was a tragedy. And we should always remain vigilant. AND you had some excellent suggestions of things to notice and to do in case of a terrible situation in your vicinity. But you are still safer flying somewhere, than driving to the airport, or store, etc. Thanks for being the voice of calm and reason, and realism, in these troubled times.
Thank you for this Jack and look forward to the next piece to make plans for safety and awareness. It was inevitable that we would see escalation with the rhetoric coming from the orange menace…he is rapidly unraveling.
Believe it or not, I actually worked for the now defunct Midwest Research Institute (MRI) which used to be located across from Gilliam Park and the Nelson Art Gallery. It was in 1979, my psychology professor Maynard Shelley was doing a research project for MRI about terrorism. It was difficult to explain to people what terrorism was because no one had really experienced anything remotely like that. It was so interesting, one of the conclusions was that people who feel isolated often look for something to fill the loneliness void, and the more isolated they were, the more radical they could become. Now terrorism is a well known phenomenon so when you hear about an attack, you have an immediate source of reference. Back then few people possessed the skills to analyze it. Your article is spot on, I might add I am holding my breath each terror attack now, deciphering whether it is real or a false flag. You have helped me and many others hone our sixth and seventh senses! Thank you Jack, for being a tether to hold fast to! #HOLDFAST
It’s even more of a concern because our current occupant of the White House is responsible for the precipitating incident. My Islamic friends are horrified at what will happen after these lone wolf terrorists do more of what we saw today. A local community recently refused to allow a new mosque to be built there. I’m so scared for them.
“We” lit the match to this one.
Rae..you’re right to be scared for them.
That’s one of the ugliest parts of this cycle...the people who had nothing to do with lighting the fuse are often the ones who end up living with the backlash.
And...yes… what makes this even more dangerous...is that the precipitating event didn’t come out of nowhere. It was the product of CHOICES. Political CHOICES. Moral failures. Strategic recklessness.
When leaders help create the conditions for violence...like this asshole has...ordinary families and vulnerable communities pay the price.
Your point about your Islamic friends...yeah...that is exactly the kind of thing too many people miss. After an attack, fear doesn’t stay neatly contained. It spills outward. It looks for NEW targets. Mosques, immigrant communities...anyone already viewed as “other” ...becomes more exposed.
That’s why “we lit the match” is such a powerful way to put it.
Because this didn’t happen in a vacuum...and neither will the consequences.
-Jack
Thank you for understanding. I did not say it well, and I apologize for that. It just feels so familiar in the moment - so needless and destructive - and all on the whim (or because of the manipulation,or both) of someone whose only concern is his own interests. The last time something like this happened Iwas on my way to make arrangements to drive to NM with a wonderful (converted) Muslim travel nurse who was afraid to travel alone across Texas. She decided to take a closer assignment, so felt more comfortable traveling on her own, for which I was glad. Her husband had managed to meet her there which made us both feel much more comfortable.
Your Substack is a place where I know I can safely spew until I can settle down.
Thanks for providing that for us. I’m sitting a gorgeous, big ol’ doggy who has talked me down. ☺️
She’s snuggling me while I
#HoldFast
Cherae, I hope your friends will be safe and that everybody everywhere will be safe. If prayers are answered, it should help tremendously.
I would phrase “who lit the match” as being the person whose identity we know. We did not do that ourselves, and we care about all people. May we all stay safe! May every person who feels unsure or who has anger be blessed with reasoning and decide to be peaceful and helpful instead!
We spent decades trying to help people feel good about themselves and toward other people and life itself. We tried so much to help the people we knew, so it is hard to understand that there are, or why that there are any individuals who do not have a better self image and a desire to help.
#HOLDFAST!
Beautifully said, and thank you, Judy. You are kind and gracious, and I’m glad we are acquainted here.
I’m not religiously affiliated, but I do believe strongly in the power of our intentions to shape the vibratory realities around, among and within all that is.
May I add my Amen to your prayer?
#HoldFast
Cherae, you’re welcome, and I thank you! Thank you for being here and for sharing your lovely ideas.
It means so much to be able to share here, and you express your thoughts so well. Lucky you to have a wonderful big big dog by your side! That gives me a warm smile! I don’t have a dog, but my warm comfort in calming the thoughts tonight will be having another cup of hot tea!
#HOLDFAST!
I don’t have pets of my own. I do some petsitting now that I’m on Social Security. It’s a wonderful way to spend me my time. I make a little cash, but mostly share the pure love that animals offer in their unique way AND have made some of the best friends I’ve ever had this way. It wasn’t planned, but it’s open up whole new worlds. They’re good medicine!
Enjoy your tea.
I love it that you’re so experienced in these matters- and share that with us. ( Also hate hearing it, at the same time). So— was domestic terrorism the handlers plan, as the result of Iran bombing? I think so. God help us. We have fallen so far down.
Beverly...you’re asking the right question. You damn sure are.
I think a lot of people feel that same dread right now...because when leaders make reckless choices...ordinary people are the ones left exposed.
What we can say for SURE is this: when conflict is escalated...the odds of domestic backlash..lone-wolf violence...and symbolic attacks here at home go up too. That part is real...and factual.
Your larger point lands; we really have fallen a long way. The atmosphere is darker, more unstable...and more dangerous than it should be. No question about it.
God help us is right. But...so is staying AWAKE to what’s happening!
-Jack
Yes, I’m thankful we can vicariously live safer because we have Jack Hopkins in our corners!
THANK YOU JACK!! Our son & family are planning a trip to Disneyland during the Easter break and I’ve asked him to reconsider the trip right now…but with his usual bravado, he announced that he won’t let potential terrorism force him to live afraid. I agree with that but right now, at this moment it is more dangerous than it has been for years and years! I have shared your post with him…and I am going to take a screenshot of certain tips, highlight and re-send them! Thanks to the arrogance and ignorance of this regime our lives have just become more dangerous…I’d say “unbelievable” but I expected this when he returned to the Oval Office, and I expect worse is yet to come!
Christie, thank you for this.
I think you’re handling it exactly the right way...not with panic...but...with clear-eyed REALISM.
Your son is right that we can’t hand our lives over to fear. But...you’re also right that refusing to live in fear is NOT the same thing as refusing to recognize when the landscape has become more dangerous. Those are two VERY different things.
Refusing to allow fear to keep me from driving is irrational. However, becoming too fearless (careless), I stop wearing my seatbelt...that's just old-fashioned stupidity.
That’s why your instinct to pull out specific tips...highlight them...and send them along is such a smart move. Not “don’t go.” Not hysteria. Just: go in with your eyes open...pay attention...and take the right precautions. That’s the adult response.
Yes, your larger point lands hard. A lot of us saw this kind of increased vulnerability coming the minute this regime returned to power. The arrogance. The recklessness. The willingness to WEAKEN the very systems that help keep ordinary families safe. None of that was hard to foresee.
I really like the way you put it: I’d say unbelievable...but I expected it. That’s exactly the feeling so many people are sitting with right now.
You’re doing what good parents do: trying to protect the people you love without surrendering to panic. That matters!
-Jack
Christie, best wishes for safety to all of you! I understand both points of view and believe that precautions and having awareness like Jack is suggesting are so important!
#HOLDFAST!
Bless your heart.
Jack Hopkins is correct on every structural point that matters. He is correct that radicalization now requires nothing more than a phone and an algorithm. He is correct that the barrier to violence has collapsed — that a car, a grievance, and a justification story are now sufficient. He is correct that the University of Maryland’s terrorism tracking database lost its federal funding precisely as early 2025 data was signaling a significant rise in incidents. And he is correct that when you stop measuring threats, you don’t eliminate them — you simply lose the ability to see them coming. The attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield was not random chaos. It was targeted anti-semitism, carried out against 140 children, in an environment where the rhetorical guardrails against such hatred have been deliberately loosened by the people sworn to maintain them.
Where Hopkins is careful, I will be direct. This is not negligence. When a government defunds terrorism prevention, removes counterterrorism analysts, and redirects national security resources toward immigration spectacle — simultaneously, deliberately, while radicalization accelerates — that is a policy choice with predictable consequences. History is unambiguous on this point: leaders who benefit from fear have little institutional incentive to reduce it. The children in that Michigan synagogue were not protected by a deportation flight or a political rally. They were protected by one security guard — doing his job without the database, the funding, or the institutional infrastructure that a serious government would have preserved. Hopkins is right that prepared citizens are harder to terrorize. But citizens without institutional protection are also harder to save. Both things are true. And only one of them is being addressed.
Jane...thank you for this. You captured the structural argument extremely clearly.
YES...when you stop measuring threats, you don’t eliminate them...you lose the ability to see them coming. That’s EXACTLY the danger.
Prepared citizens matter. And...institutions matter too. Weakening them carries REAL consequences.
-Jack
Jack, I’m sorry. Please know that when I asked questions of HKJANE at the end of my reflections in responding to her, it was a matter of being caught up in the thoughts her comment had brought to mind. As she rightly pointed out, I should have asked you, and I was in no way trying to bypass you. I was just involved and asked as they came to me.
So I expect you will tell us when you are ready or within still more of the wisdom you share. Still, here are the questions I had and am pasting here for you. Maybe they seem more rhetorical than anything. It’s a matter for me of wishing, caring, hoping, and simply wanting to know.
What do you foresee or anticipate happening to help reverse the losses, the hateful mindsets, and to help rebuild our country and the humanity of mankind toward each other? You know people’s ways, patterns, and much more, Jack,
as I realize. I also realize that not a one of us is a fortune teller. That fact does not stop me wondering though, and your thoughts are based on wisdom, training, history, and experience! That is wonderful. Anything I might project, and I do not feel that I can, would not have those needed backgrounds. Part of me feels that there can be no answer specifically, so maybe I should not even ask, or so it seems as I think more about it. I simply am yearning for everyone to be good and everything to be better for the sakes of everyone.
I hope to live long enough and well enough to see us come out of these times and to be better than before. I hope we can all look forward to a better present in the future.
Yes.
HKJANE, yes, we have seen each step along the way being built into an environment of hatreds, of manipulations of minds of followers, of ways to use other people’s minds and assets or work, while destroying much along the way, while trying to acclimate ways of thinking, to guide some people not to even notice what is happening, or maybe some people would not have noticed anyway, yet devastating harm
has come to so many people. That possibility that some followers do not even notice or even care seems inexplicable. However it is, here we are.
What do you foresee or anticipate happening to help reverse the losses, the hateful mindsets, and to help rebuild our country and the humanity of mankind toward each other? I hope to live long enough and well enough to see us come out of these times and to be better than before. I hope we can all look forward to a better present in the future.
Thank you for your kind words — but this question belongs to Jack, not me.
I can reflect his research and Hopkin’s framework. But the lived journalism and hard-won perspective on where we go from here — that’s Jack’s work, Jack’s career, and Jack’s column to answer.
Please take this question directly to him. It’s exactly why he writes.
I might add when the ‘leader of the free world’ takes his orders from one of the most evil dictators instead of from the American people, this is what we must expect. Trump lives to destroy us…..all of us.
My late husband was a very protective, proactive law enforcement husband and dad. He had no problem saying “I love you” when my kids and I would go out and about or when I had to travel extensively for work. We had no problem saying “I love you” when he left for the streets of Phoenix. What we did, as a reminder of familial love but more importantly, our collective bond to get safely back home was to remind one another to be aware of our surroundings and to watch, without paranoia, the who, what and when of other people’s actions. Our reminder from my husband was a hug and the simple statement of “don’t be a crime statistic!” This reminder still resonates with me, especially as I live alone these days.
My kids and I would remind my husband that his job was to get back home at the end of his day…..and it would not be unusual for me to laughingly remind him that I would never allow the City of Phoenix to dictate his last rites! I’m as feisty as my husband was introverted.
All kidding aside, Jack, you are kind and caring to share your wisdom of being prepared but not paranoid, to be aware of your situation and surroundings without being irrational.
As the Brits coined in WWII during the blitz “Keep calm and carry on!”
Diana...what a beautiful memory of your husband. I can feel the love and discipline in the way your family lived.
“Don’t be a crime statistic” may sound blunt...but...what he was really teaching was EXACTLY what you described: awareness without paranoia. That’s the sweet spot. Eyes open...instincts on...but still living your life.
I also love the image of you reminding him that Phoenix wasn’t going to get to plan his last rites. That kind of humor is often how families in law enforcement...carry the weight of dangerous work.
I love the old WWII line...keep calm and carry on. That spirit matters. Prepared, aware, bonded to the people we love… and determined to make it back home at the end of the day!
Your husband clearly lived that ethic...and it sounds like it’s still guiding you and your kids today. That’s a powerful legacy.
-Jack
Exactly,.
And what Black families have been saying for years, stay Woke. Pay attention to your surroundings. The definition has morphed into something more in line with empathy and compassion, but the original meaning is still important as well.
What a good man.
Thank you. This is reality. I look forward to reading your next article about how you and your family stay prepared for terrorist attacks. I recall your article on survival after Trump was elected.
Jane B...thank you...I appreciate that.
You’re exactly right, this is about dealing with REALITY... as it is...not as we wish it were.
Awareness and preparation aren’t about living in fear. They’re about making sure the people we love...are a little harder to catch off guard.
I’m glad that the earlier piece resonated with you, too. The same basic principle applies here... stay calm...stay informed...and focus on the few things that actually improve your odds.
I’ll be sharing the specific precautions my family uses in the next article...the practical ones that matter most...and how to decide which ones make sense for you and your family.
-Jack
Jack, thank you so much for explaining the aspects of such situations. It is hard to recognize it as our country, but we absolutely need to know. I look forward to reading more, of course. It is a blessing to receive your wise and helpful newsletter!
#HOLDFAST!
Judy...thank you. That really means a lot.
You’ve identified the hardest part for many of us: recognizing the reality of the moment while still holding onto what’s worth protecting about this country.
That tension is uncomfortable...but facing it honestly is how we stay steady instead of overwhelmed.
I’m grateful you’re here, reading and thinking through it with me. I am.
And...yes... #HOLDFAST is EXACTLY the right spirit!
-Jack
Thank you so much, Jack! Your experience, wisdom, and outlooks are amazing! They certainly make me feel less isolated in going through these situations.
#HOLDFAST we shall!
Yes, I agree Judy, Jack is truly a blessing. Not for those who prefer fluff and fantasy,but for those of us who are grounded in our present day reality.
Well said, Elizabeth!
#HOLDFAST!
The historical precedents here are worth remembering. In WWII, German U-boats prowled the American East Coast almost completely unopposed during Operation Drumbeat — tankers burning within sight of Miami Beach and New York Harbor while locals watched from the shore. The coastline was wide open, the populace oblivious, and the losses staggering before anyone got serious about it.
Meanwhile, Japan launched Fu-Go balloon bombs — roughly 9,000 of them — carried by the jet stream to reach the continental U.S., killing an Oregon family and reaching as far inland as Michigan. Most Americans have never heard of either campaign.
The lesson both enemies absorbed was the same one every asymmetric adversary since has understood: you don't have to match America's strength, you just have to find the gaps.
Geography used to provide a buffer. It doesn't anymore. Oceans that once took weeks to cross are now irrelevant when radicalization happens over a phone, financing moves digitally, and the "weapon" is a rented truck or a kitchen knife.
The deeper problem is cultural. Decades of uncontested dominance — military, economic, geographic — have produced a population that is, frankly, fat on comfort and arrogant about its own invulnerability. We are a target-rich environment in every sense: dense crowds, soft infrastructure, a media ecosystem that amplifies every attack for free, and a public that reflexively assumes these things happen somewhere else.
The asymmetry is the whole point. It costs almost nothing to attack and an enormous amount to defend everywhere, all the time. Until that math gets more serious attention than it currently does, the trend Jack describes is only going one direction.
We do what we can to prepare, but until it happens we don't know how we will respond. We do know how Trump will respond: martial law and a crackdown on rights, attacking the vulnerable, and stealing as much as possible.
J Hardy...you’re bringing up some powerful historical examples... and...you’re absolutely right that adversaries have long looked for gaps, rather than trying to match American power head-on.
Operation Drumbeat and the Fu-Go balloons are EXACTLY the kinds of episodes most people never hear about...yet...they illustrate that the homeland has NEVER been completely insulated from outside threats.
Your point about asymmetry is also well taken. The imbalance between the low cost of attacking...and the high cost of defending everything...is one of the central challenges security planners have always faced.
That’s why awareness, resilience...and preparation at the community level...matter so much alongside whatever governments do.
I appreciate the way you framed the larger lesson; geography and past dominance can create a sense of invulnerability...that...isn’t always realistic.
Staying alert to that reality...without surrendering to fear...is exactly the balance we’re trying to encourage here.
Regarding "...but until it happens, we don't know how we will respond" in the paid article. I agree, most people don't know how they will respond until the shit hits the fan, but...it is certainly possible to BE someone who knows what they will do...beforehand. The right kind of training offers that...to those willing to follow through.
-Jack
Thanks, Jack. At the very least we should carry trauma bandages in our vehicles and be prepared to help the wounded. When you read about people in Northern Ireland during the late 1970s, there was a watchfulness that one only develops in a war zone. Same in middle eastern countries where suicide bombing is a common practice. The goal is disruption and panic, and if we keep our heads (especially if we can get some training in the meantime) we will be in a better position to help. We're overdue, and unfortunately innocent people are the props who will be hurt by this.
From my days as a general aviation flight instructor, I've learned to value emergency preparedness. Students were taught to use checklists preflight and pre-takeoff. We practiced all sorts of emergencies -- a lot. A student called me after a solo emergency he'd practiced for, and he did just fine.
Nowadays, when I'm at the theater or a musical performance, they always open with a recorded announcement to note the nearest exit and silence your cell phone. I do actually look for the nearest exit. And I actually look at the safety card in the back of the airline seat and note my exit. Each time, I'm hoping it's thirty seconds of my life I wasted and will never get back.
Homeowner's insurance was a big waste of money for 40 years. Then my house burned down in the Eaton Fire last year. Yes, precautions matter!
Margaret...that’s a PERFECT way to think about it.
Pilots understand something the rest of the public often forgets: you prepare so that if the unlikely happens...your brain ALREADY knows what to do. Training and checklists turn panic...into muscle memory.
I love that you mentioned still looking for exits and reading the safety card. Those little habits seem trivial...until the day they aren’t.
Your story about the fire really drives it home. For forty years, the insurance felt like wasted money… until the one day it wasn’t.
That’s EXACTLY the mindset here: most of the time, preparation feels unnecessary...until suddenly... it’s EVERYTHING.
-Jack
Gosh, I’m sorry you lost your home Margaret. I don’t know how you recover from a personal horror.
trump said he’s been briefed on Iranian terrorist sleeper cells inside the US: “We know where most of them are, we’ve got our eye on all of them - I think.”
Nothing to worry about if you have a bunker.
But Jack, you are not worrying about cells necessarily, but lone actors. Much harder to track. But the ICE will start zeroing in on innocent families and individuals at mosques. Bringing more terror.
The trauma kit makes much sense. A couple of bandaids and an elastic wrap from a first aid kit won't do much to stop arterial blood, or even venous.
I have a hard time blaming Iran for this escalation.
#HoldFast
Sue
Sue, you’re exactly right about the distinction.
Organized “cells” are one thing. They leave trails...communications...logistics. Intelligence agencies know how to hunt those.
Lone actors are a completely different challenge.
A phone, a grievance...and a story in their head can be enough. That’s why I focused on that risk in the article.
You also make an important point about the trauma kit. A basic first-aid kit really isn’t built for severe bleeding. The difference between Band-Aids and a tourniquet or proper pressure bandage can literally be life and death.
I appreciate the spirit of #HoldFast!
Stay aware. Stay steady. That’s the goal, Sue P!
-Jack
Excellent, thank you. This was one of my primary concerns after Trump initiated this stupid war. I & my family will prepare accordingly.
Elisabeth, thank you. I’m glad you’re thinking about it in exactly that way!
Preparation is the right response. Not panic, not fear...just clear-eyed awareness and taking a few practical steps to keep the people you love a little safer.
That mindset...alone...puts you ahead of most people. Way ahead.
-Jack
It was a real gut punch today to drive by a different synagogue in West Bloomfield today and see every entrance barricaded by the police. It was just a few miles from the attack, but as a precaution it was being guarded. At the time I wasn't aware of the attack but quickly got up to speed. The realization that this is just the beginning of our new reality, that was what struck me. I wasn't surprised just saddened that is where we are today.
Thank you for keeping us informed.
When 9/11 happened, 44,000 flights were cancelled in the USA that day and the days following, if I remember correctly. 44,000 which were not targeted, 44,000 planeloads of people flying every day who arrive safely at their destinations. I like those odds. Of course, the 2700 lives lost on 9/11 was a tragedy. And we should always remain vigilant. AND you had some excellent suggestions of things to notice and to do in case of a terrible situation in your vicinity. But you are still safer flying somewhere, than driving to the airport, or store, etc. Thanks for being the voice of calm and reason, and realism, in these troubled times.
Thank you for this Jack and look forward to the next piece to make plans for safety and awareness. It was inevitable that we would see escalation with the rhetoric coming from the orange menace…he is rapidly unraveling.
#HOLDFAST
Teri
Believe it or not, I actually worked for the now defunct Midwest Research Institute (MRI) which used to be located across from Gilliam Park and the Nelson Art Gallery. It was in 1979, my psychology professor Maynard Shelley was doing a research project for MRI about terrorism. It was difficult to explain to people what terrorism was because no one had really experienced anything remotely like that. It was so interesting, one of the conclusions was that people who feel isolated often look for something to fill the loneliness void, and the more isolated they were, the more radical they could become. Now terrorism is a well known phenomenon so when you hear about an attack, you have an immediate source of reference. Back then few people possessed the skills to analyze it. Your article is spot on, I might add I am holding my breath each terror attack now, deciphering whether it is real or a false flag. You have helped me and many others hone our sixth and seventh senses! Thank you Jack, for being a tether to hold fast to! #HOLDFAST