Hello. My name is Alan. I'm a fifty-something American currently living in Oklahoma. I run a small record label and I also DJ a weekly radio show in Nashville. I'm an 80s kid, a member of the most wretched generation since Boomers. I grew up around computers early, so I have a fondness for retro computers and retro computer emulation. I love vinyl and have gotten back into collecting over the past ten years or so.

Politically, I'm on the left. I have been registered independent for over twenty years, and my vote is seldom for a candidate so much as for a minimizing harm. This past election was no different. I was relatively confident that a majority of Americans would not vote to pull a pin on a grenade and toss it into their own homes; I was so very wrong.

I don't think we could possibly be on a worse timeline than the one we're on right now. I don't think a lot of people in the States have given a lot of thought to the Shock and Awe awaiting them on and after January 20th. I've been picking up several bags of beans, split peas and/or rice each time I go to the supermarket, as well as seasonings, and I've been packing them into sealed plastic containers. If inflation is as bad as I expect it to be, it never hurts to have a complete protein on hand if funds get tight. Tinned meats as well: tuna, chicken, pork. I bought a used breadmaker and I've got a couple of sacks of bread-machine flour and a couple jars of yeast. I've got a slow-cooker that has served me well for many years. One doesn't have to be a prepper, but we should definitely be prepared to some extent. I think what has hurt me the most is knowing that members of my own family voted to potentially rob me of the Social Security and Medicare benefits I've paid into for my entire working life, all because they allowed themselves to be terrified of a 'migrant invasion' that doesn't exist, or a 'trans bathroom invasion' which isn't happening.

All we can do is be there for each other. No one is coming to save us.