Keep in mind that YOUR safety is YOUR responsibility alone and whomever is currently soiling the oval rug has no bearing on that fact.

Having said that, my armory now is much better stocked and my knowledge of personal, group, and national defense has expanded many times over what it was 4 years ago.

So yes, I am safer now than 4 years ago.

Onward.

Everything within my perimeter is safe.

The perimeter varies as conditions fall under my control or move out of it.

"Collateral damage" is not a term I use. I don't even make that fine a distinction: either in or out.

Out meets not with sufficient force to neutralize the threat, rather enough force to destroy it.

Just that cold.

I am safer, yes. No thanks to that unspeakable creature in the White House; but due in part to his bad example and the shuddering unease he provokes, we are better armed, better provisioned, better trained. We have a better plan in a better place. The adults resent that we've had to do this work, and the kids, those old enough to understand, are a bit anxious when they overhear. But better all that, than . . .