1/13
President Biden signed an executive order phasing out the federal govt's use of privatized prisons. It instructs the Justice dept. NOT to renew contracts with privately-operated prisons; a policy that was first implemented under Obama, then reversed in 2017 by Trump. #velshi

1/11
Last week General Motors announced plans to be carbon neutral in its global operations by 2040 & to offer only zero-emissions vehicles even by 2035. #velshi

2/11
I’ve had my share of things to say about GM's poor corporate responsibility & leadership for years but now, it seems, even GM sees the writing on the wall: the future is about cutting emissions, transitioning to electric vehicles or other zero-emissions technologies #velshi

3/11
America is less than 5% of the world’s population, but uses 20% of all the oil produced in the world every day. Gasoline for driving accounts for half of that. #velshi

4/11
General Motors has done the math. Getting to zero-emissions as quickly as it can is where GM can have the biggest positive environmental impact. With this announcement, we may witness an America where gas stations eventually become charging stations. #velshi

5/11
The upside to doing any of this is clean air, a healthier earth, stopping the warming of the earth, moderating the effects of hurricanes & floods & wildfires, all by transitioning away from an energy source that kills the planet to produce it & to burn it. #velshi

1/11
This week, over half the Republican Congress signed on to a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to invalidate millions of votes in 4 battleground states, despite having ZERO evidence of voter fraud. This is shocking but, sadly, not the least bit surprising. #velshi

2/11
Last night, the Supreme Court—including all 3 of Donald Trump’s appointees—rejected Texas’ case to overturn the election results. But one wonders whether it would have been more useful for the court to have heard it and then decided against it. #velshi

3/11
Trump’s tactics may not have worked in the ACTUAL courts, but a poll out this week indicated that 77% of Republicans believe there was fraud in this election. While most of that misinformation comes from Donald Trump himself—he’s the spark—the fuel is all around us. #velshi

4/11
Months ago, I warned that congressional candidates who hold dangerous fringe views could potentially get elected. They did, and I thought that was going to be our biggest problem moving forward: candidates whipping up conspiracies on the campaign trail. #velshi

5/11
I failed at the time to recognize that the dangers are far greater. Since Nov 3, elected members of the GOP and their constituents have pushed actual lies in favor of overturning the election and the will of the people who voted Biden in and Trump out. #velshi

1/11
The House of Reps approving $2000 relief checks rather than $600 dollars. That’s a big deal. $2000 checks could ease the pain just long enough for millions of Americans to remember this is the good our government can do in moments like these. #velshi

2/11
The bipartisan bill was met by Mitch McConnell at the front door of the senate with the words "The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends who don't need the help.” #velshi

3/11
The bipartisan bill for $2,000 checks was met by Mitch McConnell at the front door of the senate with the words, "The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends who don't need the help.” #velshi

4/11
What is, indeed, “rich” is Mitch McConnell - estimated to be around the 9th wealthiest person in congress - and who makes $193,000/yr, talking about people’s “rich friends”.
#velshi

5/11
If you add $2,000 to the $1,200 checks that went out in March, that’s $3200 over 9 months. $11.85/day. Nobody’s getting rich off of that. #velshi

1/13
I have watched every presidential inauguration that I can remember, since I was a little boy, and long before I ever imagined I would live in America. But I had never watched one the way I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden. #velshi

2/13
I’d never considered the details leading up to an inauguration. I watched this one like a nervous parent, making sure everything went as planned. #velshi

3/13
Thanks to the last four years, everything is different, now. Our demons are on full display, our Union is certifiably imperfect. Our nation is divided. #velshi

4/13
After a year that takes first place in our history for death, destruction, fear and injustice, normalcy is struggling to regain its place. One thing with which we will struggle in this new day for America is the death of shame. #velshi

5/13
In addition to the other norms the former president destroyed, he turned lying - deliberate, casual and often with the force of law - into an art form and, with that, contributed to the death of shame. #velshi

1/13
On the night of Thursday, May 28th, I was standing in front of a burning liquor store at the corner of E. Lake St. & Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis. 3 days had passed since the killing of George Floyd by police. #velshi

2/13
I had been at that intersection for 6 hours watching the frustration grow. For 90 seconds, I described the scene, in detail, to my colleague Brian Williams, who was anchoring in New York City. But I was concerned... #velshi

3/13
The impression one might get from watching a police station overcome & of buildings burning was that of riot, or that Minneapolis was burning. But it wasn’t & I wanted to emphasize that the majority of the protestors were peaceful & not participating in any violence. #velshi

4/13
So I took an extra 20 to clarify that. And that 20 seconds is the ONLY part of several days of my reporting that right wing media continues to circulate. #velshi

5/13
An inaccurate blending of the events of those days became a regular laugh line for Donald Trump, who repeatedly told rallygoers some version of this story. That 20 sec. clip of my reporting, without context, made it to the floor of Congress as part of a hearing. #velshi

I'm leery as fuck about Biden but Jesus at this point it's fucking stunning to have someone without an overt psychological pathology as the President.

Like it's fucking weird to have someone who can devise policy and explain that policy and petition congress to make that policy into law and not just screaming that he's going to magically make another country pay for the racist border wall designed to keep them out.

It's been as much a blessing as a curse that most of the time Trump has had no fucking idea how to implement policies.

Remember that shit he was doing with the Census? He fucked it up because he just declared something and left it to others to figure out how. It's not happening.

But then you had the times when Trump was like "Make the brown people stop" and he threw Stephen Miller at it and we end up with kids in cages and troops on the Mexican border with vague orders to maybe start shooting people.

It's been this constant farce of horrors.

The "trade war" with China, what the fuck was that?

Place tariffs and demand negotiation.

Wait, no, they implement their own tariffs. MORE TARIFFS THEN.

Shit they still aren't negotiating and now to keep the farmers from revolting we did a socialism shit fuck shit

1/13
I have watched every presidential inauguration that I can remember, since I was a little boy, and long before I ever imagined I would live in America. But I had never watched one the way I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden. #velshi

2/13
I’d never considered the details leading up to an inauguration. I watched this one like a nervous parent, making sure everything went as planned. #velshi

3/13
Thanks to the last four years, everything is different, now. Our demons are on full display, our Union is certifiably imperfect. Our nation is divided. #velshi

4/13
After a year that takes first place in our history for death, destruction, fear and injustice, normalcy is struggling to regain its place. One thing with which we will struggle in this new day for America is the death of shame. #velshi

5/13
In addition to the other norms the former president destroyed, he turned lying - deliberate, casual and often with the force of law - into an art form and, with that, contributed to the death of shame. #velshi

it is okay to criticize joe biden. we're going to need to do a lot of it in the next four years, so might as well get into practice.

he has always said a lot of stupid shit, and I suspect he will continue to do that. he's always been bad on lots of issues, and I suspect that will continue as well.

he is susceptible to pressure though. which is a reason to pressure him.

he's sort of going to end up as one of the greatest presidents ever or as a disaster at this point, given the nightmare hole he's got to crawl out of. so...hopefully people will point out when he's fucking up or we're all fucked.

Clyburne and Schumer have already said his 10k student debt plan is weak tea and he should do better. and they're right! hopefully he will listen and not be a dope.

.@MiekeEoyang will be the new deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, according to documents obtained by @KatieBoWill. https://t.co/c2F8GNQUIf

Check another position off the list of mid-level federal cyber jobs that we're waiting to see filled.

Biden cyber appointees so far:

▪️ Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Tech: Anne Neuberger

▪️ NSC Senior Director for Cyber: Michael Sulmeyer

▪️ Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy: Mieke Eoyang

Biden has also named a bunch of cyber-related or cyber-adjacent appointees below the cabinet level. See next few tweets.

▪️ NatSec Adviser: Jake Sullivan
▪️ Principal Deputy NatSec Adviser: Jon Finer
▪️ Homeland Sec Adviser: Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
▪️ Deputy HSA: Russ Travers

▪️ NSC Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia: Andrea Kendall-Taylor
▪️ NSC Senior Director for China: Laura Rosenberger
▪️ NSC Senior Director for Resilience and Response: Caitlin Durkovich
▪️ NSC Senior Director for Technology and National Security: Tarun Chhabra

And last but not least:

▪️ Office of Science and Technology Policy Director: Eric Lander