BC POLITICS
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

NEW/THREAD: A forthcoming analysis from @TRACReports says @BuzzFeedNews has filed more #FOIA lawsuits--58-- than any other media organization in the US during Trump's presidency.

Here's a look back at the secrets my colleagues & I pried loose in 2020

1/

 We started off 2020 publishing some of the most important and highly sought-after documents from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: summaries of FBI interviews with key White House officials.
https://t.co/dfQI0LOa1I

2/
In February 2020, @BuzzFeedNews secured more than 1K pages of emails from NOAA related to Trump’s "doctored" map of Hurricane Dorian — dubbed #SharpieGate — and the panic, outrage, and internal revolt it triggered among top officials at those agencies.
https://t.co/G7tTRV9aqR

3/
That month, we also filed a #FOIA lawsuit against DOJ for docs related to Barr's intervention in the Flynn & Stone cases. Emails we obtained brought to light the behind-the-scenes drama between the lead prosecutor in the Stone case & his supervisor
 https://t.co/BdNFGpQiBf
4/
The federal response to #FOIA requests, which was already shitty, got worse during last year’s coronavirus outbreak. Some agencies used the pandemic to justify cutting off responses altogether and to abruptly halt the processing of FOIA requests.

But we fought back. We sued.

5/
In June 2020, we obtained documents that show the FDA authorized two malaria drugs boosted by Trump to treat COVID-19 was based on threadbare evidence.
https://t.co/q30B3ZZdDi
6/
We continued to chip away at the secrecy behind the government's response to #COVID19, and in May we received docs that reveal how deeply involved FEMA was in the govt's bungled response to the pandemic, despite the agency's denials.
https://t.co/ArgDyQcjYa
7/
When the country erupted in protest after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, the federal govt scrambled to respond, dispatching federal agents in a sweeping effort to police the demonstrations. @BuzzFeedNews swiftly filed FOIA requests and then sued the govt

8/
Last August, DHS turned over hundreds of pages of documents to @BuzzFeedNews that show how federal agents monitored #BlackLivesMatter protesters’ social media for intelligence and then braced for battle.
https://t.co/kuJtNxfh5t

9/
One of the Trump administration's most enduring controversies has been its immigration policies, which have resulted in dozens of deaths in detention facilities. To better understand what happened, BuzzFeed News sued DHS & ICE

10/
In Oct we published our findings, which included that a woman w/AIDS died after she was not given life-saving antiretroviral drugs & 3 detainees killed themselves even though they were supposed to have been under observation for mental health concerns
https://t.co/jg0UPvka9y
11/
Also last year, we used documents obtained through #FOIA lawsuits against the Treasury and Justice Departments to inform our groundbreaking #FinCENFiles investigation, published in September.
https://t.co/ETKey5nPDr

12/
Our #FOIA litigation rankled HSBC. A secret report we sought about failures in HSBC’s anti–money laundering efforts led the bank to take the unusual step of intervening in our lawsuit. It asked DOJ not to release it to us
https://t.co/usOchKPbx7

13/
The Mueller report, Russia’s election interference, and Ukrainian dealings that led to impeachment dominated much of Trump’s term in office; they also were targets of @BuzzFeedNews legal efforts

14/
Our #FOIA work generated headlines in March when Judge Reggie Walton, who was handling our/@EPICprivacy's lawsuit to unredact Mueller's report, issued a scathing opinion that questioned whether Barr intended to “create a one-sided narrative” about it
https://t.co/bVbWcQUnVW

15/
In June, DOJ was forced to remove vast swaths of black ink from the Mueller report in response to #FOIA lawsuits by @BuzzFeedNews and @EPICprivacy

The new details were revelatory

https://t.co/cwb10hOljS

16/
September brought another historic victory in Judge Walton’s court. He ordered the government to release, on the day before Election Day, even more redacted passages from the Mueller report, ruling that DOJ violated federal law 

17/
When those sections of the Mueller report were disclosed, it showed Mueller investigated Assange, WikiLeaks, and Stone related to the hacking of Democratic National Committee servers as well as for possible campaign finance violations.

https://t.co/x2e3tiJJTl

18/
The last set of docs we obtained in 2020 arrived in Dec. We had been fighting for its release for a year. It included 1 of the key historical docs of Trump’s presidency: the criminal referral sent to FBI & DOJ accusing Trump himself of breaking the law
https://t.co/6zSqSVrdx4
19/
Our battle against recalcitrant public officials required not only the work of our own lawyer, Chris Hickman (co author of our 2020 #FOIA wrap up) but also enlisting outside counsel, including attys @_LightLaw @mvtopic & @jloevy and @katie_rcfp & @Jen_A_Nelson

THANK YOU!

20/
And thank you to @ackocher and his team at @TRACReports for the data analysis!

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READ AND RETWEET AS THOUGH THE LIFE OF YOUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT. WHICH IT DOES. Citizens, I am going to add to the picture with more information. I am not going to let this pass while keeping information to myself. I am going to walk you through 2 narratives.

A printing shop in Michigan prints ballots for Delaware County, Pennsylvania and as Lancashire County, Pennsylvania (this is normal). But along with the ballots it prints on contract and delivers to those counties, it prints some ballots that get diverted to Bethpage, New York.

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NEW: @SidneyPowell1 radio interview w/ @toddeherman "The new report has a truckload of evidence of foreign interference in the election in it. That's what people seem to want to deny, even though the FBI & CISA ... issued an advisory and alert back on Oct. 30th & updated on

2/ Nov. 3rd, so for them to deny that now is absolutely absurd. Plus, we have an affidavit from an expert cyber-warfare [individual] who even shows the diagram of all the attacks coming in. We know that the VPN ... the Dominion people left those open and unencrypted on the night

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1/ A Short Thread About Civility and Calling Politicians Liars.

Nice people are sometimes uncomfortable that I call some politicians "liar". And I don't apologize for it.

But I don't call every politician "liar". Only the ones who deliberately tell provable lies and do so

2/ repeatedly. A lie is different from an accidental misstatement. For example, when @michaelaglasgo lied about her church's carbon tax, it could have been a genuine mistake. But she doubled down by telling other lies. And has since been caught in more.

#cdnpoli #abpoli #ableg

3/ When @KayceeMaduYEG is caught lying, he doesn't do the right thing. He just plows ahead. As if lying doesn't matter.

So which is more uncivil: calling out people who lie a lot OR being in a position of public trust and lying to people in the first place?

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Civil discourse cannot survive if politicians lie all the time. It can't.

5/ So as rude as it might be, when members of @UCPCaucus tell lies, we should be calling them "liar" every time. As long as they think they're getting away with it, they won't stop. So shame them.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVI BEEJ / BIJA MANTRA.

Once Suutji in his discourse with King Janmajeya repeated the words of Vyasji regarding the pronounciation of the word ऐ. Vyasji had heard the importance of this word in a meeting of all important saints at Naimisharanya.


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In that gathering of such great sages, Rishi Jamdagni asked a question to all the eminent luminaries. He wanted to know which diety is the most revered and gets satisfied easily with our prayers. So Lomash rishi replied that Devi

Bhagwati was one such diety. She will be satisfied and is ready to grant you a boon even if you just say the first letter of her beej mantra. In this context he narrated the story of Satyavrat. The story is as follows.

There lived a Brahmin named Devdutt in Kosal.

He was childless. He arranged for an elaborate yagya for a intelligent son to be born. He invited all the eminent rishi's to conduct this Yagya. Rishi Suhotra, Pael, Brahaspati Yagyavalka were assigned different tasks. Rishi Gobhil was asked to sing the Saamved.

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These are the two guards guarding the Wealth and Treasure of Lord Sri Venkateswara.

They are representatives of two treasures of Kubera, the God of Wealth.


One guard who is holding shangam (conch) on both the hands is known as Shanka Nidhi ('nidhi' means wealth).

On the other side, the guard who is holding Lotus flowers on both the hands is known as Padma nidhi.

Shangu is from the ocean which includes all types of wealth like pearls and corals.

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'Padmam' is the symbol of water sources in land like river, lakes, tanks etc. which is very important for all living beings.

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One enters the holy shrine after saluting the first protection threshold - Sankha Nidhi and Padma Nidhi.
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Bhu Varaha Swamy Temple

Bhu Varaha Swamy temple is a Hindu temple, located at Srimushnam, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture...


the temple is dedicated to Varaha (Bhu Varaha Swamy), the boar-avatar of the god Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi as Ambujavalli Thayar.

The temple had contributions from Medieval Cholas of the 10th century with later expansions by Thanjavur Nayak king Achuthappa Nayak.


A granite wall surrounds the temple, enclosing all the shrines and the temple tanks. There is a seven-tieredrajagopuram, the temple’s gateway tower.

Six daily rituals and three yearly festivals are held at the temple, of which the Chariot festival....


celebrated during the Tamil month of Vaikasi (April–May), being the most prominent. The festival also symbolises Hindu-Muslim unity in the region – the flag of the chariot is provided by Muslims; they take offerings from the temple and present to Allah in the mosques.


Source & Pic credit : Anusri
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