Today’s the 8 year anniversary of the release of A Memory of Light, the 14th and concluding volume in The Wheel of Time.

8 years since it ended. Wow. Although we all know there are no endings to the turning of the WoT!

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Info:
https://t.co/QEdSOyTapw

#twitteroftime

The title to this book was one RobertJordan thought of when he was finishing up edits on Knife of Dreams. He never explained the exact meaning although @BrandSanderson would later offer his version of it.

The closing epigraph of the book is one of my favorites:

“He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone.”

There’s a story behind that quote.

Robert Jordan came up with that wind quote. He and Harriet were traveling to New York to meet with their publisher @torbooks. He shared the quote with Harriet, who was struck by it & really loved it.

The quote referred to Rand, of course, but after RJ died, it spoke more to Harriet about her husband than it did about the character. The quote was included in RJ’s prayer card from his funeral. I still have one.

So I was in the shower this morning, and started wondering:
Do you think the people implicated in Jeffrey Epstein's book had a general "Dead men tell no tales" slush fund?
Or did they have to separately organize his assignation?

I'm just imagining that on August 10th there's a big traffic jam of hired killers all running into each other like

some guy's sneaking out of a vent when a guard walks in, sees him, and goes "HALT!" and the vent guy goes "SHIT!", then notices the guard's ill-fitting suit. "Wait, ...Steve? Is that you?"

"Alex! I haven't seen you since the Reno heist! What are you doing here?"
"Same thing as you, looks like."

"I'll be damned. Well, I've already knocked out the guard, you want to let me finish this?"
"Yeah, go ahead. I'll get paid either way."

Surprised in this otherwise excellent obit of legendary journalist Neil Sheehan, the @nytimes didn't mention that the Nixon admin tried to charge Sheehan and his wife Susan under the Espionage Act *after* the Pentagon Papers Supreme Court case.

The Pentagon Papers Supreme Court ruling is, of course, a landmark First Amendment opinion. But it's bizarre to me that the Nixon admin actually tried to *criminally charge* Sheehan for his reporting, and the case is almost lost to history.

One of the only descriptions of the Espionage Act grand jury investigation into Neil Sheehan, besides in the @nytimes archives, is this 2011 @DailyBeast piece by former NYT general counsel James Goodale. It is an absolutely remarkable story.

After Nixon lost the Pentagon Papers Supreme Court case, he was enraged and still wanted the NYT prosecuted. While @DanielEllsberg's grand jury was happening in LA, federal prosecutors opened up an investigation into Sheehan in Boston for "conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act"

The grand jury investigating both Sheehan and his wife Susan, who was a writer at the @NewYorker, subpoenaed several famous journalists and academics, including David Halberstam, Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn.

Japanese companies in the UK who have moved their product distribution hub to the EU in anticipation of what is now happening. One in a long thread, just to make a point that *some* companies have been preparing for worst case Brexit for years 1/13

Allegro MicroSystems Europe, semiconductors and ICs, owned by Sanken Denki, now importing into EU via Netherlands rather than UK. Amano Enzyme Europe transferred EU stock to warehouse in EU 2/13

Anritsu EMEA (sales and service of testing and measuring solutions to communications industry) all EU deliveries now go to second transport hub in Netherlands. Audio Technica established European Distribution Centre in Netherlands for Brexit (bit of a 🇳🇱theme here) 3/13

Eisai Europe (manufactures pharmaceuticals in Hatfield) transferred centralised marketing authorizations to Frankfurt, established testing and storage facilities in Antwerp. Electric Glass Fiber holding stock in EU for Brexit 4/13

Enplas Europe (semiconductors) acquired warehousing in NL for Brexit. Fujichem Sonneborn opened warehouse in Spain for Brexit. Furukawa Electric Europe shifted warehouse and distribution to Germany. 5/13

Remember, the left believes Trump was the result of rightwing hate being allowed to share platforms with civil, good and decent truth-telling people (them)

Since Fox News started they have wailed at the existence of conservative media as dangerous to the country.

A lot of folks are grappling with, "What comes next? How do we atone for our part in what happened?"

We Jews have a ~700 page book you can turn to, The Gateway to Repentance. It painstakingly catalogues what true atonement requires.

But I want to tell you WHY we have this book.

Have you heard of Maimonides, aka The Rambam, aka Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon?

He was a Torah scholar, Saladin's doctor, wrote widely on mysticism and rationalism, and was super controversial.

He lived in Spain. Here's a common rendering:

He was born in 1138. He wrote The Guide for the Perplexed. In the late 1100s, controversy erupted over the fact that he had the gall to suggest that Torah scholars should work rather than live off of benefactors, and that his Mishneh Torah was more helpful than many rabbis.

The Guide for the Perplexed attempts to reconcile science and philosophy with rabbinic Judaism. This is no small thing! Assimilation in Spain and France was rampant among Jews, and many were not happy about this work, to put it lightly.

So the author of the book I posted, Shaarei Teshuvah, is Rabbi Yonah of Gerona. He is born in 1180. Unlike Maimonides, he spent all day learning Torah. He is related (by blood and marriage) to the Ramban, aka, Nachmanides, aka Rabbi Moses ben Nahman.

(Maimonides dies in 1204.)

Certain Christians on the right are correct to recognize that the moral discourse surrounding our politics is largely a cynical point-scoring exercise, an attempt to secure the moral high ground through discrediting opponents, rather than a serious, honest, and humble endeavour.

As such, the discourse is generally more concerned with power than with truth. Extracting admissions of guilt from your political opponents enables you to demand that they act in a chastened and deferential subjection to you as moral arbiter. Almost everyone is playing this game.

Many evangelical Christians are excessively nice people, whose form of faith is itself profoundly oriented around their scrupulosity and overactive consciences. They are also very naïve, and don't understand that they are perfect marks for this game. They can easily be gaslit.

Tell them that they are complicit in the worst atrocities and it is highly likely that they will accept your claims. Accusations of racism are especially powerful here, as given our nations' histories, they can bear genuine measures of guilt.

Their instinctive response, as nice, conformist, conflict averse, and obliging people, when faced with accusations by a person of colour is deference, affirmation, and contrition. Critical assessment of the very often largely unfounded accusations being made is suspended.

Some thoughts: The great paradox of 1/6 is that so much of the planning happened out in the open (both in the immediate run-up and over the past 4+ years), which actually made it less effective. There were too many disparate and undisciplined groups, effectively tourists.

This part of Trumpism will continue. To the extent the Trump family is able to operate in the open, they will become the Grateful Dead of right-wing politics, which Trump rallies already embody, and followers will go on tour, chanting "Lock Her Up" for the coming decades.

The key question is whether the Far Right will break from this. Some indications show that Trump's efforts at self-preservation by weak denunciation will fuel a break and also further a pervasive "stabbed-in-the-back" narrative that the Far Right uses everywhere.

What made 1/6 more effective was the obvious underpreparation by the Capitol police, in coordination with DOJ and DOD. Some indiv officers assented but some did their job a little too effectively--incl. by shooting the woman in the bldg as much as not shooting entrants at first.

It's clear that some people entered the Capitol with the intent to kidnap/lynch specific members of Congress (you can figure out who), and some of those people basically fantasized about doing that for the likes while live-streaming (insert analogy to Zetas/ISIS/whatevs).

At the heart of Xian nationalism is a hopeless contradiction. This is what we saw yesterday. Guns, violence and force under the banner "Jesus Saves
So here is the contradiction- does Jesus save? Or are we saved by law? It is the same old problem that Paul dealt with in Galatians

How is the kingdom of God built and what is its nature?
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight."

Christian nationalism hopes to bring about the kingdom by guns and violence and ruthless politicians. The only way any earthly ruler can enforce laws is by force. Jesus knew that, and he set his kingdom diametrically opposed to every kingdom of the earth.

If it is an earthly kingdom, it is not the kingdom of Christ. Politics has its place, but salvation is not its place.

As Sen. Sasse said yesterday, the task of politicians is to enforce order so that people can live their lives in peace. This is a good and healthy goal and sometimes it needs to be enforced with strength.
But it isn't the kingdom of God, and it won't save us.

2020 has been a devastating year. We could all do with some good news.

Here are some of @CrisisGroup’s 10 reasons for hope in 2021.

1. Vaccines. Several vaccines developed in record time have already been approved against #COVID19.

Their roll-out gives good reasons to believe 2021 will see a dramatic turnaround of the pandemic.

2. Return to diplomacy. After 4 years of the Trump era’s erosion of multilateralism and tensions among the P5, the Biden administration could help restore U.S. engagement in multilateral conflict resolution efforts and at the Security Council

3. Climate. The U.S. is likely to rejoin the Paris Agreement and lead a renewed charge to fight climate change and its destructive consequences.

See @CrisisGroup’s research on the complex relationship between conflict and climate ☟


4. In Afghanistan, ongoing peace talks could lead to meaningful progress.

There are many obstacles on the road ahead, but the current negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban represent the country’s best shot at peace in a

My rage has not abated, it has grown. I worked on the Hill on 9/11 & when 2 police officers were tragically killed by a madman with a gun--surprise attacks that lead to dramatic security increases. BILLIONS have been spent to protect OUR house-the people's house. And yet...1/

This attack--planned in plain site by a bunch of morons who had merch!--was carried out with little resistance. Think about it, the seditious mob brought and built a gallows and platform with 6x6 beams at OUR capitol. This required some planning.

They had ladders! Are you telling me they walked up with ladders and no one thought, "uh oh, shit's getting real?"

📷 Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Images 3/

They had zip ties and flex cuffs to handcuff people! Who were they planning to take hostage and thank god they were not successful. 4/

The had SLEDGEHAMMERS???

Ok so I have figured it out. This is the team that retrieved the laptops (and whatever else). Notice the two women who are unlocking the door. Three men on the right suiting up. And the man in black with zip tie cuffs that are ready to use, in case they need to keep someone down.

If Wednesday was the final act of Donald Trump’s circus, @RepMoBrooks is one of the ringmasters. For weeks now, he has been lying to the public and whipping people into a frenzy that he and crew were going to “stop the steal” Wednesday.

Check his Twitter feed for the last month. Speeches and statements pushing debunked conspiracy theories based on absolutely nothing. Also, promising that they were going to use their power to overturn the election even after his own Republican colleagues said it wasn’t possible.

After spinning this false narrative, stoking this fire and encouraging “Patriots” to show up at the Capitol to fight and “stop the steal”, he then is the first speaker at the rally and says this.

So, @RepMoBrooks, Wednesday was the day the people he charged up, manipulated, and lied to decided to go into the chamber and take names and “kick ass” just as he said. As a result, 5 people are now dead including a LEO that was trying to protect him from the melee he incited.

There are now bullet holes in the Capitol. Windows were busted and offices were vandalized. Bombs were found around the building. Mo’s “Patriots” showed up with guns, Molotov cocktails and zip ties to help him kick ass and “stop the steal”. Blood was shed on the Capitol grounds.

Not sure who needs to hear this, but if you're continuing to baselessly argue that there was widespread fraud and/or that the election was somehow "stolen" from Trump, you're encouraging people to attack again.

It's time to stop lying to your audiences, to your constituents.

Fox News host Mark Levin on January 3:

"Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are being destroyed by the Democrat Party and the media. ... We're standing at the precipice and we're looking into the abyss."

Seriously, watch this.