With the very exceedingly, super contentious, unprecedentedly violent (really? two assassination attempts on a presidential candidate?) US election coming up in a little more than a month, we have some prepping to do…
- Start a small garden (even on a windowsill is a good start; have seeds on hand for larger garden projects)
- Have two week’s to a month’s supply of stored water
- Find alternate sources of water and have methods to purify the water
- Have two to six months’ worth of stockpiled food
- Have an emergency fund in the bank to cover six months’ worth of living expenses
- Have cash safely stored in your home to cover a few months’ worth of expenses
- Be able to heat your home/a room if utilities go out (ie: propane heater/extra propane)
- Have gas for your vehicle safely stored on your property
- Have a way to cook food if the utilities go out (ie: camp stove/extra fuel)
- Have a battery bank/solar panel on hand to make your own electricity if needed
- Have winter survival gear on hand (winter clothes, boots, sleeping bags, etc)
- Stockpile consumables (toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, etc)
- Refill your prescriptions if possible (ideally try to pick up a three month’s supply at once)
- Fix any current problems (example: if you have a painful tooth, go to the dentist now)
- Revamp your bug out bag/bug out vehicle so you will be ready to go if necessary
- Have lots of non-electric entertainment on hand (books, games, art supplies, etc)
- Clean your firearms and stockpile extra ammo
- Get your home ready for winter (and bugging in if needed)
- Backup all of your files, photos, survival guides, etc onto a secure thumb drive
- Start exercising every day (even going for a daily walk will help you get in shape; and probably provide valuable intel as well as you walk around your neighborhood)
- Install solar-powered lights around your property
- Get your HAM radio license and a HAM radio and practice using it
- Build a hidden safe room
- Secure your home (install deadbolts, break-proof window film, etc)
- Install inexpensive bidets on your toilets (this saves a lot of toilet paper)
- Make sure your home safety equipment (smoke detectors, CO detectors, fire extinguishers, etc) are up to date/have fresh batteries/are fully charged
- Have basic tools on hand so you can make simple repairs if needed
- Have “fix it” supplies on hand (duct tape, plywood, plastic sheeting, electrical and plumbing parts, etc)
- Get a fireproof safe and store all of your legal documents and cash in it
- Have a battery-operated radio you can use to receive news if the power goes out
- Go radio silent (ie: don’t post your activities/opinions on social media, take political signs out of your yard, etc)
- Take some first aid courses and have first aid supplies on hand
- Don’t tell your friends/neighbors/family about your preps (you can encourage them to prepare but don’t tell anyone about all of your gear and stockpiles)
- Emphasize the need for prepping secrecy with your family
- Revamp your EDC kit (so you will have a level of preparedness if you are away from home when things start to pop off)
- Have a paper map of your city/state/country
- Assemble your “grey man” costumes (so you will be able to blend in to the crowd)
- Watch as many survival videos on YouTube/Rumble as possible (anonymously on the Brave browser of course)
- Stay anonymous (degoogled phone, linux on your laptop, secure router, VPN, anonymous sim, etc)
- Plan your activities accordingly (avoid crowds, avoid protests and roving gangs of people)
- Learn some de-escalation/interpersonal relations skills
- Solidify your friendships (especially with neighbors and other people in your community that can help you in difficult times)
- Plan multiple routes into and out of your city (try traveling these routes now, at night, and fix any problems with your plan)
- Determine a couple of bug out locations (not just “into the mountains” as that is everyone else’s bug out plan)
- Go camping/backpacking during the next few weeks and fix any gear issues
- Make sure your vehicle is in good working order (change the oil, put air in the tires/replace the tires if needed, etc)
- Devise a way to hide your preps (you don’t want every neighbor in your subdivision to see your food stockpile when you open your garage door)
- Devise a communication system for family/friends near and far should the grid go down
- Make special preparations for other household members (the elderly, babies/infants, pets, the ill/infirm, etc)
- Reverse chronic diseases if possible (you would be surprised how much difference eating a whole-foods diet can make in 40 days when it comes to diabetes, high blood pressure, etc)
- Consider your self defense plans based on your own personal circumstances (firearms, taser, pepper spray, fighting skills, etc)
- Scan the local, regional, national, and international news on a daily basis and watch for signs of impending trouble (note that mainstream media can be horribly biased and not cover important topics while social media can make the smallest thing into a national incident; check a variety of news sources. Check out S2 Underground’s daily reports on YouTube.)
- Set up an exterior security system at your home and consider having a drone on hand for an “eye in the sky” to observe local incidents
- If you feel compelled to participate in civil unrest activities, do so covertly (and for the love of God don’t bring your cell phone with you or otherwise make yourself identifiable)
- Have a written (and digital) contact info list for family, friends, and other people you may need (lawyer, doctor, vet, etc). Make sure each family member carries a copy of this list.
- Teach everyone in your family survival skills (first aid, AED, CPR, hunting, bushcraft, firearms, etc)
- Keep a handle on your kids (often kids, especially teens, will act first and think later; going off on whatever tangent during dangerous times is not a good idea)
- Establish meet-up locations with your family (in your neighborhood, in your city, across the country, across the world) in case you get separated
- Play hide-and-seek with your family (and play like your life depends on it; during a civil breakdown it could)
- Consider volunteering in your community as a way to help your fellow man, make some useful contacts, and learn some vital skills (examples: EMT, CERT, SAR, etc)
- Figure out if you are able to work from home instead of going to the office during times of unrest (this may be in your employee handbook)
- If you do get stranded at work during a civil unrest incident, have the means to bug in at your office for a period of time (clothing, shelter items, food, water, etc)
- Download your community’s (Department of Emergency Management/Fire District/etc) disaster plans, Mass Casualty Incident plans, etc so you will be aware of how things may work in your community after a disaster
- Make plans on how you would evacuate your pets, your farm animals, your disabled family members, etc. if you needed to leave your home during a time of massive unrest in your community
- Know what your children’s school’s disaster plans/lock down plans are and get on the school’s list for emergency notification texts (many schools will lock the kids down and not release them if an incident has already started)
- Sign up for any community alert messages in your area (generally through your county DEM, etc)
- Play by the rules (or pretend to) so as not to draw unwanted attention to you by TPTB (watch Chris Rock’s video on YouTube on ‘how not to get your ass beat by the police’ which pretty much sums up all you need to know about dealing with authority figures during high-stress incidents)
- Check your home owners/vehicle insurance to see if it covers acts of civil unrest
- Consider changing travel plans if they are scheduled before, during, or right after the election
- If you are away from home when civil unrest occurs, know your options (embassy locations, local safe places you could hide, have a map of your location, know how to fashion a weapon if worse comes to worst, etc)
- Know what to do if you are trapped in certain locations (on foot in a crowd, in your vehicle, in a store) if a civil unrest event suddenly occurs (there are lots of videos and articles on this topic online)
- Pre-stage survival tools that could be useful during an incident (ie: fire extinguishers, ladders to escape from the second floor of your home, firearms, door barricade supplies, etc)
- Prepare to go off-road in a bug out situation (if there are roadblocks or miles-long stretches of gridlocked traffic, can you escape via mountain bike/ebike/motorcycle…maybe even a boat in some areas?)
- Are you prepared to deal with multiple incidents at once (ie: civil unrest and a medical incident; grid down and a massive winter storm, etc)?
- Have all of your preps together at least a week before the election (there should be no reason you NEED to leave your home if an incident pops off—such as the way people run to the store at the last minute before a hurricane is set to hit their area)
- Be able to cook from scratch. If you solely rely on restaurants and Uber Eats for sustenance, these may be unavailable during a major civil unrest incident
- Prepare for things to not go as usual during a massive event (grid down, protest, etc). 911 systems may be overloaded, fire departments and hospitals may lock their doors to keep people out, ATMs may not work, stores may be closed or looted, etc
- Download important records that could be wiped out during a massive cyber incident (bank statements, investment account statements, medical records, etc)
- If you have a bugout location like a cabin in the woods, considering going there a week before the election and coming back home a week after the location (it will either end up being a relaxing vacation or a preemptive effort to avoid a mass civil unrest event)
- Learn ancient bushcraft skills (how to start a fire without matches, how to make arrowheads and arrows, how to make animal traps, etc)
- Go foraging now and learn what wild edibles are common in your environment
- If you have never been fishing or hunting, go now and learn how to catch an animal, dress it, and cook it over a fire
- If you have never bartered, try it now (also stockpile some things that would be useful for bartering in the future)
- Go room to room with a pencil and paper and list anything you would need to buy/fix/replace if you were unable to leave your home for a month or two (then get to work acquiring/fixing these things)
- Don’t believe everything you hear from social media/mainstream media/your friends/your coworkers (there is a lot of election-related propaganda/misinformation going on now so do your own research before making decisions)
- Don’t panic. If a scary situation develops, think clearly and examine all of your options before making decisions based on facts not fear
- Plan for random acts of violence/home invasion (there are several YouTube videos on this). In a civil collapse, manners, morals, and values tend to go out the window
- Be situationally aware, wherever you are at. At school, at work, at a store…no matter where you are, watch how people are acting/what they are doing, know where the exits are, and have a secret word or phrase that you use with your family to alert them it is time to immediately leave the area
- Have survival gear caches at home, at work, in your vehicle, in your bug out location, and hidden in a secure off-site location in case you can’t go home and get your stuff or can’t get back to your vehicle
- If you’ve thought about getting a dog, now might be a good time to do so; they make excellent early warning systems (most of them anyway)
- Create a tactical nightstand in case your home is broken in to while you are asleep (note that in the event of civil collapse, some family members should be on watch while others sleep for the safety of all)
- Get in the habit of being predictably unpredictable (I can set my watch based on the times my neighbors leave for work, take their kids to school, etc. Don’t be predictable in your routes, comings and goings, etc)
- Check on elderly neighbors and others who may have difficulty during a civil unrest/societal collapse event. While you don’t want to give away all of your preps, you do want to help out when you can and be seen as useful to the community
- Look at how other major civil unrest events have been handled in the past for useful ideas (ie: Rooftop Koreans, u loot, we shoot signs posted in neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina, small towns hauling out the heavy equipment to drag logs to block major roads into town to keep outsiders away, etc)
- Learn some unconventional warfare tactics (Google and YouTube can help you with this)
- Beware immediate compliance with government mandates after a SHTF event (‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you’…LOL)
- Keep a low profile no matter what. Don’t show off the things you have; if you have to travel, travel at night taking back roads; when people commiserate about the terrible conditions, commiserate with them, etc
- Consider “fasting” once a week or so. Fasting from food, fasting from electricity, fasting from electronic devices…if there is something you couldn’t think of doing without, do without it for a period of time and see what happens
- Be able to pivot. In trying times with sudden major changes, all of your plans may go out the window; be ready to pivot/change course/change direction at a moment’s notice
- Vote