by Dalkon, Survival Blog:
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF):
-Report from blue neighborhood in mid-size blue city in blue region of blue state
-Much quieter than expected… unsettlingly quiet
-No preps, contingency plans, or daily routine changes ended up being needed
-Suspect private planning happening for future event(s)
-Suspect collective action actors may be drawn to larger cities, for now
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
I’m going to keep details vague for privacy, but will give you enough to sketch out some context. Even though both my spouse and I have been SB readers for over a decade, we live in a blue neighborhood in a blue city in a blue region of a blue state. Our city is in the top 7 for population in our state. Our neighborhood has historically been considered an alternative lifestyle neighborhood, to be euphemistic. Briefly, we’re living here because my spouse has a minor child from a previous marriage, that former spouse lives in this city, the minor child (MC) spends time with both parents, and my spouse is committed to being part of MC’s life. This neighborhood was cheap (cost of living is insane in our area) and close to the other household, so for MC’s best interest we have to be here for the next few years. I might, in a future article, detail how we’re surviving what is likely your nightmare scenario. Although we’re making it work pretty well for now, we are very much counting down the years until we can get out of here and into a rural area in a friendlier state.
Here’s my report on the last ~72 hours in our area, with speculative conclusions. I’ll be your man on the inside so you don’t have to be here.
Leading up to Tuesday 11/5:
We’d put out an invitation to fellow firearms enthusiast to do a watch party Tuesday evening. He’s a big guy so we knew it wouldn’t just be my spouse and I if something went down. MC was at the other parent’s house, which is in a neighborhood less likely to be affected by unrest.
I charged power tool batteries and staged the pet carrier, and my spouse had checked water storage.
We’d already prestaged gear (food, water, camping stuff, weapons, etc) a few weeks ago with likeminded farming friends who live a day’s walk from the city center. We also have some gear stashed with friends a few miles up the road from us, still in the city but with easier defense and exit. Additionally, because of my involvement with a workplace safety group, I have a duffel bag of medical and PPE gear (including a full face respirator) at work, in addition to essentially another BOB of gear (food, EDC stuff, full change of clothing plus extra leather hiking shoes).
The weekend before, we’d visited family out of town. They live in the largest city in our state, and it’s even more deep blue than our city. Surprisingly, I saw one truck fully decked out with Trump gear driving around and apparently not being harassed. Other than that, there were plenty of Harris yard signs, no Trump yard signs, and (at least in the areas we visited) no overt signs yet of organization, protest, riot, or other mass action.
One of our neighbors pulled their camper into the driveway and seemed to be working on it and loading it. No other neighbors showed signs of preparative activity.
Tuesday 11/5:
I rode public transportation (a combination of bicycle and bus) to my job that is >5 miles from home. I work a manufacturing shift, so the early morning crowd was just other commuters, all of whom were familiar faces. Nothing seemed unusual or out of the ordinary. There was some movement of homeless encampments to new locations, but again, nothing unusual.
There was no real discussion or complaint at my workplace (a large corporation with some DEI-type initiatives, but not the most extreme positions) about late polls, early results, hating Trump, or other political topics. People just weren’t talking about the election, and I don’t know if it was because of fear or uncertainty about a Dem loss or not. Probably ~75% of my coworkers lean left.
Riding public transportation back home that afternoon, there may have been a few more kitted out offroad vehicles driving around, but not many. I saw no vehicles with candidate paraphernalia. I didn’t hear any talk on the bus about planned protests.
I checked the Reddit forum for our city and didn’t see any posts about meeting up to protest, rallying for justice, marching to the courthouse, or anything similar. Most political posts were “where are the Dems doing their [election returns] watch party?”, and that was actually helpful. I learned of two locations where the Dems planned to gather. One was likely for the average Dems so I wasn’t worried about that one; plus, it was far from our home. The other was, based on location, likely for the hard left and radical Dems. That location was about 5 blocks from our home, which was concerning, but if any kind of group formed there and went on the move, the most probable path would be towards downtown and away from our home.
There was nothing that useful on mainstream local news in terms of advance notice of planned unrest.
I had a class at night downtown and while I was prepared to cancel if necessary, I felt that I had enough info to go for it. I had my CCW, it was in a locked building, my spouse knew where I was and when I should be back, and I’d asked my spouse to text me periodically with any safety updates.
Driving to and from class, I saw maybe a few more EMS vehicles than usual, but nothing crazy, and they were ambulances and fire trucks, not police vehicles.
