At least 1,090 have been arrested at protests around Russia against @navalny's jailing

One of the protesters in Moscow. Looks familiar somehow...

.@navalny protesters are young & angry. Riot police not in a good mood either

13 arrested protesting @navalny's jailing even in far-off Yakutsk, where it was -54F today (via @shaunwalker7)

Now at least 1,338 @navalny protesters have been arrested around Russia. Kids in Moscow start throwing snowballs at riot police (via @tggrove @OvdInfo)

Hi @AlanMacDougall by way of a reply thread follows 'cos I think you've confused me with near namesake Kram Namyrrep crazed ultra Leftist and hard left sectarian?

With opposition not offering any opposition whatsoever, it has exempted government from any serious scrutiny.' Not me but
@TomKibasi according to @Gabriel_Pogrund and @patrickkmaguire 's Left Out pp235,237,238 key Starmer leadership campaign adviser. Not noteworthy? 1/11

1988 odd year to choose for when I started getting it wrong. In '88 was working at Marxism Today (MT) year of 'New Times' issue. Key text to understanding modernisation, still central to my politics today. MT analysis was big part of late 80s soft left too but wrong now? 2/11

'96 I edited The Blair Agenda which recognised both radical potential of Blairism and political limitations. Was I wrong to have such a balanced view? 3/11

'98 I co-edited The Moderniser's Dilemma both recognising Blair's achievement of the '97 landslide but rising trepidation where this might end up. Have those trepidations been proved wrong? 4/11

Let's discuss the environmental cost of the US dollar. Because despite all the push for sustainable and green investment in the government, there's a giant smoldering Chernobyl sitting at the heart of Washington which a lot of investors would prefer you remain quiet about. 🧵 (1/

TLDR on the US dollar and government spending: It's a pyramid-shaped investment scheme backed by the collective delusion that value can created out of nothing by convincing greater fools to borrow more money after you do. (2/)

That alone is sufficiently awful on its own merits, but on top of this the environmental damages of the US dollar and associated military industrial complex are enough to make even Greta Thunberg weep at the pointless waste of it all. (3/)

The underlying technology of US dollar is based on the notion of "printing", a technical term for a process that keeps the government running and processing transactions. (4/)

I won't cover the details of the algorithm, suffice it to say the premise of US dollar printing is to prove how much economic productivity you can waste, and the more productivity you can waste, the more votes you can probabilistically secure in exchange for your waste. (5/)

The GovLab's Stefaan Verhulst will be testifying on smart city oversight before the NYC Council's Committee on Technology at 1:00 PM. You can watch him and the other witnesses live in Virtual Room 2 at:

Chair Holden opens the meeting. by speaking to the promise and potential that smart city technology offers, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He notes how big data, the internet of things, and other innovative solutions could help New Yorkers address real challenges.

However, he stresses, these come with privacy and security risks. The chair talks about the need to mitigate these challenges and ensure the benefits provided by smart city technologies outweigh costs.

Following the Chair's opening statement, John Paul Farmer, Chief Technology Officer of New York, offers testimony from the Administration.

He notes his focus will be on the city's work in Internet of Things, where NYC leads nationally and internationally.

"The Mayor's Office of the CTO has focused on improving the connectivity infrastructure needed to operate as a smart city," says Farmer

"Equitable connectivity is a foundation of the smart city. Widespread broadband is needed to connect the tools and sensors that make up IoT."

@BorisJohnson gaslighting dither & delay Government helped create conditions for the new covid strain to emerge

1/ When it became clear that schoolchildren were likely contributing significantly to the spread of the virus, his Government denied & issued legal threats to schools

2/ Scientists issued repeated warnings that allowing households to mix during Xmas would lead to a surge in cases.

@BorisJohnson Government refused to heed that advice, U-turned predictably days before Xmas, causing chaos to people’s plans, with crowded scenes at train stations.

3/ Viruses mutate & adapt as they multiply and, if we continue to have high levels of transmission in the population i.e. more cases, this provides fertile ground for new mutations to arise.

Sadly, but very avoidably, this is exactly what @BorisJohnson Government has provided.

4/ Too Little Too Late.

Through repeated negligent decisions and consistently late actions, @BorisJohnson Government has not only missed many opportunities to control the virus in the UK but actively worsened it.

5/ In September 2020, when cases were once again rising sharply, was another example of @BorisJohnson Government deciding not to

When I hear weak and tepid calls for unity, I’m reminded of these words by Martin Luther King Jr. and also this letter which was a resounding critique of white moderates.

“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be?” 1/5

Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. 2/5

We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality,and thus fell below their environment. 3/5

The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.

The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Letters from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963). 4/5

There can be no unity with white supremacists, nazis, and others who raided the Capitol

But citizens of good faith across diverse political/religious affiliations can find courage to seek a more beautiful way-become extremists for love.Truth tellers. Healers. Justice makers 5/5

Sen @HawleyMO wants to toss out Biden’s election

When he ran for President of Yale Law’s FedSoc chapter and narrowly beat me, I didn’t contest. Relying on students who weren’t regular members for his win was distasteful, but he played by the rules…

I lost to Hawley by a handful of votes

But Biden won by 7 million — and by far, far larger margins in swing states than Trump won in 2016, to wind up with the same Electoral College map: 306-232

@HawleyMO should do what I did: concede gracefully and move on 2/

.@realDonaldTrump has had his day in court over the issue of voter fraud, many times.

He has lost the court fights over this, period. 3/

This is abundantly obvious, and denying reality for political purposes will not fare well in the long run. The dictum that there’s no such thing as bad publicity won’t hold here for @HawleyMO. 4/

.@HawleyMO has the power to stand out in a positive way between now and when he faces re-election or runs for President himself.

He can help to lead the GOP out of the darkness of conspiracy theories and sometimes-lethal denialism. 5/

Welcome back to Fresno County Board of Supervisors: 2021 version! Today's meeting will only consist of Oath of Office for re-elected Supervisors Steve Brandau, Sal Quintero and Nathan Magsig as well as designation of Officers. #fresno @uSparkValley Video

Supervisors are moving to 10 AM start time rather than the previous 9 AM. Pre-Covid the parking was tough to find even at 9 AM . I imagine 10 AM will be even harder for the public to engage (if) and when we can meet in person again.

Meeting begins. Sal Quintero is on phone. Rest are present in person. Brandau has Rev. Jim Franklin give invocation. Administering of the Oath of Office to Supervisors Steve Brandau, Sal Quintero, and Nathan
Magsig

Brandau comes down first along with "these old people" (He gets a playful whack from an old lady I assume a relative). Rev. Franklin gives Oath to Brandau.

Quintero is having his administered by Sheriff Mims in an office somewhere. @LincolnSeward Nathan Magisg is having his administered by County Clerk Bernice Seidel.

WHAT IF... Q was designed by bad actors to whip up support for 3 years, for the sole purpose of developing a mass "cult following" of people who loyally follow the themes, catch phrases and direction of Q? Why would they do that?

The one "Insurrection" video you MUST see.

@NewYorker reporter @LukeMogelson
followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the Senate chamber.

Some quick thoughts... #Thread

1. Except for race, the crowd is incredibly diverse -- age, education, far-right subculture, region, even gender (although less so those inside the Capitol).

Seeing all these people clutching their pearls & blaming a few people who organized the Jan 6th event, with the blessing & promotion of the President by the way-were silent for 2/3 of 2020 while BLM and Antifa looted & burned down the country. It still goes on in Portland nightly

House NOW debating the rules for 117th Congress, offered by Rules Cmte Chair Jim McGovern (D-MA).

McGovern: "The package honors all gender identities by changing pronouns in House written rules so they gender neutral. We made this change for the sake of inclusion,not exclusion..I heard the Minority Leader say this rules package was canceling Mother's Day. Are you kidding me?"

McGovern on rules package :"It makes permanent the requirement all bills that come before Rules Cmte get a hearing & mark-up 1st. It preserves the Motion to Recommit while making reforms so it can no longer be used to highjack the legislative process for political gamesmanship."

McGovern on continuing House proxy voting: "We are also continuing temporary rules changes that have ensured we completed the people’s work as safely as possible during the coronavirus pandemic."

McGovern on rules package:"It breaks new ground through transformative ethics reforms. It removes floor privileges from former Mbrs convicted of crimes related to their House service or their election. This will ensure we can do our work here w/o undue influence of lawbreakers."

THREAD 1-13

1/ How have we come to this, teetering on the precipice of a political extinction event? The Electoral Certification challenge will certainly fail but immoral political theater is damning. And also a victory. For stupidity, naked greed, personal ambition, raw power.

2/ In which cynical propaganda has superseded campaigning and fund-raising as the most effective political tools. In which endless shit-trains of conspiratorial nonsense cannot be differentiated from policy, from McCain’s bus or RFK entreating crowds on a whistle-stop tour.

3/ Why do we assume we've evolved? The leaders of Babylon similarly ran their society, culture, empire, and the verdant Eden that surrounded them into the ground, sheerly out of greed and willful ignorance. It is now Iraq, a pit of sand and blood and unabated violence.

4/ Sedition. Traitor. Quisling. Apostate. Benedict Arnold. Aldritch Ames. Tokyo Rose. Ezra Pound. Judas Iscariot. Julian Assange. Ted Cruz. Josh Hawley. Tommy Tuberville. Kelly Loeffler. Ron Johnson. Steve Daines. Marsha Blackburn. Mike Braun. James Lankford. John N. Kennedy.

5/ These people, Orwell’s Pigs, flaunting incomprehension and intellectual sterility, are lead weights, the Unbearable Darkness Of Non-Being, want us to knuckle under in exasperation and despair, exhausted from fighting generations of exactly this brand of deceit and moral ruin.

Trump acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, allowed the National Guard deployment to be delayed by more than 4 hours, despite desperate please from the head of the Capitol Police and the Gov of Maryland

By the time the NG arrived, four people lay dead. Why did Miller and Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, block the deployment?

Piatt said “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background." But officials were pleading. The Capitol mob was inside, attacking...

We don't know what conversations they might have had with Trump et al. But let's look at SecDef Miller's background for a bit

Miller, who took office just a few weeks ago, after the Nov. election, served as a Green Beret in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's no indication that he served with anything other than distinction. But since helming the Pentagon, he gives signs of bring a devoted Trumpist

I won't sugar coat this...this is a disaster.

If Nov. was Pearl Harbor...we got hit again and lost all carriers.

Our retaliatory options are limited and better employed as shields than swords

But America has survived worse. Here's how we will survive this

#MAGA #2A

1/MANY

First, just the facts about situation.

1: Very soon, Democrats will have (narrow) unified political control of all 3 branches of government and can wreck US.

2: Our country is in an awful position financially due to the Obama spending during the good times.

2/MANY

3: They will greatly escalate "cancellation," likely creating blacklists of people like us.

4: They will use the full force and power of Gov't against us (look up AFP vs Harris), they've been rationalizing it 4 years.

3/MANY

5: They will try to use their current political advantage to stack the deck in future elections and policy fights.... likely trying to grant statehood to DC and Puerto Rico to explicitly help them in future elections.

Court packing is BACK on the agenda.

4/MANY

6: A lot of Republicans and conservatives will try to blame this on their enemies in the party. Populists will blame libertarians and vice versa.

THAT IS A MISTAKE. A civil war would doom us all and we need every hand on deck. YES, THIS MEANS YOU!

5/MANY

There are still plots across the US to attack state capitols as well as the capitol in DC. These are credible threats against America and American democracy. And they are enabled by Republicans like Hawley, Cruz, Kennedy, Rubio et al, the flag bearers of Trump fascism 1/

Each and every individual who played a part, any part, in the attempted coup on Wednesday must be exposed, arrested, charged & tried. No ifs, no buts. Otherwise they will melt away into alt-web cells & networks, continuing their attacks in support of Trump’s fascistic cult 2/

Rounding up the ringleaders on the ground on the day is one thing. But they were activated by senior Republican lawmakers, emboldened by 139 House Republicans and 8 Senators who voted to overturn a free & fair democratic election. These truths are self-evident 3/

They were also assisted by members of the Capitol and DC police. They included members of fire departments and other forces, elected representatives from across different states. This was not an amorphous mob. This was an alliance of anti-American forces intent on revolution 4/

This runs deeper & wider than saying it was a “mob” event. This was planned & equipped, armed to support the Trump lie. It was mobilised in a clear & present effort to overthrow the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election. It wasn’t a one-off chaotic event. There will be more 5/

News Safety Update 2#: Let's talk about Situational Awareness! SA is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening. More simply, it's knowing what is going on around you. @RTDNA @NPPA @rcfp @pressfreedom #tvnewsers

The concept of Situational Awareness isn’t something for spies or secret agents. Applying it to real world conditions is actually rather simple. Situational Awareness is keeping your head on a swivel, looking around to observe what’s going on, who’s there, what they are doing.

What is going on around you that might cause you trouble? If based on your observations and predictions, you feel unsafe, then Situational Awareness means you're able to make adjustments to what you are doing, like changing your body language, behavior or location, to be safe.

Cooper's Color Codes are a great way to remember levels of Situational Awareness. You want to be in condition Yellow when you're on location, in your vehicle, out in the field and even in the newsroom.

Condition White: Unaware and unprepared. If something dangerous occurs in this condition you will be caught off guard and not ready to rapidly react to escape harm.