"Hi, I'm Josh Shapiro" (opens in separate window)

here’s one october surprise, anyway

saturday, october 31st, 2026

It is hard now, everybody and his uncle interested in public matters has probably read that a claque of current-and-former agency officials, ex-USAID busybodies, military officers, activist academics, Democratic Party paladins, and freelance communist jihadis has been exposed plotting the overthrow of the US government. The plot was reported by the diligent “X” blogger Jennica Pounds under her nom-de-plume “Data Republican,” who lately received an enormous document-and-recording dump courtesy of careless color revolutionaries who recorded themselves and saved doc files against orders, the dumb bunnies.

Ms. Pounds, an experienced software engineer turned political detective, came to public attention early in 2025 when she assisted Elon Musk’s DOGE operation in building a database of NGO money trails emanating from the colossal USAID grant matrix — after which her identity was “doxed” by Rolling Stone and she underwent a harassment campaign.

Of course, USAID was abolished early in the Trump 2.0 admin, and a lot of the “activists” defenestrated from it moved into scores of NGOs, with their salaries switched from taxpayer funding to the bank accounts of George Soros-connected orgs and sundry other shady characters like Shanghai-based Neville Roy Singham. These are the NGOs forever puling about “our democracy,” meaning their drive to punish, persecute, and push around Americans who demur from a communist future. Data Republican says her reporting so far is “only the beginning” of much more detailed and alarming disclosures.

Coincidentally this week, their cover was also blown by Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI and former CIA analyst), who told an audience at the U. of Chicago that the Democrats intend to go after and wreck any young person who might think about working in the current administration. Ms. Slotkin, you might recall, was in that video put out a year ago — with five other US lawmakers — telling military officers they should-and-must refuse “illegal” orders. Sedition-lite, it looked like at the time.

Before we get into the meat of their playbook for us, and what might happen in response, let’s just dox a few of the characters involved. You should know who they are (and maybe the DOJ should, too). They are not necessarily the usual suspects you’ve read about before like the omnipresent lawfare ninjas, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Mary McCord, et al., so busy filing frivolous lawsuits in the federal courts.

For instance (as reported by one Eric Schwalm on “X”), there’s Erica Chenoweth, the transvestite professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of government who acts as chief strategist and hub for the “color revolution” planned by the United Democracy Alliance cabal she is associated with. Ms. (or Mr.?) Chenoweth’s big contribution to Jacobin thought is “the 3.5 rule” which says that if you can get that percentage of people out on the streets making a ruckus, you can successfully overthrow a government.

Then there’s Danielle Reiff, former USAID, now co-founder of the Democracy Renewal Group, Renew American Democracy, and Renew to Thrive orgs... very verbal on video laying out the exact procedures for the US color revolution. And there’s Rear Admiral Michael E. Smith (Ret.) who runs a network of over a thousand retired military officers called National Security Leaders for America. He’s in charge of “role-playing” exercises in preparation for post-election hijinks. Then there’s Julia Roig, founder of the Horizons Project who is responsible for “building relational infrastructure so that disparate groups can act in concert without a single hierarchical command.” Then there’s Maria Stephan, co-author, with Erica Chenoweth, of the sedition tract Why Civil Resistance Works. Then there’s Brenden Halloran, former USAID, now with the Renew to Thrive org, responsible for “accountability ecosystems, overcoming fragmentation among groups, and long-term sequencing of reforms.” Then there’s Walt Roberts, also on the Renew to Thrive team, plus the Mediators Foundation and the Inter-Movement Impact Project. Then there’s Laura Adams, also former USAID, now in Renew to Thrive and PACT, whose mission is to turn strategy papers into operational plans. Then there’s Zoe Marks, also in Harvard’s Kennedy School, a “scenario-planner” for Horizons and United Democracy Alliance. Then there’s “cohesion” strategist Paul Zeitz, co-founder of UnifyUSA, partner with Danielle Reiff on Renew to Thrive, and active in NGOs Renew to Thrive and National Security Leaders for America. There’s the bunch. Now you know.

As to the coup playbook, here goes: The idea is to turn out massive street actions (protests and riots) in the blue cities, based on rumors that President Trump has somehow “interfered” in the election, and create enough chaos so that Mr. Trump would be tempted to invoke the Insurrection Act or some-such national emergency measure. The coupsters mentioned above, and their cohorts and underlings, have been quietly confabbing with blue state attorneys general and governors. These officials would unite to declare that Mr. Trump’s actions make him illegitimate, and would set in-motion procedures for said governors to declare the president a tyrant and an outlaw and themselves as the “new governing authority.” They would move from that to a new constitutional convention and bring about all the heralded revolutionary changes chattered about for months such as abolishing the electoral college and Senate, changing-up the Supreme Court, etc. Voila! Trump and his government are out! The Democratic Party (and their new DSA commissars) would take over and the punishments would begin. . . .

But... what if President Trump doesn’t play along? What if he insists that the blue state governors must ask (or beg) for federal troops to be sent in to control the street violence in their cities before he commits to anything? Then the onus would be theirs, wouldn’t it? They will have asked for help? Mr. Trump will have obliged. How does that make him a tyrant? (It doesn’t, of course.) Or... the blue state governors might not ask for federal help and Mr. Trump could just watch their cities burn down. That would kind of be on the blue governors, too, wouldn’t it — hey, they didn’t ask for federal troops and their own feckless police couldn’t get the job done because: previous “de-funding” and all that nonsense.

Then, how about Mr. Trump moves to arrest said blue state governors for sedition and treason (especially if they entertained any collusion with foreign operators, such as CCP-connected Neville Roy Singham’s NGO network or any of Soros’s overseas outfits)? And how about arresting and likewise charging many of those aforementioned NGO strategists, along with the governors? (And while you’re at it, throw in the lawfare ninjas who have assisted in all this mischief.) And how about after accomplishing that, the president then and only then declares the Insurrection Act, sends in federal troops to quell the street chaos, and moves to indict and try said seditionists and traitors in the military tribunal apparatus? There it is! Just some suggestions...

© 10.23.2026 by JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER, "ClusterFuck Nation". (H/T Pastor Tom)

A Day In The Life.

Up at 9:30a on Saturday, a very cool 37°F, a sunny, blue ssky, breezy morning, I upped the heat to 75°, made coffee, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let its 32 million lines of code load, skipped breakfast, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. Zero. I scanned the weather and the breaking news websites, tuned into a "CP Show" Podcast 12-3 on local WSBA-910, and relaxed for the rest of the morning.

I finished-up a few condo chores, from a few days agfo, watched 15-20mins of the evening news, as I always do, and switched to Discovery's "Filthy Fortunbes" until 1a, and unplugged.

Awake and up at 4a -- 0-DARK-THIRTY -- on Sunday, a sunny, very cold and frosty 33°, came downstairs to make coffee, have a smoke in the garage, and hit the LR couch for a couple hours until sunrise. No errands today or tomorrow, and only 3 on Monday.

I got ready for the day, and stated 1 of 2 loads of laundry. I finally finished a couple of small chores, watched History's "American Pickers" from late afternoon thru 1a. Lights out.

Up at 8:15a on Monday, a blue sky, sunny 34° morning, so I upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the news and weather websites, and tuned into the "CP Show", from 9-12. I left at 12:15p for my usual errand trip, south of York, with 3 stops to make. Traffic was heavy, but moving, until I hit the Y-U-G-E construction chokepoint delay in Yoe, a 20-25min delay each way. Crap.

Back home around 1:30, I unloaded, got the garbage & recycle bins out to the burb for morning p/u, had lunch, called Sherry, and hit the LR couch for a nap, last week's FOX News article be damned. I got 3 calls during the 2hr nap. Meh. I watched the evening news, and after 15-20mins, as usual, switched to Discovery's "Filthy Fortunes" until 11:30. Lights out. at 1a. My cleaning lady's in tomorrow, so I'm up at 6a.

Awake at 6a (with alarm) and up on Tuesday, a sunny, blue sky, 41° and frosty morning, I upped the heat, reheated a carafe of leftover Kona Coffee from yesterday afternoon, scanned the news and weather websites, and got ready for the day. JoAnne arrived at 8:30 and, after we caught-up on things, got to work. I finished-up some paperwork, and stayed out of her way.

JoAnne was finished with the condo cleaning and gone, by 11:30a, I had lunch and took a 2hr nap. I watched the evening news, and after 15-20mins, as usual, switched to Discovery's "The unXplaineds" until 1:30a. Lights out.

Up at 8a on Wednesday, another very nice blue sky morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the news and weather, and tuned into the "CP Show", from 9-12. I decided to get a haircut, and get lab work done tomorrow, after fasting for 10hrs, starting tonite. I left at 1p, arrived at what used to be a "barber shop" in a nearby strip ma;ll, and it was gone, and was now populated by a "physical therapy" business. Crap. I went back home and began chugging Tequila... K-I-D-D-I-N-G! Can't do the lab work thing until tomorrow, sp I did a couple condo chores.

The former blue sky clouded-over, temp began dropping into the 50s, so I closed the condo around 5p. I called Sherry to chat and we're getting together tomorrow. I had a light dinner, watched the evening news and switched to Discovery's "Expedition X" until 1a, and unplugged.

Awake at 5a, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Up at 8:30 on Thursday, an overcast, foggy start to the 51° day, I upped the heat, tunued into the "CP Show 9-12, finished-off a full carafe of Kona Coffee, and the lawnmowers descended on the complex. Shit, all I'm hearing now are the Bet Draft Kings/ Borgata Online/ Bet MGM/ Bet Rivers/ Bet Underdog... and many more GAMBLING ADS ONLINE, on the radio ad rotation schedule. Just what young, impressionable kids need! Natch.

I brewed another carafe of coffee, and waiting for Sherry to arrive, around 1p. She arrived and we had a few hours together to catch-up on stuff, especially her coming move to a new home. She left around 5p, to get some stops done and get home before dark. I made dinner, watched the evening news (first 15mins) and switched to History's "History Unearthed" until 1a, and bagged it for the night.

Awake and up at 9:15a on Friday, aother sunny, blue sky, warmer 54° morning, upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the news and weather, tuned into the ongoing "CP Show" and relaxed.

Uh oh, I read this on an FR thread, same story of nightly FOX News:

My reasonably reliable sources are telling me that something is brewing.
WHAT is brewing is still only speculation. They all pretty much agree that the cyberattack thing is a red herring.
The list includes...
Nuclear attack. This chestnut has the spin that the attack will come from an unexpected source in an unconventional way.
Pole flip. We are supposedly WAAAY overdue for the magnetic pole to flip, which would mess with transportation and communications in a big way.
Asteroid. Scuttlebutt in some quarters is that a good-ish sized rock is headed our way and that computer models are not agreeing as to where it will hit. This one had a timetable as “within the next 30 days.”
Super Volcano or The Big One. The Ring of Fire has been more active than usual for the past few months and some think it is an indicator of an impending west coast earthquake or eruption of a super volcano.
Terrorist Attack. This one is coming in from multiple channels. Apparently the previous administration’s slack border protections let in a lot of brown people who don’t speak Spanish and that it was planned as part of a larger, coordinated attack.
Economic collapse. Often in conjunction with one of the above, but may be a thing unto itself. At some point the international monetary community may decide the US debt is unsustainable and just pull out. Really unlikely on it’s own, but if we get weakened by one of the above, it becomes much more likely.
Anyone have anything to add to the list?

I've seen the same story on the 6p FOX News here, just last week, and have done some research. I'm well stocked for 6-8mos.

I did some condo chores, had lunch and took a 2hr nap, after a short walk over to the CHCA Community Mailboxes, and got some fresh air on the back patio. I watched part of the evening news, had dinner and switched to History's "Greatest Mysteries" until 12:30a, and bagged it for the night.

Topday starts a new week, here in the "Journal" and except for eye surgery (1st of 2) on Monday, I have a clear week, and Sherry's packing all week for her move. Things will get better. Can you believe it's already November?