Tootfinder

If you want to know why a Democratic Senator and Representative in Minnesota were shot...
It might have something to do with the fact that their deaths would end the Democratic majorities in both chambers.

Die #CDU - sie rudert und wird herumgeschaukelt wie eine Nußschale im Ozean bei stürmischen Wind. Was Christoph #Ploß von sich gibt und seine Taktik sind in höchstem Maße beschämend.
Die Selbstgefälligkeit von CDU Funktionären und Abgeordneten ist atemraubend, nervtötend. 👎👎👎👎👎

I'm #ActuallyAutistic, and I want to see a worker-controlled community where the labor process isn’t dictated by rigid hierarchies or managers running some Taylorist algorithm. Imagine abolishing those antiquated top-down structures and running things through federated councils, real participatory democracy, not just a suggestion box theater.
My ideal workday would be one w…

Genuinely torn about this. Keeping people safe from a roving right-wing murderer does seem prudent. But I don’t want to send out the message that this is a way to get a protest cancelled.
❝The No Kings coalition that organized protests across the US today is cancelling all demonstrations in Minnesota that have not already started after two lawmakers were shot, Reuters reports.
Indivisible said on Bluesky: “Governor Walz has recommended that we cancel No Kings events across Minnesota because the individual who assassinated a Democratic lawmaker is still at large.”❞
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jun/14/trump-birthday-military-parade-no-kings-protest-live-updates

If you'd want to protect Democratic (and other non-MAGA) lawmakers, you wouldn't pardon the January 6 thugs.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-lawmakers-targeted-shootings-cham…

"In a civilised country, this people in #Minnesota would have fallen out of a window or died of acute #polonium allergy, my dear comrade #Krasnov", russian president

Manhunt underway after Minnesota Democratic House leader killed in ‘politically motivated’ attack
A Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed early Saturday morning in “what appears to be a politically-motivated assassination,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said at a news conference Saturday. Follow for live updates.

Speculative politics
As an anarchist (okay, maybe not in practice), I'm tired of hearing why we have to suffer X and Y indignity to "preserve the rule of law" or "maintain Democratic norms." So here's an example of what representative democracy (a form of government that I believe is inherently flawed) could look like if its proponents had even an ounce of imagination, and/or weren't actively trying to rig it to favor a rich donor class:
1. Unicameral legislature, where representatives pass laws directly. Each state elects 3 statewide representatives: the three most-popular candidates in a statewide race where each person votes for one candidate (ranked preference voting would be even better but might not be necessary, and is not a solution by itself). Instead of each representative getting one vote in the chamber, they get N votes, where N is the number of people who voted for them. This means that in a close race, instead of the winner getting all the power, the power is split. Having 3 representatives trades off between leisure size and ensuring that two parties can't dominate together.
2. Any individual citizen can contact their local election office to switch or withdraw their vote at any time (maybe with a 3-day delay or something). Voting power of representatives can thus shift even without an election. They are limited to choosing one of the three elected representatives, or "none of the above." If the "none of the above" fraction exceeds 20% of eligible voters, a new election is triggered for that state. If turnout is less than 80%, a second election happens immediately, with results being final even at lower turnout until 6 months later (some better mechanism for turnout management might be needed).
3. All elections allow mail-in ballots, and in-person voting happens Sunday-Tuesday with the Monday being a mandatory holiday. (Yes, election integrity is not better in this system and that's a big weakness.)
4. Separate nationwide elections elect three positions for head-of-state: one with diplomatic/administrative powers, another with military powers, and a third with veto power. For each position, the top three candidates serve together, with only the first-place winner having actual power until vote switches or withdrawals change who that is. Once one of these heads loses their first-place status, they cannot get it again until another election, even if voters switch preferences back (to avoid dithering). An election for one of these positions is triggered when 20% have withdrawn their votes, or if all three people initially elected have been disqualified by losing their lead in the vote count.
5. Laws that involve spending money are packaged with specific taxes to pay for them, and may only be paid for by those specific revenues. Each tax may be opted into or out of by each taxpayer; where possible opting out of the tax also opts you out of the service. (I'm well aware of a lot of the drawbacks of this, but also feel like they'd not necessarily be worse than the drawbacks of our current system.) A small mandatory tax would cover election expenses.
6. I'm running out of attention, but similar multi-winner elections could elect panels of judges from which a subset is chosen randomly to preside in each case.
Now I'll point out once again that this system, in not directly confronting capitalism, racism, patriarchy, etc., is probably doomed to the same failures as our current system. But if you profess to want a "representative democracy" as opposed to something more libratory, I hope you'll at least advocate for something like this that actually includes meaningful representation as opposed to the current US system that's engineered to quash it.
Key questions: "Why should we have winner-take-all elections when winners-take-proportionately-to-votes is right there?" and "Why should elected officials get to ignore their constituents' approval except during elections, when vote-withdrawal or -switching is possible?"
2/2
#Democracy

#Merz und #Spahn fahren die Regierung an die Wand - die Demokratie wird neben Rechtsextremen vor allem von Dummen bedroht.

Trump’s newly signed tax and spending law, eviscerated Biden-era incentives for clean technologies such as wind and solar power.
Now Democrats aim to flip the usual partisan energy debate
by portraying Republicans as the party of electricity shortages and rising prices.
Their targets would include the moderate Republicans who spent months urging Congress to preserve the Biden tax breaks because of their projected economic gains for GOP-held districts
— only to fold a…

It’s exhilarating to hear Bernie Sanders speak to a crowd:
his zeal is reflected back in their faces,
his moral clarity is such a relief,
set against the cynicism and resignation of most of the Democratic party’s opposition to Trump and his administration.
Class war is as old as time, but it’s a peculiarity of this age that you rarely hear a politician name it.
“I do,” he tells me. “There is a class war going on. The people on top are waging that war.”
…