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Pompeo is a perfect example of this thing that just baffles me. He owes America *everything.* His grandparents immigrated from dirt-poor regions of Italy at the turn of the C19th. He graduated *first in his class* at West Point.

 He has a law degree from Harvard. He was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. Went to DC and joined a blue-chip firm. Also made a fortune in private enterprise. America gave the grandson of dirt-poor immigrants the opportunity to do all of that.
He knows *damned well* what the Constitution says.

He's also seen enough of the world to know *damned well* how lucky he was to grow up in a country at peace, governed by that Constitution--and to know *damned well* what happens to a country in a civil war
--which is exactly the brink to which Trump has taken the United States, only recently the inarguable leader of the free world. We now have a GOP that thinks, "storming the capitol in an attempt to assassinate our elected leaders" is somewhere between "great" and "no biggie."
He knows *damned well* what the world thinks of us now, and how endangered we are because of it--and not just us, our generation, physically, but the idea of government of the people, by the people, for the people. It could, truly, perish from this earth-
because of this idiocy and sedition.

Why would Mike Pompeo want *any part* of that? What's the motivation? He already had a ton of money, earned legitimately, because America's a place where immigrants' grandkids can start their own companies and get really rich.
He's had all the professional accolades a man could want.

There's no secret he could be trying to protect from exposure that would be more shameful than what he's doing out in the open every day.
There's no Kompromat compromising enough to be worse for his image than being known to history as "the heat-seeking missile to Donald Trump's butt."
He *knows* it is wrong.
He *knows* Trump is dangerous.
He *knows* the lies Trump has told have now become murderous--and could well unleash unfathomable violence on the country that gave him everything. This is the country he wants to hand on to his kids?
He should have known from the beginning--and *he did.*
This is what he said when he was stumping for Rubio in Wichita in 2016:

"Trump would be an authoritarian President who ignored our Constitution.”
He expressed disgust--properly--about Trump’s boast that soldiers would commit war crimes on his orders.

Trump certainly made good on his "pro-war-criminal" promises. Pompeo *knows that is wrong.* Wrong to pardon war criminals, worse still to elevate them as heros.
Pompeo then: American soldiers “don’t swear an allegiance to President Trump or any other President. They take an oath to defend our Constitution, as Kansans, as conservatives, as Republicans, as Americans."
He hasn't even acknowledged Trump’s role in inciting the siege of the US Capitol, no less condemned it, no less immediately, publicly called, as a cabinet member, for Trump to be removed, no less resigned.
Why? What could make a man do that? Ambition? Does he think the only thing he hasn't yet achieved is ruling the whole country, and that after Trump dies, maybe he'll emerge as the top warlord and declare himself Emperor?
He can't, seriously, think that. He's too old and too fat to survive for a minute in anything but a pampered, First World liberal democracy. He's not going to last a day in the kind of world he's helping to usher in.
Inability to admit he made a mistake? Fear for his life? Does he think he'll be assassinated by some deranged Trump supporter?

I don't get it. America has been good to him. It was good to me, too.
It's the ingratitude that just makes no sense.

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I'll not leave Riddlersworld. But I'll redefine the notion of riddler. A riddler is a person who doesn't know about specific dates and even about dates in general such as the year things will happen. He only knows, in general, some of the events that will take place,... 1/*

a kind of general history, a plot. In this sense continuing in Riddlersworld goes through an approach of minimums, taking riddlers as what gives an outline of some of the events that could happen at an always unknown date. 2/*

Sure, riddlers intend to convey the idea that they do know the dates, or at least the year, but they don’t know them. 3/*


Take 2020 as an example. At this point of the year you can make so many ad hoc statements as you like, but guys, 2020 clearly meant year 2020. 2020 was the year of the visible "outcomes". 4/*


On November 4, 2019 Mr Pool suggested that outcome of action Plan B is what you have been waiting = price increase. It should have happened in November and December 2020, as Plan B ended on November 7, so the outcome should be those months. 5/*
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Vanessa Wills
Vanessa Wills
@vcwills
We need to stop imagining the Jan 6 fascists are purely "brainwashed," misguided, etc. Neither are they guided by white supremacy *only*.

They are largely a vanguard of principled petty bourgeois reactionaries who oppose democracy whether in its mass/working-class or liberal bourgeois form. They have allies in the most conservative and reactionary corners of the "big" bourgeoisie.

They see through a funhouse mirror the hypocrisy of liberal bourgeois democracy (no, the electoral college is not "sacred" 🙄). They also vehemently abhor the capacity of true democracy—socialism—to liberate oppressed, exploited workers upon whom their precarious fortunes depend.

To the extent liberal bourgeois democracy engages mass politics and gives even a highly attenuated and mostly suppressed voice to the working masses, that section of the petty bourgeoisie which turns to fascism regards liberal democracy as a betrayal. Only capital should speak.

The woman who died attacking the Capitol Building was a small business owner from San Diego. Yes, her head was full of conspiracist nonsense but she didn't just invent that lockdowns and worker protections might save lives but hurt her bottom line.
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Louisette Lanteigne \U0001f30e\u270c\ufe0f\u2696\ufe0f\u2665\ufe0f
Louisette Lanteigne 🌎✌...
@lulex
The public supports less policing and prisons but Harper invested in social discord.

Policing, Prison and construction were linked under the Harper Government.

Richard Bird was VP of Enbridge and he also served as a member of the Canada's Federal Minister of Finance's Advisory Committee on Financing and currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of the Alberta Investment Management

Richard Bird, a former VP of Enbridge is linked to Ecopatrol, missing money and a massive sex scandal in Colombia and Prison Schemes with bid rigging, corruption and collusion.

There was bid rigging corruption and collusion during Prime Minister Harper's term as they invested in private prisons across Canada. Read here. This mentions Bird Construction Inc. Richard Bird was VP of Enbridge Pipeline Inc.
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Aaron Hanlon
Aaron Hanlon
@AaronRHanlon
1) Dreaded thread on why I think the response to postcritique is so vitriolic. Short version: Because literary studies is a discipline in search of an application.

2) Before I go on, I'll say from the outset that many in lit studies explicitly reject the idea that the field *should* have an application. My opinion is that's fine if you want to do book clubs, but if you want an institution you can't ignore that difficult issue. But anyway...

3) The evidence by this point is overwhelming that when lit scholars talk about 'method' we're actually just talking about ourselves: 'ways of reading,' 'how we argue,' 'phenomenology of reading,' etc. etc.

4) David Kurnick nicely illustrates this phenomenon:


5) But none of this is method discussion. Talking about ourselves, how we approach our objects of study, our motives and objectives, our commitments, etc. would be the *beginning* of a method convo in every other discipline. In lit studies it's the *end*, or the whole convo!
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Lyman Stone \u77f3\u4f86\u6c11
Lyman Stone 石來民...
@lymanstoneky
the strange reality of strict calvinism is that it makes a mockery of God's claims to hate, abhort, or even be theoretically opposed to evil

the calvinist solution to the problem of evil, which I have *literally heard from the lips of a faithful well-catechized Presbyterian* is, "well, all that happens is God's will, and to do His will is to manifest goodness, and goodness gives God joy, so God must rejoice in evil"

The hypothetical I gave was, "Suppose that there was a city of Christians, and a bomber flew over the city, and the guy at the controls tripped and accidentally armed and dropped a bomb, and wiped out the city: is that God's will? What does God think of that?"

His answer in addition to the above cited the Flood, Soddom, and Nineveh.

Because we all know that God's response to the Flood was, "I REALLY liked that, it was AWESOME, it satisfied my will and purposes to obliterate my creation!"

Once you have drunk the "but muh sovrintee" Kool-Aid you cannot escape the argument that literally everything that happens is not just God's will in some philosophical sense, but His will in the sense of "things that bring him pleasure."
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One of the most important place for snake worship.
The murtis of Kartikeya and Narasimha are self-manifested.
There is an anthill which is opposite the shrine. Bhaktas pour milk on it as part of rituals.


Here Subramanya performed penance in the form of snake. He sought protection from Narsimha for Nagas from Sri Vishnu’s vehicle Garuda, known for his dislike towards serpents.
The Pushya Suddha Shasti is one of the biggest festivals here believed to be appearance day of Subramanya


It was in this region where Subramanya vanquished Ghatikasura, the demon. Hence called Ghati Subramanya.
Childless couples visit here to seek blessings for getting a child.
The installation of snake murtis near the shrine is believed to be an auspicious act.


The murti of Karthikeya with a seven headed cobra faces eastwards while Narasimha faces westwards.
To ensure that both are visible to bhaktas at the same time, a huge mirror is placed in the rear in the sanctum sanctorum.
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The Eye of Horus. 1/*


I believe that @ripple_crippler and @looP_rM311_7211 are the same person. I know, nobody believes that. 2/*

Today I want to prove that Mr Pool smile faces mean XRP and price increase. In Ripple_Crippler, previous to Mr Pool existence, smile faces were frequent. They were very similar to the ones Mr Pool posts. The eyes also were usually a couple of "x", in fact, XRP logo. 3/*


The smile XRP-eyed face also appears related to the Moon. XRP going to the Moon. 4/*


And smile XRP-eyed faces also appear related to Egypt. In particular, to the Eye of Horus. https://t.co/i4rRzuQ0gZ 5/*
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THE LESSER KNOWN MAHARANA OF MEWAR:RANA KUMBHA
Kumbalgarh Fort is one of most spectacular sites of India,atop a hill abt 3600ft above sea lvl in the https://t.co/LkjmzzBhE2's second largest wall is surrounding it.A fort wall second only to Great wall of China,still not so famous.


This longest wall of India stretches to almost 36Km and encompasses a few hills, many step wells and over 360 temples and palaces. Birth place of the Great Maharana Pratap, this fort is named after another Great Maharana of Mewar, who is not given his due in the History.


Builder of many architectural marvels like the Kumbhalgarh Fort, an erudite scholar, a patron of arts, music, culture & a great warrior was the Great Maharana Kumbha. Yet we don't know much about him. Let's get to know him a little.


Maharana Kumbha was the undefeated King of Mewar from 1433-1468CE.He never lost any battles &kept Mewar out of the reach of Islamic Invaders till the time he was alive. Born on Makar Sakranti to Maharana Mokal & Saubhagya Devi, Rana Kumbha was only 13 when he ascended the throne.


His father was killed by his own relatives in a political conspiracy. He was a powerful King about 8ft tall &charismatic personality,a hardcore Hindu Rajput who could shed his life for Hindu honour without thinking twice.He was an ardent skillful warrior who never lost a battle.
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1/ So here is a thread on how I turned $32,000 into $1.2m and back to pretty much zero (once taxes are paid).

Just note, I am not bitter or salty in any way at all, the last 2 years have been an amazing ride - travelled the world, been wealthy, been poor.

2/ Dec '16, my advertising agency folded, I had a little bit of money left and I put $32k into Bitcoin and Ether. As it started to go up I diversified into everything, Monero, Dash, this that, any crap - even Ripplecoin. Everything just kept going up.

3/ By March I think I had around $300k and $500k by the summer. I used to take 25% out but towards the end of the summer I got greedy and put it all back in and by December it was $1.2m.

4/ Thinking I was an absolute genius I decided to start a bunch of businesses. As silly as it sounds I had this goal of making $5m as I wanted to buy Bedford Town Football Club and get them in the league, and as Crypto was going up forever I needed 6 months.

5/ So:
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Yes - all of the above as a one-man army :)
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November is here, and that means a massive shift is coming. And by "massive" I am of course referring to the redefinition of the kilogram unit of mass that the world has been building up to for more than 100 years. Let me explain:


1/ I've had an unhealthy fascination with metrology (the study of measurement) ever since my 2nd year as a physics major when I took a class devoted to duplicating historic physics experiments, so please indulge me for going into heavy detail (get it?) about the kilogram.

2/ So what actually *defines* a unit of measurement? If you're American, you probably know a mile is 5280 feet and a foot is 12 inches and an inch is 2.54 centimeters etc. But where does this chain of definitions end? Is it turtles all the way down?

3/ It's actually not! For all units (even the imperial units used in America) the answers all end with the Système International (SI) unit definitions established and maintained for over 100 years by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIMP) in France.

4/ At the base of this tower are the SI base units. Just 7 SI base units define every other unit in existence. They are:

Kilogram, kg (mass)
Meter, m (distance)
Second, s (time)
Kelvin, K (temp)
Ampere, A (electric current)
Candela, cd (luminous intensity)
Mole, mol (quantity)
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