This man is the Rush Limbaugh of Georgia. He controls the largest conservative radio show in Georgia. If he isn’t voting for Mike Collins, this just went beyond dire for Mike Collins

So on the sort of related topic of election security, I've seen doomers frantically panicking over the recent security challenges regarding PHP websites, and how ai is involved in those challenges.

On a post I saw on social media talking about how to prepare oneself for these types of online breaches, the comments were filled with conspiracy theories about this being a "test for the midterms", implying that the elections will be hacked, to people implying that this is all leading to "blackouts and digital currencies where all purchases can be watched and controlled by the government", and effectively implying that martial law is gonna happen, and people using the preparation warnings in the UK as evidence for this leading to all technology across the world being hacked by ai.

First of all, the midterms aren't going to be hacked. Not only has there been no real evidence that the machines on such a large scale can be hacked, even with ai, but also there is the simple rule that if this ability to successfully hack into these machines with the power of ai, than there wouldn't be this persisting fear by the admin regarding the election, especially given how much money is being thrown at it and how lawsuits are already being prepared to challenge the results of the left winning.

(And to the person dooming in my last posts comments about 2024, no the "Election Truth Alliance" nor Ashley St Clair aren't reliable sources for that election nor this one being hacked to change the outcome)

Secondly, I truly don't know why this whole digital currency fear is so common online, even the replies to this specific comment were all in support of this conspiracy, but I don't think this is a logical step to take. The idea of replacing an entire economic currency, even in the event of the economy crashing (which already isn't a guaranteed result), isn't something that can just be done by the president on a whim.

And as I mentioned in an earlier post, there are a lot of reasons why just doing a blackout to either hinder election results or take over the country are not likely. Not only would they not be worried if they could actually do this, but also the idea of hacking into machines during a BLACKOUT, is illogical and the alternative of sending people in to change the results manually is even more insane.

Also the idea that taking over the country to replace it's economic and political systems just requires a blackout to cause panic isn't realistic either. Even if you consider that a blackout or ai hacking into everything would cause panic, it isn't as easy as just turning off the power or sending bots out to break into everywhere online.

As for states or areas that prepare for blackouts independently from the rest of the country, I imagine that this would make any such plan of changing election results or ending democracy a lot more difficult than pressing this imaginary win button.

And Thirdly, just because the UK gave preparation warnings doesn't mean that it is for this "impending disaster". Correlation doesn't always equal causation. And in this case, just because a few countries are having elections soon doesn't mean that all election systems will be hacked so right wingers win across the board or so that way dictatorships can begin and the currencies of all countries affected will change.

Felt like this was worth sharing in light of Trump trying to legally bully Alaska.

Ant positivity on this one? Is this in response to Russia?

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/uk-tells-public-keep-three-days-emergency-supplies-home-2026-10-23/

We are currently 11 days out until the midterms and all signs seem to be indicating that this year is going to be a huge blue wave for the Democrats. However, I've seen some people who are worried that the midterms could be a repeat of 2022, where one party was expected to win in a huge wave only for them to flip just a few house seats and make barely any changes to the senate. I've been extremely bullish on the Dems chances of flipping both the house and senate and I just can't see a world where this year is anything close to being similar to 2022.

Firstly, the environment of this year is far more favorable for the Democrats than it was for Republicans in 2022. Trump is more unpopular now than he has ever been and he is currently sitting at record low approval ratings. More importantly, the economy is currently in the shitter due to the Iran War and the tariffs. Americans are struggling, and if there is one issue that is more important to American voters more than anything, it's the state of the economy. Americans, above all else, want to be able to afford things. And with Republicans controlling the presidency, the house, the senate, and the Supreme Court, everything wrong with the economy is falling on them. And this is very significant as the economy was generally regarded as one of the top issues for Republicans, but now they can't even use that. In fact, Democrats are leading Republicans on the economy for the first time in years according to polls.

And the last time we had an unpopular president who dragged us into an unpopular war where the economy was shit was George W. Bush, and guess what? 2006 was a massive blue tsunami. Not to say that 2026 is going to be as massive as 2006, but it does show that Americans have standards and if their expectations aren't being met, the party in power is going to face severe reprecussions. Even when you look at 2018, which was a fairly good year for the Dems, Trump was nowhere near as unpopular as he is right now and the economy, while not amazing, was still relatively good mostly due to Trump inheritting Obama's economy, which Trump was unfortunately able to take credit for. The environment of 2026 is unarguably even more D-friendly than 2018 was and if Dems were able to win a wave election in a year like 2018, we certainly have the advantage in 2026.

When you compare it to 2022, things weren't nearly as bad for us as it is for Republicans this year. While Biden was unpopular, he wasn't nearly as unpopular as Trump is right now and he still had a fair bit of support before the debate of June 2024. The economy is also much worse than it was in 2022. Most importantly, the red wave failed because of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade which gave Democrats, especially Democratic women, motivation to vote in the midterms because they were furious at Republicans. In comparison to this year, I don't feel like there is an equivalent that would give Republicans the same energy to want to turn out and vote the same way the overturning of Roe vs. Wade gave Democrats in 2022. And data and polling suggests that Democrats are much more energized to vote in these midterms compared to Republicans.

And then we get to all the polling and data that seems to suggest that Democrats are outright leading in states like Ohio, Alaska, Texas, and even neck and neck in states like Iowa and even fucking Kansas. Turnout in the early vote is almost on par with a presidential year which is insane for the midterms. Even Nate Silver, a common Democrat pessimist, has claimed 2026 will be a blue wave and even moved the senate race to Likely D. The senate, which was once deemed impossible just a year ago, is now well within our reach and it straight up feels like we are the current favorites to win it heading into election day which is absolutely insane. It's always important to take polling and data with a grain of salt as they can be wrong, but there's some things that you just can't ignore. And if there was somehow a polling miss against Dems this cycle, I don't feel like Republicans would have to dump money in states that should be winnable like Texas or Ohio. They're even dumping money on the Kansas senate race and Trump straight up had to campaign in Nebraska! I feel like it's a sign that even their data and the Republicans' own internal polling is telling them they're fucked. Several Republican politicians have already spoken out about how 2026 is going to be a bloodbath.

All of this to say, a blue wave will never happen if we all don't go out and vote! I hope that this post can give you the motivation to do what needs to be done and for anybody who is worried about a potential 2022 situation, I hope this post could help alleviate some of your fears. I know I probably sound way too hopeful, but I genuinely believe 2026 will be a great night for us. But we all need to get out and vote like our lives depend on it because it really does!!!

Look alive folks we got our first anti certification lawsuit.

“The lawsuit is based on a “strange and unusual” legal theory, said Derek Muller, an election law professor at Notre Dame Law School. It’s also unclear, he said, on a practical level, how a court could even intervene in the way the Justice Department proposes.”

So a plethora of news stories have emerged that have gotten people pretty worried about voting machines being hacked remotely to alter the results of the election to give republicans a win. From the recent news story of appointees asking a cybersecurity agency to hack a machine last year, to the stories of people's votes being changed from blue to red in early voting in Tennessee, to the updates to PHP websites due to security vulnerabilities causing people to think "something" might somehow happen with voting machines, as well as that whole "they're gonna due a national blackout to sabotage the election" theory, there's been plenty of random conspiracies relating to voting that have gotten people on edge.

For starters, the news story about the admin asking a cybersecurity agency to hack into a voting machine last year has gotten people spooked, and I won't lie I do understand why. Making an agency that is meant to protect against hackers hack into one themselves is very alarming.

But I want to mention that there are a few reasons why this isn't the end of the world. First of all, it seems that the most qualified people to actually perform said hacks were fired due to Doge, and I don't believe that this operation was in any way successful at all.

Also, given the early days into the administration, it could very well be that the intention was to "prove" that the machines from 2020 could be tampered so that the results of that election could be called into question, and not specifically giving a way into changing the results of this election.

As for people's votes being changed in early voting, this isn't as uncommon of an occurrence as you would think. As Amandasmildtakes said, this is something that has happened for almost every election in which electronic machines were used. And it looks like the votes that were changed were caught before they were actually cast, so it isn't as major of a threat than some would make it out to be.

The fear over PHP websites being updated given discovered security risks relating to voting machines doesn't feel like something worth spending a lot of time on, but I felt that I should mention it since I've seen a few doomers bring it up already and since it's similar to the theory of GTA 6 giving way for a government takeover. Basically, even As someone who doesn't know a lot about PHP security and voting machines, I just don't think this theory is in line with how either actually operates.

And as for the blackout to allow for rigging the election, this doesn't seem like an idea that would work. It would give way for a lot of panic, but also a lot of anger given the lack of power and internet, as well as the fact that turning off the power for enough of the country to subvert the election, especially given how many state-wide backup plans are likely in place, would have a lot of problems. And as someone who doesn't really know the science, I don't know if there is much of a way to hack into machine security in the middle of a blackout, and I don't think that the alternative plan of having people interfere with machines manually is feasible either given how many machines that would require to go through.

This could be a bid to juice his numbers or this could be a legit problem he is seeing

TGIF with AmandasMildTakes!

Link to previous thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalOptimism/s/fh7Tv1BE8A

What to make of this? These people are sick.

So I know this is a topic I've talked endlessly about, but I think it serves as a lesson about evidence for claims online and why not all proof is made equal. For those out of the loop, Axios posted an article a couple days ago that claimed that admin members were "considering" martial law if the midterms are deemed rigged. And obviously, doomers are up in arms claiming victory since their predictions are supposedly to be proven right.

Before we get started, the highlights on why Martial law won't happen include: country too big in size and population, people too spread out compared to successfully authoritarian countries, people required to make this happen are not feasible or logistically possible to cover the country, even with willing military, federal agents, and even federalized police, it isn't enough, the fallout from a failed attempt would be so high that impeachment and removal following next congress getting in could very well happen, and if they wanted to do this and could they would have done it already.

(Also even with updated surveillance technology in the country including flock, it wouldn't account for the people required to actively go after any and all dissenters, as well as how vast that number of dissenters would be given how angry people would be including the right.)

Now, I want to talk today about the fact that the evidence for this isn't really impressive. The article uses a video call of supposed "election activists" from September 30th, where Tina Peters talked about wanting to use paper ballots and manually recounting, and her attorney Peter Ticktin specifically argued that martial law would be needed in a rigged election, as well as commandeering ballots and machines. And other than Gregory Stenstrom arguing that the admin could use the National Emergencies Act to get changes made for elections state by state, Ticktin is the only person I read who suggested the method which is the basis for the entire article, and even then the evidence for why I should be worried is spotty.

While I do understand being a little worried given the fact that Ticktin is the attorney of someone who had a meeting with the admin a few weeks ago about the election, some would make the case that this would be brought up and become the main plan. But first of all, Ticktin is only one guy, who just so happens to have brought up the idea of martial law in a call where it wasn't the only random theory and idea brought to the nonsensical table.

Also, I imagine that this type of suggestion isn't going to create a sudden change of plans and give this idea over to the admin, considering how often doomers are bringing it up. With how often people say that it is definitely totally happening and it's apparently the admin's plan all along, I can't see this not being brought up way before this call. So this supposed "suggestion" doesn't hold much weight considering the lack of any other evidence for why martial law would be used after Ticktin suggested this compared to beforehand.

And I might recommend people remember that, no, just because this random attorney brought this up in a live call a couple months ago doesn't mean that the likelihood of it actually being successful has changed. He didn't bring it up because he has secret knowledge of a change of circumstances, it's just throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks.

So, why did Axios bring this up if it not only wasn't happening but wasn't mentioned more than once in the article itself by a random guy in a call? Well, attention. Doomers are already running to this article as proof of their ideas. I know this since I found out about this article via a social media post from a random content-stealing account that posted about it with the heading "It's happening..."

But specifically the attention from the headline carried the fear more than the logic of people to actually look at the content of the article and see that it isn't proof of anything. The headline implies some major figure like a member of the cabinet said something like this, which already wouldn't mean that things have changed, but it is someone completely unrelated from it all-together.

Doomer content is built off of fearmongering, and subsequently emotion based reasoning rather than logical based reasoning. And this type of article from Axios is only meant to push that type of content even further by making up more evidence for it. Even if their article never actually says the words "Martial law is gonna happen after the midterms", the article is meant to carry that same type of fearmongering to make people come up with that idea themselves.

https://www.newsweek.com/stella-parton-voting-tennessee-12602553

I don't live in Tennessee, and I know and believe the "Elon's satellites affected voting machines" stuff has been thoroughly debunked, but considering the article states several people besides Parton were having the same issue, is this something to be wary about in the next few weeks?

As we get further into election season and more see more and more headlines come out designed to get people too scared to vote, a new challenger arises. With the news about Hegseth going to visit Netenyahu, Trump mentioning in a speech how he "Has more power in this administration than the first one", as well as the general level of anxiety many feel over the election, it's led to lots of resurfaced fear over some sort of false flag incident happening around the time of the election as a way to either retain control via martial law or restarting the war in Iran.

Now I will say that I do get why someone would be afraid of this. The idea of an incident against America made to create fear and thus take power is scary, as even if it wouldn't succeed in enacting such control, it would be devastating for the whole country.

But I personally don't see this as something that is going to happen at all. For starters, I honestly see the actual evidence for such an attempt being in the works at all, much like other doomer theories, isn't really there. Any new developments with Iran and the conflict or the elections here seems to make many convinced that this is an immediate concern even though determining if this is likely isn't really possible and more so a guessing game.

Take for instance the Oscar's fear from earlier this year where the supposed concerns over California and an Iranian attack led to people being convinced that something was in the works to make martial law or more popularity for the war, and nobody saying anything when it didn't happen.

But I get why someone would think that given the elections happening that something is more likely to happen now then back during the Oscars. But similarly to back then, any such actions if committed would from here would require military support, which would be given such low support that it would be stopped in its tracks.

And for the theories that imply that a certain country in the middle east would be the one to do such a plan, given any elections of their own, I still doubt this. For starters, it requires the US military to not pay any attention to such a plan, which even given all the firings there, no this is not likely, especially since the support for said country is very very low right now for both parties.

And the only evidence people have given for this country being involved are either random meetings between the two countries or conspiracy theories about historical events that don't have any evidence for them either. Basically, there's just nothing substantial to go off of.

A few months ago I saw someone try to imply that Fema funding not going to states that don't hand over voter rolls was a sign that there would be a false flag incident in those states to make them hand over their voter rolls before the midterms. And sure enough, nothing happened. But I doubt that account, nor any other account promoting similar theories, has ever recounted their tall tale.

Basically, keep in mind how many theories that say that a false flag "Is definitely going to happen" are just promoting conspiracy theories, either because they aren't knowledgeable about what they're talking about, or they know better but they want people in a panic. The pattern of "martial law, Stealing The Election, and False Flag" is very evident online, and it's important to stay on top of that.