iforce

Mac OS X, XCode, Swift, Perl, Scala, Python. Cycling, Hiking. Quantum computing, Astronomy
( Twitter @iforce | Mastodon @[email protected] | @iforce.bsky.social)

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Legacy media outlets neglected to mention Jim Jordan’s election denialism in their stories about his new role as the House GOP leader. Democracy Docket called it out in our headline.

“It’s not that hard,” Marc Elias says.

Follow us for the context others don’t provide.

[Baltic Takes @Baltic_Takes]

Latvia is giving us a glimpse of what the UN is supposed to be.

This is a Presidency of the Security Council that actually respects the UN Charter.

In an emergency session called this week to address Russia’s continued atrocities against civilians, Latvian Foreign Minister @Braze_Baiba called out Russia for its genocidal actions, its slaughter and terror, its blocking of grain exports to the world, its sabotage and shadow attacks across Europe, and its lies - all because Russia is unable to unable to make gains on the battlefield, despite throwing a million Russian men into the meat grinder.

“The facts are undeniable. Russia’s leaders’ statements and Russia’s actions prove the intent to destroy Ukraine, to destroy its sovereignty, territorial
integrity, and political independence, the Ukrainian nation itself and Ukrainians as a national group.”

She reiterated the rules of the UN Charter, on which European security architecture is also based, and reiterated that Ukraine is defending itself and the UN Charter.

“So when Russian representatives seek negotiations on the future of European security, we ask them simply to respect the UN charter. Not to distract. Not to deflect. Just to stop attacking the basic principles that all states have agreed to.”

She called for accountability for Russian war crimes and an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Steven Miller is the new White House Chief of Staff — and he is perhaps the leader of the most extreme MAGA faction.

“I think this is going to be a rough two years for American democracy,” Marc Elias says.

Your vote is a target. Follow us to keep watch.

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Trump can’t remember which of his sons runs World Liberty Financial: lanky, chinless, or new guy? @jonstewart

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

With the election over, I'm going to ask for your help to grow Democracy Docket.

If you haven't already, please sign up. If you have tell everyone to subscribe to Democracy Docket and share its content. https://t.co/7W0yoPHUfA

[House Judiciary Dems @HouseJudiciary]

.@realDonaldTrump after years of a submissive, invertebrate and constitutionally illiterate Republican Congress, it’s obvious you need a few reminders:

1. Members of Congress have a constitutional right and duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. This is not a crime.

2. Democrats do not idly threaten people with impeachment nor do we take this constitutional power lightly. We impeach federal officials who commit high crimes and misdemeanors when we consider it the most effective constitutional tool to deal with a serious and continuing danger to the Republic and the people.

3. It is not a crime for someone to exercise their First Amendment rights to call for impeachment of a federal official. For all of your incessant and compulsive talk about the Democrats’ alleged obsessive focus on impeachment, the impeachment resolution pending in the House next week comes from a constitutionally-minded member of the Republican Party. And it is Rep. Thomas Massie’s absolute free speech right, and his Speech or Debate clause right to boot, to call for impeachment and trial of Secretary Pete Hegseth for his alleged war crimes and many other constitutional violations.

4. Unlike President Trump, Democrats defend the political free speech rights of all Americans and the right of all Americans to freely associate with the political party of their choice.

5. You have repeatedly demanded, and ordered, throughout your second term the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of American citizens whose political speech and activities you disfavor. You and your Attorney Generals have been humiliated when your handpicked political prosecutions have been rejected by grand juries and judges.

6. The best way for any president to avoid impeachment, conviction, removal and disqualification is to enforce the law, respect the law and not commit felonies and high crimes and misdemeanors.

Thank you for your attention, Sir!

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

⚠️ Despite saying he would accept the midterm results, Trump is now promoting claims that the election was not honest.

“It’s gonna get worse,” @marceelias says, “and so we all need to be prepared.”

Your vote is a target. Follow us to keep watch.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Alaska uses ranked-choice voting. But Trump wants to skip that process and hand the GOP incumbent undeserved votes.

“A president who thought he was winning would not be demanding that votes be reassigned,” Marc Elias says.

Follow us to keep watch on the people rewriting the rules.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Marc Elias was called an alarmist for saying Trump would refuse to concede if he lost the 2020 election. Then Jan. 6 happened.

“They want you to believe that Donald Trump may say some things, but in the end, he’ll accept the results,” Marc says. “I don’t believe that.”

Your vote is a target. Follow us to keep watch.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Trump’s DOJ was handed a major blow to their midterm subversion plan in Washington state — one that could be the final nail in the coffin.

“This is a blockbuster ruling,” Marc Elias says.

They lost in court. They'll try again. Follow us to be ready when they do.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Democracy Docket is still on the ground in Mississippi, where the Senate race isn’t called and thousands of affidavit ballots could decide it.

We talked to a Rankin County election commissioner about why so many of those ballots are being rejected. 🧵

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Alaska is Trump’s last hope — and it’s looking bleak for the GOP, Marc Elias writes.

As we celebrate the landslide repudiation of the GOP, we must remember how close we came to losing voters’ ability to elect the candidates of their choice: https://t.co/SsW2K1nlrI

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

🚨 RESIGNATION WATCH: The top prosecutor investigating Democrats over Trump’s claims of a “grand conspiracy” against him is stepping down.

He joins a growing list of Trump allies who were tasked with investigating the “conspiracy” — only to leave with little to show for their efforts: https://t.co/XsRQ8MIiH1

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Jared, your talk of “30 years of mistrust” and “competing security concerns” sounds remarkably like something Vladimir Putin would write himself.

Let me remind you what actually happened during those 30 years.

1992: Russian forces intervened in Moldova’s Transnistrian conflict, helping entrench a separatist territory where Russian troops remain.

2008: Russia fought a war against Georgia and consolidated its occupation of Georgian territory.

2014: Russia illegally annexed Crimea and fuelled a war in eastern Ukraine.

2022: Russia launched the largest invasion in Europe since World War II, bringing massacres in Bucha, torture, deportations of civilians, the forced transfer of children and the systematic destruction of Ukrainian communities.

Meanwhile, Russia had already signed the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, promising to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders, and the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, committing itself to European security principles.

Europe already had a security architecture, Jared. Russia repeatedly violated it.

Your language deliberately blurs the distinction between an aggressor and its victims. That is precisely how the Kremlin wants this conflict presented.

Russia is a nuclear power. Nobody in Europe is preparing to invade it. Russia’s neighbours, however, have spent decades defending themselves against Russian aggression.

And if you genuinely believe that no country should have a veto over another nation’s alliances, perhaps you should explain that principle to Putin.

Europe does not need another security framework designed around Moscow’s imperial ambitions.

It needs Russia to respect the borders, sovereignty and international agreements it has repeatedly violated.

Stop talking as though Russia and its neighbours are equally responsible for this catastrophe. They are not.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Okay, I sat down and translated parts of yet another pompous statement from Jared Kushner about Trump’s incredible peace initiatives, explaining what his carefully worded euphemisms actually mean, so you don’t have to.

“…the need for a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace…”

= “Europe will have to completely capitulate to Putin, make him the master of the continent, and live under his dictates, because we’re absolutely itching to get our hands on Lukoil’s foreign assets.”

“For more than 30 years, Europe and Russia have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework.”

= “For decades, Europe and the entire West enjoyed peace and stability, until Putin, in his old age, suddenly got the itch to conquer Ukraine again, fucked it up spectacularly, and now somehow that’s everybody else’s problem.”

“Our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”

= “You will be required to surrender everything and remain defenseless, while Putin will give you absolutely nothing in return and won’t be obliged to do a damn thing.”

“Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace.”

= “And we’re also going to blame you and Ukraine for Russia’s aggressive imperialism.”

“Any arrangements must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation.”

= “And Putin will decide where your sovereignty begins and ends, where your borders lie, and just how much independence you’re allowed to have.”

“Each country will retain authority over its own security and alliances, and no country would have a veto over another’s sovereign choices.”

= “Yes, unless Putin decides that you’re not actually a real country at all, but an inseparable part of Russia’s sphere of influence, and that your ability to defend yourself against an invasion constitutes an existential threat to Russia.”

“We will consult closely with our European partners on the sidelines and, if progress is made, aim to move toward a broader multilateral format with their direct participation.”

= “Nobody is going to discuss a damn thing with Ukraine or Europe. There won’t be, and never has been, anything here except our attempts to sell out and betray you to Putin for the highest possible price. And I’ll throw in a whole bunch of meaningless, boilerplate diplomatic phrases to make this bullshit look vaguely serious and respectable.”

“There are no easy solutions.”

= “Russia could simply get the hell out of Ukraine and stop launching wars of aggression whenever it wants, but that’s not what Putin is promising us money for.”

“We will see how these discussions develop and continue working intensively with all parties toward President Trump’s objective of a comprehensive and lasting peace.”

= “Of course, absolutely nothing will come of any of this, just as nothing has come of all the previous years of these ridiculous ‘negotiations,’ during which we’ve been actively helping Putin wage his war. But we couldn’t care less. That’s not what we’re here for.”

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

One of the benefits of the massive blue wave is being able to build a long-term pro-democracy agenda. And we can start right now.

“We have to use this time so that we are not just every two years having this … constitutional crisis,” Marc Elias says.

This is just the start. Follow us to stay close.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

🚨BREAKING: A federal judge blocked Trump’s DOJ from pressuring Washington election officials to set aside or refuse to count ballots.

The ruling also bars threats of prosecution against election officials as vote counting continues. https://t.co/clVuqrOuzj

[Daniel Lippman @dlippman]

SCOOP: Jennifer Hegseth, the wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a former longtime Fox producer, last year was paid by the top Trump-connected DC consulting firm Watchtower Strategy that also did work on behalf of Lockheed Martin the same year (!). https://t.co/ploJQ6d0l8

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: HOLY SMOKES! Democrats now control enough states to effectively abolish the Electoral College through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Republicans did NOT have this on their bingo cards...

Under the Constitution, states control their electoral votes and are allowed to decide how they are allocated during presidential elections. Currently, almost every state gives its votes to whoever wins the state.

In practice, the current system means that a candidate can win the national popular vote, but lose the election because small states like Wyoming exert undue influence on the outcome. That state has 3 electoral votes with a population of just 577,000 people. California has 54 electoral votes and a population of 39.5 million people. So a vote in Wyoming is essentially 3.8 times as valuable as one in California.

Since 1992, Democrats have won the popular vote seven out of nine times.

Under the NPV, states that join agree to give their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote, not just their own state. So a state could go red on the map, but if the Democrat wins the national vote, they still get that state's votes. And vice versa of course.

The crucial mechanism is that the compact doesn't trigger until the member states have a combined power of at least 270 electoral votes, the number needed to win the White House. So far, 18 states plus D.C. have joined, totaling 222 electoral votes. We only need 48 more.

Now is the chance to pass this measure in every state possible. Democrats won both houses of the legislature in Wisconsin for the first time in 18 years (10 electoral votes). We won the Pennsylvania state Senate for the first time since 1993 (19 votes). We now have a trifecta in Michigan (15 votes). And we won the governor’s race in Nevada (6 votes).

10 + 19 + 15 + 6 = 50.

222 + 50 = 272.

And if we hold our lead in the Arizona Senate, that number could climb as high as 283, more than enough to trigger the compact.

In addition to removing an imbalance in our system that favors Republicans, this novel approach would fundamentally change how candidates run their presidential campaigns. Currently, they are incentivized to ignore most of the country. If you live in a “safe” state, red or blue, your vote for President is basically decided before you cast it. Campaigns spend their time and money in a handful of swing states while the rest of us watch from the sidelines. If the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is adopted, they'll have reason to hit every state because they're aiming to win the largest swath of the country as a whole, not just certain states.

States have until July 20, 2028 to join the compact in time for the next presidential election.

We can fix our democracy. The time is now.

Please ❤️ and share if you support this idea!

[mayplanoba ∞ @mayplanoba]

He has that Obama elocution.