So, random stream of consciousness here.. I'm in the middle of working on something else and had the idea of a lofi protest sticker printer that you can print stickers quickly to apply to various things with pre-loaded designs.. Now, rather than defacing things, I thought - why not use one of those cheap low-budget portable photo printers so you can produce random leave-behinds in public (think Chic Tracts, but not demonizing LGBTQ+ or D&D)?

I'll do some digging into it later and will share what I find here, but the idea is to have a bunch of pre-loaded designs (personally I'm leaning towards glitch/intentional lo-fi meme-style stuff) that you can just rattle off quickly.

What'd also be fun is a mini portable dot-matrix printer, too.. And if we could get it to do sticker paper (will look into that for the other), why not?

So, I was recently introduced to Meshtastic by someone in a regional discord; It's an interesting concept. Basically, it's a comm network stack that is cheap, (relatively) easy to set up, and robust that doesn't rely on the internet, cell towers, POTS, etc.. It's fully decentralized, too, and doesn't even require an operators license to utilize.

If you want a quick getting-started guide, I recommend this video:

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Now, if you're hardcore geek and want the full tech details, here's the official Meshtastic documentation (warning to non-hardware/radio-nerds: This is dense reading).

Anyway, after some cursory chat with the folks on Discord about this, I'd like to see if we can get some strategy discussion going here at some point for a robust implementation. The goal with the discussion here is to flesh out strategy, onboarding, and use-cases.

Right now I personally am leaning towards a SHTF emergency network, but the best part about it is given that it's pretty locally-focused AND cheap, you could theoretically set up multiple Meshtastic networks pretty easily for different use-cases as you might need for the region.

As an example, a larger city in an area frequently being targeted by ICE could coordinate communication and warnings via the encrypted implementation between trusted nodes.

Or, areas prone to frequent loss of critical infrastructure services (power, internet etc) could set up a highly-redundant network for emergency relief coordination.

Ultimately, we want these ideas shared here so anybody can get ideas for their own implementations in their area.

I'm gonna keep this relatively short, as most of the folks reading this already know me to some extent.

I'm a hard-left activist workaholic spoonie (I suffer from multiple chronic ailments that limit my ability to do a lot of things). I'm a developer by day, and everything else by night (my portfolio is up here). I've launched multiple fun little resistance projects, including DJTSays and the CHAOS Tracker. I also consider myself a "paid protester", in that I have a side-hustle making various merch (but primarily morale patches) with leftist and anti-Trump themes.

I'm also exceptionally vulgar, but will try to tone that down here to be more welcoming.. But, if you appreciate vulgarity (better to be vulgar than non-existent, said Bev Hensen - and yes, I'm sure he'd say I'm interpreting his own words wrong), you can follow me on BlueSky.

Now that we've got the official community platform running, my next project is a mix of design and coding. Here's the basic idea:

I'm going to create a series of ads targeting everybody, individually who voted in favor of Trump's BBB. Right now I'll be crafting them in some of the common standard online ad sizes (300x250, 728x90, 980x90, 320x50 etc), as well as some common billboard dimensions for actual billboards (open to suggestions in common formats, but I'll probably be skipping newspapers/magazines just because of the variability in column sizes).

I'll be doing this by building ad templates for all the sizes in Photoshop (just because it's industry standard so folks can modify it themselves), and then automating the generation of the ads with the voter's name and photo in code. There will also be space for "This ad was paid for by ABC" in all the creatives, and I'll be releasing all the source files together (and using things like open-source fonts).

Here's where I need some help:

I need to come up with the campaign messages, and while this isn't my first political campaign I've done the creatives for, I'm not going to shy away from good ideas here.

To give you an idea of what I need, I need stuff like "XYZ voted against veteran healthcare". We need to keep the phrases short for multiple reasons: One, because of limited space in some of the creatives. Two: We're targeting the "Walmart conservative" demographic.. People who tend to not care for more modern design, appreciate brevity in statements, and aren't super politically active (we're not going to convert the hard-right here, and those folks tend to be converted - if at all - by FAFO results).

Also, I"m absolutely down with folks doing their own design concepts as part of the campaign. Share ideas here; If you just want to provide a rough single ad and have me build out the rest, that's cool. If you want to do a full campaign, that's fine too. We'll just want to make sure we use standardized formats and open assets that we have the rights to use (fonts, stock images etc).

DJT Says spawned out of a weird idea I had for a portrait of Trump that would go on a morale patch.. After I did the art, I had the idea to turn it into a website that spat out real Trump quotes (with citations).

Tech-stack wise it's just another version of a CMS I built; nothing fancy.

If you want more details on the project itself, you can read up on it here.

The CHAOS Tracker is a nice way to keep an eye on some of the bigger appointments Trump has made.. Including how long they last (as of sharing it here we've had a few departures).

You can learn more about the CHAOS tracker here.

I'm working on getting the rest of the site spun up, but didn't want to postpone popping the rules up somewhere on this site.. So, here they are! Note that these are temporary until we get fully established on the final incarnation of the forums, and are subject to change.

At Hackers for the Resistance (H4TR for short), we are committed to the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, building tools that support protest, education, and civic engagement.. And - perhaps most importantly - always operating within the law.

1. Legality Above All​

• No illegal activity.
• This community does not support, condone, or tolerate:
  • Unauthorized access to systems or data
  • Doxxing or harassment
  • Distribution of materials related to causing harm.. Whether physical or digital.
  • Essentially, anything that would violate the law.
• All conversations, tools, and collaborations must remain within the bounds of the law in your local jurisdiction.

2. Ethical Information Sharing​

• We encourage open, legal sharing of public data; When possible, provide a source for any information.
• Sharing open-source projects, methodologies, educational resources, and transparency tools is welcome - as long as it is ethical, responsible, and legal.

3. Privacy and Anonymity​

• Do not share personal information - your own or others’.
  • No real names, contact details, addresses, or identifying metadata
• Do not solicit or post personally identifiable information (PII) under any circumstances.
• This is a space for ideas, not identities.
• If you want to coordinate outside of H4TR, we recommend using a service like Signal.

4. Assume Nothing Is Private​

• While we encourage the use of secure tools and anonymity practices, you should assume that everything posted online can be seen by others — including adversaries, law enforcement, or journalists. Protect yourself and others accordingly.

5. Respect and Inclusion​

• This is an inclusive community. Discrimination, hate speech, harassment, and personal attacks will not be tolerated. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ and other disenfranchised folks being targeted by the Trump administration.
• Debate is encouraged, but it must remain respectful and constructive.

6. Project Conduct and Collaboration​

All shared projects must:

• Clearly state their purpose
• Follow legal and ethical guidelines
• Avoid inciting or enabling illegal action

7. Moderation and Enforcement​

• Violations of these rules may result in content removal, warnings, suspension, or bans at the discretion of the moderators.
• If you see something that violates these principles, report it to moderators rather than engaging directly.

Participation Agreement​

By participating in this community, you agree to:

• Operate legally and ethically at all times
• Respect privacy, boundaries, and the rule of law
• Contribute to a safe, collaborative, and mission-aligned space

There, see, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?