by Mark Goodwin
Matt grabbed five gallons of bleach in case they needed it to purify water. Then, he headed to the bread aisle. Once there, he threw in ten loaves of bread. He picked up several packages of cookies and several bags of candy. "The next few days have the potential to be stressful", he thought to himself, "Better load up on some comfort food." He grabbed some peanut butter and several large jars of jelly then headed to the checkout. His cart was just big enough to handle his haul. When he got back to the checkout area, there were two new signs. One lane said "Credit Cards Only" and the other lane said "Cash Only".
The store manager had outsmarted the whiners. Since there was no mention of EBT cards, they could not make a valid claim that they were being discriminated against. He surveyed the lines. The "Credit Card Only" lane had eight people in it. The "Cash Only" lane had one man. Matt got in line behind him. Just then, his phone rang.
"I'm here" Karen said over the phone.
Matt spotted her walking in the door and waved her over. "Matt, we are already prepared for this. We have at least 6 months worth of food at home."
"We also have a lot of neighbors." Matt replied. "I doubt any of them have more than a few days worth of food. We may need to help them out if things get bad. A few hundred bucks is a small price to pay to be able to help out. Besides, we may need help from them as well. If we share what we have right now, it will last about two weeks."
Karen saw the chaos in the other lines and started to think that maybe Matt was right about all of this. She knew he kept his ear to the tracks when it came to economics and these sorts of things. Even more than that, she trusted him.
They checked out, took that cart and loaded it into the trunk of Karen’s car, then went back with two more carts. They filled them up with more rice, beans, canned meats, canned vegetables, powdered milk and other dry good staples. Once the carts were filled to the top, they went back to the "Cash Only" lane. Three lanes down from them, four EBT card users were in a physical confrontation with two male stock clerks and a male manager. One cart had overturned and groceries, including a busted two liter of soda, were all over the floor.
It seemed that the larger stock clerk had pinned the main trouble maker and three others were attacking the clerk to try to get him off the pinned trouble maker. The other stock clerk and the manager were trying to fight them off.
People were trying to get away from this madness. Several customers walked out of the store and left their carts in the lines. All of the cashiers were watching the action. This froze the progress of the slow moving lines. No one seemed to mind as they were so engrossed in the ongoing commotion.
"Don't get involved." Karen said sternly.
"Don't worry." Matt replied. “I have my mission and I’m not planning to be distracted from it. These people who walked away from their carts will be sorry tomorrow."
Matt and Karen finally got checked out and proceeded towards the parking lot. As they were leaving, five police cars arrived to address the fight. All of the attackers were gone except the primary trouble maker. The big stock clerk still had him in a total submission hold.
"Why are they blaming the cashiers and the store for their benefits being cut?" Karen asked. "It’s not their fault; they had nothing to do with it."
Matt answered "The majority of those people have been trained for generations that they are not responsible for anything, but that everybody else is responsible for taking care of them. The store employees are part of ‘everybody else.' The wicked politicians that rely on these people to continue to get reelected have worked hard at convincing them of that idea."
They loaded the contents of the carts into the bed of Matt's pick-up and started heading home.
CHAPTER 8
"I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."
-Thomas Jefferson
Sonny Foster busted through the door of Paul Randall's Kerrville, Texas office. "Sir, you must turn the television on now!"
Kerrville, TX was the base of operation for Randall Ranches Cattle Corp, the family grass fed beef business.
"Sonny, settle down! What is happening?" Paul asked surprised by the interruption. "Are we at war?"
"Yes sir, but we have been at war for fifteen years now. That's not the news." Sonny replied while he scrambled for the remote.
Paul found the response to be amusing and couldn't help but smile to himself. This reminded him of why he liked Sonny's quirky personality so much. They had been through a lot together over the past few years. In the same way marketing campaigns for Christmas started in late August, now, unofficially, presidential campaigning started in the back rooms the week after the previous inauguration. Sonny had been with Paul Randall for over three and a half years now. He had done great work on getting information about the timing of the other candidates’ announcements to run for the office of President of The United States. All of the strategies, social media campaigning, and even a large part of the fund raising had been coordinated by Sonny Foster.
The television sprang to life and "News Alert" scrolled across the bottom of the screen. CNC reporter Patrick James was reporting from the White House Rose Garden. "We are awaiting a statement from the President any minute. This morning, millions of Americans who depend on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, to meet their basic needs went to their grocery store to find only half of their usual benefits had been reloaded to their EBT cards. No advance warning of the cuts had been issued by any government agency. Wall Street saw the biggest two hour plunge on record. About a half an hour after the market opened this morning, the Dow lost 975 points. This represented an eight percent decline and the SEC made the decision to close the markets at 11:00 today. Among the stocks hardest hit was Howe Clancy. Howe Clancy is the investment firm co-founded by Governor Anthony Howe's father, Porter Howe. The firm processes all the transactions for the SNAP program and earns a transaction fee for every swipe. With the huge withdraw from corporate and individual investment accounts over the past few years; the loss of the SNAP benefit revenue could be catastrophic for Howe Clancy. Their stock was down 31% when the SEC made the decision to invoke the circuit breaker rule and close the markets at 11:00 today.
Beyond the woes of Wall Street, Main Street is seeing troubles of its own. Main Street is without a circuit breaker rule and life goes on despite the calamity. Reports are flooding in of violence erupting in grocery stores all over the country. Police have been called into several big box retailers and grocery stores in major metropolitan areas. There have been eleven shootings at food retailers and grocers reported across the nation, all in large cities. There have been numerous arrests and too many reports of violence to count. The reports continue to flood in and we are still waiting for the President who was scheduled to issue a statement at 2:00 pm EST."
"What happened?" Paul Randal said with a look of shock.
"My source at the Treasury says there was a deal to get the program funded by midnight last night and it didn't happen.” Sonny answered.
"You mean they have been running things that close to the edge? Why didn't they let the people know there would be a benefit reduction?” Paul quizzed.
Sonny explained, "They’re still scrambling to get it funded. From what my source understands, Treasury Secretary Melinda Chang is consulting about an emergency bond auction. Her advisors are telling her there aren't enough buyers and it could spike interest rates on the 10 year Treasury note to 16%."
Paul put his hand on his mouth in utter dismay. As his hand dropped he said "The 10 year is around 13.25%. They believe one auction could push it up 275 basis points? What about the Fed, they won't buy the emergency bonds?"
"Fed Chairwoman Jane Bleecher would do it in a heartbeat, but there is no consensus. Including Bleecher, there are three doves and three hawks. NY Fed President Sydney Roth is a tossup. Roth would be the tie breaker. The Fed independent oversight committee is screa
ming 'Armageddon' if they raise current levels of monetary creation even one more dollar. Roth tends to follow their advice." Sonny rambled.
"I have to hand it to you Sonny; you certainly have your finger on the pulse. I couldn't do it without you." Paul complimented. Sonny would never admit it, but compliments were very important to him.
"You would never have to sir." Sonny stated faithfully.
Paul continued "We are printing a total of $275 billion every month, $3.3 trillion a year through the combined QE or Quantitative Easing programs. I can't believe we can't scrape 21 billion a month out of that to fund SNAP. Don't get me wrong, I think the program is bloated and a completely bad idea. The government has no business in charity, even if it were charity. But it’s hard to use the term 'charity' to describe robbing one man of his hard earned cash to support another that contributes nothing to society. Charity is when he gives it freely, of his own accord. Nevertheless, you can't shut a program like SNAP down overnight. It has to be phased out over time to avoid systemic collapse."
Sonny explained, "Nearly half of the $275 billion in monthly QE is going to service the debt. We owe $26 trillion dollars on the national debt. With an average interest payment of 11%, that is $238 billion a month. No one is purchasing new bonds. Most of the remaining $37 billion left over after interest every month is going towards rolling over existing bonds. If they don't do that, rates will go to the moon and the interest on the existing debt will be unserviceable."
The two of them turned their attention back to the television. Patrick James was still talking. "Security personnel are coming out of the White House door in the Rose Garden. That probably means the President will be out directly behind them. A crisis like this could not have come at a worse possible time for the election. The Administration will want to carefully craft the damage control. I see Treasury Secretary Melinda Chang coming out the doors right now. White House Press Secretary Armando Sanchez is directly behind her. It appears he is going to give some opening remarks before President Al Muhammad makes his statement. We will listen in now."
White House Press Secretary Armando Sanchez walked to the podium. He was flanked by Treasury Secretary Chang and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Gerald Brown. Sanchez positioned the microphone and began his speech. "We are issuing a brief statement for now and will hold another conference tonight where we will be taking questions from the press, but we will not be taking questions after this statement.
Late last night, unforeseen events caused a temporary setback in funding for the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program. Despite the glitch in the system, we were still able to fund the benefits at a reduced rate. SNAP benefits that are allocated to EBT card holders whose card number ends in the digit "1" received their reduced benefit at midnight last night. Tonight at midnight, card holders whose cards end in the digit "2" will be credited at the reduced rate as scheduled. Holders of cards ending in each subsequent digit will receive their reduced benefit on the corresponding day of the month. Let me be clear, funds are available to pay out the reduced rate benefits to each card holder on the day they are scheduled to receive their benefit credit. We anticipate having the funding complications ironed out by the 15th of the month. At that time, the balance of the funds promised to each American who depends on the SNAP program will be credited to their EBT card account. There is absolutely no reason for people to be panicking. Statements made in last week's debate have caused much confusion and anxiety. President Al Mohammad has promised that everyone will get the benefits they have been promised. We are simply asking the American people to remain calm and be a little bit patient as we work through this minor difficulty. If your normal benefits typically last you the entire month, you should have no problem getting to the 15th of this month on the reduced rate. At that time, you will receive the balance of your benefits. Once again, we want to emphasize how important it is to keep a cool head and not get caught up in the rhetorical fear mongering that was so rudely displayed in last week's debate. This irresponsible language has triggered some hysterical behavior across our nation. There is absolutely no need for it and no truth to the statements made by Senator Paul Randall. No one is going to die. We will get through this just as we have always gotten through trying times. I thank the members of the press for coming out and we will let you know what time tonight we will hold the conference for questions and answers." Sanchez quickly turned his back to the reporters and walked inside as they demanded "Where is the President?"
"Did he just blame this on me?" Paul Randall said with his mouth wide open and his brow furrowed. "They have blamed every problem for the past eight years on the previous administration and now they are trying to pin this one on me! They can't admit responsibility to anything. They never know what is going on and it’s never their fault. And what happened to Al Mohammad? I thought he was supposed to be making the statement. He just drove this country over the cliff and then sends his henchman Sanchez out to blame it on me? Are you serious?"
Sonny knew when not to engage. This was one of those times. He kept silent, poured himself a glass of water and walked over to look out the window. It was best to let the Senator digest this allegation for a while.
CHAPTER 9
“Be courteous to all but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation.”
- George Washington
Karen sat on the couch in the living room with Miss Mae, while Matt paced back and forth from watching the television in the living room where they were, to the office computer checking his list of alternative news sites. "Come sit down by us." Karen said firmly. "You are making me dizzy. Watch the news with us for a while, and then go check your computer for a while. You’re just walking back and forth right now. You’re not going to stop whatever is going to happen, so just relax. Sanchez is claiming that the balance of the SNAP benefits will be reimbursed on the 15th. I don't think it’s going to be that bad."
"I hope you're right." Matt said doubtfully. He walked over to his easy chair and sat down next to Karen and Miss Mae.
Ed Nolan was on earlier than normal to head up the special coverage CNC was dedicating to today's events. "We will be bringing you a live feed from KWXT in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit Mayor Melvin Jones is giving a press conference in just a few minutes. Detroit Police have just calmed a riotous situation at a Detroit Walmart. The discount chain store is located in a predominately urban area where 80% of the population relies on SNAP benefits to make ends meet. Police had to use tear gas and rubber bullets to subdue the crowd. Those arrested were loaded into buses. A source working inside the Detroit correctional facility told CNC that the jails were filled beyond capacity prior to the outbreaks of civil unrest today. The source said he expects the perpetrators of today's violent reaction to the benefit reduction, to be processed and released by tomorrow morning. Patrick James will be broadcasting live from downtown Detroit to get the reaction of residents to the cuts tonight at 8:00.
We will direct you back to the live feed from the Detroit Court House. Mayor Jones is stepping to the podium now.
"Detroit will be imposing a dusk ‘til dawn curfew effective immediately. We are asking all Detroit businesses to cooperate with city officials and to close their doors until tomorrow morning. Beginning tomorrow, we will have officers staffed at the entrances and inside all grocery stores and large retailers to help maintain an environment of peace and safety. We thank you for your cooperation and will open the floor for a very few questions." Jones Said.
"Mr. Mayor" a local reporter called out "What about the Walmart on Eight Mile Boulevard? It was the location of a very rowdy incident today. Will it reopen tomorrow?"
The mayor chuckled and smiled as he said "A rowdy incident is a very kind description of the event Sam, thank you for that. To answer your question, I do not expect that particular Walmar
t to open tomorrow. There was some fire damage, Detroit Fire and Rescue did come out to extinguish the fire or fires. It is my understanding that there will be a cleanup effort there for several days. The Detroit Building department will be working with Walmart management to ensure the store is up to code, safe and ready to start meeting the needs of those people in that community that depend on it as soon as possible. Next question."
The next reporter asked "Mayor Jones, the Detroit Police Department has already been severely understaffed since the bankruptcy. How will you be able to effectively enforce a curfew when crime is already tearing this city apart?"
Not quite as amused by this question, Jones said "Our City Law Enforcement Officers have been doing more with less for some time now. They are among the best trained and loyal officers in America. They know what is expected of them and they consistently deliver it. I did not intend to announce this until all the details were ironed out, but to put the residents of Detroit at ease, I will go ahead. We are finalizing an agreement with the National Guard to help us enforce the curfew. If all goes well, they should be here by midnight tonight." The Mayor had already been pushed into saying more than he wanted to say, so he closed the press conference abruptly. "That will be all for tonight. Thank you."
Matt looked over at Karen. "Sounds like Jones just declared martial law in Detroit."
"Martial law is when the military takes over?" Karen asked.