Historian here, with a message for folks arguing against holding people accountable for the siege of the Capitol because "history will be the judge." We are in this mess, BECAUSE people in the past didn't hold their contemporaries accountable. Please don't repeat that mistake.

The "center" of American politics is not a fixed point, it shifts over time. What is "the center" today would have been considered pretty far left in the 1990s. Likewise, what was the imagined "center" in the mid-1980s would have been considered pretty far right in the 70s.

One of Lincoln's skills as a politician was that he moved the center of American politics into an antislavery place, and he also evolved in his own thinking about slavery and race. Finding and helping to move "the center" is one (not the only) form of effective politics.

There is no such thing as a democratic political culture that lacks an imagined "center" and people who inhabit it. This is especially the case in a diverse and often fractious nation. The politics of persuasion is all about moving that imagined center in the direction you want.

Most of the people currently on the American far right are highly unlikely to move to the center, because their basic political commitments are hostile to America's multi-racial democracy. One task ahead is to prevent that segment of our political culture from growing.

How to do that is unclear. History shows that deplatforming can often work. History also shows that sometimes right wing radicals can gain fame and attention by presenting themselves as "martyrs" who've been persecuted by "elites." There's no iron clad formula.

I can’t bring myself to watch Republican Senators like Cruz, Lee, and Sasse wax rhapsodic about the Constitution while the President they support is spreading disinformation about the election and accusing Biden, Obama, and Clinton of treason. Sorry, just can’t do it.

Anyone who’s read the writings of the founders knows full well they their beloved Trump is the Platonic form of the type of President the founders most feared, and that they epitomize the sort of short sighted and craven public officials they also desperately feared.

These GOP Senators are smart and well-read enough to understand how outlandish their President is, and how embarrassingly cowardly their behavior has been these past four years.

The chutzpah of these people to pass themselves off as great patriotic lovers of the founders’ Constitution. Feh.

If they loved the Constitution, they would be telling people not to vote for Trump until he agrees to accept the results of the election. Otherwise they are aiding and abetting an attempt to shred the Constitution. Shame on them,

The 90's called and it would like it's sneering depictions of "pathetic right wing rubes" back. I know it makes a certain segment of the educated classes (of which I'm a member) feel good about themselves to read paragraphs like this, but it's lazy political analysis.

That crowd was comprised of scores (if not hundreds) of well off business owners as well as highly skilled paramilitary warriors (many of whom were trained by our own government) who came very close to achieving their goal. Their gauche affection for Olive Garden is irrelevant.

This is the article. I share the author's revulsion at what this mob did. But this is not a time for ribald humor at the expense of people who erected a gallows upon which it appears they intended to hang the Vice President and probably

Every violent political upheaval is messy and chaotic and disorganized and comprised of people who are far from paragons of wisdom and rational thought. Wednesday's uprising was not uniquely pathetic...to think it was is just to invert a celebratory American exceptionalism.

I can guarantee you, none of the people of color in the Capitol building, especially the officers who bravely fended off this mob, mistook them for a second as bumbling rubes.

How the world is, and has been controlled by the same families for millennia

These are the secret elite families that rule the world from behind the scenes and what we can do to change society for the better

💥MUST READ THREAD💥 SENSITIVE CONTENT💥

13 blood line families, the Venetian, they are the enemy of us all and they are chameleons rats that live underground...
They live by the law of the sea, they are pirate ships on maritime...
Everything they have done is unlawful of gods law

To be with god we have to raise our chrism oil to heave up to heaven up-on earth, these people don’t want to be near god so they are taking the adrenals for life giving properties, when they torture a sentinel life to the point of death the body is attempting to stay alive so...

enormously powerful secretion are realised into the system to put the body into shock so it doesn’t feel the horror of the pain, then to protect systems they can be put on bare minimum so they can survive. Our bodies are absolute miracles of creation, by the golden creator...

and we are golden children. This is why they take that from the sacred golden child, they take abortions, the babies are kept alive and harvested, this is divinity, they want a long life but don’t want to go through god so they take it by force.

I love the smell of a leaked legal service opinion in the morning

The conclusion: the EU Council legal service says that it's OK for the Brexit deal to be concluded with the UK by the EU only, not needing Member States' participation

The reasoning: the legal service distinguishes between competences reserved to Member States, and competences shared with the EU. For the latter, the EU has the choice of concluding an EU-only treaty.

The legal service summarises the prior case law backing up its interpretation.

It refers to the Weddell case, concerning competence to conclude a treaty on the Antarctic environment, where Member States *could* be involved. But that was based on the particular legal features of the Antarctic treaty; and the UK is not Antarctica.

#UnEssentialHypertension

Having been placed on a SECOND blood pressure lowering drug a month ago, and reporting to the cardio some lightheadedness when I get up, and rather than discussing a dose or drug change being told to "stand up more slowly" has me working hard on 1/n

lowering BP and getting completely off the drugs.

First things first, I checked my median BP off drugs at two different weights, and sure enough, the more I weigh, the higher the home BP. At 186lbs, median BP is 144/88, max was 165/98. 2/n

Peaks (especially in the doctors office were labeled hypertensive crisis). At 162lbs, median BP is 124/79, max was 138/86. The question remains how high BP goes in the office (or at Red Cross) when I weigh less. 3/n

Weight goal is around 153, and I'm at 168± now, so primary objective is to reach goal weight and see if I can wean off the meds.

Second, sodium. I may be salt sensitive. I've added more sodium to my diet after reading a bunch on that and learning of some twitter peeps' 4/n

experiences. Ate light yesterday, took some extra salt, and gained nearly two pounds and my rings got tight. Next step is to reduce sodium load and see what happens.

Third, NO. I've been using a UVB light, and before the seasons turned getting decent sunlight. 5/n

A necessary clarification needs to be made with regards to securities laws because I’ve been seeing a theory lately not based on law but based on false presumptions. Before I do so, I want to note that I DO NOT think that XRP is a security (before I get “FUD” responses). 1/

Here it goes: There has been a theory that the SEC should only be pursuing the sales of XRP by Ripple, and once it exchanges hands it is no longer a security. Basically the theory is that the XRP the common investor holds (who bought off an exchange) is not a security because 2/

there is no privity with Ripple. Stated differently, the assumption is the SEC should categorize XRP into two pots: 1) XRP sold by Ripple and 2) all other XRP . The theory continues that a difference should be made and the SEC should clarify that it is only alleging the 3/

transactions made by Ripple to be transactions of securities. This theory is a fallacy. I’ve seen this theory argued by comparing XRP to a stock and noting the differences. It is important to note that this type of comparison cannot apply. 4/

The SEC is not alleging that XRP is a stock, but rather an “investment contract”. An Investment Contract is (1) an investment of money (2) in a common enterprise (3) with the expectation of profit (4) derived solely from the efforts of others. 5/