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Feb 3
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James, you have been a monumental asshole here today and I suspending your posting privileges for a week. If you want a refund please contact me and will be happy to oblige.

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Feb 3
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Friends, I would be very slow to attend in person events right now. They want conflict and a fight and people have to be careful. Make sure the event organizers are known to you and trusted. That serious people are speaking at them. There are chaos monkeys on both sides who will attempt to push public events into violence. Again - be careful about attending public events.

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Agreed. I live in Portland, Oregon, often referred to by Republicans as the city that Antifa burned down. The truth is a long story, but I will say that none of it is true. Peaceful demonstrations were hijacked by a group of thugs who had no interest in Black Lives Matter, but loved all the attention they got by showing up and causing chaos.

I want to recommend showing up at local legislative offices either alone or with a few friends or family. If you have great senators like I do in Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, bake some cookies for their staff as a thank you for their hard work.

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There was a pro-immigrant rally in LA this weekend and Mayor Karen Bass called in the riot police. Reason:The protestors were blocking a freeway, Highway 101. Some of these protests can get out of control. The same thing happened here last summer with the protesters blocking access to O’Hare International Airport (ORD).

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Feb 3
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Shaun, your only contributions here are you crapping all over Dems. You never talk about what you are doing to help, lead, fight. This kind of performative "Dems suck" narrative is a form of obeying in advance and not welcome here. I literally show what Dems are doing, how folks are taking action. Do better or I am going to permanently remove you from this community.

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Thank you, Simon. The GOP is fully in charge now and doing nothing. Republicans caused this nightmare and are allowing it to continue unabated … but as usual, Dems are expected to “fix it.” SMH 🤦🏽‍♀️

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The capital switchboard is jammed.

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I'm from MA. Warren and Markey have DC phone numbers which I called.

The voicemail system is very choppy, but I responded as best I could.

The Warren voicemail cut me off. Keep it short.

I had a script. For what it's worth:

-------------

Senator,

A Constitutional Crisis is under way. I need you to speak out. I need you to call it what is: a coup.

As you know, Elon Musk, a private citizen with no standing in the federal government, has unlawfully taken possession of a highly sensitive US government computer that holds confidential information on American citizens and the payments made to us through government programs. Reportedly Musk has succeeded in stopping legal payments to vendors of monies appropriated by Congress. This is Impoundment.

This move is illegal and must be stopped.

This move is is a coup; a seizure of government power by unconstitutional means.

Please use every tool at your disposal to protect us and punish Musk, Trump, Scott Bessent, and the others responsible for this horrendous breach of the Constitution and of our privacy and personal information.

Thank you.

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thank you!

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If there are issues in getting through to a senator's D.C. number, is their value in call one of their in-state offices? Does it carry the same weight? Thanks.

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Yes definitely! However you can get through.

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That’s nice. I have a script too. The call was very choppy for both the MA and DC numbers.

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The mailboxes in Wisconsin are full too. The voicemail system also very choppy. I resorted to emailing everyone. I’ll try calling later. I hope this does mean they’re being flooded with people demanding action against trump/musk

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Same here. I just tried to call my rep for the first time—being in very blue Vermont it never seemed to matter before, but I know it does now. Could not get one call to connect. I'm going to email, but am also going to start leaning on our Republican governor and lieutenant gov. Gov. Scott has been a paragon of resistance to Trump and we need to start pressuring him to hold that line, I think.

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That's exactly what happened when I called Schiff's DC and Padilla's Sacramento offices. voicemail message was almost completely unintelligible.

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Padilla voted to yes to Bessent's nomination. You should also let him know that he handed the keys to our vault over to Musk That's unacceptable. Ask him to vote no for the other nominations--Gabbard, Kennedy, Vought , etc

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I checked ballotpedia before I communicated with him, and he wasn't in the list of Democratic yes votes. Senate.gov listed him as not voting.

I've already written to urge him to vote no on these other supremely unqualified, dangerous nominees.

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perfect!! Thank you for sharing!

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I now only email Warren's office as the voice mail system is ridiculous (and I have called all of her state offices with the same result). So far, with emails going to her office weekly, I have never heard back.

I know she is good on all the issues important to all of us, but her office etiquette leaves much to be desired.

Markey's office, on the other hand, has people who answer the phone (I now have learned to press #2 for help with a problem and then I speak directly to someone). Very helpful.

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Being more high profile, Sen. Warren is a target, and I am sure she is getting thousands of calls from around the country, many from haters. It takes a few days, but I like sending postcards to a local office. I always include my name, zip code, and tell them I'm a voter in their district. I've also been sending postcards to people like Warren and Raskin thanking them for fighting so hard for us.

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I just sent a message to Ted Cruz. Thanks for giving it out. I will next call my representative and give her the same message.

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Excellent. Call it what it is: a coup.

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Yes very hard to tell whether my message is getting through to Schumer Gillibrand Jeffries et al. Still we must try!

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Keep trying

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Yes, keep trying!

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Now I'm doing emails. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime, email per their site.

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Me too. I use the contact form on their website. Those messages get counted too.

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If all else fails: SNAIL MAIL!

I have a radical suggestion. If your call or email is not getting through to the senators and congressional representatives you’re trying to contact, consider writing a letter or postcard!

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I completely agree. Postcards are better for security reasons, and easier. Always include your name (clearly written) where you live, and that you are a voter in their district/state. I send them to local offices that are not going to be as busy as DC

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Good point! Postcards don’t require a return address or full self-identification.

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Since the days of anthrax, envelopes have to go through a special screening. That's why postcards are best.

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I wasn’t aware of that. Makes sense; I had forgotten about anthrax.

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Most members of Congress have a contact form on their website that often gets a quick reply. (There is an option to request a reply or not. I always request a reply, always receive an official answer.)

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I had trouble with phone lines too so used my individual Senators’ email forms & had success. Also called local (not DC) office of my Rep & spoke directly to an aide. Advocated re “the 4” plus Bondi (so, 5) and USAID & Musk.

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GOOD

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It’s easy to go to their websites and post your comment there if you can’t get a call through.

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They MUST start accepting and counting this correspondence too

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Yes, but understand they are being completely swamped by thousands of calls, and many probably from people outside their jurisdictions.

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I understand Kate, more reason for them to consider other communication modalities besides phone calls.

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I tried calling my senators and the phone lines are choppy, then go dead. Did call my rep. ( I actually had another rep from my state who asked for donations. Sent him an email what they could do to get a donation from me: get all Dem. Senators and Reps. to get in front of the Treasury with tons of media and let them know DOGE head, Elon Musk and their techs need to be arrested. )I also contacted my state attorney general, Wm. Tong on behalf of myself and my family and the constituents of CT who have account numbers stolen from SS, Medicare, Medicaid and Veteran's accounts.

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Contacting Tong is a great idea! He is crusader and will get it done!

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Virginia: Can I ask how you framed your comment to your state AG? Mine is Brad Rafensburg, GA, Repbulican. You may remember him as the guy who stood up to Trump in his infamous "Find me 11,000 votes" phone call. So he has stood up to Trump before, but he can also side with R's. Having the right words might help.

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It was a form that I filled out with an area for a description of my complaint. I let him know that I was distressed that under the direction of Mr. Elon Musk, an unelected official from a company that had not received Congressional approval, DOGE, walked into the U.S. Treasury Department and downloaded all vendor information that included my social security information, my husband's veterans information and my autistic son's social security as well as that of all vendor's in Connecticut. I want him to face charges, as well as his accomplices. Sincerely, ----. Hope this helps. ( There were only so many letters I was allowed. This is basically what I wrote. )

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thank you for sharing your well-thought out comments! very helpful. And I forgot Rafesnburg is SOS, not attorney general for GA, but I will find out who our AG is and demand action.

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I suppose you could say something along the lines that votes count -- Musk has not been nominated for Senate advice & consent. The integrity of all GA voters' information and privacy is at stake. How is he going to protect you.

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Letting your elected officials (state/ federal level) know of your concerns and demand actions, regardless of their party affiliation can only help. Even if they are Rs, if enough people contact their office, it will get noticed. Their failure to act in the best interest of the people can be a talking point in the next campaign. Hard to imagine at this point that there is any such thing as too much pressure.

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Thanks Virginia! I adapted this a bit and left it as a comment to CA's AG.

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Wonderful! Hope you get a response soon.

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I know! I dialed Sen. Cornyn's (Texas) number and I could hear some glitching. I will try again.

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Yeah, I just tried it again. And Schiff and Padilla's direct office numbers are not working - garbled.

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I prefer calling local offices.

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Has anyone considered the very real possibility Trump has dementia?

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He may, but the people behind him definitely do not, and this is a very-carefully planned strategy. This is (mostly) not coming from Trump, in my opinion.

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I agree. It's been long in the making

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Clearly most of it is coming from Elon Musk. Over the weekend Trump was in Florida golfing, while Musk's goons did a Saturday night raid on our government.

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We activists have long suspected that Dump has dementia, but the press has poo-pooed that notion. Dr. Mary Trump says dementia runs in their family. Apparently Dump’s greatest fear is getting dementia like his dad Fred.

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I think it is quite likely that Musk hasn't even told Trump what he is doing because Trump is too out of it to notice everything and that the Treasury takeover was done without telling the rest of the administration.

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Just donated to the DNC through your link.

The democrats on capital hill need to march down to the treasury and USAID offices and demand that musk is removed. We need direct action.

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Thank you.

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So will they be marching down and taking action?

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Please call your members of Congress and ask them to do so. I just called mine.

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Thank you! I'm calling mine. However, all the lines are busy, suggesting our strategy of calling our congressional members has a bottleneck problem.

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Please email if you can't get through! You can also call later, if you are able to get through then. Nothing wrong with doing both!

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That's a good idea, and I did do that. Though my impression from people was that calls matter more.

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Great idea!. I just called my rep and asked her to organize just such an action.

And as another Hopium subscriber mentioned, the voice mail to my senators is very choppy. I can only hope that is because they are being flooded with calls.

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Same with the NC senators!

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Yep yep, same when I called NC reps, I'm a bit abroad so I thought it was my internet connection. Some of the voicemail boxes are full so I've sent multiple emails via their senator.gov websites.

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yep

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Yeah couldn’t even get through to vm for Kaine it was so choppy

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The same thing happened to me with both of my senators from MA. Pretty weird if you ask me.

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Democrats did an outstanding press conference today. It is worth watching it its entirety.

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I guess this is proof positive that the Deep State that Elon and the delusional Q-MAGA talk about is nothing but a figment of their imaginations.

Right now, a coup happening. This is precisely the sort of thing our intelligence and defense establishment is supposed to protect us against! At this moment, I really do wish there was a Deep State available to intervene against Donald, Elon, Kash, Russell, Tulsi, Stephen Miller & Co.

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"This is precisely the sort of thing our intelligence and defense establishment is supposed to protect us against!"

The people running those know exactly what's going on. Never in our history has duty required them to get involved like this. Do you recall the captain of one of our aircraft carriers who put the safety of his crew first -- when Covid first broke out -- and ordered his ship into port without orders from higher ups? Those officers remember and KNOW.

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If you want to see what real brotherhood and honor looks like .. something that morally depraved imbecile knows nothing about -- take a look at this. It's neither dead, nor sleeping.

https://youtu.be/YnjctxFyFLU?si=dipC0_rt6MS7sT8L

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All great suggestions, Simon. Joyce Vance specifically added to call the members of the Senate Treasury Committee. Ron Wyden, OR, is the Ranking Member. He’s onto Musk’s illegal coup of Treasury and has written a stern letter. Sure he has more planned. Maria Cantwell, WA, has spoken out. But let’s call all the members and urge them to do everything they can to stop Elon and his band of young marauders. I’m on a plane but will be calling everyone when I land.

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Wyden is very much on top of things and leading. He is doing a great job and has a very talented staff.

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So great to hear, Simon. I’ve always been impressed by him as a native Oregonian.

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I have always loved Senator Ron Wyden. He is an awesome feisty fighter.

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I just thanked Sen Wyden on Bluesky and tagged all the other Sens on the Committee. The only ones I found were Dems. Also contacted sen Schumer and Gillibrand. Gave to the gov race and dem committee just to show support! What to say to my R Congressman? I wrote a letter to the editor about the tariffs on Canada and said I expect him to denounce and reverse them.

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I have a new R Representative who was in T's first admin, but I'm calling anyway and telling him that Musk has committed illegal acts, needs to be arrested and that I will personnaly hold him (my congressman) responsible if anyone gets my data due to Musk's illegal breach.

I'm also telling him (not asking) to tell T the tariffs he is trying to implement are ILLEGAL and that my stocks are taking a huge hit.

I will not identify my party status on purpose. Let them think I am someone who voted for him.

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Thanks!

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I will call Cornyn who is also on that committee. We have to flood their offices.

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I've been calling Sen. Cantwell, among others. I called her again today. She still needs to up her game.

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I’m from Washington and will call her too.

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A stern letter?????? Are you kidding me? Like Musk cares about a stern letter from Congress. I read in the NYT that Schumer is going to introduce legislation to make them stop. Again. What???? They don't care about laws (obviously). Someone needs a court to rule that this is illegal and get the cops in there to remove them. Nothing short of that will actually stop them.

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On a lighter note:

. Musk Declares Social Security Recipients Can No Longer Work From Home

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Asserting that “this is what we do at all my other companies,” Elon Musk announced on Monday that, henceforth, Social Security recipients will no longer be permitted to work from home.

“When I started running the Treasury Department and saw all those checks going out, I was like, ‘Wait, where are all these people?’” Musk told reporters. “It turns out that they were all remote, which is insane.”

Musk said that, if those on Social Security want to continue receiving benefits, “they can haul their asses down to the U.S. Treasury offices in Washington and get to work—no exceptions.”

Across the country, Social Security recipients protested that the new requirement was inhumane because it would force them to come into contact with Musk.

https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/musk-declares-social-security-recipients

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The Senate phone lines are garbled. I did leave a message for Thune about the events that need his attention. Cornyn's lines were garbled as well and I will try later to leave a message.

My Congressmen is Tony Gonzales and I talked with a staffer and reported my concerns about the Treasury payment system, USAID and national security risks that are being perpetrated.

I am glad Congressman Beyer plans to go to the USAID offices! Congress needs to get their funding back if at all possible.

I have heard that there are protests being coordinated for tomorrow.

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Feb 3
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Same. NC

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garbled lines to sen scott & moody. do you think they have messed with the phones to congressman today????

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this happened to me in CA and is apparently happening across the country. unintelligible voice mail messages and full mail boxes.

I'm commenting through their official websites. Padilla's office sent back an acknowledgment of my comment, so at least that got through.

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Dragonfly, that was my experience with the Ca senators. I used the contact forms. Rep McClintock’s communication systems didn’t work.

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I am happy and thankful that at least 1 Dem Rep will go over and see what's going on! There should be a line of Democrats over there locking arms and filming it al!! Why are they just standing down and staying soooo damn silent?! We are at war and the Democrats better start understanding that and get to fighting. I like a lot of people donated money my wife and I could barely afford and to watch them all jus sit quietly and "sound the alarm" is beyond disheartening.

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The House has been in recess and reconvenes tomorrow. I have a feeling Dem reps used the break to write up articles of impeachment and will present them tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

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I can't believe that an email I received from another congressman (not mine) is that the grassroots need to get moving. In other words, donate. Let him know where the bear s--t in the woods. Too bad since he is often on TV, but I expect more.

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"Democrats Need a Shadow Government Before It’s Too Late"

Under this title, Jason Egenberg has a fine substack post, shares thoughts very much in line with what Simon and the Hopium community have been discussing. He makes some very interesting detailed suggestions.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/156384212?r=3nm35j&triedRedirect=true

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Maybe send to the new DNC chair?

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Excellent: we put a face on Democratic leadership, so the public sees the alternative.

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Great minds think alike. I just DID send it to the DNC. I told them they weren't getting another dime out of me until they had a real plan.

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Thanks, AS, I think that's the best articulation of the shadow government concept I've read.

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Couldn't get through to D.C. office so sent an email to Representative Fitzpatrick. Then called local office and did get a human.

Next Senators Fetterman and McCormick (who doesn't have his picture posted?)

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trying too

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That’s why the robber barons took out the FBI first … so they could plunder and pillage at will, with no law enforcement to stop them.

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called both sens from fla, scott & moody, pretty depressing. gave $$ to wisconsin, dnc and va gov race. i sincerely hope our elected dems in DC today are going to these govt buildings to intercede and get press coverage. 5 alarm fire now.

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Democrats have the ability to shut down the operation of the United States completely. That power needs to be used to force Trump and Republicans to undo their destructive attacks on our government and democracy. Americans want Democrats to fight back with whatever power they have. There is no patience for condemnatory speechless and press releases.

And the house will soon have immense authority because the of the split in the Republican caucus they cannot agree on major matters: the debt limit and government spending. Republicans need some votes of Democrats. The price they pay for those votes must be high, a full reckoning and reparation for the destruction now under way.

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Seems like shutting everything down is a gun not a precision instrument. We want congress to show power over illegal entry and theft. Visible sustained protest might be a better way, with demands. Lock uber elite Musk out.

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