Very interesting post, thanks. Yes, I agree, there are two parties, and the president of either party, when faced with a dozen cities burning, could well send in federal troops with shoot to kill orders. While I don’t think that will happen in a time frame likely to prove effective (early), it could happen. But the intent of my essay was just to launch a thought experiment based on the unexpected and rapid end of the EBT / food stamp system. The likely sequence of cascading events can be guessed at in the early stages, but chaos and randomness soon throws us into the unknown. What is known is that our cities are tinderboxes waiting for a match.
I'm not a betting man by nature, and there'd be no way to settle the bet even if I proffered it, but I'm sure that:
a) the Pentagon does have contingency plans in place for the scenario you described, and
b) they're highly classified, in large part because the Wonkette circuit would go moonbat-feral if those plans ever were declassified.
By all means, keep up with the thought experiments. Like many others here, I find them fascinating. If I have any skin in the game, it would be as a welcomer if patriots have to seek refuge in Canada a la It Can't Happen Here. The gun laws in the Great White North are almost shockingly restrictive - we Canadians are actually forbidden to own any sort of AK-47, period - but Canada's peaceable, the riots are few and they tend to be cracked down upon.