1. The PURGE - so it begins. They took Parler down and then started the Twitter purge. Parler was hacked about the same time it was being brought down. They successfully dismantled the largest group of patriots and without one main platform, 70+ million people are scattered.

2. China did this same thing to the Falun Gong when they reached about 80 million members. They had to break up this group for fear they would be able to take on the CCP. They criminalized the Falun Gong and started rounding up those that "illegally" produced printed materials.

3. They want us divided & separated. They want us not to communicate or care anymore.

Falun Gong was a peaceful movement. It was a Chinese practice of martial arts and spiritual discipline that is centered on peace and self-improvement.

4. So why did the Chinese government viciously crack down on it? Because the FG opposed communism and they grew too large. The CCP had to stop it for fear of the movement taking over the gov.
The CCP created a propaganda campaign against this group. They called them a cult.

5. Please do not tell me Steve Bannon started this group bc he did not. They were around for decades before, but were banned and censored by the CCP. They support anti-communist like Bannon bc they were oppressed and punished so badly by their own country.

X : When is #mapcamp happening this year?
Me : Wed, Oct 13th.
X : What's the plan?
Me : Right now? Find some funding.

X : How much do you need?
Me : For a 1500 - 3000 person online event? Back of envelope calculation ... about £50k to make it happen. LEF has kindly sponsored it for the last few years but we now need to stand it up on its own two feet.

X : What does that mean?
Me : Like all events, it's a risk profile. So, today the chance of #mapcamp happening is 0%, as we raise some funds, identify costs and find ways of reducing costs etc then that chance increases to a point that we can say ... yep, we can do this.

X : What about ticket sales?
Me : Nothing can ever be guaranteed, so you have to position it to the point that if everything goes wrong the liability is acceptable. Ask me in a month then I'll have a better idea.

X : If it's all about cost, reducing liability etc ... why does anyone run an event?
Me : For the same reason we speak at events. We love the subject. If you didn't then you'd be mad.

I have always had a huge interest in the SSW and, like many of us, that stemmed from learning about family experiences. What follows is a thread on my great uncle’s service. Sadly he passed away when I was young but thankfully he wrote down some of his wartime experiences.

Lt Keith Best served in 2 Troop of 591 squadron attached to 9th Parachute Battalion. 2 Troop formed part of the force that was to be dropped on the heavy gun battery at Merville. Unfortunately, things did not go to plan…

“When we got across the Channel there was a lot of flak and our pilot seemed to be taking evasive action…We began to get thrown about inside and then the red and a green lights came on in what seemed to be unusually quick succession and we were bundled out of the door…

As I found out later, instead of finding the drop zone near Varaville, the RAF put us down well east of the River Dives and ten or fifteen miles off target on higher ground near the village of St Pierre-Azzif. There was nothing I could do about getting to Merville on time.

A map showing the considerable distance between Saint-Pierre Azif (top right) and Merville.

Genes are to Evolution, Memes are to Culture, Dicenes are to General Intelligences.

Open-ended generative processes like evolution and human culture have a thing that is replicated and propagated by the process. For evolution, these are known as genes. For culture, these are known as memes.

It became obvious to me that there isn't an equivalent for individual brains. Is there something that is equivalent to this in general intelligent systems or biological brains?

I have come up with a term that describes these. The word I've invented is 'dicene'. This word is inspired by C.S. Peirce's dicent sign or dicisign. It is the combination then of dicent and gene, and thus dicene.

But why dicene over so many other possibilities like schemes, themes, intuitions, patterns, schemas, embeddings, attention, habits, explanations, ideas, meanings, representations, concepts, analogies, and lekta?

Yesterday #AdamSmith said things work pretty well when people have perfect liberty to choose a trade and where to practice it? In this half of the chapter he specifies the ways people aren’t at perfect liberty, and whose fault it is. (I.x.c.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And (spoiler) it's government policy’s fault! They restrain competition in some places, increase it in others, and obstruct free movement of labor. (I.x.c.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Many government restraints on competition are “as foolish as can well be imagined.” Like how coachmakers can’t make the wheels for coaches, but wheelmakers can make coaches. (I.x.c.9) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Lots of the rules he objects to have to do with apprenticeships, which may be one reason he’s not a fan of apprenticeship in general. (I.x.c.11) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Your labor belongs to you. It’s unjust for anyone to interfere with your sacred right to work. That doesn’t mean they have to hire you, just that it is a violation if a guild or government forbids someone from working. (I.x.c.12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

After going through over 500 CVs over the last few days, I thought I might share some observations for those seeking an entry-level position at an international NGO like @hrw.

Of course, what I’m about to say doesn’t apply for all job openings everywhere. But for entry-level posts at a fairly big NGO, I think these thoughts will hold.

The main takeaway is that some people sell themselves on their CVs much better than others, even when they have the same or similar qualifications as others.

As usual, I was overwhelmed with the quality of the people applying. Most had one, more often two, masters degrees, two or three solid internships, if not actual jobs, and minimum 2 languages. Usually 3. Some 5.

As normal with an entry-level post, many applicants had similar qualifications: degrees in international relations or journalism/communications. Internships were generally at similar places: EU institutions & NGOs. Languages also generally English & French & one other EU language

Good afternoon, followers of frivolous performative litigation.

New filing in Orly Tatiz's bonkers attempt to halt the 2nd Impeachment trial. It's a gloriously burning train wreck of mangled formatting and hideous typography.

Let's dig

For those who may have forgotten, this is the case we saw last week - the one where Orly took the 12(b)(6) game to the next level by LITERALLY forgetting to include actual claims in her complaint.

So technically it's still unclear what she's suing over.

And, frankly, it's not like I can talk about the merits of this one because there aren't any. But the sheer stunning insanity of the formatting alone makes this worth a thread.

Even though, honestly, it's not the worst Orly has produced.

For context, the text below comes from the State of Hawaii's 2012 response to a motion for reconsideration in one of the birther cases.

"an inartfully collated, defectively stapled, and misordered collection of pages" is still one of my favorite descriptions of a filing ever.

Just to start with, apparently we're putting the caption on both sides of the (incomplete) line now. Single spaced on one side, double spaced on the other, no less. With everything but the judge's name in caps.

Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "IT IS NOTHING NEW AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

There is a lesson of history that the Jewish People, and the State of Israel need to understand and it is a lesson that our Sages understood and about which they gave warnings.
1)

This is a lesson that will determine whether Israel will survive or fail, prosper of wither away, and unless there are changes, history will record a failure.
2)

Our Sages 2000 years or so ago, remarked that the Temple was destroyed because of “needless hatred”. Of couse more was destroyed than a building. Jerusalem was destroyed.
3)

The forests of Israel were burnt, leaving bare hills that eroded when winter rains came, leaving rocks exposed everywhere. The population was reduced, between those starved, and those murdered, and those taken as slaves, to almost nothing,...
4)

leaving the land empty for the most part for 2000 years and Jews who lived outside Eretz Yisrael, a majority of our people actually, were so demoralized that most, 3/4ths, ended up as Christians within 300 years.
5)

1) Several big, controversial things coming together in the House of Representatives this week.

The House is expected to vote mid-week to fine members who decline to pass through metal detectors en route to the House floor.

2) The House erected the mags after the 1/6 riot. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) was later refused entry to the House chamber by US Capitol Police after he attempted to bring a gun onto the floor, setting off the mags.

3) Republicans argue that the mags are unconstitutional and interfere with their right to go to the floor, via the “Speech or Debate” clause of the Constitution. It prohibits lawmakers from being arrested or detained when conducting official business.

4) But the Constitution also allows both the House and Senate to craft their own rules.

Also, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is to meet “this week” with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

5) Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) may try to advance his measure to expel Greene from the House. Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote. Only five House members have ever been expelled. The last was the late Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH) in 2002.

Army investigates psyops officer for role in Washington on day of Capitol riot | US Capitol breach | The Guardian

Rainey, 30, is assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, according to Maj Daniel Lessard, a spokesman for 1st Special

1. D*eep State Threats:

D*eep State threat Security audits have been completed over the past 36-48 hours.

Military helicopters were flying over Los Angeles and southward to Laguna Niguel and Dana Point, in southern CA, sniffing out D*eep State radiological, bioweapon...

THREAD

1. Dear Primary, Secondary, Further ed and Higher ed colleagues,

Many of you may have experienced working with our youngest children- but as the "foundation stage" the work that happens in these early years will be of great importance to you....

2. Right now whichever phase we work in- whether it is a baby room or a university- it is fair to say that we are all working flat out to do the very best for those we work with. But in this thread I wanted to share with you some of the mess that our sector finds itself in...

3. Firstly- whilst most schools and educational establishments are closed to most students, and whilst we battle with Zoom, teams, google classroom and as lateral flow testing starts to be rolled out- the picture in the sector working with our youngest children is very different.

4. This is the first real piece of mainstream media attention we have seen.
*Cases are rising.
*Staff are not on immunisation plan
*No lateral flow testing on site.
...and if they close to protect staff/children- they may never

5. Now imagaine within your own sector- imagine if you were told there would be a new statutory test coming into force from September 2021. A test that would take you away from your pupils before you've got to know them. A test that won't be for your benefit- or even theirs.

It's odd that 2020 is almost over and I've not seen one person the whole year go viral for using astrology to predict how shit a year it would be this time last year.

Not one post from november or december last year going "the stars say pandemic, lockdown, unemployment, your parents will die." Etc

It's been a whole year. One person would have gone viral for having a post this time last december saying their astrologer predicted basically *any* part of this year

At the same time: remember the sheer joy of thinking he was dying? Billions of people eagerly urging that to materialize? Wishing all the negative energy you could possibly want on one man?

Kinda disproves that whole thing, huh.

2020: the year woo failed, entirely.

Not even preppers got out of it. They were the first people to start proudly coughing in each other's mouths to own the libs upon their fantasized biological disaster finally occurring.

Criminalisation of drug use results in the mass incarceration of people who use drugs. Illicit drug offences represent the second most common offence for custodial sentences in Australia.

Beating the drug epidemic is going to take a holistic approach.There is no one-fit all solution to the scourge of drugs it has to be a combination of education, good parenting,mental health services, better rehab facilities in our regions & prisons & getting tough on dealers.

Harm minimisation programs such as pill testing and safe injecting rooms & needle exchange programs won't solve the drug epidemic but they do save lives, they do make the community safer & they minimise the harm to the drug user, their families & the community.

Once a drug addict arrived at my prison the damage has already been done to the addict, to the families of the addict and to the community.

We don't need issues like this to become a political point scoring debates. Whilst our politicians continue to ignore that harm minimisation programs work young people continue to die from bad pills at music events and from dirty needles.