Glen Tate - 299 Days - The Preparation

He got on the Survival Podcast forum and drank in all the information he could. He printed out several helpful threads and web pages linked in the threads. He put a PDF of the military survival manual onto a thumb drive.

He wanted to make sure he got the little things that people forget about but then need when the stores are closed. He found a Survival Podcast forum thread called “The First 100 Things to Disappear in a Crisis.” It was created by survivors of the Bosnian civil war. There were things on there he never would have thought of, like safety pins.

The whole time, Grant was glued to the TV. To his surprise, the lowered bond rating hadn’t led to an immediate sell off of U.S. bonds and the crash that would result. He realized that he might have overestimated how quickly that would become a problem. Oh well. He was glad there was a little more time.

The Mexican refugee crisis was getting worse. The Mexican government officially collapsed and the drug gangs went on genocidal killing sprees. The estimates were that four million people were crossing the U.S. border. Texas and California, in particular, were totally paralyzed. There had been a lot of crime, but it still wasn’t a fullon war. Bill Owens confirmed that during a phone call when they were checking in with each other.

“So how’s it going down there, Bill?” Grant asked.

“Kinda dicey,” Bill said. “I heard gunshots. Just a couple. They were far away. I had a little run-in at Costco, and had to draw my pistol on a guy. I was getting some bulk foods, like everyone else, and it came down to the last bag of beans. I went for it; I was the first one there. Some dirtbag lunged for it, too. I had to push him out of the way.

He started yelling at me. I said some choice words. Store security came zooming in. Apparently they are jumping on things like this. They kicked both of us out of the store.”

This was getting crazy, Grant thought. Decent people like Bill were fighting over the last bag of beans.

Bill continued, “I wasn’t going to fight this guy over a bag of beans that someone else had already grabbed in the confusion. I was nervous going back to the parking lot because the dirtbag was right behind me heading out of the store. In the parking lot he yelled, ‘Hey, you, those beans were mine. Come here and talk to me like a man.’ I turned around and he was pulling something out of his sweatshirt pocket. I drew my 1911,” that was Bill’s .45 pistol, “and put the sights on his chest. I had practiced that a thousand times and it paid off; that was the smoothest draw I can remember. He put his hands up and said he was sorry. I didn’t want the cops to come, if there were even any around. They’re kind of busy now. So I looked around and no one was around so they didn’t see me. I got in my truck and headed to the Sam’s Club.”

Wow. Bill had to pull a gun on a guy. “It was weird,” Bill continued, “Never thought I’d have to do that. I got a feeling I’m going to be doing lots of things I never thought I would be. Glad I didn’t have to shoot that guy.”

While the TV was downplaying it, Bill confirmed that FEMA continued to completely screw up the relief efforts. People were starting to vandalize FEMA vehicles. Hispanic gangs were targeting FEMA personnel. FEMA workers were prohibited from carrying guns, so many of them quit. The feds had to finally give up on FEMA.

California federalized its National Guard, meaning that the supposedly state-controlled California National Guard was now under federal command. Then the Feds had the regular military join the effort. California was betting the Feds could rescue them.

Arizona joined Texas in basically kicking the Feds out of the state. Grant didn’t know what New Mexico was doing. The Arizona and Texas Guards were running the relief efforts and doing a better job than the federal efforts in California. Interestingly, Arizona and Texas were calling their Guard units the “State Guard” instead of “National Guard.” Things weren’t going well for the Feds. The federal troops were much better than FEMA, but their orders were muddy: Don’t shoot anyone, especially refugees, even when they were looting from civilians and civilians were shooting at them. It was like a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon; those never turned out well.

In contrast, the Texas and Arizona State Guards were given more realistic orders: shoot to defend yourself or others. This actually saved lives because looters and trigger-happy civilians knew that if they did anything aggressive they would be shot by the State Guard.

The Feds had just the opposite effect on looters and civilians. The looting went on while the California police, National Guard, and federal troops just watched. It was just like the LA Riots. But bigger. Much, much bigger.

It was weird, though. Even though there was full-on looting in California and the military was deployed, life went on as normal in some ways. People still went to work, although many stayed home.

People still visited Disneyland, but in smaller numbers. Disneyland during a riot! People in California still went out to dinner at trendy restaurants, although there was panic buying at the grocery stores. But the shelves weren’t emptied out (at first). People were either oblivious — how was that possible? — or just assumed that the government would get things back to normal soon. The looting was like a snow storm. A hassle and a hindrance, but something that would be over in a while and things would return to normal.

Of course, the government wanted to show that everything was fine and normal in LA so people wouldn’t get scared. The mainstream media had stories on how people were still going to the beach and how traffic was so much better now that fewer people were going to work. They even had stories on how the Hollywood stars were still going to premiers of movies. The message was unmistakable: Cool people are not fazed by whatever it is that’s going on right now. Relax. Everything is fine.

Grant could not believe that people were not taking this seriously. How could people be so complacent and stupid? They had developed habits over years and years, and not even looting by thousands of starving refugees and gang warfare would break those habits. Life would go on. As long as people had their comfortable routines, everything was fine. Despite all the evidence.

Grant marveled at Americans’ ability to shield out stress by doing their routines. It must be because there was something so comforting by being able to say, “Life goes on.”

Many Californians secretly thought the violence was in “those” neighborhoods. It didn’t affect people in the suburbs or upper income areas. The progressives in California were so tolerant and understanding that they just accepted the rioting. It was not directly affecting them.

Texas was a different story. People were not oblivious there. They were taking it seriously. Many were armed. They bought up all the groceries, gasoline, and ammunition they could. The shelves were bare, but not as many people were freaking out. They had their supplies and would wait until the stores were resupplied. In Eastern Texas, they were used to hurricanes, so this wasn’t the end of the world.

Even though most Texans were fairly well prepared, resupply would take much longer than they expected, although it could have been worse. Resupply came via semi-trucks running on diesel and going along safe highways. The State Guard and law enforcement had the highways largely secure, and Texas drilled and refined its own petroleum. Texas refineries were getting a fair amount of fuel to gas stations, and grocery stores were getting the shelves restocked much better than in California. There were problems, of course, but it was not the surreal destruction that was going on in California.