The Website's Done! Plus A Brush w/ Death, & How We Deal w/ Extremist Threats

And Yet Another Roll-Out Iteration (Semper Gumby!)

Dec 15, 2022

Hey Our Website’s Done!

We announced Friday that we finished the post-election website overhaul — but that was buried on a post about threats to the power grid.

It’s taken some doing to boil our approach down to be usable and remember-able. The whole website is also here in a printable PDF guide.

The whole website is based on the Shift the Country 5-Thing approach:

Why? What’s this all about?

It’s a framework to help us counter authoritarianism, to counter fascism, to counter extremism… but even more than that to help us champion and fight for the country we wish to see in the world. The shift we want to see.

It’s to help us reclaim the US for the majority — as a functional and more truly representative democracy that better serves its people.

Yo: it’s going to take some work.

This isn’t going to be easy stuff, and we’re not coming into an easy time. Lots of folks are in denial, but that doesn’t change the risk landscape.

We’ve got a hyper-empowered bunch of radical extremists seeking to seize and hold political power up in this country. A bunch of them are already in office or in positions of authority. More will be coming into power as the US House will be run by the Republican pro-coup majority come January 3. A bunch of “accelerationists” on the far right are seeking nihilism in the form of destroying functional society itself; by destroying our electrical infrastructure, and our governmment’s power (more below, or on Friday’s post). Hate crimes are up, including active shooter incidents against basically anyone who’s not a straight, pale, “Christian,” guy. This is all happening now.

The trick will be for us to keep our wits about us while we face this stuff and navigate it.

This work here at Shift the Country is designed to help.

It starts by getting people and groups together locally (Thing 2). Authoritarianism is always defeated by an organized and well-coordinated majority. We need to do more to get there, and we can.

We need more connection, more community, and more coalitions. We need more business involvement. We need more moral fights and vision. We need more kerfuffles. More ruckus. More driving of the narrative.

^^ And that stuff in that paragraph is basically the Shift the Country 5-Things.

What’s Next With This Shift

I keep running into life stuff, or we’d have started daily workshops to get this shift rolling this Monday.

Instead, this weekend I took a break to invest in some of that connection I’m always yapping about, and… almost died. Yikes! That won’t happen to everyone! That was sub-optimal — but I’m okay. There’s more on the story in the next section, “A Brush With Death.”

For Shift the Country — we will plan to start Zoom events for real like ASAP. We’re turning on the Substack chat any minute too; but I’m kind of nervous to do that at this point given what unfolded last time I was close to activating it. Kidding! I’m sure it will be fine!

Next steps summarized:

Daily “Shift Building & Brainstorming” Zoom calls start Thursday, 7 pm Central (barring any new life crises). Every day’s Zoom will build on the prior day… and we’ll spin off working groups once we get enough traction in any particular area. We’ll announce the first Zoom call any minute now here and on Eventbrite.
The post-election website overhaul is finished — woohoo! There’s a printable version of the whole website in this PDF “Big Shift Guide” here (it’s 50 pages, bring caffeine).
We’re launching the Substack chat ASAP for Shift the Country. The chat’s accessible via mobile on Android or iThings (Apple Store) only.
We’re on Post.News; a new social media channel! It’s standing up.
Other new platforms like Mastadon and Discord will need to wait until we have a bigger volunteer base.
Sign up here to volunteer! Early needs are for quick video editing for these daily brainstorming thingies to maybe send out regularly on Substack.
Good heavens we need money!!!! Our startup funding got us this far and is used up. We seriously need to bring in the cash or all of this fabulous, unique, and unprecedented work to counter an unprecedented authoritarian, fascist, terrorist threat will evaporate. That’s a real risk too, as we can’t run on oxygen alone which is where this nonprofit is as of this week. So that’s happening, and we’re going to to be doing more with it. Alternatives to send funds here, and we’re working to add ActBlue. A big fundraiser push is coming, too. And working/growing our own partnerships and coalitions to find more sources (live it to give it).

Now onto the bit about why we didn’t start Zoom calls on Monday calls as planned…

Better Living Through Chemistry: A Brush With Death

I wrote a post a while back about a boss who always said we had to be flexible. “Semper Gumby!” was his motto. As annoying as it could be, some things stick… and are super practical.

In this time of the always-unknown and the fast-ramping-up, some flexibility will be super helpful.

At the beginning of the pandemic, a famous person put out a book about how societies that are adaptable and flexible have the best luck in navigating big chaos. Hey! We’re still in big chaos! Seems like things that keep us flexible and adaptable remain a very good idea. With that, we had a plan to start daily Zoom calls this past Monday… but we’re iterating. Always flexible.

You can’t catalyze and stand up a new nonprofit and hopefully build a following and corresponding action if you’re out of commission or stretched too thin. So… the plan changed. I took my own advice and applied flexibility.

This past Saturday, I had an anaphylactic attack, nearly died, and needed some recovery time. Crikey! The almost-dying is alarming!!! Zero stars. I do not recommend.

The surviving part is nice, though. I’ll take that. And for a hospital that I’ve been frustrated with for decades for its harm to other people I love… I’m having to soften on them since it’s the third time they’ve helped me survive anaphylaxis. That’s super annoying, too… almost as much as the almost-dying.

In some ways, I’m lucky. I had epi-pens; which not everyone at risk has access to in the US or in the world. I know I have anaphylaxis risk, too, which helps me be extra careful with food. I don’t know what I’m allergic to, though, so good luck future terrorists who might be looking for easy ways to take me out without an emotional support firearm. Your guess is as good as mine!!! Haha!

After 12 months of hyper-careful eating, though, something got me. Not right away, and I could see it coming with early signs of allergic reaction. I did the early steps stuff, and I was with family so we were all on alert. And then my throat muscles in-earnest and with great strength started trying to kill me. Fast. I managed to get to an epi-pen and to get it to work in time to stop it and lessen the throat-closing slightly. SHEESH. This planet is not for the faint-of-heart.

My dad started the Jeep (it’s winter), I got my wits about me, we wished a good evening to all who were staying at the family gathering, and we headed to the emergency department. My systems calmed down a bit once we started the standard anaphylaxis IV, but my throat didn’t totally stop it’s hyperactive tensing until nearly 12 hours from when the reaction started — after I was already home.

Better living through chemistry.

Seems like all that chemistry, though, is a bit overwhelming for the human. This human has been a bit out of sorts since the reaction Saturday night. Yesterday I got in to see my allergist; later the same family attempted what was a much more successful get-together like we’d tried on Saturday, and with an accompanying epi-pen safety briefing. As I always say, I’m a lot of fun at parties.

So! Semper Gumby! This shift really starts tomorrow. I swear I’ll get those Eventbrite Zooom invites built out in the next few hours or at least Thursday morning.

Energy Grid Threat Re-Cap & What We Can Do About It

Friday I posted this long post here about threats to the electrical grid from “accelerationists” with fascist goals. It’s pretty bad.

This section has more about that threat. The next section has important notes about what we can do about it. If you already read the terrifying electrical grid post sent Friday, you might like to skip to that section. This is similar but with updates and said in different ways.

First, the MSNBC video just below indicates that, “Not only has North Carolina been attacked, but in the last month… there’s been five or six more in North Carolina. There’s been five or six additional in Florida. We know that in Washington, in Oregon they’ve had recent attacks on substations there as well.” — Frank Figliuzzi, Former FBI Assistant Director of Counterintelligence.

Why?

Here’s a deeper dive on why — from Alex Wagner Tonight on MSNBC from Thursday December 8, 2022. Again, this is from Frank Figliuzzi, Former FBI Assistant Director of Counterintelligence:

“They are adherents to something called ‘Accelerationist Theory.’ The theory is simply that you can accelerate the take-down of society by creating the kind of chaos that gives advantage to people trained in weapons and survival skills.
“So the theory goes something like this: the status quo is maintained by the government, because the electricity stays on. It normalizes everyone. It equalizes everyone.
If you literally pull the plug on the power, then society falls into chaos, the government becomes powerless and dismantled, and people with guns who practice on weekends with their militia groups can take over. It’s a very anti-Black, anti-minority, fascist thing.
And here’s the thing — here’s what’s produced all these DHS bulletins recently. The government is seeing this play out in chat rooms literally to include instructions being issued this past summer on how to take out power substations; and the encouragement that it happen simultaneously across the United States so that it will all happen at once and create chaos.”

And if that isn’t enough, here’s the kill shot:

“It’s pointed out something law enforcement’s known for a long time: our infrastructure is very vulnerable.
And as much as we spend millions to bolster the cyberwall — the firewall — the cyber process around our power and utility grids, we need to be thinking far more simply about the physical security of our substations in the hands of private companies… we need to get our act together there. And we need to absolutely treat as criminal the posting of these dangerous instructions with the exhortation that you action them to take down the government.”

Are we doing that? I don’t know to what extent we are, but we should be pushing law enforcement at every level to take this seriously. Especially if we live in these places where these attacks have already been going on — but really anywhere. We don’t have domestic terrorism laws, but there are creative and legal ways to go after these folks. They’re planning crimes and civil destruction.

As a reminder, local law enforcement leaders are often elected, or their leaders are. Sheriffs tend to be elected themselves, and local police chiefs tend to work for mayors and city/county councils or commissions. Are your elected leaders taking this threat seriously? How safe is your power grid? Who’s making sure?

Alex Wagner added more in the referenced Thursday interview with Frank Figliuzzi: “I would also wonder in terms of catalytic events how meaningful it is that the former president of the United States who called a mob to an insurrection at the Capitol is now down at Mar-A-Lago meeting with white supremacists and anti-government conspiracy theorists…. Is there a before-and-after… in terms of recruitment or interest in anti-government activity when you have a figure with that much power meeting with like-minded conspiracy theorists?”

Figliuzzi responded: “The data is there to support that. The FBI Director has testified on the hill now numerous times that the leading threat is hate-based violence. He’s seen a huge spike in domestic terrorism cases. Even when you solve for and account for all of the cases involving just January 6th; you’re still seeing a spike in the threatening, dangerous ideologies that lead to violence and people planning violence. So the former president gives this license. He says ‘I’m the guy that’s got your back.’ And so as long as that leadership is there — that radicalizing figure is still there; still loud, still proud — we’re going to see this threat continue.”

Alex Wagner: “As long as he’s there literally saying ‘You are incredible people doing unbelievable work.’”

Yeah. And Trump’s not the only one. Other current Republican officials say similar; or condone it. Right-wing media networks push it all, ramp it up, and amplify it.

The extremist language and rhetoric is empowering extremists, and it’s not decelerating or diffusing. It continues to intensify. With that, extremism and extremist action will continue to ramp up.

Weren’t We Promised Ideas For How To Deal With This Threat?

Yes. We can do things to deal with this threat.

We’re not powerless.

If, heaven forbid, worst came to worst and there was some sort of large-scale coordinated power grid attack on a local or regional part of the country — or even nationally — what could we do?

Well, I suggest starting right back with the 5-Things that Shift the Country offers:

Thing 1: Connect With People. It’s better to make solid connections with people before a crisis hits. Get a shift crew. Make a team. Make a phone tree, on paper. Meet your neighbors. Look after humans. Find ways to grow current connections or to get new ones, and put redundancies in place for reaching said people in case of power, cell, and wi-fi outages. Talk through worst-case scenarios, and how you can help each other out when the stuff hits the fan. Investing in people is worth the time, and we need to do more with that to get through this challenging era. We need each other — more so when things get funky.
Thing 2: Do More With Community & Coalitions. In major crises, we’ll do better if our groups know each other and how to work together in a crisis, too. And if they also have redundant communications, and so on. Realistically, in a widespread power outage, the groups who tend to take care of people will still try to do that… but they will need way more help. We can start now with any big prep by getting any groups we’re in to think through worst-case scenarios, to think through how our groups can work together, and to think through what we need to do to make all of that work better. Plus, all of that is useful for any crisis hitting — from a tornado to an active shooter where you live. People are a resource. Coalitions and community are, too, and we can do way more with them.
Thing 3: Involve Businesses Through Partnerships & Pressure. Take the entire paragraph from above and apply it to businesses, too. It’s all relevant.
Thing 4: Champion Vision, Values, & Moral Courage. Sometimes advocating for what’s right is in having awkward, unsexy conversations about worst-case scenarios, and pushing people + groups to invest the time and other resources to do more to be ready for the crises. We’ll be better ready if we do that. That’s vision, too, especially in the face of great risk. We can also advocate for what’s right and what’s not — like for having a functional, thriving society and a functional government and electrical grid. We can speak up against those who seek to do us all harm, too. Lots of potential.
Thing 5: Drive the Narrative, Create a Buzz, & Spread It Everywhere. Whatever you’re doing to get ready for this threat… creating community conversations about it, getting attention on it, and spreading it among as many people in the community as possible is super helpful. Coalitions and community work can help with this, and with helping us to make up new ways to create a buzz about what we’re all working on. Worried that extremists could take out the power grid where you live? Raise a fuss about that, and how it’s not okay (see Thing 4), and how we want to keep a functional, thriving society and economy with its electrical grid intact. We can get way louder.

^^ These are just a few starter ideas.

There’s a lot we can do to be more resilient and ready for the god-awful, worst-case scenarios. You don’t have to be an end-times prepper to get a bit more resilient. Basic disaster preparedness is a good start; and things like having printed local maps and atlases, batteries, water, food, seasonal gear, etc. are always helpful. Lots of folks can’t even do that stuff, though, or have nowhere to keep it. The community and coalition pieces will be really important to lots of folks for those and other reasons when real crises hit. There are plenty of areas for action, work, thinking, conversations, cooperation, and improvement.

We can also do a lot to drive the narrative about how super uncool it is to even be people who want to take the power grid out in the first place. What is even wrong with these people? How much death and destruction do they want to cause for their own selfish, racist, hateful ends? That’s Thing 4 + Thing 5. It all goes together.

Can we call them out? Can we shine bright lights into their hidey-holes? Metaphorically, or with law enforcement tools + community tips?

“See something say something.” Know a potential terrorist? CALL IT IN.

Did the neighbors and friends of the insurrectionists know they were planning to do it? Yeah. Probably. Because they’re our own damn friends and neighbors. These people are Americans.

Part of community is calling out the people in the community who mean to do the rest of us harm. We need to push them back in the shadows, and we can. There are a lot of tools for that, but it’s going to take years, big effort, big courage, and big persistence. Plus, we have to want to. Are we up for it?

Do the violent ones get to define our future, or are we going to seize our future and determine it?

Okay this post is long enough. You get the idea.

I recognize that this stuff is enough to shock us all into inaction. Yep. That can happen. People are going to remain shocked (lots already are) and will get more shocked.

It will help if a whole lot of us can get un-shocked enough to be active in helping us all collectively navigate this time of unfolding chaos and intensity. The threats are real, and they’re increasing not decreasing.

But. We. Have. Options.

Stick with Shift the Country. Seriously — we’re just getting started.

If you’re not sure where to start, stay subscribed to this Substack… and jump on one of these daily Zoom call thingies (coming on and on Eventbrite) once we actually get them going Thursday.

Let’s go. It’s going to be awesome. Also: messy. And we will need all of your very big brains. We’re going to build this shift together, as teams.

And good heavens cross your fingers — Trump’s got a horrendous new bit of propaganda out…

Lastly: Trump’s Making A Propaganda-Fueled Announcement Thursday

I’m sorry to pass this along… but the out-of-shape, Diet-Coke-fueled ex-president is pushing this bit of god-awful propaganda… portraying him as a hyper-fit, lazer-eyed “superhero” with some kind of big announcement coming Thursday. YIKES.

Stand by for more drama, as per usual (updated below; after the propaganda video).

And that’s the end of the post. Good heavens. Shift is ramping up.