BC GOVERNMENT
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

I’m not sure if the significance of the travelling at Christmas is well understood.

Kenney is thumbing his nose at Albertans.

This is no ordinary thumbing. He’s basically letting Albertans know that he and his MLAs will do as they please and there will be no consequences.

 This is when following policy is helpful.

In March 2020 when Dr. Hinshaw closed schools down, Kenney was furious. He couldn’t reverse the order without seriously damaging his credibility & revealing his true nature. So he did the next best thing. He gave himself absolute power.
And, since it was during a pandemic, barely anyone noticed.

The powers he bequeathed upon himself and his political party are only in effect when a Public Health Emergency is invoked. Kenney invoked a Public Health Emergency in late November 2020.
The CMOH no longer has free reign to order public health orders and she no longer reports to the Deputy Minister of Health. She reports directly to the Minister of Health, who is guided by the premier in his decision making.
The other change was the addition of absolute power for the premier and ministers of cabinet, to repeal, amend or create ANY legislation, whether it has anything to do with the emergency or not.
Kenney & all Cabinet Ministers can do whatever they want to change any & all laws governing Alberta. They don’t have to run it by opposition. They can fast track it through the legislature & reach royal assent in days for new legislation & mere hours for amendments or repeals.
I realize many believe I overreact and use incendiary language to get a rise out of readers. And I’m willing to admit, I have used embellishment sparingly to admonish con behaviour.

This is not one of those occasions.
Absolute power means there are no checks and balances. It means the people in power can do whatever they want and there is nothing we the public can do about it.
We can complain, yell and scream, try to use the courts, the Lieutenant Governor, appeal to the federal government, even attempt a physical protest.

There is nothing stopping Kenney and UCP from enacting, changing and removing any law, including human rights legislation.
They don’t even have to inform the public immediately. When they get around to it is now legal.
So when the premier & his cabinet of miscreants who blatantly flout the law, public health orders & common decency in general by jet setting off on vacation tell you there will be no consequences, Kenney’s informing the public that he’s a dictator & there’s nothing we can do.
That explains Rick Bell and JCCF complaining about this power when it was legislated and currently, when it’s being exercised. In their own twisted and ridiculous political theatre, Kenney has Rick Bell tell the public he’s in charge.
How many think Kenney’s goose is cooked? How many realize there is zero any citizen can do to seek justice for the extreme disrespect and the abundant contempt displayed by UCP cabinet and political aids over Christmas?
Why? Because Kenney invoked a Public Health Emergency in late November 2020. Activating his absolute power. An emergency that he created by refusing to permit public health measures to mitigate transmission of covid.
In other words, Kenney enabled his own power grab by refusing to do his job appropriately.

Kenney’s decisions are directly responsible for covid becoming pervasive throughout the province and over 1000 people dying thus far.
The payoff for him? Unlimited power to do what he wants with limited resistance until covid emergency in Alberta is called off.

With schedule of fall administration of vaccines for the general population, that gives Kenney a full year of unfettered power.
So what has he done? Approved coal strip mining, plans to give away parks, permitted anti mask protests to spread the virus. And thumbed his nose by showing up late to every news conference.

He just made himself king of Alberta & I’m sure he’s feeling smug, not worried.
When I said this government was fascist, I meant fascist.

Not rigid and authoritarian. Not somewhat like an autocracy. I meant fascist.

But people don’t want to acknowledge and accept that UCP is not a regular political party.
It’s less scary and easier to swallow if people continue to delude themselves with the belief that Kenney is incompetent or inept. He isn’t.

Strategically, he’s several steps ahead of the vast majority of the public.
He’s given himself unlimited power, controls the levers for life and death of Albertans, and can offer whatever excuse he wants as the reason why he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, however he wants. And all the public can do is get angry.
We can’t protest without severe health risks. We can’t hold Kenney or his MLAs accountable until there is an election. And we can’t prevent any deaths and illness.

We are being ruled, not governed.
Still think he’s an idiot? He’s playing the public like a guitar and he’s playing his favourite song.

This is how fascism works. It’s not like he’s going to blatantly announce that he’s installing a fascist regime. The public will eventually figure it out they have no power.
I’m asking you to figure it out now. Instead of 2 years from now when another fixed election is held. And shockingly UCP wins again.

Kenney is not an idiot. If you judge him using your standards, he seems like one. But he has his own agenda. And his own standards.
Did anyone come back early from vacation? I doubt it.

How about 14 days of quarantine? Anyone being asked to wait out their 14 days in isolation without pay? Highly doubtful.

Kenney didn’t just act weird on Friday.
He just told the whole damn country to fuck off. He will do what he wants and there’s nothing anyone but Trudeau can do about it.

So will Trudeau intervene with the Emergency Act. Nope. Not bad enough yet.

Now do you recognize it’s fascism?
@threadreaderapp please compile

More from Sunshiny AKA Cassandra

Sunshiny
Sunshiny
@sunnshiiny
This was exactly what I was about to write a thread warning about.

A change in leadership in the US at the executive level does not alter the Republican Senators and Congress representatives. A few of whom are implicated in January 6, 2020 insurrection.


There will be a strong urge to forget the danger and the corruption.

After a long period of extended fear, terror and daily assaults on political and social norms, many will want to forget and move forward.

But we cannot take our eyes off those out to dismantle democracy.

Those breathing a sigh of relief, tomorrow this all resumes again in the US. It’s only temporarily paused in the US and correspondingly in Canada.

The urge to move on is strong. Resist it. Celebrate victories and achievements, but DO NOT walk away and forget.

Canadian conservative politicians are tightly connected to many of the Republican traitors who attacked the Capitol Jan 6.

None of them are going to give up. They’ll regroup. They’ll reorganize.

In the mean time, we are all required to stay alert. There is much to do.

The far right has let their agenda be known. They want to end democracy in US and in Canada. That goal is not off the table.

They will continue to pursue this agenda.

Yesterday 12 National Guard members were removed from service.
GOVERNMENT
Sunshiny
Sunshiny
@sunnshiiny
To realize the extent of the treason committed on January 6, 2021, please watch this video.

https://t.co/FHmlTwkB5A

And then remember Canadian, especially Albertan, conservatives are moving in this direction and have been supportive of Trump’s cabal, since the beginning.

In fact many still are openly supportive of the far right even after January 6, 2021.

The violence in this video is disturbing. You’ll witness death chants, a scaffold with noose, a shooting and an officer suffering intense trauma from being crushed.

What is amazing to me are the videos of people relaxing in their hotels afterwards that are circulating on social media.

How mentally warped must you be to calmly sit down with drinks and bar snacks after attempting a violent coup?

And maybe that’s why Keean Bexte is rushing back to Canada. He was there. In full support of the initiative. Now he’s desperate to get to Canadian protection from American prison cells for supporting a violent coup in a foreign nation.

Bexte is a fugitive of sorts. His videos, rhetoric and behaviour choices are seriously in question. There is no doubt the FBI will want to confiscate his recordings. Extradition would make prosecution years away. Huawei’s extradition battle demonstrates that reality.
POLITICS
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Sunshiny AKA Cassandra
Sunshiny AKA Cassandra
@sunnshiiny
Part two. Explaining where the plutocracy’s beliefs and values of treating people like pawns to be sacrificed at a whim originates.

It’s fascism.

💥NOTE: These threads are meant to be consumed in entirety, not just the first tweet.


What is the common characteristic of all fascist regimes?

Social Darwinism.

Fascists believe they are the epitome of human evolution or divine creation. They often credit god with bestowing cream of the crop status on them alone. But it’s based on Social Darwinism.

For a myriad of reasons, fascists believe they and they alone are the chosen people. They have been given divine permission to exert dominion over the globe and it’s resources, which includes all other people. There is little anyone can do to sway that opinion.


Social Darwinism was used to justify colonialism and the brutal treatment of indigenous peoples and dispossession of their land. All to enrich the plutocratic elite. It also justifies how the wealthy view the poor/workers as chattel to control & command at whim to make profits.


Social Darwinism is the rationale for human bondage. It goes back several centuries. Whether it’s rule by the fittest or control of human breeding for the best profits is irrelevant. The belief that some humans are BETTER than others is central to fascism.
FASCISM
Sunshiny
Sunshiny
@sunnshiiny
Dr. Fauci is a renowned expert.

Here he communicates why the vaccination of as many people as possible as quickly is possible is required.

This completely debunks the conservatives rationale that lives


I’ll explain in more detail.

We now have two deadlier and more contagious variants of Covid circulating across the globe. The vaccines developed are less than 95% effective. It’s more like 50%, maybe less.

Some believe it’s hardly worth the effort to achieve 50% efficacy.

This is untrue. Viruses mutate quickly and effectively when transmitted from person to person. Becoming infected allows the virus to mutate. Eliminate transmission or widespread infection, and the virus’s ability to mutate into deadlier forms is eliminated.

While the vaccine may not prevent infection, it will boost human immunity that transmission is more difficult. Reduced amounts of covid transmission means less opportunity for the virus to mutate.

That’s how everything works.

The same applies to toddlers and teenagers. (No they aren’t viruses, this is an analogy).

The busier toddlers and teenagers are, the less likely they are to get into trouble. Which is why a good parent keeps their toddlers and teenagers active and engaged in supervised activity.
SOCIETY
Sunshiny AKA Cassandra
Sunshiny AKA Cassandra
@sunnshiiny
Still believe Calgary protests are peaceful?

Not so much!

Not since Calgary police began enforcing the public health edict for masks and for gatherings.


Pair this violent Calgary protest with this opinion piece.

Is it any wonder that “liberty” ideologues are rebelling against Public Health Measures after the premier gave them every indication their freedom was superior to everyone else’s right to

We have evidence that Kenney is instigating STOCHASTIC TERRORISM.

This is what Trump is currently using to effect a coup in the US.

Maybe a journalist can ask Kenney why he stoked the ire of far right immediately prior to ordering a lockdown?

https://t.co/Ypw27JKeE1


As Albertans, we are unfamiliar with the tactics used by fascists. Albertans are naive to subterfuge and sedition.

Stochastic terrorism is common in eastern European nations. Russia & Al Qaida use these tactics all the time, but with much more regularity, brutality & deaths.

Here’s an article from 2011. Spelling out the process of creating a “missile” or “lone wolf” by appealing to those individuals who are mentally unstable. Experts have known how stochastic terrorism works for well over a decade.

https://t.co/zo1vkIoSXC
SOCIETY

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Fabian Hinz
Fabian Hinz
@fab_hinz
Merry Christmas everyone! What better way to distract yourself these days than a long thread about the largely unnoticed establishment of a vast military production infrastructure in Myanmar!


While Myanmar has maintained some military production capabilities for along time, these have traditionally been rather limited. Only in the last two decades has this infrastructure been vastly expanded with the country now mustering at least 25 factories.

These facilities are surprisingly large and usually built in remote jungle areas of the country with on-site housing for workers. Maintained by the Directorate of Defence Industries, they are known by their Burmese acronym Ka Pa Sa and numbered.

Different sources were used for geolocation. A few sites have previously been discussed in the OSINT community. Some locations were mentioned in media reports involving land disputes, others were included in reports about Myanmar's national electricity grid.

This highly recommended article by Bertil Lintner also included several locations. So here we
GOVERNMENT
Geoffrey York
Geoffrey York
@geoffreyyork
South African science was crucial in helping UK discover its new variants; but then the UK govt claimed (wrongly) that the SA variant is more transmissible. No evidence to support this, according to @krisp_news

From the Times article: SA scientists "were the first to recognize the importance of a genetic change in the spike protein, something that allows the virus to attach more easily to human cells, making it more infectious than the original version."

The SA discovery was shared on Dec 4 over the WHO’s Covid-19 Evolution Working Group. “Our British colleagues were able to go back to their own databases and interrogate them as a result of the work we shared,” Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases specialist at Krisp, said.

More from the Times article by @janeflan: "While working on a much smaller budget than their British colleagues, the South African team, experienced with work on HIV, have the skills to decode the genome of viruses."

"They started work on samples of the Covid-19 virus soon after the first cases reached South Africa in March. In October they identified the first example that had changed significantly."
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PunisherPatriot
PunisherPatriot
@PunisherPatrio3
(Thread) Mid-2020 GITMO Update: Arrests, Indictments, & Executions


So before we get started, let us first understand that before Trump was POTUS GITMO (Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp) was a fraction of the size it now is. This can be clearly confirmed by the following visuals, identifying a significant amount of expansion...

for what is expected to be tens of thousands of new ex-elite prisoners. Well, those who are not executed via military tribunal at least. ow, if you are not aware of these indictments I am referring to, that makes perfect sense because they are still sealed and not yet...

Public knowledge. Please allow me to enlighten you. These equate to roughly 222,00 sealed indictments and pertain to the most disturbing and corrupt crimes against humanity. These range from human trafficking, organ trafficking...

child sex trafficking, slavery, treason, terrorism, fraud, misuse of AI, genocide, brainwashing, defamation, 5G endangerment, religious discrimination, misrepresentation, censorship, privacy infringement, and prevention of saving humanity from biotech endangerment.
GOVERNMENT
Martin Daubney
Martin Daubney
@MartinDaubney
THREAD: So @UKLabour think they can win back the red wall by "use of the union flag, veterans & dressing smartly?" Here's why this is ludicrous fantasy

1. You don't "use" the union flag & especially veterans. You believe in them, from the patriotic heart. Anything else is lies


2. How can Keir Starmer pretend to love the Union flag, when he knelt to BLM, who set fire to it at the Cenotaph? No way will patriots swallow this co-opting of the flag for votes

3. Labour MPs are secretly or even openly ashamed of our flag & history, esp Corbynistas


4. Labour want to win back working class voters? First, believe in Brexit. Except Starmer led Labour's #PeoplesVote movement to cancel Brexit & most Labour MPs are ardent Remainers, so there goes that one

5. Labour are so soaked in identity politics, their top brass believe the white working classes are "privileged" - even though WWC boys are the least likely to go to Uni & perform worst at school. Instead, they are fixated with minority projects, so get minority numbers of votes

6. Trans issues: huge majority of British people are not "transphobic" & want people to live happily. But they don't want trans women in women's toilets, jails, changing rooms or sports. That is a majority position. Crying "transphobe" doesn't help: it repels moderate voters
GOVERNMENT
Adam Briggs
Adam Briggs
@ADMBriggs
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
GOVERNMENT

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(1) Kushner is worth $324 million.
(2) Since 2016, Kushner has connived, with Saudi help, to force the Qataris (literally at a ship's gunpoint) to "loan" him $900 million.
(3) This is consistent with the Steele dossier.
(4) Kushner is unlikely to ever have to pay the "loan" back.


2/ So as you read about his tax practices, you should take from it that it's practices of this sort that ensure that he's able to extort money from foreign governments while Trump is POTUS without ever having to pay the money back. It also explains why he's in the Saudis' pocket.

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So, you’re a writer and you’re worried about writing outside your immediate experiences and identities.

Here is the thread of practical advice for you.

EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES. Why do you want to write this?

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And I understand this completely, not the least because I’ve felt the pull.

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It is incredibly easy for works looking to play saviour to become patronising or traffic in simplistic stereotypes that ultimately hurt the people they are looking to rescue.
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Noah Smith
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1/OK, I should really write another thread about university-centric regional development, because I think people often make some (very understandable) mistakes when thinking about this issue.

2/The biggest myth, I think, is that universities help regions by educating locals as undergraduates.

Skeptics of universities say: "But most of the people who graduate end up leaving."

3/In fact, most of what a university does for a regional economy is NOT about educating local kids.

Educating local kids is good for the nation, but doesn't help a region much.

The way a university helps a region is through

4/Undergraduates usually leave town after graduation.

But university RESEARCH pulls in OTHER smart people from other regions, and they stay there.

Here's a paper showing that this is the main way universities increase a region's human capital:

5/Research also pulls in business investment.

Companies want to partner with university labs, so they can commercialize the technologies the labs produce. So they invest in the labs, and sometimes they even put their offices in the town.
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\u0100\u1e0di \u015aloka
Āḍi Śloka...
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Knowledge & Bharat : Part V

The Curriculum of Vedic Education :
According to the Ancient Indian theory of education, the training of the mind & the process of thinking, are essential for the acquisition of knowledge.

#Thread


Vedic Education System delivered outstanding results.  These were an outcome of the context in which it functioned.  Understanding them is critical in the revival of such a system in modern times. 
The Shanthi Mantra spells out the context of the Vedic Education System.


It says:

ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

“Aum. May we both (the guru and disciples) together be protected. May we both be nourished and enriched. May we both bring our hands together and work

with great energy, strength and enthusiasm from the space of powerfulness. May our study and learning together illuminate both with a sharp, absolute light of higher intelligence. So be it.”

The students started the recitation of the Vedic hymns in early hours of morning.


The chanting of Mantras had been evolved into the form of a fine art. Special attention was paid to the correct pronunciation of words, Pada or even letters. The Vedic knowledge was imparted by the Guru or the teacher to the pupil through regulated and prescribed pronunciation,
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Anu Satheesh
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Beautiful story of Shri Krishna, Mata Rukmini & Satyabhama which teaches the importance of Bhakthi.
Devotion is important than anything.
#bhakthi
🕉
Satyabhama, royal princess was very proud of herself. Rukmini was very humble, her devotion was pure to Shri Krishna.


One day, Rishi Narada( Kalahapriya) arrived in Dwaraka and met Sathyabhama. In between the conversation he hinted that Krishna exhibits affection more to Rukmini than her. Worried Sathyabhama asked what can should be done to gain Krishna's undivided attention.
@SriramKannan77


Narada asked Satyabhama to make a vow, that she will hand over Krishna to him as a slave, if she cannot trade wealth equivalent to Krishna's weight. Narada thus convinces Sathyabhama that Krishna will admire her for sacrificing all her wealth for him.


Sathyabhama was sure that she have enough wealth to balance Krishna.

She went to Krishna and told about her vow to Narada. Krishna patiently listened to her and accepted the challenge. Satyabhama arranged to bring large scales to weigh and brought all her precious jewels.


Krishna patiently sat on one plate of the Scales (tula). Sathyabhama started piling up the gold, jewels on the other plate. She kept adding more and more wealth, but the pan with Krishna did not even budge. Even after keeping all her jewels the scale did not move a little
RELIGION