Honesty, Transparency & Candor always win | Husband & Dad of 4 | F100 FinTech Ldr | Gulf War Vet/Nuclear Engineer | Fluent in sarcasm | GenXer
Margaritaville
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In the race to be first, be sure you don’t lose the race to be accurate.
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Great analysis. But y’all know me.
Now we go to the Why.
How was this able to be effective?
The American people have become too emotional and allowed that to overpower critical thinking.
Also see: short attention spans, confirmation bias and desperately looking for the laziest answer.
Everyone wants to weigh in with their Most Astute Take™ on the midterms.
But no one wants to even factor in the glaringly obvious: the US has been under the most sustained information attack by foreign states in decades, if not generations.
Foreign adversaries have learned to weaponize the very protections and safeguards – First Amendment, Section 230, privacy laws – that make discourse online possible. They use our shield as their weapon.
These actors have learned that they don't need to "hack Facebook" — as the press claimed Russia did in 2016. (In fact, that had no measurable impact.) They found that they don't need to infiltrate voting systems.
Instead, they have learned to focus on seeding poisonous narratives into virtually every open information system online. It's not only effective, but it's remarkably efficient.
The influence happens in various ways:
1. Bot manipulation – Accounts/shows that see enormous engagement surges on particular issues are motivated to double down on the messaging that the bot swarms respond to.
2. Direct incentives – Money and influence. This comes in the form of corporate financing, advertising deals materially larger than their market value. (Did Hasan Piker go to China just for kicks?)
3. Information poisoning – Bringing fringe narratives into the mainstream by seeding them into open, trusted platforms (e.g. Wikipedia).
4. Discourse radicalization – Actors tied to foreign adversarial states pull the discourse further to the fringe. There is no accountability mechanism, so these actors are free to not just say, but endlessly repeat, the most extreme, toxic, and false claims.
5. Network building – As one example: the Singham Network can build, fund, and run ideological networks with alarming success rates.
These are broad categories; they break down into thousands of smaller tactics.
Further, they innovate. Foreign adversaries have an ability to test and experiment, since state budgets are virtually unlimited relative to the cost.
Even more damagingly, there is almost no mainstream journalistic reporting on, or investigation into, malign influence by foreign actors in information spaces.
Can we name a single public investigation into information operations by US adversaries like China in recent months?
(It's as if, after a decade of "Russia, Russia, Russia," the press simply forgot this is a thing.)
Even in the rare cases where we catch and expose these activities, there is almost never consequences:
Example 1 - Recall the right-wing influencer taking $10m per year from the Russian government, whose posts seemed design to sowed division? Far from consequences, this individual was entirely let off the hook and even invited back into the country.
Example 2 – Al Jazeera's digital network, AJ+, was ordered by DOJ to register as a foreign agent – and simply ignored the order. Were they shut down? Did their operation even slow down?
Example 3 – Chinese operatives work in plain site on social platforms, disclosing their affiliations while dragging the discourse into the anti-American fringe.
Example 4 – The CCP-linked Singham Network, which funds groups like Code Pink, was exposed in recent months and still functions seamlessly.
Example 5 – Influencers and podcasters traveled to Cuba, apparently coordinating with the Cuban government, and are caught doing so. Have any one of them ceased or even decreased their activities?
WHAT REALLY MATTERS
This is the core imbalance: autocratic states running these operations have no – literally zero – checks on their capabilities:
+ They face no domestic journalistic investigation.
+ There is no Oversight Committee demanding answers.
+ There is no FOIA process to produce information.
+ There is no consequence in rare cases of exposure.
Total freedom to maneuver on the information battlefield.
We think, naively, that because these platforms are owned by US companies and regulated by American bodies that they are "ours."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Webmiester retweeted
Every GOP strategist, consultant, and candidate should be forced to participate in a role-playing exercise this morning.
Your name is Bob. You’re a 49-year-old blue-collar worker in Ohio. You’ve always struggled to make ends meet. The good jobs were all shipped to China and the few remaining pay a pittance wage, undercut by endless illegal labor.
You’re a 3x Trump voter because you believed he would finally make America great again.
You put your son through Ohio State. He graduated cum laude in computer science. You couldn’t have been prouder. After months searching, he landed an entry-level job at Microsoft. Beneath his qualifications, but a good start for a smart kid.
Then he got laid off. That same month, Microsoft applied for 150,000 more H-1B visas because it can’t find qualified Americans.
Your son has spent six months back in his childhood bedroom, sending hundreds of applications without landing an interview.
On TV, Trump boasts about the greatest economy in history and how many women and minorities are finding jobs.
You decide a father-son steak night might cheer him up.
Gas is $4.50 a gallon. Filling your truck costs over $100. At Kroger, ribeyes are $30/lb. You settle for hamburger, even though 70/30 ground beef still costs $10+.
At checkout, a fat black woman is screaming at the cashier because her EBT will only cover most of the filet mignon and lobster in her cart.
You think to yourself how the Iran war has made everything expensive, but at least we’re stopping their nuclear bomb. You weren’t even sure where Iran was before you googled it after we first bombed them in March.
After dinner, you take your son to the county fair. Half the people aren’t speaking English. Virtually none of the crowd looks like you. You’re forced to leave early after a “teen takeover” turns violent. A foreign born judge pledges none of them will go to jail.
Back home, you turn on the TV. Vivek Ramaswamy is lecturing the crowd about American mediocrity and why Ohio needs more foreign talent.
Your son grows upset. You change the channel.
Now a Republican surrogate, the daughter of a governor or wife of an elderly billionaire, explains that young White men are the REAL welfare queens. They’d rather play videogames in their parents’ basements than work.
Your son says nothing. He just goes back to his childhood bedroom. You turn off the TV.
Then your neighbor starts blasting reggaeton and cracking open Modelos. He brought his cousin’s family from Mexico to help with all the minority-business contracts his construction firm keeps winning. Tonight they’re celebrating his nephew’s birth, the family’s first birthright American citizen.
You sit alone in your living room.
You worked hard, paid taxes, obeyed the law, and raised your son to do everything right. You voted Republican again and again because you believed somebody in Washington would finally fight for you.
Instead, your wages are stagnant. Groceries are unaffordable. Your community is unrecognizable. Your country is fighting another foreign war.
And upstairs, the son you sacrificed everything for is lying awake in the bedroom he slept in at twelve, wondering what the heck he’s even supposed to do with his life now.
Every time you turn on the TV, the Republicans you elected are either congratulating themselves or explaining why you and your son are the problem.
For ten years, they told you America’s future depended on your vote. Now you aren’t even sure America has a future worth defending.
The Republican Party needs to answer one simple question this morning:
You’ve spent a decade demanding Bob’s loyalty. You’ve given him stagnant wages, unaffordable groceries, another foreign war, and a son who did everything right but can’t find work.
And when they complain, you call them lazy, entitled, and racist.
What possible reason have you given Bob and his son to vote Republican? Do you honestly think you deserve their vote?
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While a fantastic write-up, it is said as if oblivious to the fact that we are stuck in the GOP.
The literal enemy to the “what we want”.
We have no other place to go in a 2 party system. So rebuild the GOP with America first only. No BSers. No clout chasers. Nobody who will bend the knee. America first or out.
Then, maybe, if it isn’t too late, we can right the ship.
One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.
So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."
Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.
There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.
Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)
In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.
If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.
But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
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Found him.
Lifelong Democrat (until 2024) here!
It was shocking the moment I realized that this is exactly who my side was. All of a sudden I realized all the things the left warned me of about the right, like mindless violence, blind hatred, and bigotry were all around me. They were describing the worst of themselves, and projecting it onto the right. This type of behavior isn’t rare amongst Democrats in 2026. It’s compulsory.
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Webmiester retweeted
This is a masterclass in taqiyya.
Abdul doesn’t actually believe in this trans stuff. As a devout Muslim, he worships at a mosque where there’s strict gender segregation and women sit in the back.
They certainly wouldn’t allow men into women’s bathrooms.
But taqiyya allows him to pretend otherwise in order to gain power and advance the cause of Islam.
When Muslims have enough power, they will no longer need to pretend.
.@AbdulElSayed says it’s ok for MEN to be in girl’s locker rooms.
Why?
“Well because they are going to find out about it on the internet anyway”
Completely unacceptable.
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These types of videos are exactly why people feel entitled to be this way.
Show the dude your id, explain why you are there and why the alarm went off and he’d be back to work already.
Unreal.
Spoiled Cop With Bad Manners Forces Entry - NO Warrant #cop #copsoftiktok #copstiktok #lawsuit #uslaw #bodycam #bodycamcops #policemisconduct #civilrights #lawtok #copusa
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Webmiester retweeted
🚨🚨 I have just been informed by @ReawakenUSA CEO @realjamesowen that he was called by @UMich and asked to have my video of yesterday’s attack removed due to negative blowback on lunatic, Temulun Togochog
I’ll repost it every day until she’s expelled and charged.
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Wasn’t going to bother with 𝕏 money.
But I do so love having random accounts for some unexplained reason.
Threw $5k in there. My usual tester amount.
Made $7.63 since 10/23.
Wild! May toss in some more.
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Ok, this is funny.
Ever notice that in Spanish, -ito is a diminutive, so a dog is a perro while a puppy or small dog is a perrito. A cat is a gato, a kitten is a gatito.
It follows that if a mosquito is a small blood sucking pest, that a mosque would be a LARGE blood sucking pest. Love Spanish!
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Always has been.
Always will be.
After this election, even before they’re sworn-in, newly minted politicians will go behind closed doors in the swamp to pick the majority leader, minority leader, whips, etc., and to nominate a Speaker.
They’ll vote for candidates who promise campaign cash, good times, good committee assignments, and subcommittee gavels. When it’s all said and done, your Representatives will also pledge their congressional voting cards to the leaders of RED team and BLUE team, who are secretly playing on the same team.
That’s how your election will get stolen. I compare these Representatives to Jack who traded the family cow for magic beans… but in this version of the story, the beans never sprout and lobbyists eat the beef.
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Webmiester retweeted
This guy said the quiet part out loud and you can feel his anger and disgust…
I couldn’t agree more..
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“Linked to”
One of my favorite phrases in media.
“Connected to” is another.
A tungsten miner linked to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. plans to go public in the US next year at a $2 billion valuation.
Kaz Resources has letters of intent for up to $1.6 billion in financing from two US government agencies, the Export-Import Bank and the US International Development Finance Corporation. Its planned mine in Kazakhstan could produce 15% of the world’s tungsten once it starts operating, targeted for 2030.
The Trump brothers are expected to hold less than 1%, worth under $20 million
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Webmiester retweeted
Communists understand public perception and they exploit our weaknesses for their gain. They understand that you can change the world with narrative, not reality, which means truth is arbitrary to the end goal of social change or demoralization.
When watching the riots in Europe, people often don’t understand why the police force won’t go a step farther in its use of force to bring an end to the unrest. The simple answer: Perception.
A thought experiment: Can an unarmed person be dangerous? Logically, yes they can, and I think most people can understand how, depending on the situation.
However, emotionally, and with certain optics, them being unarmed disarms our logic and we stop perceiving them as dangerous when their opposition is well equipped.
There are several strategies at play with the riots happening in Europe that allow the malicious people to seemingly get away with destroying society.
First is a process of building and hijacking.
There must be an innocent-sounding reason for there to be people who are upset, one that gains the sympathy of the public but most of all the mainstream media.
In Europe, no matter which network you’ll watch, they will give the rationale for chaos as being connected to cost of living and educational standards.
The media sets the stage for excuses for why windows are broken, buildings burn ablaze, and neighborhoods look like war zones.
Then the hijacking begins...
Let’s say that the initial reasons are due to educational standards and they are innocent in their origin; the communists will latch onto it like a leech and suck the goodwill dry for their need to demoralize.
Whether it’s the George Floyd riots or the riots happening in Europe, there are always non-violent protests that happen first and then terror that follows. This is purposeful, as all reporting will say that there are “mostly peaceful protests,” which is a preferable soft-language tactic that hides what it really is: a communist uprising.
The police won’t use extreme force because the narrative is against them; hence the perception of armed men and women with guns pointed at people who are upset about classroom sizes will always stand against them.
The U.S. has tons of guns in circulation and the communists could easily arm themselves and get into shooting battles with the police. They could easily decide tomorrow to start an all-out assault en masse against the government.
However, doing that turns the public against them and the narrative will be that they are violent terrorists, not concerned citizens who want “social justice.” They understand that they can do low-level aggression for hours upon hours, days upon days, as long as they don’t cross that line.
If you watch footage, you’ll see Antifa with umbrellas on sunny days. They use that as a low-impact aggressive weapon that they can open and push into the faces and bodies of people repeatedly. I’ve seen videos of a line of Antifa with black umbrellas setting up a wall to charge the police with, and they will never be shot at because of it.
Because who wants to be known as the cop who shot some idiot with an umbrella? That will be the perception and it will always work in their favor. Trust me, communists love having martyrs in case someone in law enforcement makes a mistake.
The perception will be that this person was a mother, father, son, or daughter who was just “protesting” for “social justice” and “the system” killed them for standing up for the greater good. Their deaths will be flaunted as a reason to tear apart our society and demoralize us further, pushing us one step closer to the revolution that communists want.
Communists don’t need everyone to join their cause; they just need the majority to do nothing when they begin the takeover. When they say our society sucks because of X reason, they just need you to nod in agreement.
Repeating their slogans from the comfort of your home and being comfortable with their vision is enough for them.
You’ll be inundated with riot videos and the police will respond the same way every time. They will let low-level terrorism occur because they can’t afford the perception of appearing as a heavy-handed police state that shoots unarmed people for being upset about how things are run.
The hijacking of movements is key for them to gain leverage and coverage to riot. If they just chose a random Tuesday to burn down a building, they would be exposed and easily labeled as a malicious force. The protester cover is a blanket that hides their motives and keeps us comfortably believing that communism is dead.
Maybe it’s the post-Cold War feeling that communism is somehow dead and that any mention of it is hysterics.
The communist will always walk that tight line because they know how weak we are at examining the context surrounding violence in the West, especially when law enforcement is involved.
I’m not advocating for the shooting of people on the streets, but what I am saying is that we’ve lost the ability to think critically about situations involving violence when there is a lopsidedness in ability to use force.
And the communists know this. They will always use our weaknesses against us and lie for the sake of gains in public perception.
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Webmiester retweeted
If you'd like read/share this in an article format, you can do so here:
adambcoleman.com/p/perceptio…
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