1) Congress is incentivized to see Pence's role as passive.

But Constitutional scholars differ and/or acknowledge that varying interpretations exist.

Note: I am NOT predicting what Pence will do. I will just be highlighting some ambiguities.

(Apologies - will be long thread)

2) Edward Foley is head of Election Law Dept at Ohio U.

He is Left & originator of Blue Shift theory

What follows are quotes from his "war-game" paper published in the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal - Preparing for a Disputed Presidential

3) "As part of an effort to prepare for the risk of a disputed presidential election in 2020, it is imperative to consider how the embarrassingly deficient procedures might operate if they were actually called into play."

4) "The Constitution itself says remarkably little relevant to this topic, and what it does say is shockingly ambiguous."

Here is the applicable text of the Twelfth Amendment:

5) "The first thing to observe about this constitutional language is that the critical sentence is written in the passive voice: “the votes shall then be counted.” Here, thus, is the first frustrating ambiguity."

In the days after Ravi Zacharias died, I started collecting screenshots of those praising his life and ministry. It consumed hours of my time. I knew that the time of this great reveal on his corruption and abuse was coming. I wanted to make sure that the receipts were there.

I tried to give them away to a couple other people, but it wasn’t the time. I’m going to try to make a long thread of them since those who supported RZ should be held accountable and not just quietly get to delete their supportive tweets without acknowledging the abuse of RZ.

I don’t relish this task, because the harm that RZ caused and the shielding he received from people in high places of the Evangelical world chills me to the bone. It triggers me to no end. But I’m going to go slowly and add as I have the bandwidth to do so.

Here with Mike Pence

#HoldRaviZachariasAccountable

Kayleigh McEnany

#HoldRaviZachariasAccountable

I have a memory of @anandMenon1 et al writing about a TM deal being greeted with a surge of ‘it’s a deal’ goodwill (it wasn’t) but the argument seems to hold true for the current deal.

Some of it is relief that we have all avoided no deal although I’d argue that much of the no deal furore was prestidigitation (as it has always been).

Some of it is exhaustion. Everyone (apart from enthusiasts and lunatics) is very tired indeed, especially after this annus horrificis.

Everyone wants to move on. Labour is a great example. That they were going to vote for the deal was visible from space. If Labour can banish the twin albatrosses of Corbyn and Brexit then, hey presto, it becomes competitive again.

So almost overnight a new consensus seems to form. The Christmas gift isn’t just a deal it’s a new beginning, again.

(Sorry, long, rambling, unthought-out thread here) I've lost count of the amount of times I have been proud to call myself an Unioner, and of their commitment to direct, and often local action instead of parrotting nebulous and often ultimately meaningless phrases.

I know personally people at the club who take very seriously their commitment to eradicating racism from the club, as well as from football itself. But I have seen and heard racism in the stands, as well as on the way to and from games too many times before.

I have always shied away from acknowledging it. I've accentuated the positives, I've said it comes only from a small minority (which is also true), all because I don't want my own romantic image of the club to be tarnished, and I don't want to be guilty through association.

Or, to be honest, to endanger my privileged position of being able to write about the club I adore in the city I love.

When it happens it is a reflection of a broader racism in Germany, and in football, but that is no excuse for my inaction, for my sitting on my hands and hoping the problem goes away, so I can just go back to hailing them as a rebellious club from a rebellious city.

Everyone calm down. While we don’t know why witnesses weren’t called, we know that the Democrats didn’t “cave.” They’re not hapless idiots. They’re savvy fighters, and they must have had a damn good reason for this. Stop blindly attacking them and let this play out.

For insurance, the DC Attorney General let it be known last night that he’s looking to criminally charge Trump for the insurrection. That’s infinitely more important than impeachment. Perhaps he asked the Democrats not to screw up his prosecution by calling his witnesses.

It’s also possible that one or more of the witnesses changed their story, and therefore it would have backfired.

There are all kinds of plausible explanations for what just happened. “Democrats stupidly caved” is NOT one of them, because these Democrats are NOT stupid or cavers.

We really, really, really need to learn to avoid jumping straight into the “all hope is lost” and “Democrats just stupidly caved” routines. Neither of those things ever ends up being true. When we fatalistically yell that stuff, WE are the ones (unwittingly) causing harm.

We deserve answers as to what happened today, but we’ll get them soon enough.

I warned you from day one not to let the media suck you into the fictional notion that the impeachment trial was crucial, and that he’s “getting away with it all” if he’s not convicted in it.

KERALA POLITICS and BJP's Role.

For those who are interested in Kerala politics, specifically BJP's stance and chances, I am transcribing a Youtube Q&A with @surendranbjp BJP president, Kerala.

A vibrant and savvy politician, KS is the leader Kerala BJP supporters asked for.

He is an extremely sharp strategist who leads from the front - someone who sees the dance from the balcony and also perfects nuances on the floor.

This interview reflects his acumen, clarity of thoughts and candid approach to politics. A no-nonsense leader, he says a lot.

1. How is BJP aligning with RSS in Kerala?

BJP and RSS relationship is that of ideology and political outfit (I have discussed this in detail in a previous thread and KS's view supports my points) and is strong currently.

Covid relief work has brought us even closer.

2. Accusation is that BJP does Hindu politics. But UDF (INC+++) has Ms League (IUML) and Kerala Congress (Xs) - in touch with their spiritual leaders - both INC and LDF do this.

But BJP doesn't do this. Why?

BJP does not need to do this as Kerala Hindus perceive BJP as their own, and at the moment we are basing on the Hindu support.

But we are open to minority support as well. Hindu movement is stronger, not sure how far UDF have understood this.

Good to see @Marthakearney on @BBCr4today taking @pritipatel to task over the numbers of lorries in Dover - now 1,500 in Stack (M20) and Manston airfield combined - rather more than 170 that @BorisJohnson said yesterday, baffling haulage groups /1

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson She won't say whether lorry drivers will have to take a PCR test (long-winded, requires RNA extraction etc. 24-48hrs) rather than much faster (and less sensitive) lateral flow test. Short Strait will struggle to operates with PCR tests. You'd need one yesterday for tomorrow! /2

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson Because of the delays that have empty lorries already stuck in the queues, in an earlier interview British Retail Consortium @the_brc Andrew Opie said fresh food shortages would occur within days because lorries couldn't get back to Spain etc to reload /3

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson @the_brc Haulage experts like @RHADuncanB are always at pains to explain that the lorries at Dover (and GB-IE, for that matter) are flowing in a continuous cycle. More than 85% are from EU countries. So if you block one side, or artery the whole system starts to grind to a halt/4

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson @the_brc @RHADuncanB This episode has been a bit of a teaching moment, exposing the canard that the UK can unilaterally "take back control of its borders". It can't. Borders are membranes. Traffic flows in both directions. Actions by one side impact the other - as French move has demonstrated. /5

With a lot of coverage of the latest dramatic Scottish poll results, it's time to remind everyone that predicting results in individual seats or seat totals (and overall majorities or lack thereof) is MUCH harder than predicting national shares of the vote.

This is REALLY IMPORTANT when people will be holding forth on the supposed certainty or otherwise of a single-party majority, or of a single-party whitewash in a particular region, and perhaps encouraging people to change their votes in light of this supposed certainty.

Let's assume you could go to the start of 2016 with the vote shares from the election, Biff Tannen from Back to the Future style. You are far ahead of any pollster - you know the *exact* national vote totals. What would they have told you would be the result in terms of MSPs?

Well, they'd have said it was going to be an SNP majority. Plug it in and you would have seen SNP 66, Con 30, Lab 23, Grn 5, LD 4. Close, but off in that one key detail. And remember, this is assuming you actually had the correct national numbers rather than just poll estimates.

Why? Basically, all the seat predictors out there for Holyrood have a big simplifcation. They assume all parties' shares of votes will change by equally in all constituencies. If the SNP are up 1% nationally they increase that vote by 1% everywhere and work out the new 'winner'.

Good morning, post-election frivolous performative litigation followers - we've got another new filing in Seditionists v 117th Congress et al.

It's yet another motion for a Temporary Restraining Order - making it the 3rd in 3 days.

And it's a

Now, you'd think that if you kept throwing 'emergency' paperwork at the court and the court kept saying nothing in reply that you might want to take some time and figure out what you're doing wrong, but nope. Not these buffoons.

They're still not within 50 miles of complying with Fed R Civ P 65 - and my guess is that this judge might view that as entirely a "them" problem which the court has no obligation to explain.

So they're still stuck at Step 1.

But that's honestly the least of their issues.

They have, apparently in lieu of attempting to comply with Rule 65, put "ORAL HEARING REQUESTED" in all caps right after the heading.

I'm not a litigator but I don't think that's a recognized alternative to attempting to provide notice to the adverse party.

They want to "preserve the status quo" by placing two of the three branches of government in a state of "stewardship." That's...

...unique.

hey pals - logging in to remind you that you really should vote. and i GET IT, mailing things is hard/weird bc many of us don't ever have to do it. if you're in the nj/nyc area, u can buy stamps at duane reade/cvs/staples/many bodegas

i used to get kids to fill out voter registration forms at concerts back when i was in college - even back then the biggest roadblock was 1. *remembering* to mail it and 2. having a stamp and envelope and knowing where to put it. don't be embarrassed if you don't know - pls ask!

here's a nice list of states and the weird (sometimes lack) of info on how much postage is required (in nj, postage isn't required!)

this reminds me of when i had a former boyfriend go to the post office to get us a book of stamps so we can mail the rent check and he came back with a book of **1 cent stamps**, bless that man for he is now a father of two and today i accidentally dressed as parappa the rapper

Trump is trying to overturn the election results. I doubt he’ll be successful. But I don’t know it for sure.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be watching two things:

1. Certifications
2. GOP state legislators and

There are two things that are set to happen with the election results in the coming weeks that ordinarily would be formalities, but in a disputed election are crucial.

First is the states' certifications of their results. Second is the selection of electors.

Right now, both processes are clearly on track to make Biden the next president.

Trump's only hope is to upset the apple cart on one or both. Blocking or delaying certifications somehow, or getting partisan GOP state legislators in states Biden won to appoint Trump electors.

Re: certifications, Trump will get little help from officials in the key states— they're mostly Democrats or bipartisan boards, except for GA Sec of State Brad Raffensperger.

Raffensperger is being pressured from the right, but he's pushed back so far

With dim prospects for getting state officials to block certifications, Trump has been trying to get judges to do that, by filing lawsuits.

These lawsuits seem weak so far. But watch if judges start to take any of them

🔴🔴🔴🔴 Mitch McConnell received donations from Dominion Voting Systems and shut down two election integrity bills in 2020.

The Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is urging Senate Republicans to accept the Biden electors without objection when they are presented to

Congress on January 6. On that day, one member of the House and one member of the Senate may object in writing to the electors presented. This year, there are numerous reasons for every single member to object, but they are being pressured to accept the fraud, no matter what.

McConnell wants Republicans to blindly go along with the process, even though the votes were illegally certified by states in the face of mounting, coordinated election fraud. The 2020 election was attacked like never before and now it is being contested in front of the state

legislatures. Hopefully, these testimonies and hard evidence will be heard before the Supreme Court, including the cases where power-drunk Democrats circumvented the state legislatures and changed election rules and where the Democrats illegally blocked Republican poll watchers.

If America is truly a Constitutional Republic, as established by the founders, then the 2020 election requires that the rule of law be applied to every incidence of coordinated election fraud. There is more than enough evidence to withdraw the Biden electors, and the courts and

💫💥A “day of reckoning” is coming – Lin Wood reveals, “the evidence I have is stunning!”

💫💥 John Fredericks interviews Lin Wood, Dec. 1st, 2020

✅ https://t.co/tR12iORLr4

THREAD📌 Since Jan. 20, 2017, I have been terrorized by the Trump presidency as a lesbian, as a #disabled person, as a journalist. I have reported hundreds of stories of how marginalized groups in particluar have been harmed by Trump's policies, even in his final days.
1/

I have reported on the uptick in poverty under Trump, particularly among women and LGBTQ people. I have written relentlessly about #healthcare and how each year under Trump fewer Americans had access to it and more people were bankrupted and having to crowdfund medical bills.
2/

I have written about violence against POC: the relentlessness of it. The anti-Black animus. The hatred of brown immigrants--even babies. I have reported on the way Trump and his extremist white nationalist cohort have stoked violence from Charlottesville to the Insurrection.
3/

There's been so much to report under Trump, crucial stories get lost, erased by some new Trump-fueled crisis in our country. I'd write about homelessness under Trump or the rise in environmental racism under him or the loss of access to elder care--all erased by new headlines.
4/

It's been hard to be an in independent left journalist under Trump, esp since the pandemic. Trump has made America monomaniacal: We can only focus on one or two stories at a time. Do folks think #gunviolence or #climatechange are over? They are both more terrible, not less.
5/

Thread:

10/24/2018 Request for Information on the Dominion Voting system:

https://t.co/NCSMkKnoME

https://t.co/Od5IZ3fECG

Table of Contents

Background 3.1
• Election Managmnt System: Global Election Management System (“GEMS”)
• In Person Voting Machines: AccuVote R6 and AccuVote TsX (“DREs”)
• Precinct Scanners & Tabulators: AccuVote-OS
• Statewide Electronic Pollbook System: ExpressPoll 4000 and ExpressPoll 5000

"During absentee in person voting, voters are able to vote in any early voting location in their county. Georgia would like to keep this option for early voting in any new system. On election day, voters must vote at their assigned precinct."

Equ. rights 14th amendment violaton?

3.2 Statistics
Polling Places: Approximately 2,365
DREs: Approximately 27,000
Precinct Scanners & Tabulators: Approximately 800
Registered Voters: Approximately 6,700,000 (92% Active Status; 8% Inactive Status)
Ballots Cast in November 2016 General Election: 4,165,405

#Prop22 was the most expensive ballot initiative in history: "gig economy" companies firehosed $200m over voters, outspending 48/50 state legislative races on a single question.

That question: can employers misclassify workers as contractors and escape legal obligations?

1/

That's a high-stakes question. US workers spent more than a century fighting for basic rights: the right not the maimed, raped or killed on the job; the right to a living wage; the right to a weekend; the right not to be discriminated against based on race or sex or religion.

2/

Above all: the right to form a union and bargain collectively with employers who otherwise hold all the negotiating leverage - to pool their resources in the same way that gig economy companies did to fund Prop 22.

3/

Workers died for those rights. Bosses fought labor reforms with terror and rape, with blackmail and dirty tricks, with jails and blackballing.

Prop 22 can only be repealed if 7/8th of the California legislature votes to do so. It is, effectively, a permanent fixture.

4/

$200m to pass Prop 22 is a BARGAIN. Every right for workers shifts money from bosses' side of the balance sheets to the workers' side. Prop 22 erased all those rights in a single stroke.

5/

1. When I hear @clairecmc talk about Dems learning to talk to the Piggly Wiggly crowd, I hope she'll want to join/help w my moderate messaging electioneering overall for Ds effort. BC its CRUCIAL to understand- Ds & outside groups tried already to cater to these voters on the

2. persuasion. That in fact, this cycle was the product of a very concerted effort of that strategy driven by high profile data firms on the D side (many of which who've been critical of my work) & it was a complete and total failure for 2 reasons. The main 1 is that it wants

3. to ignore the effect that polarization is having on voter behavior & the limitations that is placing on certain electioneering techniques that USED TO BE EFFECTIVE and are now not. I want to make something really clear- it is only in places where at least 1 element of the D's

4. operation "went rogue" that Biden pulled out wins: GA, where Abrams made electioneering about turning out the new coalition, AZ, where the AZ state party did the same, but with Latino voters, MI & WI where the state parties put into effect base-centric voter turnout strategies

5. at odds w the party's conventional playbook to focus on turnout, and/or places where concentrations of the D's new coalition: college-educated whites + minority voters (and young voters) are so high (like NE 2) that sub-par strategy doesn't matter, turnout surges are naturally

We promised people that if we won the Senate, we would send out $2,000 survival checks. They delivered us to victory—and now we MUST deliver.

“Targeting” checks to a smaller group fails to do that. People need help like never before, and we must put money in their pockets.

“Targeting” checks isn’t just bad for people, it’s bad policy too! It’s not humane, it's not smart, it’s not effective, and it’s not even fiscally responsible. Not to mention that it doesn't meet the scale of this crisis.

Help me spread the word about 4 obvious reasons why:

1⃣The survival checks often use 2019 tax data to measure someone’s income.

Millions lost their jobs in 2020 due to COVID—that’s the whole point of this relief!—and therefore their income from 1 or 2 years ago is no longer accurate. They need help now and we must provide it.

Even if someone isn’t one of the nearly 1 million additional people losing their job EVERY single week, they likely lost hours and therefore had their overall income significantly reduced.

By “targeting,” we cut out people who are desperately in need of help.

2⃣The data from people who filed for unemployment shows that more than 20% of those earning between $50k and $70k were still food insecure.

That's up 16% from 2019—and it's why food banks have such long lines. We need to put money in their pockets so they can feed their family.

MAJOR:
Dr Fauci Backed Wuhan Lab with $ for Risky Coronavirus Research

Over “200 scientists called for the work to be halted. The problem..is that it increased the likelihood that a pandemic would occur through a laboratory accident” in

Here’s a detailed 15min video investigation by UK PM David Cameron’s former Downing Street adviser @SteveHiltonx for his @NextRevFNC show on @FoxNews

The investigation is damning & implicates Dr Fauci & others.

Hilton calls for Fauci’s

Here are some further extracts from the @Newsweek article:

“last year, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the organization led by Dr. Fauci, funded scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology..for work on gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses”

“Many scientists have criticized gain of function research, which involves manipulating viruses in the lab to explore their potential for infecting humans, because it creates a risk of starting a pandemic from accidental release”

“with the backing of NIAID, the National Institutes of Health committed $3.7m over 6 years for research that included some gain-of-function work.. followed another $3.7m, 5-year project for collecting & studying bat coronaviruses, which ended in 2019, bringing the total to $7.4m”