I sympathize; however, I’d say you should still call Graham’s line. He at least was in the service and should know better—appeal to his better angel, rather than the self-servicing angle.
He's shown no evidence of knowing better, and has plenty of opportunities to demonstrate that he has conscience and spine. Demonstrates the opposite every time.
Whenever I have reached out, I only get boilerplate about how hard he's working to support trump.
The hard truth: Institutional guardrails have already failed. Congress knew and did nothing. Courts gave immunity. The NSS documented the playbook and nobody stopped it.
What’s left:
Immediate: Pressure Congress on the privileged war powers resolution this week. Make it politically toxic to rubber-stamp hemisphere-wide regime change. Flood Senate offices.
Strategic: Build international coalitions that raise the cost. Latin American unity against intervention, European condemnation that threatens trade/alliances. Those 26 EU nations that signed the declaration need to escalate beyond symbolic condemnation. Begin to Declare U.S. diplomats will be treated as persona non grata, threaten embassy closures, impose real diplomatic costs. Otherwise the condemnation just becomes cover while the doctrine spreads.
Isolation works when enforced.
Long-term: The 2026 midterms will be too late.
Brutal reality: Once spheres-of-influence politics are normalized and documented as official strategy, only counter-power stops them. Either institutional (Congress with spine), international (coalitions that impose costs), or electoral (removing enablers).
Venezuela proved the doctrine works without pushback.
The window to stop the next one is closing fast. Activism, organizing, and making this politically unsustainable are the only tools left when constitutional constraints fail.
you're right - only the people can stop a dictator.
we have the power of the internet that people didn't have 40 or 50 years ago.
we need to use it because the broadcast TV news that a lot of old people get their news from isn't providing the whole truth to them. and they are being intimidated to say only what the dictator wants them to say.
There are many contenders for why strongman and Emperor Cheeto of the Western Hemisphere captured Maduro: leading the pack is Venezuelan oil, KOCH brothers refining capabilities, flipping off Venezualan activist Machado’s offer of help because of her winning the Nobel Peace Prize, to bolster caving polling numbers, to distract from the American inflationary spiral, to distract from Nazi Republican failure to allow ACA subsidies, to distract from the Epstein file transparency
But as Elias points out at Democracy Docket(https://bit.ly/4qfz0wA), Cheeto’s self serving ambitions that taint his foreign policy agenda, that his Venezuelan actions are somehow related to his claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” DOJ is suggesting that Maduro might plead to lesser charges if he proffers that the 2020 election was stolen Likening his failure to win the 2020 election due to election theft was similar to Maduro’s election theft in 2024
In a Fox interview Cheeto said, “The election of Maduro was a disgrace just like my election was a disgrace… It wasn’t a hell of a lot worse than what they did to us in 2020. Our election was a disgrace in 2020, and everyone knows it.” Cheeto NEVER loses so the election loss has to be in some way reversed in his twisted demented sick mind
Americans need to remember this as the year of the midterms progresses Cheeto along with his Nazi Republicans will do everything he can think of to prevent a free and fair election this coming November
... I find we have to start NOW with preparing dug in defenses for the midterms? World upstream for once?
1) move to throw out the voting machines. You can never get the public to trust them anyway, and evidence shows that they shouldnt have. We Scandinavian IT nerds have made damned sure to whack any suggestions of voting machines here, knowing that it's explainable for humans that an open manual vote count is unhackable in a way that really matters,.without someone noticing.
There must be emergency procedures in case of power outages, right? Use those? This IS a trust emergency.
Also its a clear signal that you wont take ingenious tampering with elections lying down, and that you are moving with clarity to remove all possible sources of possible discussion. To protect peoples brains from this apparent acrive shit overload attack! It's equivalent of a multilevel itsec ddos attack, and must be met as such - actually!
2) however, since this is the orange one, of course the count will be contested. Anticipate that and invite MAGA officially to observe the counting everywhere, or forever hold their peace about the result.
good points....from the Brennan Center "Nearly all [US] election jurisdictions across the country use voting machines to count ballots because they are more accurate, faster, and cheaper than counting all ballots by hand" However there was concern in 2024 that there may have been alteration and/or manipulation of voting machine data when analyzing voting data from various jurisdictions
1) the oversight and verification of code changes in the majority of machines has been proven to be corrupt. Anything can get in there.
2) and maybe something has, in an driver upgrade from Elon musk's satellites.
I wouldn't let these machines NEAR any network. And lock down all drivers once they have been properly evaluated and just lived with any non-lethal bugs and documented them. It's way more important that you KNOW how such things work than that they are perfect.
3) and the same with manual counting - this is not a precision sport but a robustness and trust and explainability one!
In almost all cases, manual errors will be as many on one side as on the other, and cancel out.
And it's very rare that any errors or possible local manipulations affects outcome. It's simply close enough for truth, its chance WHO got a flu and couldnt come too on that dsy, and other factors - and wanting EXACTNESS is NOTHING than another case of American overfocus on EXACTLY fair competition. (Where you at all care about it. :p.;) ).
Exactly to your point there has been speculation that 1 the machines were not inspected properly before the election and 2 there was possible corruption of the voting data by satellite networks
Ok. gotta tell you that I'm out on this for a while. Need to pretend that eveything is alright, get friends and kids into focus, and consolidate, and socialize and heal.
This needs to be sent to all sorts of places but I cant do it. Sorry. At least I got it to you so you have a chance of doing something with it.. ive got it to the social Dems here in Sweden at least, and will get it to the security police too.
... This is best effort, and praying it works. Good luck to you, brother in arms! <3 (Maybe get it to indivisible? )
Yes. Throw them out before even discussing them anymore ,.to not flood the zone for Bannon… :p for defendable trust you need to to manual anyway, and explain it as I said, like. . :)
Trump and Hegseth, a couple of TV personalities abusing power to lower the rank and pay of an American fighter pilot and astronaut. It’s scarcely believable yet not only will they get away with it, but Fox and MAGA influencers have convinced Trump supporters that Kelly is a seditious traitor. It’s all so vile and nauseating.
Disgusting abuse of power by that clownish banty rooster. Where can I contribute to the legal defense fund?
What do we do to support Kelly and stop this travesty?
I suggest you write your Senator and request that they support him (non-partisan request).
In '28, support him for President! No one better.
Wish that would help. I have little lickspittle lindsey and uncle tim scott.
I sympathize; however, I’d say you should still call Graham’s line. He at least was in the service and should know better—appeal to his better angel, rather than the self-servicing angle.
He's shown no evidence of knowing better, and has plenty of opportunities to demonstrate that he has conscience and spine. Demonstrates the opposite every time.
Whenever I have reached out, I only get boilerplate about how hard he's working to support trump.
You could try an appeal to comity with his Senate colleague and preservation of their prerogatives.
Have you seen lindsey with trump aboard air farce one?
No, thankfully. He's repulsive, but you don't have to talk to him. Just register your opinion, as an Independent.
The hard truth: Institutional guardrails have already failed. Congress knew and did nothing. Courts gave immunity. The NSS documented the playbook and nobody stopped it.
What’s left:
Immediate: Pressure Congress on the privileged war powers resolution this week. Make it politically toxic to rubber-stamp hemisphere-wide regime change. Flood Senate offices.
Strategic: Build international coalitions that raise the cost. Latin American unity against intervention, European condemnation that threatens trade/alliances. Those 26 EU nations that signed the declaration need to escalate beyond symbolic condemnation. Begin to Declare U.S. diplomats will be treated as persona non grata, threaten embassy closures, impose real diplomatic costs. Otherwise the condemnation just becomes cover while the doctrine spreads.
Isolation works when enforced.
Long-term: The 2026 midterms will be too late.
Brutal reality: Once spheres-of-influence politics are normalized and documented as official strategy, only counter-power stops them. Either institutional (Congress with spine), international (coalitions that impose costs), or electoral (removing enablers).
Venezuela proved the doctrine works without pushback.
The window to stop the next one is closing fast. Activism, organizing, and making this politically unsustainable are the only tools left when constitutional constraints fail.
you're right - only the people can stop a dictator.
we have the power of the internet that people didn't have 40 or 50 years ago.
we need to use it because the broadcast TV news that a lot of old people get their news from isn't providing the whole truth to them. and they are being intimidated to say only what the dictator wants them to say.
Emperor Cheeto And Election Denialism
There are many contenders for why strongman and Emperor Cheeto of the Western Hemisphere captured Maduro: leading the pack is Venezuelan oil, KOCH brothers refining capabilities, flipping off Venezualan activist Machado’s offer of help because of her winning the Nobel Peace Prize, to bolster caving polling numbers, to distract from the American inflationary spiral, to distract from Nazi Republican failure to allow ACA subsidies, to distract from the Epstein file transparency
But as Elias points out at Democracy Docket(https://bit.ly/4qfz0wA), Cheeto’s self serving ambitions that taint his foreign policy agenda, that his Venezuelan actions are somehow related to his claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” DOJ is suggesting that Maduro might plead to lesser charges if he proffers that the 2020 election was stolen Likening his failure to win the 2020 election due to election theft was similar to Maduro’s election theft in 2024
In a Fox interview Cheeto said, “The election of Maduro was a disgrace just like my election was a disgrace… It wasn’t a hell of a lot worse than what they did to us in 2020. Our election was a disgrace in 2020, and everyone knows it.” Cheeto NEVER loses so the election loss has to be in some way reversed in his twisted demented sick mind
Americans need to remember this as the year of the midterms progresses Cheeto along with his Nazi Republicans will do everything he can think of to prevent a free and fair election this coming November
... I find we have to start NOW with preparing dug in defenses for the midterms? World upstream for once?
1) move to throw out the voting machines. You can never get the public to trust them anyway, and evidence shows that they shouldnt have. We Scandinavian IT nerds have made damned sure to whack any suggestions of voting machines here, knowing that it's explainable for humans that an open manual vote count is unhackable in a way that really matters,.without someone noticing.
There must be emergency procedures in case of power outages, right? Use those? This IS a trust emergency.
Also its a clear signal that you wont take ingenious tampering with elections lying down, and that you are moving with clarity to remove all possible sources of possible discussion. To protect peoples brains from this apparent acrive shit overload attack! It's equivalent of a multilevel itsec ddos attack, and must be met as such - actually!
2) however, since this is the orange one, of course the count will be contested. Anticipate that and invite MAGA officially to observe the counting everywhere, or forever hold their peace about the result.
good points....from the Brennan Center "Nearly all [US] election jurisdictions across the country use voting machines to count ballots because they are more accurate, faster, and cheaper than counting all ballots by hand" However there was concern in 2024 that there may have been alteration and/or manipulation of voting machine data when analyzing voting data from various jurisdictions
1) the oversight and verification of code changes in the majority of machines has been proven to be corrupt. Anything can get in there.
2) and maybe something has, in an driver upgrade from Elon musk's satellites.
I wouldn't let these machines NEAR any network. And lock down all drivers once they have been properly evaluated and just lived with any non-lethal bugs and documented them. It's way more important that you KNOW how such things work than that they are perfect.
3) and the same with manual counting - this is not a precision sport but a robustness and trust and explainability one!
In almost all cases, manual errors will be as many on one side as on the other, and cancel out.
And it's very rare that any errors or possible local manipulations affects outcome. It's simply close enough for truth, its chance WHO got a flu and couldnt come too on that dsy, and other factors - and wanting EXACTNESS is NOTHING than another case of American overfocus on EXACTLY fair competition. (Where you at all care about it. :p.;) ).
Exactly to your point there has been speculation that 1 the machines were not inspected properly before the election and 2 there was possible corruption of the voting data by satellite networks
Ok. gotta tell you that I'm out on this for a while. Need to pretend that eveything is alright, get friends and kids into focus, and consolidate, and socialize and heal.
This needs to be sent to all sorts of places but I cant do it. Sorry. At least I got it to you so you have a chance of doing something with it.. ive got it to the social Dems here in Sweden at least, and will get it to the security police too.
... This is best effort, and praying it works. Good luck to you, brother in arms! <3 (Maybe get it to indivisible? )
Yes. Throw them out before even discussing them anymore ,.to not flood the zone for Bannon… :p for defendable trust you need to to manual anyway, and explain it as I said, like. . :)
Trump and Hegseth, a couple of TV personalities abusing power to lower the rank and pay of an American fighter pilot and astronaut. It’s scarcely believable yet not only will they get away with it, but Fox and MAGA influencers have convinced Trump supporters that Kelly is a seditious traitor. It’s all so vile and nauseating.
Epstein would say, ''eh it's a distraction."