They shouldn't be.

The pattern is:
GOP in power - GOP dictates policy

Dems in power - GOP dictates policy

1/10 Today, 63 year ago, Prime Minister Indonesia, Mr. Djuanda, declared unilaterally the use of archipelagic baselines, for joining the outmost islands. The waters enclosed was then declared as internal waters (Deklarasi Djuanda 1957).

2/10 Most States protested the declaration as it was in breach of the law of the sea at that time. Such baselines also converted high seas within the Country into internal waters thus invited strong objection from maritime powers having strategic military interest.

3/10 Indonesia was not comfortable with the label of ‘breaker of international law”, and stood up for its defences by fighting for recognition in the UNCLOS making conferences. Indonesia was neither silent and nor keep it unresolved, but ready to talk and compromise.

4/10 A prominent international law scholar, Mochtar Kusumaatmadja,translated the declaration into a legal narrative,using the language of international law, thus understood by maritime lawyers. Then skillfull Diplomats i.a. Hasjim Djalal brought the texts to the diplomatic table.

5/10 Mochtar explained behind the unilateral Declaration: Indonesia has to ensure and safeguard its national and political unity as well as its territorial integrity, the very viability of Indonesia as a nation. He emphasized: seas shall connects instead of separate its islands

The U.S. national security and intelligence apparatus has said for years that climate change is the single greatest threat to the nation and world. While systems intrusion and hacking by foreign actors could potentially have replicated some of what happened in Texas, it didn't.

Climate change and failure to plan did that, along with incompetence, ineptitude, and sheer greed.

Not only was what happened in Texas the failure of governance and malfeasance, it was a complete failure of imagination, vision, and insight.

While some folks want to call it a "black swan event," the fact is what happened in Texas was not. Not only was it anticipated, it was predicted. The people in charge were told what the problems were, how to fix them and why. They were told what to expect if they didn't.

Not only was it a cyclical occurrence (the third time in just over 30 years), both the periodicity and severity are increasing and intensifying. Therefore, the choices for inaction paved the way for the occurrence. It was inevitable.

In this regard, conservative ideology, philosophy and fiscal beliefs are their own worse enemy. That's because conservatism's most natural response is at best to do nothing, at worst to resist. Therefore, the disaster was a multi-layered, time induced, mountain of self-sabotage.

Most recent T&T data now out, covers 4th - 10th Feb

LFD use continues to rise but more slowly than last week and T&T performance remains consistent.

And as ever we don't know about who isn't tested and who struggles to isolate.

🧵

https://t.co/lffa72M9YJ

The number of people being tested each week remains high at around 3m, but this is due to increasing use of rapid lateral flow devices as PCR test use falls.

The number of LFDs used has increased five-fold since the start of Jan, and 35% in the past two weeks (although noticeable slowdown this most recent week).

By contrast, PCR test use for people with symptoms fallen week on week for the past month (PHE positivity data due later).

LFDs are generally used by people without symptoms to find cases that might otherwise unknowingly transmit disease. Current use focuses in places like schools, health and care, some workplaces, and community testing sites run by local gov for people who can't work from home.

There's definite variation in their use across the country (but note chart isn't pop adjusted) and as mentioned last week, will need to keep close eye on how use varies, particularly among more vulnerable and deprived groups.

Need to mitigate any unintended harm, esp around jobs