Voters are worried about violence and safety at the polls.https://t.co/msp8h9ucjE busines up to date

Gary Kauffman says he does not scare easily. So when men waving President Donald Trump flags drive by his house in downtown Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he stands on his front steps and waves a banner for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Our Politics, Our Polity.

In truth there are no true political parties in Nigeria. What we have are ideologically non specific political platforms available to the rich and heavily influential persons to contest elections.

#Thread

A political party is defined as an organised group of people who have the same ideology, or who otherwise have the same political positions on pertinent issues, and who field candidates for elections...

...in attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party's agenda as unequivocally stated in its official and universal manifesto.

In truth, presently, none of the prominent parties in Nigeria qualifies to be so called as per the above definition.

It is therefore not a surprise that the various anomalies being exhibited by both PDP & APC in the present imbroglio going on in Edo politics.

In an organised party no national chairman will behave as Adam's Oshiomhole has done. Also a party faithful and political protege of a political leader will not conduct his affairs as Gov Godwin Obaseki has done.

OK, so it's a fortnight away - the "Digital Party Conference" of the CDU to decide who the next party leader will be

And whoever wins this is going to have a good chance of being Chancellor, succeeding Merkel after the election in September this year

There are three main candidates in the running - all middle aged men from Nordrhein Westfalen
- Friedrich Merz
- Armin Laschet
- Norbert Röttgen

So who's going to win?

For ages it looked like Laschet was the clear front runner. Prime Minister of Nordrhein Westfalen (NRW), and with a kind of folksy-beergarten manner, it looked good for him.

But then came COVID, and in the first wave it looked like NRW was pushing to open up too early, and questions started to be raised as to whether he would be up to the job...

Laschet's star is falling

The candidate profiting is Merz. The comeback kid at 65 years of age would take the CDU more to the right - which seems to be what a slew of the 1001 delegates (esp those from the states of eastern Germany) want. That despite the pragmatic line of Merkel being +popular than ever.

Thread: Some thoughts as we go into the re-election of Trump. About 20% of the country is hard-core leftist. These people would love to see America become a communist dictatorship, and they’re silly enough to think it will benefit them.

But that leaves 80% of the country that is NOT hard core leftist. Of that 80%, another 10% is hard core Democrat. They’re going to vote for Biden no matter what we find out about his corruption, because they’re willing to sacrifice the country for their progressive vision.

That leaves 70% of the country that isn’t irredeemable. Of that 70%, 20% will normally vote Democrat, because, well, their fathers did or because the media has them convinced that GOP is evil (and Dems are either not or less evil) or just because. But they can be swayed.

And a lot of swaying has been going on. Between the riots, and the anti-American posturing of Dem politicians, $2 trillion “health” plans, banning oil production, and other craziness, a LOT of swaying has been going on. Gays, blacks, Hispanics, all have been migrating to Trump.

Mind you, some of them still won’t be swayed. They’ll either reluctantly pull the lever for Biden or they’ll stay home. We’re seeing some of that staying home factor in the voting numbers coming in from various states. The rest will vote for Trump.

THREAD: In the aftermath of Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, far-right groups, pro-Trump militias, and white supremacists are revelling in the chaos caused, all while continuing to spread their propaganda & disinformation. Here is a small sampling:

The neo-fascist Proud Boys hate group bragged on social media about the fear they helped cause, while their leader (who was arrested on Jan. 5 and barred from DC) told them to “never stop fighting”

The NSC 131 white nationalist hate group—founded by former member of neo-Nazi terror group the Base—was present at the insurrection & later posted photos of stolen Capitol police gear while bragging about their role in storming the Capitol

This is a quite disgraceful and shameful update from the @barcouncil. Not *one word* on the government's decision - pushed through Parliament days after it was announced - to strip - without reservation - cardinal democratic and fundamental

Not so much as a whisper about the fact that the government has, by secondary legislation imposed under an Act that was before never envisaged to give such widespread powers:

- Removed wholesale the right to protest - something that even this government has said, in representations to *Zimbabwe* should not be done in response to this very virus;

- Banned all communal worship, despite its chief advisers admitting in evidence that there was no empirical evidence about the risk of infection;

- Continued to restrict the rights to family life, including by preventing the right to access to the 'home' for those considered to live in a different household, one give specific protection by the ECHR: Buckley v United Kingdom (1996) 23 EHRR 101 at [63];

PA 2020 voter fraud summary:

✅ PAGOP votes unanimously for 2019 Vote-by Mail Law.

✅ PADEMS move to push to 2021 to give more time to integrate.

✅ PAGOP blocks because they want straight-party voting struck down for 2020.

✅ 2 Dead moms vote Trump 👵🏻💀

✅ Biden wins PA.

A baker’s dozen of simps in the US Senate will absolutely not change the the hard truth Joe Biden will be President on January 20th, 2021.

And Deadbeat Dan in Texas owes Pennsylvania $3M in handsome reward for reporting voter fraud.

Every tweet in this thread are cold hard facts. You cannot dispute the veracity any of them.

No one even tries.

Cheesy, overwrought performance art is all they got left; but a deeper truth is, that’s all they ever had.

PA Voter Fraud Case Number 1:

Look. #Congress needs to #STFU with calling what happened, yesterday, an "#insurrection." It was a group of people who occupied a building, perhaps guilty of vandalism & trespassing...but that did not require a man to shoot a unarmed WOMAN at point blank range.

The way #Congress just side-stepped an actual MURDER by their people & desperately ignored crowds outside that felt disenfranchised by a contentious #election, really shows how much most of them don't give a F about constituents--their purpose was to represent their voters.

And to even temporarily "ban" the standing #POTUS on social media should never have been allowed. I think the #CEOs of #Twitter should be arrested for that. They don't lead out country. #Trump should have declared social #media a "public utility"--when that happened.

Whether people "like" #Trump or not...#Twitter should not have the power to circumvent the standing #POTUS from communicating with the public, especially during what many deemed an "emergency"...

And another thing I want to say to people who are overly critical of #Trump--especially those in #Congress--do you fucking idiots know how laws are made? CONGRESS introduces proposed laws and votes on it...any complaints about *policy* should be directed toward CONGRESS, first.

📺 Watch @Ianblackford_MP and your SNP MPs at #PMQs as they hold Boris Johnson and the Tories to account on their reckless Brexit obsession.

⏰ Tune in now: https://t.co/RlaW0Pb2tx

.@Ianblackford_MP: “Mr Speaker, In the last few hours, the President of the European Commission said that the ‘next few days are going to be decisive’ in the Brexit negotiations.”

.@Ianblackford_MP: “With just two weeks to go, it is a disgrace that businesses and people have been left with this crippling uncertainty and the real threat of food and medicine shortages ahead of the new year.”

.@Ianblackford_MP: “One year ago, at the general election, Scotland rejected this Prime Minister, rejected this Tory Government and rejected their extreme Brexit.
 
People in Scotland now need to know the price they will be forced to pay.”

.@Ianblackford_MP: “Ahead of any vote in Parliament, will the Prime Minister commit to releasing a detailed economic impact assessment of the cost to the UK of his extreme Tory Brexit plans?”

1) Not every column is vindicated by subsequent events but, unhappily, this one in @JNS_org from Monday was: Why the #Georgia Senate runoff hinges on the tribal culture war about @realDonaldTrump.

2) The GOP's loss of both #Georgia Senate runoffs was in part caused by changing demography & weak candidates. But it was also entirely avoidable. Instead of a referendum on #Warnock & #Ossoff, it was a referendum on #Trump.

3) Had the president & those who believe every word he says & every conspiracy theory floated by his acolytes who won't accept the reality that a majority of the nation rejected him, not spent the last two months re-litigating that loss, the Senate would not have been lost.

4) Trump visited GA only twice to campaign in that time & spent both ranting about the delusion that he won instead of trying to ensure that the GOP had the means to prevent a radical transformation of the country that would erase his legacy.

5) Yes, the Dems are hypocrites & there were irregularities & likely some fraud as is the case with every election. But the idea that magical Communist software or mass dumps of illegal votes decided the election was as much of a conspiracy theory as Russian collusion.

The Libertarian-billionaire funded Right pretend free speech is threatened from an authoritarian Left, yet 90% of UK campaigners say their free speech is threatened by hostile right-wing politicians & media using them as “fodder for phoney culture

Nearly two-thirds of campaigners say politicians are increasingly negative & less tolerant towards charities which actively fight for social justice, with politicians “shutting down channels of communication, & attacking campaigners & their allies as a threat to the common good”.

Examples include criticism of the @nationaltrust by the "Common Sense group" of Tories for publishing a report into historical slavery links at some of its country house properties. The MPs used an antisemitic conspiracy to accuse the Trust of "cultural Marxist", “woke” agenda.

Also cited was Priti Patel’s targeting of “do-gooders” and “lefty” "activist lawyers" in a speech at Tory party conference, despite Law Society complaints that the home secretary’s earlier comments about “activist lawyers” had led to a racist assault on an immigration lawyer.

Unicef was accused last month of a “political stunt” by Jacob Rees-Mogg after it funded food support for deprived children in south London, while Tory MPs reported Barnardo’s to the charities regulator after it published a blog discussing racial inequality and white privilege.

I got one of those messages I sometimes get from a reader, telling me that including my politics in my muses/blogs is off-putting.

As a general rule, I don't bother to respond to these. I gain and lose followers all the time, everyoen who makes content does, for all sorts of reasons, and that's just one more.

Today, though, surrounded by all of this, I feel like I want to give a more full statement on the matter.

So.

To Whom It May Concern:

Please regard 100% of what I write as deeply infused with the spirit of my positions on philosophy, politics and society, as I certainly do.

The software trade has a great many problems, but among the most debilitating and dangerous is the steadfast refusal to adequately incorporate the humanity of the makers into its culture, organization, and reasoning.

1. Tues. 29 Dec. Sidney Powell Lays Out Election Fight: https://t.co/7JcNdhdKTD

During a radio interview with Todd Herman, pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell gave an update on her ongoing 2020 Election fight:

2. “The very night of the election many people saw something that they had never seen before in the history of our elections: votes being changed on the screen in front of them, going from President Donald Trump to Joe [B]iden.

3. “The morning after the election, even that night, the voting stopped. They stopped counting in multiple districts at the same time before the vote got to 270 electors for President Trump. That’s never happened before. The only time votes have ever stopped being counted in...

4. ... this country on election night was when the Broward County problem developed over Hanging Chad’s in one county in FL. So for FIVE states to stop counting on election night is absolutely unprecedented. They did it because the vote count for the Electoral College was...

5. ... about to hit [+ go over] 270 for President Donald Trump because of the massive outpouring of votes for him that night.

“By the next morning, multiple mathematicians had contacted me to say that they knew the algorithm that had been run to change the votes. It was...

Dear Republican Party,

No, we will not be moving on. We reject your attempts to change the subject because we see them for what they are:

You're desperately trying to escape accountability for the role you played in #TrumpsInsurrection on Wednesday. // THREAD

As Thomas Paine said, “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”

And until you take responsibility, we do not trust you to do the job you were elected to do.

Lest anyone think I am only talking to Republicans in Congress, I am not. I am also pointing my fingers at every Republican in state legislatures as well.

For 4+ years, you either actively pushed lies spewed by Trump and his allies, or stayed silent in the face of those lies, which perhaps you now realize allowed them to take root and spread.

Taking only the most recent lie as an example -- Trump pushing the lie that he won the Nov. election in a landslide -- you all helped him push that lie, and that took root in tens of millions of Americans, and radicalized many of them as you bore witness to on Wednesday.

The 2020 election witnessed an unprecedented and coordinated effort through public-private partnerships to improperly and unlawfully influence the election for Mr. Biden.

1. We witnessed a two-tiered election system in which state and local officials targeted Biden constituencies to turn out the vote while targeting Trump constituencies to depress the vote.

2. There was a use of private funds to pay election judges and officials who managed the way ballots were received, accepted, cured, and counted.

3. We witnessed private interests dictate and encourage local election officials to violate state laws protecting the integrity of the ballot.

4. We witnessed the consolidation of voting counting centers to justify the delivery of hundreds of thousands of ballots to one location, removing Republicans from their lawful right to view the receipt, handling, and counting of ballots in the consolidated counting centers.

1. Phony Joe Biden.
Joe Biden is truly an ambulance chaser.  He had nothing to do with the vaccine that is about to be made available to the public, he had nothing to do with the manufacturing process that is already underway,

2. and he had nothing to do with the distribution process that is set in place, all of which were superbly instituted by President Trump and his team.

3. So, there he is, at a podium, reading from a teleprompter, telling us how he will follow the science, how he will distribute the vaccine, etc.,

4. now that Pfizer announced today that its vaccine is ready to go very, very soon (obviously, Pfizer chose to hold back its announcement until after the election).

5. This is the kind of bullshit we are going to hear from this clown (to quote him), who did absolutely nothing and has done absolutely nothing.