Now that @erinotoole has completed the defenestration of @DerekSloanCPC, it's time for him to come clean on his relations with Canada's NRA-style gun lobbies.
Is he still with them, as he proclaimed loudly during his leadership campaign?👇🏻

Here's Mr. O'Toole meeting with one of those groups, the Canadian Coalition for "Firearm Rights", less than a year ago:
1. He maintains he's the only person in the leadership race who's spoken against the Liberals' Bill

2. He says he'll repeal the Firearms Act and replace it with something drafted by gun owners, gun manufacturers, police and 'members of the public' (appointed by @CPC_HQ no doubt).
3. He promises to 'educate' Canadians who have no contact
with what he calls 'gun culture'...

...(an NRA term?).
4. He claims suburban voters are 'prone to Liberal lies and deception'.
5. He characterizes himself as a 'proud Blue Conservative' who's not in the 'mushy middle'.

Remember, the CCFR organization is the one that publicly endorses permits for 'concealed carry' of firearms to be widely available across Canada, claiming in its Policy 15-10 that concealed carry is 'a significant benefit to society' and...

WHAT THE FCUK IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
Well, here's a 1/13 thread about why #britain thinks it's powerful. We don't know if we're top-table or in the relegation zone #SmartPower.
A leader talks of his country's great past and its magic future. You believe him. Are you wise? 1/

You want your country to top every league table it can.
But maybe he's a charlatan who will take his country down, you’re sure of it.
The leader says he wants his country to be the world-beating number one nation.
Great, but one problem. The world we grew up in is over 2/

Imagine living at the same time after #Napoleon, the Kaiser, #Hitler, the fall of the #BerlinWall when the world order was overturned and a new way of life begun.

Well, that's now.

Every thirty years or so a battle is fought for the future... 3/

Once every 100 years everything changes. We had the Spanish century, the French century, the British century, the American century, now we face the Chinese century.

All were epic struggles and all needed a once-in-a-century bloodbath to separate the winners from the losers..4/

Every century a crisis arises not only to control the state but to change it and the way the world is run.
We're at the beginning of a new era in history.
A new battle for power is underway.
But what are the rules of the game, and how smart the leaders who play it? 5/

Now that the rug has been rolled up on Air Force One (literally) for the last time as Trump is in it…let’s talk about immigration. Biden-Harris administration plans to release proposed immigration legislation called the US Citizenship Act.

The transition team has released a fact sheet. Some key points described: 1) Replace “alien” with “noncitizen” in federal immigration laws.

2) It will include a legalization option for unauthorized migrants who were in the United States on January 1, 2021.

People deported on or after January 20, 2017 can apply for waiver of presence requirement if they had been in US for at least 3 years (based on family reunification or “other humanitarian” reason).

—> This legalization option is enormously significant. The vast majority will easily meet this residence requirement. Over 60% have been here for over 10 years, according to a 2018 report by @MigrationPolicy

For the new issue of @TheProspect, I sat with @RepMarieNewman, @RepCori, @RepBowman, and @RepMondaire to talk strategies/priorities for the next two years, how and where they plan to wield power. If you're into these left strategy debates, this is for you.

No two members of The Squad are the same—@AOC's approach is different than @IlhanMN's is different than @AyannaPressley's. The new squad, or the reinforcements, or whatever, will all bring their own quirks to governing different from how they campaigned.

The Democratic majority in the House is so small that these four alone could effectively decide whether things live or die. But with Pelosi's grip on the chamber they will have few opportunities to legislate. But they're also part of a newly empowered CPC.

Here's Marie Newman on the #ForcetheVote strategy, and what she makes of claims that progressives have abandoned their commitment to get Medicare for All done. There's a plan, she says, that doesn't suck.

Here's Cori Bush on her theory of the bully pulpit, and how she plans to use outside channels to get stuff done.

The UK misreporting data. A thread for Scots:

I remember working on a particular project. I'm a Business Analyst.

We were to produce reporting data to the executive on various statistics relating to the Banks contact centre.

1/14

UK Gov COVID Stats 👇
https://t.co/1pXGapctNH

How does this relate to the COVID stats you ask. Stick with it.

The bank call abandon rate was around 40%. So 40% of customer calls did not get answered on the customers first attempt to make contact.

So the bank employed agency staff to handle inbound calls.

2/14

The result was that call abandonment dropped to around 5%.

Fabulous said everyone until I pointed out the obvious.

The agency staff, with little experience of that bank and its products, were simply taking customer details and putting them in a call back queue.

3/14

A call bank queue that the banks' full-time staff would have to outbound call.

This meant that 35% of customers who called still did not have their enquiry dealt with and 5% who still didn't have their call answered at all.

So 'technically' STILL a 40% abandon rate.

4/14

Now the UK Gov have a COVID 19 vaccination strategy that claims to have vaccinated 3.2 million people of the 65 million people in the UK.

In fact, a two-step process means that these people will not be 'fully vaccinated' until they have a second injection.

5/14

The one "Insurrection" video you MUST see.

@NewYorker reporter @LukeMogelson
followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the Senate chamber.

Some quick thoughts... #Thread

1. Except for race, the crowd is incredibly diverse -- age, education, far-right subculture, region, even gender (although less so those inside the Capitol).

I do time's inbetween tweets, take the results, translate the time variations back to the boards. I'll explain and illustrate the best I can. This is gonna be a long one. We'll use the orthodox method, then I'll illustrate another re-read using "keys"?. Here we go!

Looking at 3rd Special Forces, these two. Both of these are Rt's. One done one the 13th at 10:04am. The next one is the same thing, diff time/org. A day before 12th, at 21:29.

So this is what the math looks like. Tools make it easier.
So 12 hours 35m is now drop 1235. Time variations as follows, 1258, 755, 453 (and 1235).

1235. Well just run across at face value. This lets you (the user) discern for themselves. I'll do my own interpertation (extra steps) after these face values.

1258 (23up from our previous) is this.

As the confirmation hearing for retired Gen. #LloydAustin gets underway, here's a roundup of what should be covered and what he will face as defense secretary.

"Does Austin still see himself as an apolitical actor removed from the politics of policymaking, or does he believe that accepting a Cabinet nomination places him squarely in the political realm?" -- @jblankshain

"At Austin’s hearing it will not be enough to accept the tired statements of ‘this is not who we are’ or that ‘the military has zero tolerance’ on issues of gender discrimination, but to pinpoint exactly how he proposes to bring real change to the military." -- @Jason_K_Dempsey

"What is your view on whether the power to decide who is prosecuted for what under the Uniform Code of Military Justice should be transferred from nonlawyer commanders to uniformed lawyers independent of the chain of command?" -- @globalmjreform

"The new SecDef will have to meaningfully re-center character as a requirement for military service: the need for all service members to work respectfully and effectively with their teammates regardless of race, gender, or religion." -- @suefulton

1/ Secretary of Defense nominee Lloyd Austin at Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing:

"Globally I understand that Asia must be the focus of our effort and I see China in particular as a pacing challenge for the Department"

2/ SecDef nominee Lloyd Austin on advance policy Qs

"Globally...most significant challenge I will face will be to ensure DOD's contd efforts to prepare & strengthen the US military for a dynamic, future security landscape driven by accelerating competitions w China & w Russia.."

3/ SecDef nominee Austin in written answers says strategic competition w/ China & Russia primary challenges but "because of its ascent and the scope and scale of its military modernization, China is the top priority"

4/ SecDef nominee Austin in written answers on his assessment of the military threat posed by China...

5/ SecDef nominee Austin on whether the NDS needs to be revised notes: "For example, the pace of China’s military modernization, its increasingly aggressive actions in the INDO-PACIFIC and its ability to threaten the US Homeland are concerning and must be continually reexamined"

For a long time in America, as capitalism has become hegemonic, there have been two kinds of capitalists: right-wing, or conservative capitalists, and left, or liberal capitalists.

Conservative and liberal capitalists suffer under two differing delusions: conservatives that capitalism is compatible with "tradition", the liberals that capitalism is compatible with democracy. Neither side suffers the opposing delusion.

Because right capitalists don't really believe in democracy they will throw it out at the slightest sign of anti-capitalist power. The only real difference between fascism and conservatism is the presence of an anti-capitalist threat.

(This is why Trump is not a fascist. No anti-capitalist threat! Allen Dulles and J. Edgar Hoover were fascist than Trump was. They had actual lefty threats to fight!)

Right capitalists also embrace things like family, tradition, culture, and nationalism, which they view as necessary to preserve society. And they think these things can be maintained under capitalism, that they are in some way necessary to preserving capitalism!

1/THREAD: NEW DoD SECURITY CLEARANCE REFORM WILL HELP THOUSANDS

In little known move, on 1/14, then Acting USDIS @EzraACohen issued ground breaking memo to significantly reform @DeptofDefense #securityclearance program & enhance individual due process & increase transparency.

2/Many ppl have been working for decades to effect these changes & with one swoop of pen, it is FINALLY now official policy. I cannot speak highly enough of what was accomplished & it needs to be known.

3/Memo follows through on what President Eisenhower started 60 years ago w/Executive Order 10865, still in effect today, what President Clinton created w/EO 12968 in 1995, & what SECDEF Bob Gates ordered in 2011. DoD must now consolidate, centralize & unify all existing

4/admin processes at every component, incl DoD IC agencies (DIA, NSA, NRO, etc) for unfavorable #securityclearance eligibility determinations (denial/revocation) into single process handled by Defense Office of Hearings & Appeals (DOHA), which has been hearing cases for decades.

5/Memo extends due process protections & grants authority to DOHA to hear not only defense contractor cases but also all @DeptofDefense civilians and military members, and importantly all Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) appeals, which it previously could not do.

WHAT IF... Q was designed by bad actors to whip up support for 3 years, for the sole purpose of developing a mass "cult following" of people who loyally follow the themes, catch phrases and direction of Q? Why would they do that?

You. Yes you. You are the target of a massive disinformation campaign.
Corrupt, evil powers of the world do bad and nasty things. And their tactic is to then flood the world with tons of fake news. They don't have a good way to spin it, so they drown the truth. /thread

These evil powers will try to delegitimize journalists who report the truth. Journalists will be attacked, arrested, sometimes killed.
Journalists and investigators are on the front lines of this information war. And they're our only hope for finding the truth.

Inoculate yourself from this by recognizing where disinformation comes from and don't trust those sources.
And try not to be so outraged, fear driven, or believe everything you read or see. This knocks you off balance and distracts you.

Stay focused. Stay centered. It's not going to get better from here. Evil powers recognize how powerful this is and are using it more than ever. It's going to be harder to spot the truth. But don't give up. Don't let them win.

Even the good guys. Even your side does stuff like this. They do bad stuff, and then try to erase that, distancing themselves from it and not owning it. It's also important to hold your own side accountable for the bad things they do.