🧵 After much deliberation concerning the events of last week concerning homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in our Catholic schools, Toronto—St. Paul’s New Democrats have decided to act.

Members of the @TCDSB and other publicly-funded Catholic institutions and boards have repeatedly attacked members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. The 2SLGBTQIA+ community is an at-risk community; the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected many at-risk 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.

Many Catholic publicly-funded school boards neglect or intentionally omit 2SLGBTQIA+ resources, which may affect the availability of life-saving information and/or resources.

However, we recognize with sadness that there is a culture of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in the @TCDSB and in publicly-funded Catholic education based on recent events.

We welcome the 14 January 2021 action wherein the @TCDSB passed a motion to establish 2SLGBTQIA+ resources and to create an advisory committee to deal with issues thereof.

Let’s talk about “the mark of the beast.”

Every time some new vaccine becomes necessary, there’s a small-but-loud group of evangelicals and otherwise who believe taking this vaccine could be “pledging your allegiance to the devil.” But does this have any grounds in The Bible?

The so-called “mark of the beast” appears in The Revelation, so first we’ve gotta dispel some myths about the book as a whole.

I’d argue that if there’s one book that has been twisted most heavily by the “evangelical fanfiction lore” of the 80s and 90s, it’s gotta be Revelation.

American Christianity in the 90s was wack. After years of politicians stoking fears of communism & new world order, conservatives snowballed their vision of what “the apocalypse” would look like, and reverse-engineered their fears back into Revelation with stuff like Left Behind.

The Left Behind books were pretty critical to the end-times fearmongering. Even Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell said at the time, "in terms of its impact on Christianity, Left Behind is probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside The Bible.”

Meanwhile, Theologian David Carlson said, “Left Behind promotes a skewed view of the Christian faith that welcomes war and disaster, while dismissing peace efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere—all in the name of Christ.”

1/ Further thoughts on @DavidAFrench's important essay on #ChristianNationalism.

It's great to see a leading evangelical thinker publicly engaging the topic.

But....

2/ It would be even better if @DavidAFrench would engage with work on #ChristianNationalism by scholars and journalists like:

@ndrewwhitehead @socofthesacred @praxishabitus @sarahposner @kathsstewart @AntheaButler @Nicholef and yours truly @GorskiPhilip

Also...

3/ With the work of black theologians such as:

Willie Jennings, @JemarTisby @stewartdantec @esaumccaulley to name just a few.

If he did, then....

4/ He'd know that there are much better and more nuanced definitions of #ChristianNationalism than the one offered by @ThomasSKidd, who is a smart guy, but not a scholar of the subject.

Plus...

5/ He'd know that the phenomenon is, in fact, much more widespread than he implies, not just amongst white evangelicals but also amongst non-evangelical white Protestants and white Catholics....See "Taking America Back for God" for the receipts.

So, why do I keep saying "white"?

https://t.co/gfXjaJF2tc New study re the views of nonautistic people towards autistic individuals. The aim - to move away from negative stereotypes.
But the 'sample fictional autistic person' is a white male who likes to only talk about fantasy fiction (LOTR).
Er.../

OK, that describes about 1% of autistic people.
And it exactly matches the stereotype myth that all autistic people are like this.
But...if the aim is to improve how people respond to autistic people...how does this fictional character help?/

My concern is that the more we focus on that 1%, the more we a) forget the other 99% exist and b) the more we set people up to fail, on encountering us. I cannot begin to tell you how confused people are that I'm not a young male who can only talk about Sci-Fi & IT, for example/

...and teaching people how to think positive thoughts about a white male fantasy-fiction-fan doesn't get them anywhere when asked to collaborate with a middle aged gay mum. Let alone one who can manage a decent chat on almost any standard topic on earth/

As it happens, I can chat about LOTR, and IT. But probably no more than anyone else on the street.
If we're serious about improving autistic lives, we need to be serious about diversity.

I'm disappointed that the following needs to be said, because professors ought to educate themselves on basic facts, instead of accepting myths uncritically and behaving harmfully towards minoritized women in STEM.

People, especially women, who are Black and/or Indigenous have especially challenging pathways into tenure track faculty positions, because academia is still racist and sexist in ways that are intersecting and nonlinearly compounding.

The following myths and facts are paraphrased from the 1996 research article about Ford Foundation Fellows by Smith, Wolf-Wendel, Busenberg et al, "The Pipeline for Achieving Faculty Diversity: Debunking the Myths" at

Academia changes slowly, so these 1996 research results still hold, and in fact other studies indicate that the representation of Black faculty has worsened since 2005.

To summarize the research...

Myth: Potential faculty of color are sought out by numerous institutions, and the competition to hire them is fierce, because there are so few candidates of color.

Fact: Supply and demand statements like this are greatly exaggerated.

I asked the Taoiseach to ensure that the coroner carries out its duty in respect to the mass infant and child deaths in mother and baby homes👇.

It is the duty of a coroner to hold an inquest when a body is found in their district. See here: ℹ️ https://t.co/jQmq6ex1GK

The Government Action Plan👇published in response to the report makes no mention of inquests or accountability and simply does not reflect the magnitude of the crimes committed. In fact, it seems like a blatant attempt to avoid these very issues.

ℹ️

We need to make sure survivors get justice.

If you agree, I am asking you to email your TDs, the Taoiseach & the Min for Children to tell them there needs to be an inquest into the deaths, as well as redress, access to data, a commission for the disappeared and further research.

If you need some help getting started, you'll find a draft email template here: 📧https://t.co/h5v4LY3mkr

I recommend reading the joint statement from Adoption Rights Alliance, Justice for Magdalene laundries and the Clann Project: ℹ️

I have also put together a brief Q+A below on what has happened and will happen next in terms of the Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes👇👇👇.

Q. Where can I read a copy of the report for myself?

A. Right here:

NEW from me for @amprog @CAPimmigration I lay out why the 100-day moratorium on deportation is critical and why the courts must let it go

So why is the moratorium so important? Over the 4 years of the Trump administration, ICE and CBP took actions that were both cruel and illegal, from family separation, to much much more.

The 100 day pause gives the administration time to get to the bottom of what happened.

Need more evidence? Last fall ICE deported someone even without a deportations order and even before he could go before a judge. They admitted their wrongdoing in court.

The same 1/20 Memo that set out the moratorium orders a top-to-bottom review of immigration policy at DHS. But to make that successful DHS has to ensure that no one is deported who otherwise shouldn't be. Hence the pause.

And yet Texas--who was all about executive authority on immigration under Trump, not so much now--sued to try and stop it, and a federal judge agreed, putting the moratorium on hold.

Here's why that is wrong.

What am I doing on my Sunday? Browsing @RepBobGood FEC filings for his largest donors and their identities. This will be a thread 😘 #VA05

Brian Hufhand, President of Amelia Overhead Doors, of Forest, VA gave Bob $5,600

Barry Clarkson, President & CEO of Equis Financial, of Concord, VA gave Bob $5,600

N. Jimmy Thomas, co-owner of RST marketing, of Lynchburg, VA gave Bob $7,600

Glen Thomas, co owner of RST marketing, of Forest, VA gave Bob $8,400

Christmas Eve does not feel to me like the ideal time to be trashing Ravi Zacharias. But neither should RZIM control the story line over the holiday. I offer these thoughts on their admission yesterday that Ravi “engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years.”

First, the worst of Ravi is yet to come. RZIM law firm said in a letter to their client “Some of that misconduct is consistent with and corroborative of that which is reported in the news recently, and some of the conduct we have uncovered is MORE SERIOUS.” (my CAPS). Stay tuned.

Second, I was wrong when I publicly stated that the RZIM investigation would be a whitewash. Clearly the ministry has committed to letting at least *some* of the ugly truth about Ravi Zacharias be known.
This is a dramatic and welcome change from the very recent past.

That said, I do not trust RZIM any more than I did the day before yesterday. $40,000,000 in annual donations is at stake, not to mention the personal reputations of Ravi’s loyal and long-term enablers, who remain in power at RZIM. Their game continues.

Yesterday RZIM said “Unfortunately, Ravi had died several months before we first learned of these allegations, so we were unable to explore them with him directly.” Are we to believe that nobody in RZIM leadership had any idea that Ravi was a serial sex abuser?

Feeling a bit of outrage fatigue. I know UCP likes to make digs about ‘the angry left’ (ie everyone who doesn’t support them or believe their lies), and maybe they’re trying to bombard us with their screw-ups until we’re numb to it all, but it’s ALL justified. 1/11

While we’ve been watching Kenney immolate what’s left of his credibility as a ‘leader’ over this Keystone XL debacle, it’s easy to forget that it’s only 10 days since we found out about the veto AIMCo will have over ATRF’s direction on how to invest hijacked pension funds. 2/11

It’s only 3 weeks since Kenney first tried to absolve his MLAs of blame in their hypocritical Christmas vacations, and less than that since he kicked a minister out of cabinet and another MLA out of caucus. 9 of them travelled. 5/11

It was only last week that teachers and students went back into the classroom, and amid all the rest of this, it has barely made a ripple in the news that there are *hundreds* of new covid cases in schools, and *dozens* of those caught covid AT school. In 9 days back. 4/11

The media has also largely ignored that the government decided to wipe the school outbreak map clean for a ‘fresh start’ in January, and raise the reporting threshold for outbreaks. When Dr. Hinshaw says ‘outbreak’ now, it means 5+ cases in a school, but it used to mean 2+ 5/11

The first reaction to the Mother and Baby Homes report from the Coalition of Survivors is: "Cop out“.
"What occurred was but an aspect of the newly established State which was profoundly anti women both in its laws and culture and out of which emerged the Mother and Baby Homes."

Here is an overview of the 3,000 word report. Thousands of children died, in some years at a rate of 40%, with no concern from state or society. It details graphic and sustained mental and physical abuse of children and pregnant women.

Resident F (14) was pregnant and taken to Castlepollard: "I was beaten by the nuns with a stick.
"You got beaten by sticks or by their hands, across your face, your head, arms, legs or torso." She said that nuns made her unblock toilets with her bare hands.

Resident (A) was raped by her boyfriend and became pregnant at 18, she told the commission she saw "about ten" deceased babies being sent for burial in what appeared to be shoeboxes.

I'm not going to keep pasting the testimony as it's upsetting for people who might choose not to read it for whatever reason. It's harrowing. I had to get up and walk away twice when reading it.

A Thread On Reasons Behind
《Silence Of Ali(AS)After Saqifa》

○Role of Holy Prophet(PBUH)
1) The Holy Prophet had told Imam Ali: "Your position is like that of Ka'bah. People (Muslims) go to Ka'bah but that august House never approaches anyone. Therefore after my death, if people come to you and swear the oath of allegiance you accept it,

and if they do not come to you and swear the oath of allegiance, then you do not go to them."

Usudul Ghabah fi Tamizis Sahaba, Allama Ali ibn Muhammad, vol. IV, p.31;

2) The Holy Prophet had advised Imam Ali(a) that,"After me you will have to face severe sufferings, but do not

get disheartened and do not lose patience; and when you find people craving for and trying their utmost to secure worldly gains, you mould your life for the Hereafter." [59]

Madarijun Nabuwwah, Abdul Haq Muhaddith Dehlavi, vol. II, p. 511.

○Lack Of Companions
1)When Holy Prophet(PBUH) Told Imam Ali(AS) That People Will Go Astray After Him Then Imam Ali(AS) Asked Holy Prophet(PBUH) What Should he Do

2)In Rijal Kashi, It Is Mentioned That Only 3 Sahaba Were Present Before Zohr Prayer's and After That Ammar(RA) came

1/A LOT of critically important charts in this week's #DirtyDozen.

I cover growing trend fragility, a monthly sell signal, discuss why this *isn't* a major top buy why we should expect a 1-2 month correction to begin w/in the next few weeks, plus more.

https://t.co/qd6Old7Ehi

2/ High euphoria = high trend fragility

-Record net 19% FMS investors raking greater risk

-FMS cash level at 3.9% triggering a 'sell signal'

-Global Risk-Love in 97th %-tile going back to 1987

-Asia/EM Risk-Love signaling "euphoria" for 1st time since 2015

3/ “Two-month flows into DM and EM equity funds the highest since [Oct 2000]. November alone saw the highest monthly inflow into global equity funds on record. Also over a three-month horizon, we’ve now seen the highest inflows into equity funds on record” via BofA $EEM

4/ Asia ex-Japan Risk-Love indicator’s Euphoria / Bearish Signal implies weak 6-month forward returns in Asia/EM.

5/ $IYT triggered a sell signal in Jan.

Dec's Doji (yellow) gave us a sell setup. Jan's Outside Bear Bar closed on its lows & gave us a sell signal. But, the strong bullish thrust of the preceding 8 bars means this pullback will likely be bought after a 1-2m pullback.

Pelosi's mot that the chose "their whiteness over democracy" disappoints me. 1/

It disturbs me when liberals recourse to racism as a universal explanation for everything bad the right does. It's reductionist. And it's not to excuse the right and its racism to point this out... 2/

In fact, reducing everything bad the right believes and does to white supremacy limits our grasp of their terribleness: in most cases in's white supremacy PLUS (and in some cases, NOT white supremacy. Non-white conservative tradition deserve consideration on its own terms). /3

a major part of the PLUS is gender-based. In the late 1970s, the ideology that cohered the Christian right, and made them such a force in Reagan's coalition and beyond, was far more eliminationist rage against LGBT people than racism. /4

Most of the people traveling to DC to protest IRS rules on Christian schools in 1979, many of them former segregationists, were witnesses to their eliminationist rage against LGBT people (conspiracy theories held the IRS sought to force Christian schools to hire gay teachers). /5