1/14 As a rabbi, the moment something significant, if not historic occurs, there is pressure to weigh in, put out a statement or write a post. The luxury of time to process, think, study, consider and consult is gone. In the absence of commenting immediately people draw their own

2/14 conclusions and assumptions about what you believe. So while I wish I had time, here it goes:

3/14 What happened yesterday needs no nuance and should take no time to comment on. The attack on our Capitol and on our Democracy, both the symbolism of it and more importantly the physical attack, was horrific, reprehensible, indefensible and intolerable. It was categorically

4/14 different from other rioting and looting that has been happening and to compare or make equal is an insult to those who were threatened and to all who hold that building and space sacred. All those who participated must be brought to justice. Guilt and accountability lie not

1/14 As a rabbi, the moment something significant, if not historic occurs, there is pressure to weigh in, put out a statement or write a post. The luxury of time to process, think, study, consider and consult is gone. In the absence of commenting immediately people draw their own

Pete Buttigieg testifies today on his nomination to run the Dept. of Transportation.

I spent almost a year covering Buttigieg. He refused to speak with me, so I’m going to thread some of the things senators could ask him about today.

In 2011, Jiha’d Vasquez, 16, was found dead, hanged, on a utility tower.

In 2012, Buttigieg became mayor and Jiha’d’s mother asked him for help with the case. Common Council records show Buttigieg was at the meetings where she spoke about her son.

Jones and a local NAACP official wanted help because her son’s death had been ruled a suicide…with no autopsy and no investigation.

Items were missing from his backpack.

Jones told reporter @jharrell6468 that she asked Buttigieg to help get the case re-opened. She says he gave her his card and told her to call.

But when she did, she never got through to him, and no one ever returned her

When we looked into it in 2019, the county coroner told me it would be “prudent” to reopen the case. And also told us the file on the case was missing.

Buttigieg never responded to Jones or to our questions about the case. It remains closed

Hey, Happy New Year's Eve, I want to talk about the federal workforce 1/

Let's say in theory that a prominent retired military leader recently suggested that you could "pink slip 50% of the [defense civilian] workforce = 4x gain in productivity."

This is in no way unique, and is totally acceptable political rhetoric by public leaders.

Bashing the federal workforce as lazy, slow, pointless, non-responsive, intransigent, or even subversive is common, even successful, political commentary on a bipartisan basis.

There are many interesting things about this to me, but I'll start with an aside: do you imagine that a congressman could remark, to applause, that we should remove half the soldiers in the Army in order to experience a massive increase in military readiness? Probably not.

But back to your basic bureaucrat. I'm fascinated by understanding the origin of America's derision for the average federal worker. Because to start, it doesn't match with federal worker's view of themselves.

A mini history re: AZ Senate Seat Politics:
McCain was an AZ Senator for 31 yrs over 5 terms.
In 2015 he was primary challenged by Dr. Kelli Ward, an AZ State Senator and tea party fav.
In a surprisingly brutal primary, where McCain poured HUGE 💰 into, he won. (Did he?🤔)

I just wish I knew what an online harm actually was

Funny to see the online harms bill positioned as a blow against big tech when it will give them the power to make sweeping decisions on enforcement while simultaneously making it much harder for smaller competitors

Rule of politics: displays of strength are often signs of weakness. Online harms delegates many aspects of justice to tech companies. It's effectively an admission that the state can't do the work itself

This might be only practical way to proceed, given the scale of the challenge. But as the tech companies are going to be writing their own rules, then enforcing them, it embeds the existing way of doing things to an astonishing degree

The duty of care idea comes from health and safety, but I think the best analogy is financial market regulation pre-2008. It's trying to answer the question: how do we protect people* without interrupting the existing way of working?

*Defined as: keeping stories out of the news

Personal submission to @ScotGovJustice Consultation now available on @UmbrellaLane website

Full response - https://t.co/WCB4Y3qNrN

A thread of main arguments to save anyone having to read through what became a second thesis 🙄 on these important issues 1/8

#NotEqualNotSafe

sweeping definition of all prostitution as inherently violence renders invisible actual acts of abuse in the sex industry; continues an ineffective& dangerous reliance on criminal justice approaches that fosters unsafe working practices&deters victims to seek redress 2/8

The push to criminalise clients is a misplaced moralistic agenda put forward at the expense of a much needed social justice &public health approach in policy & services that centres the varied needs of people this consultation states intention to support 3/8

The focus within Equally Safe strategy on ‘reducing demand’ fails to address root causes& factors that exacerbate the vulnerabilities of women&girls 2violence, which extend beyond the narrow focus on eliminating prostitution as a means to achieve gender equality in #Scotland 4/8

A platform of social justice – rights, redistribution, respect, inclusion and recognition – extending from decriminalisation as a VITAL first step, has the potential to avoid the trap of a coercive welfarist approach as set out in current policy 5/8