OK. India's External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar is about to speak to @mfullilove at @LowyInstitute and I'm going to live tweet. Please mute if you don't care about India's foreign policy (you should though you numpties, it's stupendously interesting) 1/

Jaishankar was previously the head of MEA (comparable to @dfat Secretary) before becoming Minister. Fullilove asks which job is more satisfying. Jaishankar doesn't quite answer but says the ministerial role gave him a "broader" view of both domestic and international politics 2/

Now to Jaishankar's new book "The India Way." He says the core ideas he's exploring in the book are "multi-polarity and re-balancing." A "new architecture" is being built as power shifts. But countries are now far more interdependent. This creates "constrained competition" 3/

Jaishankar also says a new "more expanded" view of national security is emerging, which includes things like "health, food, trade, data and energy" 4/

The Minister says he also "indirectly" broaches the argument over US decline in his book. He says he's "not a great believer" in US declinism, but adds that as relative power shifts "it creates an argument for a different relationship between the West and India" 5/

NEW/THREAD: A forthcoming analysis from @TRACReports says @BuzzFeedNews has filed more #FOIA lawsuits--58-- than any other media organization in the US during Trump's presidency.

Here's a look back at the secrets my colleagues & I pried loose in 2020

1/

We started off 2020 publishing some of the most important and highly sought-after documents from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: summaries of FBI interviews with key White House officials.

In February 2020, @BuzzFeedNews secured more than 1K pages of emails from NOAA related to Trump’s "doctored" map of Hurricane Dorian — dubbed #SharpieGate — and the panic, outrage, and internal revolt it triggered among top officials at those

That month, we also filed a #FOIA lawsuit against DOJ for docs related to Barr's intervention in the Flynn & Stone cases. Emails we obtained brought to light the behind-the-scenes drama between the lead prosecutor in the Stone case & his

The federal response to #FOIA requests, which was already shitty, got worse during last year’s coronavirus outbreak. Some agencies used the pandemic to justify cutting off responses altogether and to abruptly halt the processing of FOIA requests.

But we fought back. We sued.

5/

This is what propaganda looks like.

Notice how they all speak the same words at the same time, the cathedral, and how the sheep in your life start repeating them all in chorus.

The dehumanization of groups of people, in the case conservatives, liberals who are *not* social justice Marxists or authoritarians, Christians, Jews, people of color who are conservatives, anyone who voted for Trump, the police & military, etc has already begun.

It began a long time ago actually. Watch some Uri Bezmenov and his discussion of demoralization. But I didn’t notice it until the acceleration in 2016/2017. I had been blind.

We are in the middle of another acceleration of dehumanization and this one is unlike anything we have seen in many many years, though humans have seen it before, many times throughout history.

Dark days ahead. But there is light on the horizon. Things are becoming so dystopian that more are able to see it. Strap in.

Absolutely.

A thread on papers that show the positive impact of having #women in #politics.

(1/n)

Women as #Policy Makers: Evidence from a randomized policy experiment in #India

Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo

https://t.co/vVMJosWGEX

(2/n)

Are #Female Leaders Good for #Education? Evidence from #India.

Irma Clots-Figueras

(3/n)

#Health and the Political Agency of #Women

Sonia Bhalotra (@SoniaBhalotra), Irma Clots-Figueras

(4/n)

Powerful #Women: Does Exposure Reduce #Bias

Lori Beaman (@LoriBeaman), Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo,
Rohini Pande, and Petia

(5/n)

Effect of #political decentralization and #female #leadership on institutional births and #child mortality in rural Bihar, #India.

Santosh Kumar (@santosh_econ), Nishith Prakash

This centenary year has seen a resurgence in publishing of books and pamphlets by the Communist Party. 📚

It has been a year where we discovered much about our history and the members who contributed so much to the shaping of the modern union, women's, anti-racist anti fascist, anti-imperialist and peace movements.

A year in which the Party talked for itself rather than let others define our history, or describe our policy.
A vibrant struggle of ideas; communists as builders of peoples movements and of struggle for improvement in the daily lives of workers, their families and communities.

It is the Communist Party that, for 100 years, has never lowered the Red Flag of socialism. There have been some high points in the year, not least a requirement to go for a fourth pressing of our programme, the Britain's Road to Socialism, since March.

And of course there was the Centenary for Socialism launched at a 'Making History' live event.

We are proud that the following publications, in addition to clearly setting out our line of march, are of a high standard of research and are well-written and designed.

The White House just released details about building the National Garden of American Heroes — or as I prefer to think of it, the Social Studies Hall of Fame.

Some notes on what Trump won in his war against symbols:

Last summer, Trump gave a July 3 address at Mount Rushmore. His speech dwelt on vandalism and symbolism. He compared the effort to suppress BLM protests to America's participation in WWII.

That was the roll-out for the National Garden of American Heroes:

Trump signed another executive order on June 26 on monuments and memorials. This order spelled out severe consequences for people accused of destroying federal *and even state* memorials, including sentences of up to 10 years.

Trump's order on monuments was hugely consequential. Lawfare obtained a DHS document authorizing "expanded intelligence activities necessary to mitigate the significant threat to homeland security" — domestic surveillance of BLM — rooted in this order.

Then-AG Bill Barr also found in the White House executive order on monuments the authority for "Operation Legend," the deployment of federal law enforcement to Portland and other cities.

One year on: 9 things you need to know about the 2019 General Election

1. The Conservatives won a big majority… despite only increasing their vote share by 1.3% on 2017

2. Smaller parties got crushed – as usual. Nearly 900,000 votes for the Green Party across the UK equated to exactly one Green MP.

In contrast, it took just 25,000 or so votes to elect an SNP MP (thankfully, both parties back proportional representation!)

3. The ERS predicted with 100% accuracy the result in the majority (56%) of England’s seats – 300 of them – before polling day

For the 16 million-plus voters in these seats, it may have felt like there was barely an election happening at all

4. Around 14.5 million voters are unrepresented across the UK (they didn’t pick the one winner in each seat)

That’s a marked contrast to proportional representation, where we'd end one-party-takes-all results at last

A thread on the #ElectoralCollege as voting gets underway. This is day that 538 privileged people out of 239 million eligible voters actually get to vote for president and vice president. 1/11

A reminder that "college" is probably the wrong term. That word does not appear in the US Constitution. By design, the full set of electors never actually meets as a group. 2/11

This bizarre and antiquated system violates the fundamental norm of "one person, one vote." States such as mine get showered with attention from the campaigns while most others are ignored. It is well known that voter turnout is higher in the battleground states. 3/11

What is often overlooked is the system also makes elections less secure. An election that turns on a few states is easier for a malicious actor to get a foothold. Hacking a decentralized national system is nearly impossible, but targeting a few states is not. 4/11

The system also fosters partisan disputes. When it all comes down to a few battlegrounds, political parties are incentivized to manipulate election rules, file lawsuits, & generally do all they can to win by small margins. 5/11

@NickNYIslesMets @kiki_cliff @Peaceforus21 @NYCMayor As you say it is unclear but there is little to no legal precedent other than two instances in recorded history the Supreme Court because of how the Constitution is laid out properly and it is written pretty strongly i don't believe at all they will rule anything.

@kiki_cliff @Peaceforus21 @NYCMayor As a constitution spreads out as interpretive only incumbents a tool that was used literally so America's impeachment law would not be used against private citizens. It is highly unlikely with little to no chance that the Supreme Court will give congressional power that way.

@kiki_cliff @Peaceforus21 @NYCMayor More likely they will refuse to hear the case.

@kiki_cliff @Peaceforus21 @NYCMayor And you have the conservative majority so

@kiki_cliff @Peaceforus21 @NYCMayor As a betting man I would say odds are like I said Above This impeachment is Dead on Arrival the Democrats know this that's why they're going to try to delay even sending the Articles to the Senate not back until the 19th.
Trump will go free and be entitled to all of his benefits.

How many more Temples (oops sorry Capitols and Court Houses) are going to be fenced off in the US ?
Asking for a fren . 😎

Good afternoon! Today, @JakeLahut and I will be live-blogging the joint session of Congress to count slates of presidential electors, led by @VP Pence, where we expect GOP lawmakers to object to multiple states presidential electors for the first time

In addition to my explainer on the Electoral Count Act process for objecting to electors from yesterday, which you should go check out, here’s a little thread rundown of what we can expect to see today

As a quick terminology note, you may see some places refer to today’s events as “certification,” but Congress isn’t really certifying anything — they’re just counting slates of electors that have already been certified in the states

Pence’s role is purely procedural. There will be four tellers, two from each party, who will read out every state’s certificate of their electoral votes out of a special box. Unless one member from each chamber raises an objection, the states’ slate of electors is accepted

Per reporting from @poliitco and other outlets, it seems like the GOP has enough support from representatives and senators to object to slates of Biden electors from Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania (could be more or fewer depending on how the day goes)

Weeks before the election, a bombshell story broke with the release of Hunter Biden's laptop. The contents contained two scandals; one salacious and disturbing, one a clear outline of foreign corruption involving his father. The stories were spiked and censored to protect Biden.

HOW IT ENDS: The heated partisan politics of Capitol Hill will jump to scorching today, when TRUMP’s staunchest GOP allies will launch a formal, public and futile effort to keep him in power by overturning the results of the Nov election. w/⁦Lillis⁩

The extraordinary gambit has convulsed the Capitol in the final days of Trump's reign and cleaved the GOP into warring factions - divisions that will bear long-lasting implications for both the future direction of the GOP and the success of ambitious 2024 hopefuls.

Such challenges have been tried before, but not on this scale: At least 13 Senate Republicans and more than 100 House Republicans are expected to vote to reject certification of Joe Biden’s EC victory

With Trump agitating his base and threatening to recruit primary challengers to run against disloyal lawmakers, many Republicans, particularly in the House, feel that it would be political suicide to defy him.

“We don’t have a choice,” said one.

What you need to know about today’s Electoral College challenges @alexanderbolton & @juliegraceb

NOW: Sen. Bob Ballinger is presenting his stand your ground bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill would end the duty to retreat. #arnews #arleg #arpx @KATVNews

Ballinger, present with an NRA representative, has introduced an amendment that cleans up the language he says. (The amendment passes)
Now he's presenting his bill w/ amendment to the committee. #arnews #arpx #arleg @KATVNews

Ballinger: In short, you're going to hear this is a license to kill - that isn't the way it is in California or Illinois or other jurisdictions. We have worked with AG's office, prosecutors, law enforcement... #arnews #arpx #arleg @KATVNews

NRA Rep: SB 24 does not encourage violence or give anyone a license to murder. This is a very narrow concept that simply protects victims of violent crime that choose to defend themselves before attempting to flee. #arnews #arpx #arleg @KATVNews

Sen. Stephanie Flowers: A convicted felon has the right to have a weapon at their dwelling and use it to defend themselves?
Ballinger: It's saying they don't have the duty to retreat, but you can still prosecute for felon in possession of a weapon #arpx #arnews @KATVNews

@IndLeftNews @BenSpielberg @jimmy_dore (1) The #ReplacePelosiJan3 & negotiate w/other Speaker candidates 2 THEN #ForceTheVote + get more changes campaign was drowned out by the FTV movement. Today, the FTV ppl on the ground in DC r condemning Squad votes 4 Pelosi. Way too little & way 2 late.

@BenSpielberg @jimmy_dore (2) But, a more important 1, is that the Squad felt free 2 decide how 2 vote on Pelosi w/o consulting the ppl's movement. These advocates of bottom-up democracy did not practice it all when it came 2 the most important decision they would make during the next 2 years.

@BenSpielberg @jimmy_dore (3) They're not the only ones of course. Bernie Sanders did the same thing when he dropped out of the pressidential race. His "Not me. Us!" movement suddenly turned into an "it's my decision alone", affair. That enraged me at the time. It still does. After extracting all that ...

@BenSpielberg @jimmy_dore (4) work & money, often from poor ppl, he didn't feel he had to consult w/anyone else but, at most, his inner circle about whether it was time to support Biden or not. Going beyond progressive "leaders" however, I think all our politicians in our "democracy" feel free 2 take ...

@BenSpielberg @jimmy_dore (5) support of all sorts from us w/out involving us in decisions they are taking that are critical to our lives. Very few of them talk bottom-up democracy, but even those who do, practice top-down democracy, in which they mobilize us for fundraising & 4 coming out to vote 4...

THREAD: What the world wants from John Kerry in 2021

Re-joining the #ParisAgreement isn't enough, say 25 climate ministers and advocates we interviewed from six continents. Deeds before words: Legislating a tough 2030 U.S. emissions reduction legislation is 1st serious step

2) But the world wants the words too, hoping Kerry will be world's climate cheerleader: convincing reluctant and developing country governments (also with $) to set aggressive climate goals, which many pinpoint as including carbon neutrality by 2050.

3) World's moved on from Obama era. Jacob Werksman (the EU’s international climate adviser) warned Obama alums on Biden’s team “they can’t expect to be treated the same way” as four or eight years ago

4) Net-zero emissions by 2050 — once an activist slogan — is now a guiding framework for policy across the G-7. “It is a totally different political and historical moment right now,” Costa Rican minister @AndreaMeza76.

5) @timothydadams, President and CEO of @IIF warned against the U.S. aiming too low at home, creating policy divergence with the rest of the world. He urged the Biden administration to “broadly align with the rapidly evolving global climate policy framework.”