1. (On politics) I was once in a conversation with an elderly friend of mine who is American. He is deeply involved in politics in the States and I asked about what he had learnt. He said, "our movement pushed and mobilised and we got (.........) into the white house."

2. "However, we saw that our interests were not executed by him then we realised in a democratic setting sometimes its the people that surround the president or anyone in executive positions that really matter. Those he speaks to first and last.
We therefore changed our strategy"

3. We do support but now with the intent of placing people around the elected officers.
There is a lot of space for influence in positions that are non elective. Every executive leader leans on people to help in developing ideas and in executing them.

4. The young folks should be looking here. Elective positions like Governorship etc can be very expensive. Legitimate costs will run into hundreds of millions but there are positions for assistants, tech advisers, etc that wield alot of influence in shaping policy and direction.

5. If you want to change things you must get your foot into the room and have a seat at the table. The least position there will wield more power than being an critic on the outside. In positions like this skill, loyalty and confidentiality are the requirements and not money.

Thread on elections:

1) Only CPIM can compete with BJP in hypocrisy and shamelessness. I mean they are calling the opposition coalition (Muslim League + Congress) communal in Kerala, equating Muslim League with RSS and subtly consolidating Hindus using Islamophobic

2) campaigns while in West Bengal they're themselves in alliance with Congress and a Muslim party ISF, founded by an Islamic cleric. In West Bengal they are appealing on the lines of social justice, Dalit emancipation and Muslim empowerment.

3) Their candidates in Bengal, most of whom would distance themselves from anybody visibly Muslim and would leave no chance to demonize them, are now flaunting pictures with Muslim men and women covered in skullcaps and Hijab. In Kerala, they once disowned their own party leader

4) because he performed Umrah. Meanwhile, their PR agency called NewsClick is publishing pieces suggesting how TMC's violence helped BJP make inroads in Bengal while ignoring that it was CPIM's vote that shifted to BJP and hence it should be them who should be called out for not

5) being able to keep their votes intact. I am not in support of Mamata in Bengal or Congress in Kerala. I only hope and wish ISF, IUML, SDPI, AIMIM, AIUDF, Welfare Party and other Muslim outfits win as many seats as there are! #ApniQayadat

End.

Rs made gains in state legislatures in 2020. Even where manual audits are conducted, they rarely include state races. 😢

“Ds spent big to take control of state legislatures but lost their key targets. Now they’ll be on the sidelines as new maps are drawn”

I reported on the sorry state of election auditing laws in the US in this pre-election piece for @NYRDaily. This must change. #RobustManualAuditsNOW
1/

2/ “Earlier this year, ... Republicans blocked federal legislation, the SAFE Act, which would have required such [manual] audits for most federal races.”

3/ “America’s preeminent election-auditing expert, Philip Stark, a professor of statistics at...UCB, told me a few weeks ago that “only a few jurisdictions currently audit elections in a way that has a good chance of catching and correcting wrong reported outcomes.” @philipbstark

4/ “That requires a trustworthy paper trail—primarily hand-marked paper ballots kept demonstrably secure throughout the election and the audit—and [what is known as] a risk-limiting audit using that paper trail.” #HandMarkedPaperBallots

anyone currently shocked by the fact that the politicians in power recant and reverse the views they held when they were in opposition (and vice versa) has simply not paid any attention to history.

that's 100% to be expected.

where you stand depends up where you sit.

always.

this latest biden refusal to commit to a view on packing SCOTUS until after the election is just this same phenomenon.

if he wins, he's for packing it. if he loses, he'll be against it.

this is because almost none of these people stand on any principles.

they just seek power.

this is why it's so hard to trust any of them.

and why shouldn't they act this way?

it's what we reward. we all accept their lies even when we KNOW they are lies. we elect them anyway.

we accept that all we ever get is the lesser of evils.

will biden pay any price? nope.

it's behavioralism 101

the fault lies not w/ these narcissistic liars & sociopaths, it lies with us

we're the ones electing them & putting up with monstrous & dishonest behavior because "it's not as bad as what the other guy would do."

those are the railroad tracks to tyranny.

it demands a question:

if the outcome of an election is so impactful that it can make or ruin your life or save or lose the republic (as many claim it is) is that not proof positive that the government is FAR too powerful?

do you really want to gamble for such stakes?

In b/w 1998 - 2003, Congress and Liberals adopted strategy to defeat Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee (NDA). The key points were:-
• Intolerance
• Fascism
• Islamophobia
• Kargil Coffin Scam
• Orthodox Thinking Process
• Saree Culture
• Dalit Slaughter
• Cow Safety

• Jai Shree Ram (Communal Slogan)

This was how Sonia Gandhi and liberals, with the help of International Media, organisations and other NGOs misleaded India and defeated NDA in 2004 general elections.

They tried the same strategy in 2014 & 2019 but got fail. I

In 2019, Rafael Scam was the core agenda of Congress and they gave a slogan "Chaukidaar Chor hai".

For 2024, General Elections Congress has apoted a new strategy based on 2011. In 2011, Anti - Corruption Protest had shaken the roots of Congress in India. Again, the hike in

Petrol Price shocked Congress and NDA called for "Bharat Bandh". It was the rise of Mr. @narendramodi jee as National Leader. From that day, NDA never looked back.

Now Congress is adopting the same policy. Firstly in 2019, they saw a ray of hope of protest in CAA and

there was a pan India protest along with #shaheenbagh for 3 months and leads to #DelhiRiots2020. In 2020, the same is repeated as #FarmerProtests.

Till 2024 General Elections, You will observe such protests as common weapon of @INCIndia #Liberals #AntiNationals and #Jihadis.

You have no idea how furious I am to agree with Robin McAlpine on this. Centrism is the Golden Mean Fallacy made manifest in politics: if one party says the sky's blue & the other says it's red, the centre concludes that the sky must clearly be purple.

THREAD

My country is dying

Drowning in the blood of poor

My country is dying

Under the pretenses of a cure

The children of my people are starving in a corner

With their mother dressed in black, playing the role of a mourner

My country is dying, and yet no one cares

1/5

Because the tragedy that happened was yet to be theirs

My country is dying because of its people

Those who turn the other cheek when they witness evil

Acts of defiance resulted in death

Do not defy the king called Macbeth

For he knows no rules, no law to abide

2/5

And his wish remains to conquer and divide

His puppets, they dance to the rhythm of the gun

For they do not care who they shoot, a daughter or a son

It is not in their interest to care for the people

Not the old, nor the young, the fit or the cripple

3/5

This is not a stranger who lays dead on your feet

It is your brother, a comrade, a statistic on repeat

My country is dying and it's begging for help

From its children, the people, to look out for themselves

My country is dying and it's only a matter of time

4/5

Before your life will worth nothing, not even a dime.

And now your country is dying, so why don't you care?

When your home remains here, and not elsewhere.

5/5

Dear @HouseDemocrats:

HR 1 requires that the voter “have the option to mark his or her ballot by hand.”

Pls add the following for clarity: “For jurisdictions w/ in person voting, this option shall be provided to the voter at the polling place.” @RepTedLieu @katieporteroc 1/

Without this clarifying language, jurisdictions cld still force all in person voters to use risky touchscreen voting machines called ballot marking devices (BMDs), as long as vote by mail is also an option. That won’t suffice to protect election integrity & faith in elections. 2/

Unlike #HandMarkedPaperBallots (pen and paper), BMDs are vulnerable to electronic failure, screen freezes, miscalibration, disproportionate distribution (causing bottlenecks & long lines in suppressed areas), and hacking. 3/

4/ I also suggest that you supplement HR 1 to specify that BMDs “must not put votes into barcodes or QR codes.” This language is important because barcodes & QR codes are not transparent, further endangering integrity and confidence in elections.

5/ We are only beginning now to understand how these barcodes and QR code’s unnecessarily increase the attack surface for bad actors seeking to interfere in our elections. This is unacceptable & unnecessary.

GEORGIA🚨

Negative votes & vote switches should *NEVER* happen on your CNN, ABC, & NBC live news feeds. This is according to the data scientist & programmers who presented at the State Senate hearings. They previously worked for the US Navy, the CIA, & Big 4 Accounting Firms.🔻

GEORGIA🚨

Elections are an additive process — you count the votes — and add them up. Votes should never be going down on live television. Votes should never be switching between candidates on live television. This is election fraud & it happened all across the nation.🔻

GEORGIA🚨

It happened last night.

774,723 - 742,323 = 32,400

32,400 votes subtracted from @Perduesenate live on ABC last night during the Senate Runoff.

GEORGIA🚨

2,130,535 - 2,125,535 = 5,000

32,400 votes subtracted from @Perduesenate live on ABC last night during the Senate Runoff.

FULL

I've led a fortunate life, much to be thankful for. I've been to 80 countries. Wherever I went I was thankful I lived in the U.S. where evils like autocracies & theocracies were impossible. Since 2017, we've discovered that's not so. Today's SCOTUS decision underscores that.

If there is anything to be thankful for in it, it is the hope it will serve as a wake-up call to those who do not realize the threats that lie ahead. Recent elections have reminded us how important it is to wrest democracy out of the hands of the donor class that's seized it.

Our recent experiences have also made it painfully clear that our system contains deep imperfections that assure that a minority will have disproportionate power in our Senate, our electoral college and, thanks to the Senate, our courts.

Either we, the majority that elected our next president, will continue our activism & engagement & work to fix what's broken in that system or we will drift further toward the kind of dysfunctionality that has led to so much suffering around the planet.

Our work, in short, has just begun. Removing Trump was an essential step toward preserving our democracy. But it was just one of several such steps. Winning back the Senate, rebalancing the courts, changing our campaign finance and election laws, are all essential.

NEW: European Commission president @vonderleyen: As things stand I cannot tell you whether there will be a deal or not, but I can tell you there is a path to an agreement now. The path may be very narrow but it is there.

2/ VDL - it is therefore our responsibility to continue trying.

3/ Commission president says the "good news" is we have found a way forward on most issues, but this is now a case of being "so close and yet being so far away from each other."

4/ VDL - level playing field: our aim is simply fair competition on our own market.

Says the "architecture" of a level playing field provision rests on two pillars: state aid and standards

5/ On state aid we have made progress based on common princples, guarantees of domestic enforcement, the possibility to autonomously remedy the situation where needed [ie, either side can take action if distortions of trade etc]

I'm watching these videos about the Georgia Phone Call and they're talking about if Dominion did any kind of weird hacks, and all I'm thinking is:

I need to get a voting machine.

Yeah, it turns out if you select the party vote option and toggle it Democrat-Republican-Democrat then tap the Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen three times, you'll trigger the Easter egg and you can play DOOM!

Set your location to California, vote no on Prop 22, party vote democrats and select the Green presidential campaign Howie Hawkins, then toggle Prop 22 to yes, then longpress "reset ballot" and you'll get rickrolled.

This is how my brain works. "the voting machines could be hacked! The president might be trying to steal the election! What should I do?

Oh yeah, get a screwdriver and make a voting machine play DOS games."

I wonder if they're still x86 based? The last time we had a big electronic voting scandal, of the they were... But now we're in the arm era.

Here is a thread I would like for all of my followers to take the time to read.

I am backing my friend @TesauroJames for Mayor of Sheboygan and I have cut 2 videos about his goals this week. He has no political experience, but a wealth of leadership experience, and that’s good.

The errant Christian participation in the Capitol insurrection has its roots in the apocalyptic craziness espoused by the likes of the late Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahaye. Their 'end of the world' mania misled many, laying the foundation for conspiracy theories...

... and the horrid view of the civil government so many trapped in the maze of this nonsense espouse. In an odd-couple marriage, Christian post-millennialism was then married this movement to a 'save America', all in the name of a mythical 'lost' Christian America and hopes for a

... future Christianized state, a theocracy in the Christian sense. Opposition to Christian positions on moral issues was equated w/ opposition to God. How? Paul Weyrich and the Reagan-era GOP saw this as an opening to win the Evangelical vote for themselves & beat Carter in 1980

EVs had voted for Carter in large numbers in 1976, Carter identifying with them as a Baptist and Sunday School teacher, a humble, gracious, country boy. The GOP wrangled that support to itself by taking up the fearful millennialism of the EVs and making the Democrats...

... an embodiment of the Beast of Revelation. American could be a Christian Republic, saved from evil - from the Democrats in particular - and, later, from the swamp, the deep state, or whatever label worked best. Because a majority of people would never accept these wild views

Ok as a French Muslim, i think, i must to explain to EVERYONE what’s this exactly about the “Halal” ban slaughter (1/8)

Recently, many have seen some tweets saying that the slaughter of animals with the "halal" ritual will be banned in France. (2/8)

But, unfortunately, this is the problem of the networks, no one will go digging to know more, laziness trivialized in these modern times surely. (3/8)

Know what you must to know it’s they banned only those who use the electronarcosis then they slaughter the animal with the halal ritual.
Before it was permissible by the French law but not by the European rules. (4/8)

Also theses three mosques (Evry, Paris, Lyon) who’re mentioned on many articles about this, you must to know now, they already cheated with the whole French Muslim community. (5/8)

Post-Trump Career Thread 1/

BTW all GOP politicians who were on national stage in 2016, have developed a 'strategy' to survive the Trumpomess. They KNEW he will burn this down. They've all thought they had the perfect way to have a career beyond Trump. Here are a few examples:

Post-Trump Career Thread 2/

Some were Trump friends before his 2015 run for President started, and have remained with him until now. Like notorious serial pants-grabber & alleged attorney Rudy Giuliani.

When I say 'old friends', I mean these are criminals who need pardons

Post-Trump Career Thread 3/

Some opportunists jumped onboard early in 2016, but were smart enough to see Trump is setting up a kleptocracy, and JUMPED OFF before the inaugration to avoid all legal stench. Like failed Bond Villain, the Chrischristie

Post-Trump Career Thread 4/

Some with a spine, said No Trump and remained steadfastly away from him, not even appearing at the 2016 convention. Like then convention HOST Governor, John Kasich

Post-Trump Career Thread 5/

Some opportunists jumped onto the Trump train late (convention 2016) and hugged Trump ever since, hoping to take his voters into the 2024 cycle. But Ted Cruz is the most hated man in America, even this lunatic strategy won't make him President