Listening to a @jbouie livechat about the filibuster right now and it's made it clear: the filibuster (and particularly reconciliation as a workaround) hasn't just bottled up progressive legislation, but it's warped the entire constitutional system in subtle-but-fundamental ways.

Reconciliation is the only way to get a law through Congress most of the time, and most of Congress's authorities, to regulate or pass social legislation, are inaccessible in reconciliation.

So the role of Congress has shifted. Instead of the broad national legislature envisioned by Article I - a body to rule over the whole country and direct its government - Congress has become, in most cases, an agency for management of the federal budget.

The existence of reconciliation as an exception to the filibuster is essential to this shift. If reconciliation didn't exist, Congress would be sidelined almost completely, paralyzed, and what would likely happen is that frustrated majorities would just end the practice entirely.

But because of reconciliation, there's actually a pathway to legislating - it's just bound by a strict set of rules that actually dramatically alter the scope of how Congress can act. Thus most of Congress's work gets channeled through those limits, narrowing its practical power.

Let's talk about "social justice."

The phrase, that is.

Social justice has always been one of our party's core commitments. Occasionally, however, we hear from people who like our platform but get squirrely about the term.

(Thread)

(The ASP Polandball is unrelated, we just think it's cute.)

Anyway, some people tend to associate social justice with "cancel culture" or with policy positions like abortion-on-demand that we oppose.

(Abortion is a social justice issue, by the way, just not the way its proponents think it is).

But while it's true that term sometime gets used in ways we don't support, we think the concept is far too important lose.

20-second history lesson: historically, some of the earliest writers to use the term "social justice" were working within the Catholic political tradition (one of the sources of Christian Democracy). Luigi Taparelli sometimes gets credit for coining it.

1/ If you've felt like stock market has been disconnected from reality for the past few days, you're not alone

this is the story of the magic bubble created by amatuer traders that broke a multibillion dollar hedge fund

2/ To understand the market right now is to understand r/WallStreetBets

it's a 2.3 million person subreddit dedicated to memes and YOLO Tesla calls that relishes in the massive swings that come with risky trades

aka heaven for the hyperactive amateur trader

3/ The other main character in this saga is GameStop

it's a mall-based retailer that is saddled with debt ($450 million as of Q4 2020) and falling sales (down 40% in last 2 years)

essentially, it's the Blockbuster of video games waiting to be eaten by a Netflix

4/ So hedge funds have been shorting it

the pros on Wall Street saw a failing business and took positions where they would profit if the stock falls

in fact, it's the single most shorted stock in the entire Stock and S&P 500

5/ One hedge fund in particular called Melvin Capital held a $55 million short position against GameStop

Melvin also held large short positions against National Beverage, iRobot, and Bed Bath & Beyond

big mistake

THE TRUTH BEHIND WHY ONLY 2% OF PEOPLE SUCCEED AND 98% OF PEOPLE FAIL

(Plus a 30 minute exercise to get you into the top 2%)

//Thread//

Quick PSA: If you get value from this thread, please share some Knowledge Karma and retweet the first tweet 👆

Thank you.

Now let's upgrade your life..

I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room.

This is not another thread about "positive thinking" and us ing affirmations to get what you want.

You will need to take action for this to work.

If you are willing to do that

Read on 👇

Psychological Fact #1 : Reality = What you experience in your mind.

Reality is not objective.

This is why a man with a million dollars can say he's "depressed"

While a man with nothing in his pocket can say he's "happy"

and they can both be right at the same time.

A plastic surgeon noticed a pattern in his patients.

Even though a patient underwent transformative surgery and OBJECTIVELY looked more beautiful

Many came out of surgery and still saw an ugly person in the mirror.

How is this possible?

It all boils down to self belief.

How come the mayoral candidates haven’t been asked whether they agree with the de Blasio administration’s separate-but-equal defense to the Fair Housing Act lawsuit challenging NYC’s discriminatory “community preference” policy, @JeffCMays?

https://t.co/oEP4CxHgyp (1/10)

The candidates, @ShantRS, have been falling all over themselves claiming their civil rights bona fides. But, on this issue, they’ve been silent. (2/10)

There have been more than a MILLION households in NYC that have participated in affordable housing lotteries, @sallygold, so that system’s denial of a level playing field is a critical issue that any mayoral candidate genuinely interested in civil rights needs to speak to. (3/10)

Contrary to what you hear from those professionally invested in maintaining the status quo, @JCColtin, TONS of applicants are interested in applying outside of their community districts. (4/10)

In fact, @RossBarkan, about 85 percent of housing lottery applicants apply outside of their CD at least 75 percent of the time. True for all races. (5/10)

Four years ago this month, there was an uproar among analysts (and the public) about whether Cambridge Analytica was a PSYOP. The word is triggering; it tends to get people animated, makes people think of conspiracy theories, implies a grand master plan, shadowy operators, etc.

I have a good memory of that. What's happening now re: QAnon and whether it was a PSYOP and by whom is comparable. And it's a pointless debate. Any operation that 1) does target audience analysis, 2) deploys messaging against audiences, 3) tries to alter behavior, is a PSYOP.

The origin of this particular operation is complicated, networked, and muddied by people who wish to both claim and disclaim it. But it is functionally a PSYOP, has borrowed from that heritage, and can be analyzed in those terms. Miss me with claims to the contrary.

Researchers, journalists, and historians need to get to the bottom of how it evolved (and it did evolve, vs. a unified top-down plan), and we can do that if we work in good faith together. But we have to accept the fact that these kinds of operations are now commonplace.

It also helps to use the lens of emergence; information ops evolve, and incorporate DNA from everything that has come before: LARPs, ARGs, PSYOPs, the general public's participation + gullibility. In that context, one doesn't need top-down orchestration, necessarily.

1/20 Stablecoin Tweetstorm- I have a fairly unique perspective on stablecoins... I was an "unofficial advisor" to the launch of USDT (Tether) Some of my best friends were CEO/CTO/Founders, etc. I didn't invest at the time (which was a lucky move) as the company sold

2/20 for a loss to Bitfinex within two years of creation. It had very little usage, banking issues, and really no clear path to growth (that is until one of the largest exchanges on earth began using it) So with this short background let me share a bit of my thoughts on

3/20 this category and why I think it is so important... (Full Disclosure: after all these years I finally found a stablecoin project that I thought was worth investing in and i will be shilling it later in this thread:-)

4/20 The community knows all about how important stablecoins are to the overall health and usage of the entire crypto marketplace. With an overall market cap of in excess of $1 Trillion the crypto market is large and growing... No category of crypto is growing faster than

5/20 Stablecoins: With a total category value of just over $33B and over $10B per day in trade volume it is no longer just a "niche" Stablecoins are a major category and I predict this category will increase in value faster then the overall crypto market. (My bet is $100B

I’m deeply saddened to learn that Dr Joseph Sonnabend, one of the most important figures in the history of AIDS, died yesterday. I spent time with him in 2018 for one of the last interviews he ever gave. Let me tell you about this man and what he did:

Sonnabend was one of the first doctors to raise the alarm. In 1979, while running a sexual health clinic in Greenwich Village, he wrote to the NY Health Dept to warn them of the symptoms he was seeing: low white blood cell counts, enlarged lymph nodes. He didn’t get a reply. 2/

So he kept speaking out. When a patient of his developed a very rare cancer – Kaposi’s Sarcoma – he linked up with a dermatologist at NYU who said that over a dozen gay men had it. Sonnabend knew there was something very wrong. He started working at the lab at NYU — for free. 3/

It was soon after this in 1981 that the New York Times famously reported “Rare Cancer Found In 41 Homosexuals”. The next decade would kill most of Sonnabend’s patients and friends — and all of his lovers. What Sonnabend did was to fight for every single of them. 4/

Want to know who was the first to publish advice to wear a condom? That was Sonnabend. In 1983 he co-authored the first safe sex leaflet to fight AIDS: “How To Have Sex In An Epidemic”. 5/

The Power of Mastering the Basics: Keys to Success

~ Thread ~

Success is a lonely journey.

No one is going to be interested in how you gave strike against massive waves.

All they care about is how you’ll arrive at the shore.

In the end, the story needs a happy end with its own hero.

Once the Success Journey starts:
(Say it Loud)

- You don't say anything
- You don't feel anything
- You are like a stone
- Nothing stops YOU

It's You and Your Goals

Let's do IT!

1) The basics of SUCCESS:

- Don’t you dare blame others.

People are living their usual lives. You can't blame anyone!

- Never compare with others.

Millennials’ problem.

Always remember this:

Good marathon runners compete just with themselves.

2) In 1x miles of Success Journey:

- You’ll need FREEDOM
(financial, mental, etc.)

Nothing kills the human spirit more than being trapped mentally | physically.

- You’re gonna have OWNERSHIP
(authority, product, etc)

Time isn't any more like before.

Use your ASSETs.

So Dominion sued Rudy for defamation. How are they ever going to allege actual malice?

1. Sun. 24 Jan. Juan O Savin, Kat: "Juan O’Savin, Monkey Werx, and Ghost Ezra, You’re Watching a Movie!"

President Trump officially put us in NESARA with an EO on Nov. 2, 2020 & it will be NESARA elections that will be held on March 2, 120 days after NESARA was made official.

The Review: GW 19 - A thread

Hi everyone, welcome to the latest edition of “The Review” where I look at the double GW gone by, De Bruyne and Vardy replacements in detail:

#FPL #FPLCommunity @OfficialFPL

(Data taken from @FFScout and @FFH_HQ with consent)

Before I start, I'd like to introduce you to this game called Fantasy5. It’s free to enter, with a £10k weekly prize. All you have to do is to pick 5 players that you think will beat their Fantasy points target. I find it to be a lot of fun! Link

At this point, I’d also like to mention that I post about FPL on my Instagram too, so if you have an Instagram account, follow up here!

Q: Is Son the obvious De Bruyne replacement? Is it worth doubling up on Spurs attack and if not, who to choose if picking one?

I think we’re at that point where avoiding Heung Min Son despite having the option to get him for De Bruyne if you don’t own him already has to be...

... classified as overthinking. I say that because Son over the past three GWs is top for xG and big chances in the league which is incredible given that Son featured only thrice during that period while some other players played four times. Son is averaging two big chances...

A wife cheated in a marriage and it was found out. The husband felt used and abused. After a long time of reflection, he decided to revenge
To repay cheating for cheating! He got online and started following hookups and chat rooms with sexual offerings
After sometime he got what

he wanted, a sexual engagement with a lady online
They met at the hotel & he slept with the lady
In his mind, he had evened the score
Days after the deed, things started falling out of place for him
His conscience became heavy, he couldn't concentrate at work and he felt no peace

He experienced all the emotions that cheats and unfaithful people experience all the time that robs them of self-respect and human dignity
He had mortgaged his worth like Esau mortgaged his birthright
He couldn't confess the deed to his wife because he was certain it would make

him look small and perhaps prompt her to cheat again
While wallowing in his guilt, the lady he cheated with chatted him up
It felt like a sign to him
A sign to see her again and connect with her and unburden
He met with her again and she became his escape from reality
She helped

him to put things in the wrong perspective
"Everybody cheats...
"You're wise to get yours...
"Live your life to please yourself...
"You never can tell what your partner is up to...
It was what he wanted to hear
Before he knew it, he spent less and less time at home with his wife

I have spent the past 4 years under the tyrannical rule of an out of control Republican Party.
When they rolled back environmental protections they didn’t worry about the future of our children & grandchildren.
When they banned LGBTQ from the ➡️

military they didn’t worry about people losing their jobs for their sexual preference.
When they banned Muslims & separated families at the border they didn’t care that immigrants are humans and suffer like the rest of us. They don’t even care that immigrants
➡️

are vital to our economy.
When they degraded women, minorities, lgbtq, even using racial slurs such as “Guido” they didn’t care who they offended or that children were listening.
When our troops had bounties on their heads, they didn’t care about them or ➡️

the families that worried everyday for their safety.
As they lied & created an alternative reality, they didn’t care about the divisiveness they brought upon the country or the degradation of our democracy.
➡️

When they refused to allow the archivist to record the ERA, they didn’t care about the women that fought for decades to get it ratified.
They didn’t care when foreign actors interfered in our elections.
They ignored if not helped the rise of
➡️

My dear law students, I know that the events in Brisbane are at the top of your minds, so I will jump on the bandwagon and talk about one aspect of this wonderful test series that appealed to me. Right through the series, we have seen the role of fortune in a player’s success.

Rishabh Pant escaped a stumping before he went on to win the game for India in Brisbane. In Melbourne, Ajinkya Rahane was dropped before he went on to make a hundred. But is it not the case that we give these players credit for their achievements despite their fortune?

We also hold these players responsible even if what happened was their misfortune. India’s 36 in Adelaide was a collective failure no doubt but it was also a perfect cocktail of bad luck-pitch, conditions, and all the Australian bowlers managing to get their line & length right.

That’s test cricket, but we might say that’s life in general. Luck, good and bad, plays an important role in how the world judges us. We might go further and say that the law reflects life in this respect.

When I look at the way the law apportions responsibility, I am amazed that there is widespread acceptance of the system. Take the law of negligence that all of you study in the first year. The law of negligence establishes an objective standard of care.