Our Next Big Test (Since Covid)

Who here remembers all of the Covid shenanigans: Hoarding toilet paper, riots in the streets, things on fire, most preparedness online retailers sold out, canned food aisles wiped out and a nasty little word: quarantine.  For what it’s worth I never got vaccinated and am somehow still here to type about it.  I was still doing Brazilian Jiujitsu (hugging sweaty men while wearing pajamas) during the height of it but these were my choices, if you went the other route because you felt it was what you had to do for your family I’m all about it.

All that aside Covid and all of the circumstances surrounding it were a pretty big test of our resolve and a nice azimuth check on our physical prep readiness.  I never had to stand in line for toilet paper or baby wipes, had plenty of food ready to eat and never paid ridiculous prices for ammo because I had plenty of that too.  I’m sure many of you faired the same, not too much of an impact to daily living other than all of the weird social distancing and masks et al.  The interesting part is that I’m guessing most people who live day to day with not an ounce of preparedness in their lives STILL made it through unscathed.  They had shelter, food to eat, toilet paper to use and (if they had a job) still worked.   This was the dichotomy of the inconvenienced versus the relatively unaffected throughout the crisis.

The Next Test

I laid out the recap of Covid not because you needed a refresher but because I believe the next test has the potential to escalate past inconveniences, maybe into (God forbid) actual violence in the streets beyond protests and burning of businesses.  If you are reading my work for the first time just know I’m not one who wishes for, desires or looks forward to any of the things I’m about to lay out but I do believe considering the possibility is critical.  If I’m wrong nothing more would suit me, yet something deep down knows I’m going to be partially right.  The word of the day is: Election.

Back in August of 2020 I wrote an Election related post with the following prediction:

Here’s the significance in that statement and the result, should Trump lose there will be an uprising.  His base will call fraud and also call for him to stay in office.  There will be marches and most of them will be heavily armed, there will be calls for justice and possibly a revolution to “take back our country.”  Those marchers will clash with the folks who have been already protesting and rioting and if you think they are coming to a gun fight with baseball bats and knives you are sorely mistaken.

We all know how that went and surprisingly for me, I pretty much called it.  Now some major chaos did occur, remember the Capitol building and other marches in the streets but for the most part things tempered down and it all went away.  Those who were pissed planted Trump 2024 signs in their yards and life went on.  The next time won’t be so simple.

Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

I suppose I should take this opportunity to state that I’m not an Anti Trump kinda guy, I’m definitely not a Biden supporter either.  In the big scheme of things and probably since the beginning of time people have placed their faith in one politician (or party) and called them the doers of all things right, and the other side the manifestation of evil itself.  Just ask my parents who are consistently glued to Fox News, I’m sure you know where I’m coming from.

The point here is that we saw a small glimpse of what could occur with this last election, and make no mistake whatever the outcome is one side will claim fraud.  Let me write that again, not who wins or loses…but rather whatever the outcome is: one side will claim fraud and deception.  We saw what both sides were capable of with the BLM riots and the marches on the Capitol.  Right or wrong, in or out, politics aside we must acknowledge that the table has been set for some fireworks in about 1 year’s time.  The first time was post 2020 election results, if we believe anything but what we witnessed then will not unfold 10 times over this time around I have to wonder if we are being naive.

Civil War?  Lockdowns? Martial Law?

When I ponder all of this I think about some of the guys I’ve seen in person and on various social media outlets who actually want this to happen.  Delusions of grandeur and standing up their prep community, hoping for the time when everything they’ve read or LARP’d about comes to fruition.  I am not one of those people.

What I am is someone who stands back and knows that any of the aforementioned courses of action could come to fruition in some form or another.  Should the violence get bad enough, localized lockdowns and maybe even martial law are a possibility.  Outright Civil War?  A serious stretch in my opinion.  You have to remember this: Does a Civil War benefit the powers that be?  Absolutely not…hence there will be no Civil War.

The Bottom Line

I am going to continue to write about this as we approach the Election and I stress that now is not a time to panic but rather diligently set your own conditions to be successful should some things in your area get sideways.  Worry about your home, your neighborhood, the area where you go to for work.  The Regional, National stuff is so far out of any of our control it almost demands that we zone in on our own foxhole.  We have a year: save a little cash, stock up on some supplies here or there, have breakfast with some buds and discuss possibilities and subsequent courses of action.  Take a little bit of time to acknowledge how what could happen ties into what has already happened and talk through some lesson’s learned.  It’s not sexy and tactical but it’s practical.  More to follow.