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(1) Here are the amendments to the All Tiers Regs to implement Lockdown 3
(2) Made at 4.30 pm today, laid before Parliament at 5.30 pm, published on https://t.co/ZtYk9EHWsF at 5.44 pm, come into force at 00.01 tomorrow, 6 Jan.
(3) As predicted they tweak the rules for Tier 4 and put the whole country into it - so just a mere 5 pages to do this
(4) So, some specific changes - on the restriction of movement, which prohibits leaving / being away from home without a reasonable excuse, the following circumstances which are deemed to be a reasonable excuse are deleted...
(5) recreation, visting a zoo etc is out
(2) Made at 4.30 pm today, laid before Parliament at 5.30 pm, published on https://t.co/ZtYk9EHWsF at 5.44 pm, come into force at 00.01 tomorrow, 6 Jan.
(3) As predicted they tweak the rules for Tier 4 and put the whole country into it - so just a mere 5 pages to do this
(4) So, some specific changes - on the restriction of movement, which prohibits leaving / being away from home without a reasonable excuse, the following circumstances which are deemed to be a reasonable excuse are deleted...
(5) recreation, visting a zoo etc is out
I want to call out this particular point in my larger tweetstorm, because it sorta maps onto a dumb talking point from the left: "The government can borrow and spend any amount we want. American *can't* have a Greek-style debt crisis, because we borrow in our own currency!"
My right-wing followers, of course, understand why this won't fly: America borrowing in dollars, and under US law rather than some neutral third country, is not a law of nature. People with money could easily decide it was too risky to make us dollar-denominated loans.
(Or at least, at any price we'd want to pay.)
What would make them decide this? The fastest way would be for America to borrow a metric crap ton of money, and then default or let inflation eat away the value of our loans so we're repaying pennies on the dollar in real terms.
And since the "America can't have Greek-style debt crisis" talking point is genreallly only uttered by people who are urgin gus to do exactly the sort of thing that make it more likely we'll have trouble borrowing money in dollars, this is just deeply, deeply silly.
I mean it would probably work for a while--as Adam Smith said, "There's a lot of ruin in a nation". I am prepared to concede that the natural stopping point of this binge might be quite a few years away. I only say there is some stopping point.
But American institutions are strong in significant part because we don't let politicians act like Donald Trump, particularly not when they get close to the white house. It's not a law of nature; it's something we're actively doing. If we stop doing it, we lose our immunity.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) January 8, 2021
My right-wing followers, of course, understand why this won't fly: America borrowing in dollars, and under US law rather than some neutral third country, is not a law of nature. People with money could easily decide it was too risky to make us dollar-denominated loans.
(Or at least, at any price we'd want to pay.)
What would make them decide this? The fastest way would be for America to borrow a metric crap ton of money, and then default or let inflation eat away the value of our loans so we're repaying pennies on the dollar in real terms.
And since the "America can't have Greek-style debt crisis" talking point is genreallly only uttered by people who are urgin gus to do exactly the sort of thing that make it more likely we'll have trouble borrowing money in dollars, this is just deeply, deeply silly.
I mean it would probably work for a while--as Adam Smith said, "There's a lot of ruin in a nation". I am prepared to concede that the natural stopping point of this binge might be quite a few years away. I only say there is some stopping point.
1/ The pink-hatted Capitol rioter known as #BullhornLady, who shouted detailed instruction to others as they invaded the building, is now among the FBI’s Most Wanted, but her identity is still not publicly known...
2/ Here are some additional images of #BullhornLady that we’ve pulled from various videos taken during the Jan. 6 insurrection:
3/ This video from outside the Capitol looks to be taken before she acquired the bullhorn. At around 1:50 in the clip, you can see her spryly climb up and into a recently shattered window.
https://t.co/gVt9FdVb80
4/ It’s possible that this early entry into the building is where she got the lay of the land that she would later use when shouting instructions to those inside the building.
5/ In this short clip, you can see a woman that appears to be #BullhornLady approaching the shattered window on the left and being handed the bullhorn:
2/ Here are some additional images of #BullhornLady that we’ve pulled from various videos taken during the Jan. 6 insurrection:
3/ This video from outside the Capitol looks to be taken before she acquired the bullhorn. At around 1:50 in the clip, you can see her spryly climb up and into a recently shattered window.
https://t.co/gVt9FdVb80
4/ It’s possible that this early entry into the building is where she got the lay of the land that she would later use when shouting instructions to those inside the building.
5/ In this short clip, you can see a woman that appears to be #BullhornLady approaching the shattered window on the left and being handed the bullhorn:
The Hawley-Cruz faction & most House GOP are now "Bleeding Kansas" Republicans:
I've been thinking about Kansas 1854-59 for a while.
Let's be clear about what happens when political parties reject elections and democracy:
Violence & bloodshed.
Thread.
2/ The Compromise of 1850 & the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 undid the Missouri Compromise (see map), leaving the question of slave state/free state to voters in the territories, leading to local violence, disputed elections, & ultimately the Civil
3/ The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened what would become Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana to a territory-by-territory vote on slavery vs. freedom.
Pro-slavery Missourians moved west into Kansas to vote for the westward expansion of
4/ Soon after 1854, Kansas became a local preview and a microcosm of the coming Civil War. Violence, intimidation & murder preceded these slave v. free local elections, mostly from the pro-slavery side, and pro-slavery forces used fraud to win.
5/ Missouri organized pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" to cross into Kansas, use violence and vote illegally. One estimate is that they added 5,000 illegal votes to the pro-slavery side to swing the elections. Congress investigated and found massive vote fraud.
I've been thinking about Kansas 1854-59 for a while.
Let's be clear about what happens when political parties reject elections and democracy:
Violence & bloodshed.
Thread.
The die is cast for the Republican Party. It will be destroyed on January 6th in much the same way the Whig party was destroyed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The act unraveled the Missouri compromise and allowed for the westward expansion of slavery. 1/
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 3, 2021
2/ The Compromise of 1850 & the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 undid the Missouri Compromise (see map), leaving the question of slave state/free state to voters in the territories, leading to local violence, disputed elections, & ultimately the Civil
3/ The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened what would become Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana to a territory-by-territory vote on slavery vs. freedom.
Pro-slavery Missourians moved west into Kansas to vote for the westward expansion of
4/ Soon after 1854, Kansas became a local preview and a microcosm of the coming Civil War. Violence, intimidation & murder preceded these slave v. free local elections, mostly from the pro-slavery side, and pro-slavery forces used fraud to win.
5/ Missouri organized pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" to cross into Kansas, use violence and vote illegally. One estimate is that they added 5,000 illegal votes to the pro-slavery side to swing the elections. Congress investigated and found massive vote fraud.
Yesterday I spent time (&far too many tweets) trying to defend @Keir_Starmer 's position in a Guardian article which angered & disappointed many who, like me, are passionate pro-Europeans. I will try to explain why (thread)
Starmer is like me a lawyer, not a trade specialist but he obviously took advice. He is also a committed pro-European. As a lawyer when looking at the TCA, I saw all the predicted negatives but also enormous potential for a pro-EU government which results from the
institutional structure of the deal. The TCA sets up 19 specialised committees (including on Customs Cooperation, SPS, Technical Barriers to Trade) dominated by an all powerful 50/50 Partnership Council (PC) which takes binding decisions with immediate direct effect by agreement.
These decisions do not have to be published or not in full. This is undemocratic but typical of FTAs and efficient. In my view there is huge potential to take big decisions, far from the emotional tone of the Brexit drama, decisions which will be crouched in technocratic language
"Removing the red tape" " Customs Simplifications Procedure" (a lesser form of CU), "mobility", "improving access for services (a lesser form of FoM): little by little, step by step, the most negative effects of the TCA will be undone out of the glare of the tabloid press until
Have you read what he said in the Guardian? He has made it clear he accepts Johnson's awful hard Brexit deal as the permanent settlement of the European issue. There is understandable outrage from pro-Europeans. You seem oblivious to all this.
— Charlie Kennaugh #FBPE #GTTO (@c_kennaugh) December 30, 2020
Starmer is like me a lawyer, not a trade specialist but he obviously took advice. He is also a committed pro-European. As a lawyer when looking at the TCA, I saw all the predicted negatives but also enormous potential for a pro-EU government which results from the
institutional structure of the deal. The TCA sets up 19 specialised committees (including on Customs Cooperation, SPS, Technical Barriers to Trade) dominated by an all powerful 50/50 Partnership Council (PC) which takes binding decisions with immediate direct effect by agreement.
These decisions do not have to be published or not in full. This is undemocratic but typical of FTAs and efficient. In my view there is huge potential to take big decisions, far from the emotional tone of the Brexit drama, decisions which will be crouched in technocratic language
"Removing the red tape" " Customs Simplifications Procedure" (a lesser form of CU), "mobility", "improving access for services (a lesser form of FoM): little by little, step by step, the most negative effects of the TCA will be undone out of the glare of the tabloid press until
@GOP
@DNC
@KamalaHarris
@VP
@AOC
@LeaderMcConnell
So since President Joe Biden has campaigned on, and his message yesterday was, a message of
UNITY and HEALING,
let’s “unify”. Here’s THE point of departure: Let go of the vindictive desire to
@DNC
@KamalaHarris
@VP
@AOC
@LeaderMcConnell
So since President Joe Biden has campaigned on, and his message yesterday was, a message of
UNITY and HEALING,
let’s “unify”. Here’s THE point of departure: Let go of the vindictive desire to
\u201cGod is Love\u201d - The Apostle John@POTUS
— Michael L Bonic (@BonicMichael) January 21, 2021
A Note to President Joe Biden:
Should a Catholic President of a Christian nation running on a Message of Unity & Healing allow a vindictive Congress to impeach President Trump a 2nd time and alienate 70 million Americans?
Ans: No! https://t.co/VuVPeVv8zz
In fairness to Lance, the government has absolutely failed to modernise and upscale customs and border systems - and he is right to be outraged, but either way, he will still experience the full array of third country controls - all of which are a consequence of leaving the EEA.
But by the same token, the Brexit Party was at every point in the process demanding a walkout - which would have landed him with disruption worse than at present with tariffs that would have killed exports anyway.
At best, though, even if those "teething troubles" are resolved, food produce is still looking at an inspection rate of 20%, all at random, the the SPS paperwork, along with finding a responsible importer is a fixed feature of being outside the single market.
could and should have known this. It was in the Notices to Stakeholders. Moreover, he had the research facilities of the European Parliament at his disposal which he could have used for the benefit of his entire industry. So what was he doing with his time there?
None of what is happening at the border comes as any surprise to us because well in advance of the referendum we produced a plan, looking at the consequences of each option. The Brexit Party, despite its massive resources, elected not to do this kind of groundwork.
I am working on it, lobbying ministers. There is a failure here amongst officialdom not to be ready with certification from Jan 1. It should be been simple, seamless and inexpensive. It's not rocket science. Needs addressing urgently @michaelgove @BorisJohnson
— Lance Forman (@LanceForman) January 25, 2021
But by the same token, the Brexit Party was at every point in the process demanding a walkout - which would have landed him with disruption worse than at present with tariffs that would have killed exports anyway.
At best, though, even if those "teething troubles" are resolved, food produce is still looking at an inspection rate of 20%, all at random, the the SPS paperwork, along with finding a responsible importer is a fixed feature of being outside the single market.
could and should have known this. It was in the Notices to Stakeholders. Moreover, he had the research facilities of the European Parliament at his disposal which he could have used for the benefit of his entire industry. So what was he doing with his time there?
None of what is happening at the border comes as any surprise to us because well in advance of the referendum we produced a plan, looking at the consequences of each option. The Brexit Party, despite its massive resources, elected not to do this kind of groundwork.
