Some people in this country are sincerely confused to hear people talk about “white supremacy” in conjunction with politics in America today. At the same time, a lot of people, both openly and in private, have consternation about changing demographics in America.

Let me explain.

@MikeSington She is not a victim here.

When you’re trying to break down the last down between a violent mob you’re at the front of and a large number of sheltering elected leaders, when an officer protecting the VIPs points a gun at you, that’s the international sign for “stop!”

* the last door

So in the past nearly year and seven months of Democrats holding the House and the Senate, we’ve gotten:

- The American Rescue Plan
- The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
- Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022
- The PACT Act
- Chips Bill
- Inflation Reduction Act

All this productivity in terms of important legislation, half of it bipartisan, leads me to a question I’ve never gotten an answer to:

What would the Republicans do I’d they were in control of Congress? Specifically?

Don’t give me meaningless phrases like “stop wokeness.” What specifically would they do?

Ask them. They can’t tell you.

What are their official policies? They don’t have any. They no longer have a party platform.

They’ve had a long time now to complain about everything that the Democrats do and think about what they would do if they take over Congress.

But they haven’t used it. They have nothing. No ideas. No policies. No plans.

Except …

Kevin McCarthy promises that if the GOP takes the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, who both spoke at white supremacist conferences this year, will not only get their committee assignments back but will get better ones. He promised.

@MikeSington Looking at the tape:
https://t.co/c8rNEc0iSq

0:05 - Members of Congress evacuating from the mob
0:18 - First member of mob shatters the glass in the door separating the mob from the fleeing Members of Congress.
0:34 - Mob begins chanting "BREAK IT DOWN!"

1:36 - Officers guarding the door move out of the way, presumably to clear the way for the armed officers who are the last line of defense behind the door.
1:43 - Mob begins more aggressively attacking the damaged glass on the door (BTW, they need some better glass!)

1:58 - Member of mob shouts and continues shouting "THERE'S A GUN!" The gun is clearly visible at this point in the frame. Anyone near the door looking inside would have seen a gun pointed in their direction.

2:11 - 13 seconds after the mob started shouting "THERE'S A GUN!", referring to the gun pointed at them, Ms. Babbitt climbs up through the damaged glass of the right side door.

2:15 - Ms. Babbitt is shot.

Multiple members of the mob were shouting "THERE'S A GUN!" They obviously knew that there were armed officers, weapons drawn, on the other side of the door they were in the process of breaking down, behind which Members of Congress were sheltering in fear.

If you listen to the pundits, you’d think that the @HouseGOP did very well during the 2020 elections.

That’s not quite true.

Here’s what actually happened.

The only state in the country where the GOP had a net gain in House seats since Trump took office in 2017 is Minnesota. The party gained one seat there in 2020.

In the following states, the GOP gained seats in 2020 - but - only gained the same number of seats that it lost in 2018:

Florida
(Lost 2 seats in 2018, gained 2 seats in 2020)

Iowa
(Lost 2 seats in 2018, gained 2 seats in 2020)

New Mexico
(Lost 1 seat in 2018, gained 1 seat in 2020)

Oklahoma
(Lost 1 seat in 2018, gained 1 seat in 2020)

South Carolina
(Lost 1 seat in 2018, gained 1 seat in 2020)

In the following states, the GOP gained some seats in 2020 - but - not as many seats as the number of seats it lost in 2018, leaving a net loss of seats in the Trump era:

California
(Lost 7 seats in 2018, gained back 3 of them in 2020. GOP now holds 11 of CA’s 53 House seats)

*Heads-up that this thread will feature some extreme examples of homophobia and transphobia.*

Hey folks, have you ever wondered why trans people face constant accusations of fetishism, sexual predation and child abuse/grooming? Well, today let's talk about stochastic terrorism.

So, first we have to talk about what stochastic terrorism actually is. Remember when there was a conspiracy that there was a pedophile ring operating out of a pizza parlour basement, and a crazed gunman showed up? It's that sort of incitement that stochastic terrorism describes.

It's the demonisation or incitement against a group of people or individuals with the intent that other, unaffiliated parties will act upon it; it's the releasing doctored footage and a shooter show up at Planned Parenthood as a direct result of what he's been led to believe.

So with that in mind, let's talk about Russia's extreme anti-LGBT laws that banned the "promotion" of LGBT lifestyles to children. A move that specifically marked LGBT people as a threat to children, and resulted in neo-nazis meting out vigilante "justice" against gay men.

Groups such as this would lure unsuspecting gay men via dating sites, and brutalise and humiliate them on camera. They did so under the guise of combating child abusers, one group calling themselves "Occupy

Academic staff at universities can't be open about the complaints against them - and most complaints of transphobia from students seem to be directed at staff. I'm just a final year PhD student, under no contractual requirement to be confidential, so I can share.

The original complaint against me was typical of the sort of thing directed at many female professional academics (and some male too). The strategies employed by my complainants are commonly used.

One of these is to perform vulnerability while behaving aggressively. Performing vulnerability is essential in order to trigger the university's awareness of its duties under the Equality Act, and establish an oppressor/victim dynamic to the case from the outset.

My complainants did this effectively. The complaint was initiated by a fellow PhD student, who joined forces with the SU. A student from the SU wrote the actual complaint. This is how it begins:

In all my dealings with @HuddersfieldUni I accepted that sometimes anonymous complaints were necessary - and that, sometimes, victimisation could be a concern. However, I have never victimised anyone. Nobody has ever argued that I have.

So, I want to talk about how sexual harassment and fair pay are linked at Google (and beyond), because I think that's an angle that isn't being highlighted enough in the coverage of these walk-outs. I'm going to frame it largely around my personal experience there. Thread.

When I was sexually harassed by the director of the area I was working in, I was afraid to report it because I was worried that "getting him in trouble" would result in the subtle retaliation of missed leadership opportunities.

I wanted to continue working on the team I was on, because I'd gained a lot of very deep knowledge and expertise in that area, as well as reputation and camaraderie with the other folks working in that area. I didn't want to make the situation more "difficult."

To get promoted at Google, several need to happen: 1. you need opportunities for ownership and leadership above your current level (basically, opportunities to show you're working at the next level you're trying to get promoted to). The work you're "assigned" has a big impact.

2. You need glowing reviews from peers, *at or particularly above the level you're hoping to get promoted to.* Basically, you need people a lot more senior than you to say you're doing awesome work.

My wonderful @jainfamilyinst colleagues @laura_bmw & @Edi_Nilaj have released their new report "Student Debt and Young America," which pretty comprehensively demolishes many of the myths about who does and doesn't have student debt.
https://t.co/y02KFosRQ3
Highlights to follow
/1

@laura_bmw @Edi_Nilaj First of all, look at this one chart that tells you why the student debt crisis is happening: rising debt; stagnant income, and the gap has opened widest for minority borrowers.
/2

You look at that chart and you see the total failure of the human capital model to explain labor market outcomes, insofar as it even is a falsifiable social science hypothesis.
/3

Second, while it's true that total loan balances are increasing in income, student debt has increased most over time among the lowest-income groups. This tells you that student debt is becoming a marker of the disadvantaged rather than the advantaged.
/4

Third, balances on outstanding loans are rising over time, not declining. As I said in my last report, the student debt crisis is a crisis of non-repayment. This is why it's foolish to think the student debt is ever going to be paid back, whether it's cancelled now or not.
/5

OK winger wonderland story time boys & girls.

1. Sleet stops, it's warming up, neighbor decides get out & drive, probably after seeing some truck drive down our residential road (4-wheel drive). Neighbor has new SUV push button start, 2-wheel drive, which is NOT THE SAME THING.

2. So anyway, they back out of their garage & then pull forward down their driveway. The driveway is flat, but it's also a really really long driveway that goes from the back of the house down the side of the house. This will be important later.

3. They make it down the driveway just fine, so now super confident this will go well.

They pull out on our little residential road and start driving.

Mother nature is laughing her ass off right about now.

4. I should mention the roads through our little subdivision don't have curbs or sewers. We're basically out in the country so they just slope roads so the run-off goes into a ditch at the side of the road.

5. So anyways, their SUV starts to slightly fishtail. They haven't gone far at this point. So, they stop, and the SUV, although stopped, just ever so slowly slides to the side of the road and ends up half way in the ditch & almost tipped over.