And now a livetweet thread of a legal conference in the case of C21-31-BJR, Parler LLC v. @awscloud.

Parler suggests "AWS just has to flip a switch and Parler gets turned back on. Parler has been their customer for 2.5 years."

"They've met and conferred over some user content that violates not only Parler's user requirements, but also Amazon's." Yes, they'll do that, whether you want them to or not.

"I'm not on social media" says Parler's lawyer. "If I use any terms and you don't understand them, I can explain them your honor." Just go full bro and call it "dumbing things down for you" dude.

They're now saying an "algorithm" can solve their moderation problems.

Spoiler: it can not.

You wanted it, you got it. The final 2020 QB STEW composite for Josh Allen. I will sit down and do all the NFL QBs soon.

#2 in CPOE
#3 in EPA/play
#5 in ANY/A
#3 in QBR
#4 in passer rating
#3 in DVOA
#5 in PFF grade

STEW score of 3.57. For reference, Wentz in 2017 was 4.71.

We will not be diminished in our faith by a culture of “thoughts and prayers.” We are a people praying for the courage and wisdom to act.

a blessing for when violence is done in the name of Jesus

Jesus we are furious.
we are trembling.
we are outraged,
that murderous acts of violence
are committed in Your Name.

Lord God, come and set things right,
starting right here, right now.

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.

the voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
psalm 29:4 KJV

God have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Spirit have mercy.

say unto God,
o how wonderful art thou in thy works,
through the greatness of thy power
shall thine enemies be found liars unto thee.
psalm 66:3 (1662 Coverdale)

blessed are we who say, God,
You saw it,
the banner of the holy name of Jesus
exploited and as good as trampled on,

even while it was being held high
over acts of blind fury and deadly violence--
the day that lawmaking stopped
and lawlessness and chaos broke through.

God, you saw the sparks that set all this in motion:

A few weeks ago @ClareCraigPath, @RealJoelSmalley and I wrote a short piece on endemic Covid, and what it might look like.

It seems particularly relevant to current

Consider the possibility that all our naso-pharynxes together make up a single ecosystem, in which only one predator can be completely dominant.

We are not saying that this has definitely happened with Covid - but it would explain the disappearance of flu this year.

Every winter, we see "excess deaths" in the sense that more (mainly elderly) people die in the winter than in the summer.

This is a worldwide phenomenon.

It is now thought that all or nearly all of the extra deaths in Winter are due to infection with winter respiratory viruses, mainly

However, we do not - and never have - extensively tested for the presence of such viruses in the critically ill elderly population, so we really have no idea how frequently infection is present, or in fact what its contribution to death is.

The abuse of Lincoln’s second Inaugural speech by GOP seditionists who are making bad faith calls for unity is appalling. Lincoln did indeed say with “Malice towards none and charity for all....”. He said it in the context of finishing the war which had killed 600,000. (1)

The preceding paragraph of the speech is important. It reads, “ Fondly do we hope - fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may pass speedily away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all of the wealth plied by the bondman’s 250 years of unrequited toil

Shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said “ the judgements of the lord are true and righteous altogether”. Lincoln was making clear that he would

Not yield in the prosecution of the war and the military destruction of the Southern insurrection. There would be charity after victory. That charity was offered without compromise or condition. It followed unconditional surrender. One month after Lincoln delivered this speech

he sat behind Jefferson Davis’s desk. He sat there as a conqueror. The south’s slave autocracy was destroyed. Lee would surrender within days. American democracy was poisoned by a “Big Lie” during November and December. 147 Memners of Congress embraced the lie and betrayed

Attacks on Lockdown sceptics – and me in particular – have ratcheted up recently, with one of the most aggressive critics being the Conservative MP @NeilDotObrien. I thought it was time to compose a reply.

On Monday he wrote a piece for @ConHome entitled "Trumpism in Britain. It’s time to call out those in the media who cynically feed the cranks, rioters and conspiracists".

10 years ago, Netflix spent $0 on original content.

This year:

Netflix: $11B
Apple: $6B
Disney: $1B
+ amazon, hulu HBO etc.
=
$20B+

Here's a crazy startup idea to take a swing at this $20B+ content piñata. 👇 Here's a quick business plan 🤔

The idea ---> @ycombinator for Content

Let's give it a made up name : Zeta Studios

It is a new accelerator model for getting shows & movies made.

= give engineer duos money ($120k), coaching, & give them 3 months to get ready for a Demo Day in front of a room of investors.

Zeta = give storytelling duos money ($120k), coaching, & 3 mo to get a sizzle reel ready for Demo Day w/ buyers from netflix, amazon etc.

Why now? ---> This wouldn't work 10 years ago.

Demand for content has skyrocketed, but supply has not kept up.

You have infinite niches (action, comedy, reality, etc)

I mean there's a f*cking hit show about cleaning your house!

People are CHUGGING content of every flavor.

Plus areas like india, indonesia, africa etc. now have 2B+ new internet users streaming video

There's no such thing as "too much content"

The same way YC is replacing university for the most ambitious engineers. Let's replace film school for the best creatives.

Something that I didn't realize but hurt my brain to learn:
John Norman (aka John Frederick Lange Jr.), of the Gor series of sci-fi/BDSM novels, is still alive.
He released two books (one of them a Gor book, #35), in 2019.

I guess with the fact that the series started in 1966 and feels like it's always a historical thing... I assumed he had to have quit writing and/or died back in like 1986.

Nope. Still alive, he's 89, and was apparently still writing as of 2 years ago.

also, my brain being what it is, I totally just googled for the book's cover image by entering "trans man of gor" which is NOT the title.

in my defense, how many book serieses look like this WITH THE SAMEAUTHOR FROM BOOK #1 to BOOK #35?

Anyway if you look at any this and think it's a suggestion that you should try reading any of these novels or learning anything about them, you are quite mistaken.

Gor is bad sci-fi and bad BDSM, and you should skip it for either reason.

For our story today on the Capitol Police, I went on a fascinating tour of our archives, full of bomb threats, assassination plots and forgotten causes. (Imagine a Congressman getting arrested today in a Capitol men's room on sodomy charges...) Here's a sampling: 1/

The 1st mention of the Capitol Police involved the certification of Lincoln's election in 1861. “A few weeks ago many freely predicted that the counting of the electoral votes would never be peacefully accomplished.” 2/



The Vice-President finally announced that Lincoln and Hamlin had been elected, calming fears of unrest. 3/

When it came time for the inauguration of Lincoln, the object of an assassination plot, the Capitol Police said they would “admit no strangers except ladies.” 4/

The Capitol Police were often mocked. After someone defaced the building with oil and “a large quantity of blue ink,” they were faulted for not being able to catch the person. The Times said, “The Lieutenant devotes his time to the sale of lemonade and cake in the dome.” 5/

Thread:

Leftists accused me of tin foil hattery for writing communists already took over America. Look what Washington Post published today:

New Demshevik Party narrative spread by their most loyal attack dog Washington Post: the GOP and the 75 million people who support Trump are potential terrorists, similar to the Lebanese terror organization Hizb'Allah.

For those who don't remember or were not born at the time, Hizb'Allah or Hezbollah perpetrated the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 200+ Marines. This act forced the US and UN to pull out their peace keeping forces and started the civil war that turned Lebanon into ruins.

By calling the GOP a terrorist organization, the communists running today Democratic Party are using the same old but proven tactic of communist/fascist demonization and de-humanization of their political enemies.

Portraying political enemies in the subservient media as a group of soulless terrorists and irreconcilable enemies capable of mass murdering innocent people is a tactic long used by totalitarian communist and fascist regimes...

(a thread)
My favorite tv show is Adventure Time. I am here to argue that if you look at the show from an angle of mental health and managing it, Finn and Jake are not the lead characters. Princess Bubblegum is. 1

The most compelling character on the show, to me anyway, is Lemongrab. He was created by PB, the first of the candy people she created to “go wrong”. Lemongrab has devastating anxiety. He doesn’t know and can’t learn how to interact with the world. 2

When he’s lonely, he sneaks into the castle to stare at people while they sleep. PB tries to teach him to cuddle and play with a candy person but he can only poke and slap. He screams, he calls things “unacceptable”, he sentences folks to the dungeon. 3

When given a castle of his own and a clone to keep him company, everything gets donked up. He and his clone make living messed-up people out of their food, they eat each other, it’s a horrifying place. 4

Lemongrab just CAN’T with other people. The more he tries, the more frustrating it gets, so the more he screams.
For the purpose of this thread, Lemongrab represents ANXIETY. 5

The current split we’re seeing in the Republican Party is not a sudden split of ‘consciousness’ or ‘doing what’s right’, but rather a split between two factions of their billionaire donors: Langone et al. vs. Mercers et al. 1/14

Policy-wise, these two groups agree on nearly everything, but there is a rift in strategy. One group funds & supports conspiracy theories, right-wing & white-supremacist extremist groups, etc.

They do so for two primary reasons: 2/14

First, people’s lives are in turmoil. Millions are food and housing insecure. Capitalist alienation & atomization is rampant. Our political system represents corporate interests & the 1% - leaving crumbs for everyone else. People are hurting. 3/14

Conspiracy theories & RW extremist groups speak to people’s pain, but rather than place blame where it belongs: capitalism, authoritarianism, racism, sexism etc. they deflect blame towards anything but the truth: immigrants, black & brown people, deep state, lizard people... 4/14

Billionaires support conspiracy theories because they keep people confused and angry at any boogeyman other than the TRUE cause of their pain & alienation: the very system that allows for Billionaires while peoples’ lives are falling apart. 5/14

NEW: A former US Marine, Donovan Crowl, stormed the Capitol as part of an organized militia. My latest for @newyorker, on what he reveals about the role of far-right groups last week and beyond:

Crowl, whose name and role in last week’s events are being reported for the first time in this story, is fifty years old and served in the Persian Gulf in 1990.

Crowl was wearing the crest of the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that recruits former and current law enforcement and military officials. He is also a member of a local Ohio militia that has shown up at political events, sometimes armed.

These are among a number of sometimes overlapping extremist groups that were present last week.

Far-right militias have deep roots in American history, and while several experts I spoke with said Trump had ignited those groups, they also did not believe their fervor would wane after Trump’s departure.

In my home, surrounded by my loved ones, I live my life “as a woman” for all intents and purposes.

When I step outside I join a community of diverse experiences and perspectives. It’s not a safe space. It’s not meant to be affirming. I am not a woman, and it matters. (Thread)

Though my family, my boyfriend and I make little reference to my being male, we are all aware of that fact. There is no deception, no games.

To make an effort to convince the world I am female is not the same thing. It is coercion. It is delusion. It is fundamentally wrong.

Stepping out and meeting the world as I am, a gender-nonconforming male, is brave. It’s scary. I know that what people think of me is what they think of ME.

Pretending to be a woman is not brave. Pretending there is no difference between men and women is not a victimless crime.

I love my brothers and sisters who struggle with gender dysphoria, however they choose to deal with it. It’s out of that love that I speak the truth, and ask them to do the same. We are beautiful and worthy as trans people not because we “change sex” but because we persevere.

The legacy we should leave future generations is that however you choose to live your life should be celebrated so long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. Not that we must feign becoming the opposite sex to be good enough, no matter who we hurt in the process.

🚨#Seditionist Audrey Ann Southard—#Florida singer & vocal coach—used her soprano at the #TrumpInsurrection to scream at cops that they should “tell f**king Pelosi we’re coming for her! F**king traitorous c**ts, we’re coming! We’re coming for all of

‼️Just prior to storming the Capitol, #Seditionist Southard posted a now-deleted live video to Facebook: “We’re standing in front of the Capitol building, ready to take it. It’s gonna be fun.”

Clear premeditation. ARREST HER NOW.🤬

@lauferlaw #TrumpInsurrection #Sedition

While pushing a wooden pole with an American flag against an officer’s torso, Southard yelled: “Bulls**t! They’re going to feel us!We’re pushing through. Boys, ready to go again?” she shouted before yelling at an officer, “last breath or last bullet, what’s it going to be?”🤬

#Seditionist James Christenson used @gofundme to raise $475 to pay for the trip for himself & Southard: “Republic Patriots” would “secure our Constitution & that of our founding Republic values...we the patriots of America have borne the cost to make our presence known.”🤬

After Pence did not overturn the election, Christenson said thousands of people crushed forward. “I saw one Marine veteran tell a cop, just take your hand off your gun, b/c if you pull it this is going to be a bloodbath. The cop took his hand off it & started moving aside.”🤬

Three hours and seventeen minutes.
If you have any doubt Donald Trump INTENDED for violent insurrectionists to attack the Capitol Wednesday, meditate on 3:17 instead.
That’s the time between the beginning of thesiege and the Trump's 4:17 ordering everyone to go home.
/1

Maybe you believe you can argue away Trump's rally words.
Maybe you’re like Mick Mulvaney, and you can still pretend to be “shocked” anybody took Trump literally.
But you can't argue away 3:17.
(I call bullshit “We didn’t know they’d take us literally," btw)
/2

Ask yourself: How did it take a President 3:17 to ask a group of his own followers to stop attacking the Capitol?
What does that say about HIM?
What does that say about his intentions?
/3

The deafening silence of that 3:17 minutes is all the evidence you need that Donald Trump intended to incite insurrection and violence against the United States. It should be an exhibit in the impeachment against him.
/4

The facts are these:
1. 1 pm, first rioters attempt a breech at the Capitol.
2. 1:30 pm, there are reports of lockdowns at many Federal Buildings, due to confirmed pipe bombs. That moment SHOULD HAVE BEEN enough to push the President to say to everyone “please go home.”
/5