NEW from next week’s issue of @newyorker: Luke Mogelson, who has been reporting on MAGA protesters for months, provides a firsthand account of the Capitol invasion.

After this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you,” Trump told the crowd. The people around me exchanged looks of astonishment and delight.

There was an eerie sense of inexorability, the throngs of Trump supporters advancing up the long lawn as if pulled by a current. Everyone seemed to understand what was about to happen.

The Charity Tax Group and @CFGtweets have submitted Budget representations to @hmtreasury calling for an improved tax system for #charities in the aftermath of Brexit and COVID #charitytax 1/ https://t.co/mCiCpSQj2g

Existing charity tax reliefs should be protected & tax compliance and administration simplified. Protecting existing business rates & VAT reliefs is crucial as is future-proofing tax systems and legislation #charitytax #budget2021 2/

COVID-related support measures, such as the #JobRetentionScheme, #ExpandedRetailDiscount & temporary #5percentVAT rate on hospitality, hotel & holiday accommodation and admissions have helped many charities * should continue where possible while lockdown restrictions continue 3/

We call on Government to review the structural distortions caused by the VAT system resulting in significant #irrecoverableVAT for #charities. We also call on the Government to protect VAT reliefs and exemptions in the aftermath of Brexit #charityvat /4

We call on the Government to protect #charity #businessrates relief in England (worth almost £2bn) following the recent “Fundamental Review”. Compliance measures are important but should be targeted and proportionate #budget2021 /5

When Jacob Rees Mogg threw dead fish into the Thames at WETminster, I thought, like most of you, he was making a point on behalf of the Fishing INDUSTRY.

It was only yesterday that we all learned he was acting on behalf of the FISH.

Fish happiness, not Brexit, was the goal!

In the year before #Brexit started -
(note: Brexit was not done, it's just begun)
- I worried about those most impacted.

My logic was while those wishing to remain would be most disappointed, they would also be most prepared.

#BrexitDeal would hurt its supporters.
Starting ☝️

Two reasons were anticipated.

1. Famously the economic consequences would hurt Leave voters the most (albeit no one expected the madness of combining #Brexit with #Covid19)

2. Sovereignty and independence would be reversed; we'd end up with less of both (as we have).

Number 3?

We didn't spend enough time on No.3. Few anticipated only 15 days of #Brexit would be needed.

Also a dilemma. It would have needed remainers to be listened to. Or leavers to question #Brexit.

3. What happens: A small leave group realise the con; disagree with Leave Mainstream?

No 3: And now
Mogg boasts of having fish back while:

* The fishing industry is in arms; screaming betrayal
* Some fisheries are already bankrupting
* Because fish we can't sell is rotting

Yet Jake's happy the fish are happy.
Almost as if ☝️ he had nothing to do with this

The coming year will see Biden Democrats walking slowly through a vast field of small businesses exhausted by the battle with the coronavirus, shooting any who can still move. Big Tech will hold a pillow over the faces of those who cry out too loudly.

The destruction of the independent American middle class is one of the highest policy goals of the hard Left. It is finally at hand, thanks to the coronavirus and its political aftershocks. A year ago, they could not have dreamed they would get such a perfect kill shot.

A true middle class has economic interests that run counter to command economics, confiscatory taxation, centralized power, and other features of socialism. It also has the numbers to protect those interests at the ballot box. Of COURSE the Left hates it and wants to subdue it.

Small business is the vital engine of middle class prosperity, and the specific enemy the Left hates the most. Small business owners - and their sharpest, most ambitious employees - place a high value on capitalist freedom and competitiveness. They know the value of a dollar.

The small business experience is defined by the atmosphere of competitiveness that statism and socialism are sworn to destroy. Local enterprises appear quickly in response to demand that cannot easily be seen by distant central planners. Entrepreneurship requires agility.

This is gonna be a long tweet. Be on the look out for the different parts.

PART ONE

@VRSVirginia- Whats the deal sis? Before I begin, let me make myself CRYSTAL F*CKING CLEAR: I’m on TEAM TRUTH as well as TEAM SURVIVOR. As I KNOW you are aware, survivors of physical......

#MakeAbleistsUncomfortable many of the concepts and values in your culture are permeated with ableism (and frequently other prejudices, esp racism). Ability, intelligence, hard work, productivity, beauty, charisma, leadership, participation (in activities, in society, etc),

independence, resilience, authority, communication, and so many more. I would say that MOST concepts in this culture are widely used in ableist ways.

So supporting disabled people isn't just a simple list of actions to do when we're around, of what the right terminology is, etc.

It's about examining the concepts, and especially what is portrayed as good/ideal and bad/something to overcome, that come up in your everyday life, and how they are used. Are they being used to prioritise some kinds of bodies and minds and social groups over others?

Are they being used to reinforce or to challenge ableist ideas and structures? Are they being used to maintain the status quo or to improve things? When you think of an intelligent person, are they more likely to be disabled or non-disabled? If the latter, are disabled people

more likely to be considered unintelligent? Does that perhaps mean that your concept of intelligence is too narrow, is unfair in some way? And does it result in you - and non-disabled society in general - devaluing the insights and minds of disabled people?

First Thread: Before Trump

So my Ph D treaties on Twitter, about how Trump split up the GOP. We start with history of course. And we go to the political era before Trump. To the origins.

No. Not Sarah Palin.

No. Not Newt Gingrich. The origins:

George Wallace, the last racist

So reality check to my younger Tweeps, some who do not know this. Up to the 1960s, it was the DEMOCRATIC party that was the racist party and the Republicans stood for equal rights. Yes that is true.

The South had 'Dixie-crats' who were KKK Nazis, Democrats who were openly racist

The last Racist to openly run for President to win some (Southern) states - was former Democrat - turned Independent, George Wallace.

Democrats threw the racists out of their party and embraced the minorities, with a passion. Today it seems impossible to imagine DEMs as racists

George Wallace ran as an Independent (the American Independent Party, does that sound MAGA to you?)

When George Wallace's runs ended, the racists had no party to call their own. They infiltrated the Republican party who tolerated them. THAT WAS A MISTAKE

We need to understand the roots to Maganutters. George Wallace & Dixie-Crat / American Independent Party racists were mostly from the South. Land owners, whites. Gun-lovers. Fake Christians (churches were strongly segregated, so WHITE Christians in South easily racists)

#MakeAbleistsUncomfortable if you think giving money to charities is more "legitimate" and "safe" than giving money directly to any of the many disabled people on here begging for our lives, for freedom from abuse, for needed mobility aids, etc, that's a problem.

And it is linked to the idea of fraudsters scamming the welfare system; that idea has created a deep association between disabled people desperately asking for help, and greedy fraudsters. It has deepened the already-extent idea of the "deserving" and the "undeserving", as well

as the idea that charities, organisations, the government, etc - in short, mostly non-disabled people - are qualified to decide who really deserves money and support, that they should be authorities over us and have the power to determine what we have access to and what we don't.

It's ok to support charities and organisations, so long as you've actually done your research (listening to what disabled people say about them) to ensure they're good. I'm not saying you have to give to people asking for money. I'm just saying that if you have some deeply held

conviction against giving money directly to people in need, just in case they're scamming you (which charities might also be doing, for the record), that's likely based in some ideas that have already been harmful to so many disabled people in so many ways.

State of play with NI CMO situation:

Nov 24 - BBC quote him as saying there were "some sizeable outbreaks associated with gyms"

Initially it was suggested this was a misquote until I managed to track down the video.

Myself and colleagues scoured social media and careerist media outlets for any reports of such outbreaks and could find none. We spoke with many private gyms who claimed to be unaware of any such outbreaks. My colleague emailed Dr McBride & was ignored so I decided to take over.

I emailed him on 4th Dec and 7 days later (11th) having received no response I emailed again informing him that failure to respond to my request for information, that should already be in the public domain would result in a FOI being submitted and the ICO being made aware.

That would be enough to get a response from his chief of staff a few short hours later. I was told my request would be responded to. I would email again on the 22/12, which went unanswered, then on the 7/1 informing them the next step was a FOI.

This again would get me a response almost immediately. His dept asked for more time to 'get the evidence'. I felt another 7 days was sufficient which takes us to today. They are aware that after 5pm today my communication with them will cease on the matter and a FOI will be made.

Trumpism is no more a thing than Justin Bieberism. It's a fad. 5 years ago there was no Trumpist majority in the GOP. What's enduring is the GOP formula of exploiting the racism/nationalism of rural/suburban Americans to provide political fuel for policies that benefit the rich.

That formula--populism in the service of corporatism--has been with us for ages, was reshaped for the modern age under Reagan and has driven both the widening economic and political divides in America ever since. It will long survive Trump.

Trump weaponized it-fanning the flames of social division so that he could do even morefor a smaller & smaller percentage of the population. The reality was, he has not be very good at it. While he has GOP support, his popularity in polls has lagged all other recent presidents.

At the same time, growing recognition of shifting demographics in the US and the advent of social media have created new opportunities for the most extreme members of the GOP coalition to unite, mobilize and increase their voice.

That isn't just bad for the US. It's a problem for the GOP, particularly in terms of national elections. (The GOP has won the popular vote only once in the past eight presidential elections. While they benefit from electoral college advantages, this is a terrible trend for them.)

It's been another torrid week at the border - inundated customs agents, goods stuck for days, companies buckling under the paperwork 1/ https://t.co/2A301guhB6 w/ @lizzzburden

Take Branimir Vuckovic, 45, who runs goods between the U.K. and EU. He spent this week stuck in Kent because he couldn't find a customs broker to do his Brexit paperwork. Even with traffic levels below normal, the system is being overwhelmed 2/

The government has admitted this problem itself. On a Q&A with businesses on Thursday, Heather Jones from the Border Delivery Group said: `We are starting to realize that customs agents’ capacity and capability is being extremely stretched' 3/ 🚨

Eddie Maybank, an independent customs broker, says he's been having a breakdown. He's forwarding inbound queries on to other agents in Dover, but they've told him to stop. `I’m inundated, and so is everyone else,' he said 4/

UK-Ireland trade has been badly affected, particularly food shipments. Stephen McAneney of Allied Fleet Services in NI said he saw consignments of potatoes, apples and cream being destroyed at ports because they lacked the right documents 5/

1) I have a theory on what’s happening in DC right now. Keep in mind, we’re in unprecedented times. To my knowledge, there has never been a time where foreign powers have infiltrated every level of government in the US, down to the State level.

Second Thread: The incurable SPD

Looking at the coming split of the GOP, next up is the era right up to Trump announcing his run in 2015. What happened in the decades right up to that moment. We get SPD, Sarah Palin's Disease. Alas, there is no cure

I like to joke that the GOP got infected by SPD Sarah Palin's Disease but many have pointed out that no, the GOP became sick well before Sarah. And the root cause is Newt Gingrich.

The first corruption of GOP as a politically viable party came via Newt

When the GOP came off its immense power era (2 terms of Reagan, record-national support, leading to rare 3rd term by one-term Daddy Bush) - then came suddenly the populist Bill Clinton - who stole the Republican thunder and stole the MIDDLE GROUND of politics

Newt Gingrich poisoned the GOP political minds that instead of contesting for the middle of the nation - the GOP should instead fight for the base. Poison the middle, enrage the base, and win that way.

Since Bill Clinton won in 1992, GOP has only once won 50% of the election

That once exception was 2004 - when W Bush got the benefit of the 9/11 terrorist attack good will. He was NOT a popular President. It was a sympathy vote. Apart from that, GOP has not gotten over 50% of popular vote once, since Newt Gingrich's mad political 'strategy'

Dunning-Kruger Effect 101

In a year when the markets have minted many new self-proclaimed geniuses, it is worth remembering the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

But what is the Dunning-Kruger Effect and how does it work?

Here's Dunning-Kruger Effect 101!

👇👇👇

1/ First, a few definitions.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a given task are prone to overestimate their ability at that task.

Put simply, humans are notoriously incapable of objective evaluation of their competency levels.

2/ The cognitive bias was first identified by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in a 1999 study.

Their paper, entitled Unskilled and Unaware of It, summarized, "People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains."

3/ The two men had studied the bizarre case of McArthur Wheeler, a 5'6" 270lb bank robber who was swiftly caught after robbing two banks in broad daylight.

He hadn't worn a mask.

Instead, he had put lemon juice on his face, believing it would make him invisible to cameras.

4/ Wheeler was aware that lemon juice was used as invisible ink, so (incorrectly) inferred that it could be used to make himself invisible to security cameras.

Even after he was caught, he was legitimately incredulous that his plan with the lemon juice hadn't worked.

I keep seeing people on here suggest that making fun of the neo-Nazis undermines an understanding of how dangerous they are. I disagree. I think ridiculing them is both good and necessary. A short thread:

First: ridiculing Nazis is a great American tradition:

Satire is a potent cultural weapon and has been utilized in a political context since ancient times. It serves several functions: in a scenario where it's used to skewer people in power, it's a way to speak truth to power.

In a context more like this, where it's used to ridicule a guy in a silly costume who demands organic food for his shaman diet, it serves a related but slightly different purpose. Everyone needs to understand how dangerous that guy is.

And his stated desire to assassinate members of Congress make that clear. But if you only understand that guy as emblematic of a visceral danger to both individuals and the republic, and only portray him as a grave threat, you run a different risk:

99% of young men lack proper guidance..

Want to live a badass life?

Then continue reading.

[ 7 Changes Young Men can make to Become Absolutely Unstoppable ]

<>

1 - NEVER CHASE WOMEN

Wanna know the #1 way to never get laid?

- Chase women.

You want women to come to YOU.

Become a high-value man and you will achieve this.

• Lift
• Read
• Make money
• Keep quiet while doing it

Most women have 20 different guys in their comments at all times..

“ Soooo beautiful 😻”

“ Let me take you outtt 👀”

“ Damnnnn 🔥❤️”

The thought of dating one of these guys makes women want to puke.

Work on yourself first.
The women will come... HA

2 - READ

Reading downloads information to your brain.

Doesn’t matter if it’s positive information or negative information.

Read something enough and it will become a part of your subconscious mind.

(My advice👇)

Pick 4-5 books and read them religiously.

Not once.
Not twice.
But a few times each year.

Taking action on a few books is far better than reading 100 books and not acting at all.

(A few of my favorites) 👇