BC GOVERNMENT
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

2020 has been a devastating year. We could all do with some good news.

Here are some of @CrisisGroup’s 10 reasons for hope in 2021.

 1. Vaccines. Several vaccines developed in record time have already been approved against #COVID19.

Their roll-out gives good reasons to believe 2021 will see a dramatic turnaround of the pandemic.
2. Return to diplomacy. After 4 years of the Trump era’s erosion of multilateralism and tensions among the P5, the Biden administration could help restore U.S. engagement in multilateral conflict resolution efforts and at the Security Council

https://t.co/gKvY9NNabr
3. Climate. The U.S. is likely to rejoin the Paris Agreement and lead a renewed charge to fight climate change and its destructive consequences.

See @CrisisGroup’s research on the complex relationship between conflict and climate ☟
https://t.co/NIIoQztPK1
4. In Afghanistan, ongoing peace talks could lead to meaningful progress.

There are many obstacles on the road ahead, but the current negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban represent the country’s best shot at peace in a generation.

https://t.co/WVh6NfZE7W
5. The African Continental Free Trade Area.

Trading began in the new continent-wide single market on 1 January 2021 and offers important long term prospects for reducing conflict in Africa.
6. A decline in gang violence in El Salvador.

The murder rate has fallen spectacularly, giving citizens hope that 2021 heralds an end to the long-running cycle of violence. The lull is thought to be the result of secret talks between gang leaders and populist president Bukele.
7. Diplomacy U.S.-Iran.

2020 brought the U.S.-Iran tensions close to boiling point but with a new administration in Washington, the two countries are in a position to restore compliance with the nuclear deal and seek to de-escalate regional tensions.

https://t.co/b9Q5GWDV8t
8. A ceasefire in Libya.

An alignment of positive factors - a ceasefire, less belligerent regional actors, war fatigue - gives hope – albeit fragile – that the cycle of violence that began in 2011 might come to a close.
9. A major EU budget deal.

Despite the economic downturn brought by the pandemic, the EU closed 2 years of negotiations culminating in a 1.8 trillion budget confirming its commitments for global development, humanitarian relief, peacebuilding, and conflict prevention.
10. Our colleague Michael Kovrig, who is starting his third year in unjustified arbitrary detention in China, has received overwhelming support, including at the UN Security Council.

Our most pressing wish for 2021 is his release.

More from Government

SandeepParekh
SandeepParekh
@SandeepParekh
How does a government put a legislation on 'hold'? Is there any constitutional mechanism for the executive to 'pause' a validly passed legislation? Genuine Koshan.


So a committee of 'wise men/women' selected by the SC will stand in judgement over the law passed by


Here is the thing - a law can be stayed based on usual methods, it can be held unconstitutional based on violation of the Constitution. There is no shortcut to this based on the say so of even a large number of people, merely because they are loud.


Tomorrow can all the income tax payers also gather up at whichever maidan and ask for repealing the income tax law? It hurts us and we can protest quite loudly.

How can a law be stayed or over-turned based on the nuisance value of the protestors? It is anarchy to allow that.
ALL , GOVERNMENT
\U0001f465\U0001f3f3\ufe0f\u200d\U0001f308 John Urquhart\u267f\ufe0f\U0001f384 #HarmonyPartyUK
👥🏳️‍🌈 John Urquhart♿️🎄...
@TheDryhtscipe
1/ Happy #SocialistSunday - and welcome to the weekly #SocialistSundayMegaList!

Please sign & widely share my petition for an emergency UBI and alleviate pandemic poverty. https://t.co/dilMlYxCCG

The following list is 100% randomised.


2/ If you're included but don't want to be, feel free to let me know - ideally by DM, because I'm much more likely to actually see that. This thread gets a lot of notifications!

(Stats as ever will follow the list of names)

Megalist commences:

3/ @HarmonyPartyUK
@EastBerksLabGND
@tallulahportsmo
@Tish1931
@jackie32859121
@NorthernLefty
@margellais
@Cumbria4Corbyn
@IceManTiti1
@MaxRobertFinch
@rickwookie
@iloireadas
@tinakalinen
@VeeBrien
@bbqshirt
@realhippohollow
@ageof_jess
@Jennyfurfuls
@BDT_Services

4/ @Greyfalcon6
@Soc_Sciences
@Hello_2022
@wepaidinupayout
@keithjames351
@Giacie
@Bliadhnaichean
@Walshicus1
@koffeelover41
@electikk
@JOHNSTA05030416
@Ed_Forest
@suzyseeitall
@LittleV33244419
@Rhubarb00
@EmbitteredThe
@hftaman
@mellors_karen
@sabuniray
@amk262
@GloryBS

5/ @AggieRyan
@steveniskra
@sev_kudu
@dominicwatts1
@teodora_hansen
@Ms_Nichola
@NeilJamesPeter1
@tiffanyjewel10
@allmodcons79
@ptomandpaul
@sturitchie2010
@kellsley
@nickystar911
@MMaureen01
@King4ADay_UK
@edwebb98843090
@DBFole13
@lorraine_teuten
GOVERNMENT
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Christian Christensen
Christian Christensen
@ChrChristensen
1) This pic published in the Daily Mail showing debris left after terrorist attack on US Capitol seems relatively unremarkable. But a man in Sweden noticed something: the red scarf at the top with the name of the northern Swedish city of Skellefteå. Then it got interesting.


2) The man contacted his local paper, pointing out the fact that there was a scarf from a northern Swedish city of just 70,000 in the debris of the attack. The paper published the story, with the headline: "What's a Skellefteå scarf doing inside of Congress?"


3) It turns out that, in 2017, the scarf had been offered as a Christmas gift from the city of Skellefteå to people who had moved away from the area. They were told go to a website and order one. A total of 934 people did so, and had received the scarf.


4) Now, natl Swedish media picked up story, wondering if a Swede had participated in the terrorist attack in Washington. Doing a search, the paper Dagens Nyheter found pictures of the man who was wearing the scarf. The first showed him trying to force his way into the Capitol.


5) After breaking through the barriers, the scarf man was later seen toward the front of the mob, waiving an American flag, and no longer wearing his baseball hat...but an official police helmet and visor. Skellefteå scarf still on.
GOVERNMENT , CAPITOL ATTACK
Lawrence Glickman
Lawrence Glickman
@LarryGlickman
This is a good piece on fissures within the GOP but I think it mischaracterizes the Trump presidency as “populist” & repeats a story about how conservatives & the GOP expelled the far-right in the mid-1960s that is actually far more complicated. /1

I don’t think the sharp opposition between “hard-edge populism” & “conservative orthodoxy” holds. Many of the Trump administration’s achievements were boilerplate conservatism. Its own website trumpets things like “massive deregulation,” tax cuts, etc. /2

https://t.co/N97v85Bb79


The claim that Buckley and “key GOP politicians banded together to marginalize anti-Communist extremism and conspiracy-mongering” of the JBS has been widely repeated lately but the history is more complicated. /3


This tweet by @ThePlumLineGS citing a paper by @sam_rosenfeld and @daschloz on the "porous" boundary between conservatives, the GOP and the far-right is relevant in this context.


This is a separate point but I find it interesting that Gaetz, like Roy Moore did In his failed Senate campaign, disses McConnell. What are their actual policy differences? MM supported taking health care away from millions, a tax cut for the rich, conservative judges, etc. /5
GOVERNMENT
Laurie Voss
Laurie Voss
@seldo
It's Presidents Day in the US and once upon a time I read a biography of every single US president so I may as well make use of that useless knowledge. Here is a thread of the wildest tweet-sized fact I know about each president:

George Washington: lost nearly all of his teeth, had terrifying spring-loaded 18th century dentures that were in constant danger of jumping out of his mouth. He mumbled through all of his speeches because he was afraid of opening his mouth too wide.

John Adams: everybody but everybody thought he was a prudish, entitled, arrogant little jerk, including all of the other founders and especially his closest relatives and *extra specially* Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson: an asshole. Died completely broke after a lifetime of living on borrowed money way outside of his earnings. Tried to save things at the last moment by selling all his books to the state. Died the same day as Adams.

James Madison: wrote the constitution and the bill of rights. I don't care what you heard. His super power was giving his ideas of government to other people and making them think it was their idea, and letting them take credit. But he wrote nearly all of it.
GOVERNMENT

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foone
foone
@Foone
So there's a class of puzzles called "river crossing puzzles" which involve having to cross a river on a boat/bridge containing some set of individuals/items with restrictions on which ones can be on the boat/left on each shore, right?

and the most common subclass of these problems is the one where you have 3 items/animals to cross with.
This is alternatively called the "fox, goose, and bag of beans" or "wolf, goat, and cabbage" puzzle.

the idea is that your boat can only carry one item at a time, but if you leave the wolf/fox unattended with the goat/goose, the wolf/fox will eat the goat/goose.
and similarly, the goose/goat will eat the beans/cabbage if left alone

so you have to set up a set of actions that never leaves either side of the river in one of the lose-states.

the solution to this variant being:
1. take the goat/goose over
2. return empty
3. take the wolf/fox over
4. return with the goat/goose
5. take the cabbage/beans over
6. return empty
7. take the goat/goose over
GAMES
Coffee Sloth \u2615
Coffee Sloth ☕
@CaseyExplosion
*Heads-up that this thread will feature some extreme examples of homophobia and transphobia.*

Hey folks, have you ever wondered why trans people face constant accusations of fetishism, sexual predation and child abuse/grooming? Well, today let's talk about stochastic terrorism.

So, first we have to talk about what stochastic terrorism actually is. Remember when there was a conspiracy that there was a pedophile ring operating out of a pizza parlour basement, and a crazed gunman showed up? It's that sort of incitement that stochastic terrorism describes.

It's the demonisation or incitement against a group of people or individuals with the intent that other, unaffiliated parties will act upon it; it's the releasing doctored footage and a shooter show up at Planned Parenthood as a direct result of what he's been led to believe.

So with that in mind, let's talk about Russia's extreme anti-LGBT laws that banned the "promotion" of LGBT lifestyles to children. A move that specifically marked LGBT people as a threat to children, and resulted in neo-nazis meting out vigilante "justice" against gay men.


Groups such as this would lure unsuspecting gay men via dating sites, and brutalise and humiliate them on camera. They did so under the guise of combating child abusers, one group calling themselves "Occupy
SOCIETY
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Vibhu Vashisth \U0001f1ee\U0001f1f3
Vibhu Vashisth 🇮🇳...
@VIBHU_Tweet
VEDIC COSMOLOGY, also known as Hindu Cosmology, and cosmography are both interesting and inspiring. Today’s “modern” Vedic texts originated around 3,000 B.C.E. This is the oldest scientific and the oldest religious doctrine known to the human race.


Our current astronomy of the solar system and universe has its roots in Vedic knowledge. It only shows that man had advanced knowledge of astronomy way before our current civilization came into existence.
We are here to talk about the Vedic version of the planetary system,

starting at the top from the eternal planets to the temporary planetary system within innumerable universes in the material world.

Talking about “cosmic manifestation,” we need to incorporate both spiritual and material existence.


The spiritual realm of the planets is everlasting, and this will forever be beyond what the material universe can encapsulate. The spiritual realm belongs to the “super dimensional” or “anti-material” dimension. It means that it is beyond what we can perceive,


beyond time as a linear dimension, and the space of our vision and perception.

There are innumerable planets, all indestructible and forever lasting. That is what the Vedas say about the spiritual planets. Our concentration here is more towards the material side of things.
ALL
PC\U0001f30e\u262e
PC🌎☮
@pc_432
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel was previously CEO of bioMerieux in France from 07-10.

Alain Merieux, who owns bioMerieux, was instrumental in the creation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology P4 Lab.

The same people who helped create the virus, also helped to create the vaccines...


Moderna partnered with French Pasteur Institute in 2015 to develop mRNA vaccine technology.

Pasteur Institute partnered with the Wuhan P4 Laboratory in 2017 along with the Merieux Foundation to study emerging viruses...
https://t.co/yFsHwrNYaK
https://t.co/9M5lydBKhM


Nobel prize winning scientist Luc Montagnier asserts that Sars-Cov-2 is man-made and originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Montagnier did extensive work with the Pasteur Institute in France which was partnered with the Wuhan P4.

Merieux Foundation & the Chinese government have worked together since 1965, and partnered to study emerging pathogens in Africa in 2015.

Their research included "PATHOGENS CARRIED BY BATS" that provoke respiratory diseases.

🚨🚨🚨
https://t.co/gVwpT0ssqI
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Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
DODDA GANAPATHI, BENGALURU
#karnatakatemples

Dodda in Kannada means big. Sri Ganesha here is 18 ft tall in height and 16 ft wide. Dodda Ganesha is also known as Shakthi Ganapathi and Satya Ganapathi.

It is said that Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bengaluru, saw a rock here.


The rock had engravings of Ganesha. His sculptors cut the Ganesha murti from that single rock. Later, a shrine was built around the Ganesh murti.

It is believed that Dodda Ganapathi is the protector of Bengaluru. All auspicious events start by praying to Him.


Benne Alankara is the most famous festival here when about 100 kg of butter is coated over Ganapathi every four years and the rich prasad is offered to the worshippers.

Ganesha is also covered in cream colour and is decorated with golden laces and buttons
@GampaSD


The Dodda Ganapathi murti is believed to be still growing in size, especially towards right.

The weavers from old Bengaluru tie a coconut to their looms before starting work. When the work is completed, they break 100 coconuts here along with the one tied on the loom.
ALL