With enough food energy and some common sense and shelter you can stave off the cold. But we were going to be low on food. And you can't just hand out a bunch of semolina to somebody and tell them to come back in a week to get more when they can't cook it.
We needed emergency distribution rations that:
A. Would keep for a long time.
B. Contained a tremendous amount of energy so that people could use body energy to stave off the cold.
C. Were nutritionally complete. Preferably one "packet" was enough for one person for an entire 24-hour period.
D. Could be easily stored and transported.
E. Were in a smaller packet than MREs. Preferably "energy bar" sized.
F. Were as easy to produce from readily available materials (what there were of them) as possible.
Oh. And here's the kicker.
G. Tasted Bad.
We didn't actually want people to eat them. We wanted them to be starving to death before they'd eat them. They were "the food of last resort."
We were planning on passing them out in job lots. But we wanted people to eat anything before they'd eat the "Emergency Ration Bars." Because they were for even worse emergencies. Like, we're cut off in a blizzard and out of power and, fuck, all we have left is those fucking Kula Bars!
They tasted horrible on purpose.
We might have gone a little overboard on that one. I never saw any certified reports on it, but it was widely held allegory that people were found as emaciated skeletons with a pile of Kula Bars right in front of them.
Ever have a Bandit Bar?
It's a Kula bar with a different suite of artificial flavors.
Gotcha.
Do not mess with the Bandit.
When we got the harvests in from the "farmers for soldiers" program we looked at projected needs for the next year, compared the total input from the program and saw that we had a surplus. A sizeable one. The FFS program used only trained farmers and every trick in the book. The FFS program proved that the famines of 2020 and 2021 could be laid squarely at Warrick's feet. Also classified at the time. It's been released since under FOIA.
We poured that "excess" into Kula Bars.
That was starting in September of 2020. By then it was Warrick vs. Carson.
And then . . .
I mean how stupid could she be? Yes, it was clear she was going to lose barring some miracle. That the Dems were, across the board, about to take a shellacking.
But having her opponent arrested?
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?
I don't think so. I think she truly believed that She was Right and that The Way She Showed The Nation Was Just and . . .
I think she was thinking in capital letters. And the advisors she had around her were so insulated from reality that they weren't going to tell her different.
There had been a lot of quieter arrests. Commentators, reporters, minor political figures, even Congressional staff. Hell, members of the Army for that matter who hadn't obeyed her edicts and had been caught out. They weren't making the news because the MSM was still in her corner, I think horrified but horrified more of what would come out if she didn't get another term. They'd been covering for her and a change of administration was going to make that patently obvious.
She arrested Carson and about a dozen other senators, all from states with Democrat governors, and shut down Fox News and a bunch of radio stations all at once. For "conspiracy."
Yep, it was a conspiracy. It was a group of people coming together to enact political action. It's called a Political Party, you moronic Bitch!
But, man, can you imagine being on the Secret Service detail?
They'd already taken over security for Carson. He was the Republican candidate for President. They take over when a person gets close to that position. He's starting to be briefed in on peripheral matters, just in case he wins. (It's as clear as glass he's going to.)
And they get orders to take him into custody. Total incommunicado. Disappear him.
And they do it. Why?
Because you obey orders. You obey the law. The Congress had passed a law saying that this bitch can do whatever the fuck she wants. The Supreme Court had not overriden it. They let the son of a bitch stand. (5–4 vote. The dissents are scathing. Read 'em some time. Scalia has a way with words. You can practically feel the spittle.)
There's one other thing. One other reason to go along with the Bitch.
Because on November 2nd, or maybe January 20th, it's not going to matter.
Those are the drop-dead dates. Those are the dates when things are going to come apart.
What if she fucks with the elections?
I wasn't in on the "privy councils." They didn't even take place at the Joint Chiefs level. The JCS knew that if wind got to Warrick about any "special political operations planning proposals" that they'd be the first to disappear. It was going on at a much lower level.
But Warrick was serene in her belief that the People Would Do Right And Choose The New And Fresh Voice for the 21st Century. That she had Conducted A Conversation With The People And The People Would Make The Right Choice.
And she figured she'd assured it by sticking her political opponent in the Federal Prison in Marion, Ill. Right next to Manuel Noriega.
Things exploded. The military knew all it had to do was hold on until the election. If she didn't fuck with that, we were golden.
There were more than a few people who were tired of waiting for things to get better. And figured that if they couldn't kill Warrick they'd kill whatever representatives they could find.
Quite a few of the tofu-eater farmers were "made examples of." Democratic representatives, a few journalists.
"Right-wing death squads?" Try people who are fed up with being in a tyranny.
And the SCOTUS upheld the damned Act again!
"Interference in Executive powers during a National Emergency . . ."
Another scathing dissent. Thomas's was great, too. The "plantations" metaphor had a bunch of levels.
There's a song that has a line in it: "Everything exploded and the blood began to spill." That was the autumn of 2020. We were damned short on food. Harvests were in all over and they were scanty. Distribution was still fucked. Fuel was short.
The only thing that the U.S. seemed to have in abundance was anger and weapons and bullshit from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs finally had had enough. On October 5, he called for a press conference under emergency broadcast rules. He worded the order as if there was some new huge emergency and it was presented by the news media that way. So lots of people tuned in and turned on. Also simulcast over the Internet for those who had access and "Psy-Ops" units set up bullhorns near food lines.
"This is General Gordon. I'm Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Department of Defense. I'm not here to declare martial law. I'm not here to say that an asteroid is about to hit the Earth, which is about the only disaster we haven't had. I'm just here to say this.
"There are a lot of people who are very angry right now at the situation in the United States. I can understand that anger. But would you please quit throwing things and shooting at my soldiers? In less than a month you can feel free to express your opinion in a normal setting. It's called a polling booth. This is America. It is not some Third World dictatorship. Quit acting like it is and wait for your chance to be heard. Make the decision in the polling booths. And whatever the outcome, face it like Americans. Not terrorists. Thank you for listening."