1/ There's an environmental metaphor for what's happening right now, explained to me by arborist Sir Tim Smit.

It's called 'death flowering' and it happens when an old tree is diseased and rotting from the inside.

Suddenly, that dying tree will burst, even out of season, into

2/ excessive flowering and fruiting. Or it will suffer from 'epicormic growth' of messy buds and branches on its trunk elsewhere.

The diseased tree is throwing up flowers and fruits as a desperate last attempt to breed and continue itself

3/ the 'death flowering' tree might briefly look healthy and impressive, but it's core is rotten and all the colour and growth burns up the last strength the tree actually has.

It can take years, but the tree is doomed and the death flowering is because it knows it

4/ Trump, Cruz and the GOP in the US and other 'strongmen' attempts around the world - they are death flowers

White supremacists - death flowers

INCEL misogynists - death flowers

The chaotic growth, bursting energy with no direction, the urgency against losing entitlements,

5/ they are dying and know it, deep down. This isn't their world anymore.

Epicormic growth isn't sustainable. It's desperation.

But, here's the kicker. You can't wait for a death flowering tree to just fall. Foresters will get their axe when they spot them,

Vault has landed what always seemed to be impossible: a whole-of-government cloud deal with an Australian Government.

With Ex ASIO Boss on the board as a director with Jane Halton as Chair.

We are being databased, and profiled.

https://t.co/xi4U7U94AU https://t.co/wAMeMstvpH

2018: Vault announced the largest single cloud services arrangement sold into the Federal government. It
coincided with the hugely controversial announcement that Microsoft’s Azure had been given ‘Protected’ status by the Australian Signals

The Microsoft Police State: Mass Surveillance, Facial Recognition, and the Azure

Here is the kicker.

Microsoft’s Azure had been given ‘Protected’ status by the Australian Signals Directorate.

Palentir is funding the Australian Signals Directorate.

Israel-linked CIA-funded Palantir goes public, making espionage

1. Sun. 10 Jan. Simon Parkes Update: https://t.co/8bLsoBcbB2
•Source close to decision making team said “This is not a drill.”
•We expected the announcement next Wed, not last night.

How does HM Government spending take place? A Thread:

HM Government spending begins in Parliament via various annual legislative mechanisms: Supply and Appropriation Bills (Main Estimates) and Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Bills.

As per the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866, S.15 para.2, HM Treasury places a request, known as a requisition, with the Comptroller and Auditor General, who first scruntinises and then grants HM Treasury a ‘credit’ on the 'Exchequer Account' at the Bank of England.

The grant of credit is not a balance of money, but a ledger balance that shows how much money will be made *available* for HM Treasury to spend, according to the requirements of government departments and in accordance with parliamentary Supply and Appropriation Acts.

In theory a government department could draw down its Exchequer credit on an annual basis, as it does not require a money balance to be put immediately at its disposal. Typically, however, government departments draw down their Exchequer credit on a monthly basis.

Operation Rickety Donkey Cart, is well on it’s way to getting us to herd immunity by 2025.

We have to normalize the belief that government, run effectively, makes our lives better.

We have to acknowledge, at long last, Reaganism was poison. And Trumpism is its pure form.

We used to be a great country that did great things like putting men on the moon.

Now we are a silly country that can’t organize itself to distribute a vital medicine with a year’s warning.

We can do it again, but not until we make belief that governance is good again.

This is what did it. This was the beginning of the accelerating decline in our stature I’ve been watching my whole life. I mean, the monsters are *still proud* of this line. They feature it on their website.

Can you imagine that was an applause line for a political party? People who actually wanted to govern?

We need to get these clowns away from the levers of power for good. They always make this self-fulfilling prophecy, and now the cost is in hundreds of thousands of lives lost.

Why is anyone surprised that when clowns like these are in charge they can’t find their ass with two hands and a map?

Normalize the belief that thoughtful and effective governance is good and necessary.

No, Pelosi can’t just magically refuse to seat seditious republicans. Courts would overrule it, and she’d look toothless. There are NEVER any magic wands in politics, on either side. Stop listening to pundits who promote simplistic magic wand solutions as if they were real.

“But the 14th Amendment...” No. Amendments aren’t magic wands that can just be waved. The courts don’t interpret something a certain way just because you think they should. A childlike simplistic notion doesn’t become a realistic strategy just because it’s gone viral on Twitter.

Now if you want to push the 14th Amendment narrative as a way of educating the average American that the GOP committed sedition, go for it. But that’s not the same thing as expecting a magic wand solution to actually happen, or bashing Democrats for not waving a magic wand.

Why do so many liberal pundits push these kinds of childlike magic wand solutions as if they were real? Because they’d rather pander to you and go viral, than educate and empower you. Your job is to recognize when you’re being bullshitted with simplistic magic wand fantasies.

It gets even sicker when these same liberal pundits turn around and bash the Democratic Party for not having the “guts” to carry out the magic wand fantasies that the pundits have invented. They dishonestly turn you against your own party leaders, just so they can go viral.

Thread Thu Dec 31, 2020
Leviticus 23
Solar Total Eclipse
Lunar Total Eclipse / BLOOD MOON
Shemittah Year 5780-5781

What happened in the year 2020?
#Coronavirus
#TheGreatAwakeningWorldwide
#Arrests
#DeathPenalties
#Elections
#DeepStateExposed
@realDonaldTrump
@DanScavino

A hearing in the case of one of the Capitol rioters accused of assault is about to begin.

Some background via @Matt_Naham: "'Mateo Q' Accused of Attacking National Guardsmen at Capitol. His Tweets Are Exactly What You Would Expect."

Live-tweet ahead.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Reona J. Daly asks the defendant's consent to participate in today's hearing remotely.

The defendant, Mathew Capsel, agrees.

Judge Daly asks whether Capsel is asking the court to appoint counsel for him.

"Yes, ma'am."

She reviews his financial affidavit, and she agrees to his public defender.

The prosecutor asks for detention, saying that he's a danger to the community and a flight risk.

They will proceed on that motion.

Prosecutor said that Capsel had a suicide attempt over marital issues.

"There's violence in this defendant's history, as a juvenile and as an adult."

He alleges that he has a history of trespass as well, before the Capitol insurrection.

@AlexandraChalup "As MAGA World’s hopes for an election redo have slipped away, an equally improbable idea has begun to percolate among Donald Trump’s most bitterly disappointed followers: secession." 12/21/20 h/t @AlexandraChalup 1/

2/"Texas GOP chair Allen West floated the idea of a new union of 'law-abiding states,' and Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann—previously best known for dressing up as “gay Hitler”—pledged to file a bill in Austin to put the question of Texas secession to voters."

"Rep. Randy Weber also posted pro-secession material on his Facebook page, becoming the first official in Washington to advocate for disintegrating the U.S. Trump’s most reliable media supporters have likewise spread the idea nationally." 3/

"Rush Limbaugh, recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this month claimed the country was suddenly 'trending toward secession.'" 4/

"Actual secession in the U.S. remains, for the moment, something outside the realm of feasibility." 5/

32 of the past 36 years, before TRUMP, BUSH/CLINTON was in top 3 Positions in US Federal Government:
Some back story first:
Prescott Bush backs Nixon - Nixon becomes President Nixon appoints George HW Bush as Ambassador to UN, then in 1973 Chairman of RNC, George HW Bush urges

That first $1,200 check was obviously based on gross income from US federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr, for 40 hours a week, for a month: $1,160

What is this $600 amount based on?

The first was "fuck it, give em a month of minimum wage income. No, I don't give a fuck if it's $4 higher in their state."

So: $600. 2 40-hour weeks at $7.25 is $580.

Which is close enough that it *could* be what this number was based on

"Here's 2 weeks of minimum wage income for free, ya fucking plebes" does seem fully believable.

But, it doesn't seem as convincing. Deliberate gesture of cruelty, yes. But they'd try to gussy it up somehow.

Thread: Meaning and loss in American conservatism

I've written a lot about how Christian supremacism (expressed and implicit) is the underlying objective of most Trump supporters but the psychology of American conservatism is very important in its descent into madness.

We're seeing it manifested heavily in the present moment as Trump and his followers are forced to contemplate the loss of the presidency but it's important to realize that losing is the psychic core of the U.S. right.

Trump's repugnant demeanor and prior history of political moderation is what made him so reviled by conservative activists and donors in 2015 but his angry victim complex so deeply resonated with the GOP base that this is why he won the primary.

American conservatism has been obsessed with death and loss since it emerged in the 1940s. The utter humiliation of Herbert Hoover and the rapid growth of federal spending and regulation under FDR was an existential moment for the corporate barons who started the U.S. right.

The rise of explicitly atheist Marxist-Leninism was also immensely triggering of long-time fundamentalist fantasies of persecution and death before the return of Christ. Most Christians don't see John's Apocalypse as a literal text but fundamentalists do.

“Giving prosecutors more authority & leverage to punish those who are despised—white racist fascists, for example—will inevitably result in more poor nonwhite people being prosecuted.” White crime often leads to harsher punishment for Black & Brown

"Even hate crime legislation specifically intended to help prosecute crimes motivated by white supremacy & other forms of bigotry, can have a disparate negative impact on minority groups. In 2019 Black people (roughly 13% of population) were accused of nearly 24% of hate crimes."

"Half-century ago, the Mafia was seen as a pervasive, violent threat. Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO the most sweeping federal criminal law ever enacted. At the time, lawmakers weren’t talking about going after Black groups." Well?

Despite RICO passed in response to predominately white Mafia threats, Black people are now "disproportionately prosecuted under RICO In a 2012 study, approximately 86 percent of federal criminal prosecutions of gangs using the RICO statute have targeted racial minorities." Why?

"[T]he implicit racial biases of prosecutors" is what drives prosecutions of Black people under RICO. "They tend to only see a White gang as a “gang” when it is formally organized while far likelier to apply the label to an informal group of Black friends in a neighborhood."

I've been trying to put this into words for a while now:

I truly think Biden understands the presidency more than perhaps any President since JFK. He is very aware of this moment and his role.

At some point you should stop underestimating him.

Conservatives pretend Biden is senile while others categorize him as just a "Joe from Scranton". Both are very wrong.

Yes, he's got a regular guy persona. But he also lapses into quoting Irish poets, Lincoln, and St. Augustine at the drop of a hat. He's not shy about it.

He's incredibly in-tune with the American Ethos: he knows the role of the Presidency, in both a practical and inspirational role. His idea of the presidency is fundamentally as a transformative role. I've seen nothing to suggest the contrary.

He gets it. He freakin' gets it.

The bar is so low after Trump that a half-assed attempt would clear it easily and look miraculous in comparison.

Nah. Joe's gunning for the record. At some point you have to stop complaining he's complacent when he puts a 1.9T package as priority #1 and signs 30 EOs in 3 days.

I don't think enough has been written about the transformative impact a successful Biden term could actually bring. We're going from an administration who honestly didn't even try to one staffed by experts and experienced veterans.

People will notice the effects.

I'm on the Kevin Clinesmith hearing conference call. Sentencing for falsely editing a CIA email that confirmed Page was a CIA source in order to get a FISA renewal.

#Clinesmith I'm hoping @carterwpage gets to reveal a few things in his statement!

#ButNothingsHappening

Delusional. And no way to run a country. Far higher barriers to trade with the EU from Friday. And still subject to EU influence on our laws. To deny this is also to deny the ability to tackle the problems we will face.

We ended up with particularly high level playing field conditions in the EU deal because the UK didn't take the subject seriously. We got a worse deal on fish than anyone thought possible, and got nothing in return. All because of cakeism. Or patriotism as they call it.

Now we face higher trade barriers to our nearest market, which means our businesses need to be even more competitive to overcome them and succeed. Is that acknowledged?

Our neighbours, the EU, use all manner of pressures to keep neighbours in line in terms of trade. That financial services equivalence, pity if you didn't get that. Data equivalence, have 6 months free if you don't change your laws while we make you sweat...

Northern Ireland, as we repeat endlessly, Johnson cakeism of no checks? Somehow no longer mentioned after the EU got what they wanted. See also, fish, level playing field. EU priorities, EU won. Johnson cake, all gone, not eaten.