#Secure Voting

[digitaledemocratie]

The Quantum Threat to Blockchain Security: Preparing for the Post-Quantum Era

The emergence of quantum computing poses a significant threat to current blockchain technology and its underlying cryptographic foundations. This comprehensive review paper by Fernández-Caramés and Fraga-Lamas examines how quantum computing impacts blockchain security and explores potential solutions through post-quantum cryptography. As blockchain technology continues to expand beyond…

[starfishlikestoread]

From the UK's 2024 General Election, after a recount - Labour won Hendon by 15 votes. Never say your individual vote won't matter.

[jhalocurse57]

PLEASE GO VIRAL PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Y'ALL PLEASE IF YOU WANNA MAKE CAMPAINS FOR THEM OR JOIN IN MAKING A FANFIC OF THEIR DEBATES TAG ME AND @90sfr3sh IN THEM

[annefrankwasbeautiful]

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

You can bet your ass!

[liberalsarecool]

The hypocrisy. The attack on the rule of law.

Republicans are malware. Weaponized inaction.

#ShamImpeachment #VoteBlue

[mugiwara-lucy]

So I saw this posted….Now given he keeps on talking about getting revenge and retribution…this is NOT a guy to be trusted with the highest job in our nation (ESPECIALLY the nuclear codes)! A presidential term should be used to better the country NOT getting revenge on people you dislike.

Let’s all make sure to vote BLUE down the board to keep this nut job OUT of the White House!!

Please and thank you! 🙏

[starrspice]

IT'S HERE

PIRATE/SIREN AU SO REAL

I've decided to name it the Silent Shanty AU!!!

In this AU Y/N was a siren who became fascinated with the human world and decided to leave the ocean depths to become a sailor and see the world. Eventually they were discovered to be a siren and was captured, sold, and traded countless times over. Often treated like a wild beast and typically mistreated.

Sun and Moon saved Y/N from being sold again in a black market auction, intending to rescue a mythical beast only to find a shaken up human instead. Upon being rescued by Sun and Moon they remain silent so they can never be accused of using their siren song against anyone.

Sun and Moon are completely unaware Y/N is a siren and just think they're a normal human who has come to somehow make their home with them and their crew.

Until Eclipse makes himself present and causes all kinds of trouble insisting they swooped in and stole Y/N out from under him. That they interrupted HIS rescue attempt. So he makes himself and ever present nuisance to Sun and Moon, constantly attempt to Woo Y/N so they'll join HIS crew instead

[jangillman]

[soberscientistlife]

Millions of American's live off their Social Security. We paid into it and it's our money

[digitaledemocratie]

The Role of Blockchain Technology in Advancing E-Voting and Peace Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges

The intersection of blockchain technology, electronic voting, and peace engineering represents a critical area of study as nations grapple with maintaining democratic processes while adapting to technological advancement and global challenges. The research paper by Baudier et al. explores how blockchain technology could potentially secure voting systems while contributing to peace engineering,…

[eliounora]

to say people withholding their vote in America aren't 'pragmatic' enough is so dismissive. as a fellow European like idk what I would've done either if I was an American.

Otherwise I would be sorry to be dismissive but in this situation I think it is completely acceptable, if not necessary, to vote for the lesser evil. Voting is not about your inner true values, it is about society, and especially in the American setting where you essentially have only two options, you need to be able to make hard decisions. If you're seriously indicating that on the whole Harris is bad as Trump, you need to take a cold hard look at the reality of the matters at hand. Harris is not ideal, and it hurts to vote for her especially when you think about Gaza, but Trump is a fascist and his supporters in the Republican party are dangerous to democracy and human rights. This is not a situation where you get to opt out. Not voting is a vote for Trump.

[phoenixyfriend]

The Shift in America's Support of Israel as of 3/25/24

Okay, so there have been three specific incidents recently that I'd like to cover for you guys.

Chuck Schumer's speech calling for a new election in Israel, which I have spoken about here and here. (3/14/24)

Congress voting to ban UNRWA funding until 2025, which I've seen a lot of people talking about, but often without an actual understanding of what the situation actually is. (It's bad, but it's not the same type of bad as people think.) (3/24/24)

The US abstaining from a UN Security Council vote, which is effectively voting against Israel when they have thus far been the only ones to use veto power in this manner. (3/25/24)

I'm not going to go into detail about Schumer, since I've already covered it. tldr: it's a very specifically worded speech that does not explicitly threaten Israel, but if you do even the slightest bit of reading between the lines, that is absolutely what is happening.

Also, before I move forward: the US may not be donating to UNRWA for the rest of the fiscal year, but you can. They have direct donation links.

UNRWA funding has been on hold for a while, but this is... complicated. Not morally, because UNRWA does need funding and to defund it is truly unconscionable, but many of the "Biden signed it into law" posts are approaching it with this implied message that UNRWA would have funding if not for Biden signing it.

Except that isn't really how the US government works. Especially this government.

Funding for 2024 was supposed to be passed months ago. We are on the verge of another government shutdown. UNRWA funding is not on the table until the House swings blue. I hate to be the one to say this, but it's... like, it's not something I can change alone. I know you're tired of hearing it, but voting in November is the key to fixing a whole lot of problems.

One of the core duties of Congress is passing budgets. For those budgets to pass, they need to be approved by the House (Republican Majority), the Senate (Democrat Majority), and the President. The reason it has taken five months to pass a yearly budget (the deadline iirc was September or October) is because anything approved by one chamber is shot down by the other.

UNRWA's de-funding is tied to Ukraine funding (and a few other things). Biden refusing to sign would not have brought back UNRWA funding. The funding is already on hold. We do not have the votes to bring it back. We just straight up do not have enough seats in the House to make that happen. Biden refusing to sign would have resulted in both UNRWA and Ukraine not having funding, indefinitely. Signing it resulted in one of the two getting funding.

This is not a situation where funding was approved and now cut. This is not a situation where money was already flowing to UNRWA. This is a situation where money wasn't going anywhere, because Congress is a split shitshow.

Think of it like this: Funding is water coming from a spigot. Congress can turn it on or off, and it's currently off. Biden can smack away the hand coming to twist the valve, but he can't touch the valve himself. That's what the presidential veto is. Unfortunately, the spigot is already off, and Biden can't twist it back on when Congress isn't already reaching to do so.

Is this bad? Yes! UNRWA's funding should never have been cut! We should still be very, very upset about this! But I need you to understand that the way the US government works is not a dictatorship. Biden cannot just overrule Congress, especially when we're on the verge of another shutdown.

I do not think it is fair or even really acceptable that UNRWA's funding was viewed as an appropriate point of compromise. I'm just, unfortunately, also aware that this particular legislation is a tug-of-war that was never going to end with funding going to Palestine, not with the current Republican control of the House.

"But Biden sent money to Israel a bunch of times--" Yeah, and he's paying for it in the polls. He's aware that people are pissed at him. That choice is already biting him in the ass.

Biden is not perfect and I am never going to claim he is, but please recognize that the UNRWA funding pull is not a current action. It is a past action that is now being sustained because the House is red. You want to bring back UNRWA funding? Get rid of Marjorie Taylor Green and her entire cohort.

The other reason I'm less than eager to view that UNRWA thing as Biden being pro-Israel is because the US has finally abstained on a UN vote instead of vetoing.

When the US has been the only voice on Israel's side in the Security Council this whole time, abstention is functionally voting against them. We already knew that 13-14 of the other 14 members were going to vote pro-ceasefire. They have been this entire time. The US abstaining is functionally agreeing.

Why did the US not just vote for the ceasefire, then? No idea. Might be a treaty thing. I don't really need to know, because the result is that the UN Security Council has finally passed a measure against Israel, and those things are legally binding, and we know it's a big step because Israel's government is not happy.

When paired with the Schumer speech from a week and a half ago, it indicates a major shift in US foreign policy.

From the Al Jazeera article:

The US had repeatedly blocked Security Council resolutions that put pressure on Israel but has increasingly shown frustration with its ally as civilian casualties mount and the UN warns of impending famine in Gaza. Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution. “We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” which she said was the reason why the US abstained. “Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas,” Thomas-Greenfield said. [...] The White House said the final resolution did not have language the US considers essential and its abstention does not represent a shift in policy. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the US failure to veto the resolution is a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt war efforts against Hamas as well as efforts to release Israeli captives held in Gaza.

This action has also resulted in Israel pulling plans for "a high-level delegation" to visit the US for discussions on the invasion of Rafah (which Biden has purportedly been warning against for a while).

“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to them going in on the ground in Rafah,” [John] Kirby told reporters. [...] Last week, Netanyahu promised to defy US appeals and expand Israel’s military campaign to Rafah even without its ally’s support.

There are other complications and details here, such as that the resolution does not call for a permanent ceasefire, and that US tensions with Russia and China are still somehow playing a role in the negotiations over the ceasefire text, but ultimately...

The US abstaining is a good thing. Schumer's speech is a good thing. They are not enough, but they are good things. They are steps forward.

The pull of funding from UNRWA is not a good thing. It is, in fact, a very, very bad thing. It just also looks a lot like it was unavoidable.

So call your reps, and vote come November. It's a long slog and we all know it, but we can't make change without dedication.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

Among other things...

[marzipanandminutiae]

if you're terrified for your country's elections next year because a lot of people seem to think the solution to the government handling an international conflict in an abysmal and deplorable way is to let a group of total monsters who would handle it MUCH worse AND also potentially doom huge swaths of oppressed people at home as well as our entire literal planet get into power, by ignoring the way our deeply flawed but also deeply entrenched system realistically works

clap your hands...?

(I cannot understand trying to stop heinous and unnecessary killing- which disgusts and saddens me, too! how could it not?! -by handing the election to people who want to do even more of that exact thing. the math isn't mathing, as they say)

[beauty-funny-trippy]

The Border Bill was endorsed, wanted, and needed by the Border Patrol Union. Trump stepped in and blocked them from getting it. The Bill would have provided state-of-the-art equipment for Border Patrol Agents to detect fentanyl and stop it from entering the U.S. By killing the Border Bill, Donald Trump decided to keep the deadly flow of fentanyl coming into our country, knowing that it would kill untold numbers of Americans. In Trump's sick and twisted mind, he chose to sacrifice the lives of men, women and children to satisfy his selfish ambition. Donald Trump doesn't care about what's best for America. ALL his decisions are based on what's best for Donald Trump. He doesn't care about you; he only cares about himself. Isn't that obvious by now?