Since a lot of my fellow Texans are going to apply for aid through @FEMA let’s talk about the agency and some of the barriers disaster survivors encounter and persisting program flaws.

First things first, @FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Here’s a blog I wrote about its history and shortcomings in how the agency is funded:

Many people will be applying for Individual Assistance (IA), but past disasters have shown us that help isn’t evenly distributed and frequently struggles to reach those in deepest need. This unpacks some of the class bias in accepted/rejected apps:

Of course, there are racial dimensions to this as well:

Documentation is seen as helping reduce fraud, but after a disaster many docs are destroyed. People who are denied assistance and appeal are often told to make small changes to the documents they provide or provide updated documentation b/c of how long the aid process takes.

@RepSwalwell Why are you still trying to pretend you still have credibility?

Let's go over exactly how you sold us out. Let's talk about sealed indictments?

Let's show the •••••

We the PEOPLE are the ones with the voice!

Your job is to listen!
Thanks @Yes1amtheBoss! Pic

Part 2

Those who missed Part 1 here it is https://t.co/myV2RhzsxJ 1/n

The Toilet issue also brings to my mind memories of my childhood

We always had clean toilets.

But my grandparents lived in an Agraharam (Village) where there was only one toilet, which was in abysmal condition.

You wouldn't dare enter the toilet, because it was pathetic 2/n

I was asked by my father to go and stay with my grandparents for at least 2-3 days a month, and I would dread at the prospect of using that toilet.

Most of the time, I wouldn't and return home with severe constipation, or stomach cramps. 3/n

My grandfather never used the toilet and used to defecate in the open. This caused us considerable embarrassment whenever he visited us, and complaints would flood in from people in the neighbourhood. 4/n

I was a frequent traveler by train in my youth, and the number of people defecating in the open along Railway Tracks always made me angry.

I could see ladies getting up hurriedly whenever the train passes them, protecting their modesty. 5/n

1. D*eep State Threats:

D*eep State threat Security audits have been completed over the past 36-48 hours.

Military helicopters were flying over Los Angeles and southward to Laguna Niguel and Dana Point, in southern CA, sniffing out D*eep State radiological, bioweapon...

The nuance of this issue is that while the left positions all of this as an organized, massive movement of white supremacists in the traditional way of understanding them, their attempt at 'multiracial whiteness' demonstrates how they are struggling to manage the complexity.

Fellowship of the mystery: SALVATION FOR ALL

Ephesians 3:9 KJV
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

The gospel (1 Cor 15:1-5) is preached to all..

because it is for all, God desiring all to see what Christ Jesus has already done for them, as God wants no man to be eternally lost (1 Tim 2:4). He wants as many as hear to participate intimately in this plan of redemption ("fellowship").

1 Timothy 2:4 KJV
Who will have all...

men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

This gospel is not just given to Israel only (law/prophets/kingdom) any longer but now to all, that none would perish. God beckons all to come to Christ (2 Pet 3:9) and to salvation, which has been His purpose..

from the moment Adam sinned (Gen 3:15; Isa 45:22), since God from ancient times has no pleasure in any being lost (Ezek 33:11)...

2 Peter 3:9 KJV
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that...

any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Isaiah 45:22 KJV
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

Ezekiel 33:11 KJV
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death...

If a small child scrapes her knee, her parent might "kiss it better". This does nothing, but both parties appreciate the ritual. Hanson finds that empirically, many medical interventions do nothing, but we pay for them, because they are an adult version of "kiss the boo boo"

Our institutions are prodigiously wasteful. Under the feel-good veneer of win-win cooperation—teaching kids, healing the sick, celebrating creativity—our institutions harbor giant, silent furnaces of intra-group competitive signaling

trillions of dollars of wealth, resources, and human effort are being burned to ash every year, largely for the purpose of showing off... institutions do end up achieving many of their official goals [but] they’re simultaneously serving purposes no one is eager to acknowledge

People are judging us all the time. They want to know if we’ll make good friends, allies, lovers, or leaders. And one of the important things they’re judging is our motives. Why do we behave the way we do? Do we have others’ best interests at heart, or are we entirely selfish?

Because others are judging us, we’re eager to look good. So we emphasize our pretty motives and downplay our ugly ones. It’s not lying, exactly, but neither is it perfectly honest.

I furnished a list of items to a newly wed couple (South Indian) who are setting up their home in B'lore. This list is indicative & should serve as a ready reckoner just so that they wont have to scratch their head thinking what is needed. Additions/deletions will be there 1/n

Sofa Set - 2+1+1 - Go for Wooden one with Cushion. They last longer and the cushion can be changed later. The rexine stuffed sofas look great but dont last more than 3 years. Most of the time they use very cheap wood inside, as they are covered. 2/n

A glass topped wooden teapoy that matches with the sofa set.

Cot - Instead of a Double Cot, suggest go for 2 Single Cots and join them together. This way one gets more space, and it is easy to clean under the Cots. 3/n

Go for matching orthopaedic mattresses. They support the back. Go for slightly harder ones

4 Pillows

At this stage guest cot is not required

2 Seater Dining Table with 2 Chairs should suffice and saves space

4 Plastic/ Deck Chairs that can be stacked 4/n

Refrigerator - Invest in at least a 270 litre - 300 litre as Fridge lasts long. Go for 2 door but ensure to buy one that has a smaller freezer. Frost Free with a higher Star Rating - 5 or above. Look for 7 years warranty for compressor. Buy a good brand 5/n

THREAD

1. Dear Primary, Secondary, Further ed and Higher ed colleagues,

Many of you may have experienced working with our youngest children- but as the "foundation stage" the work that happens in these early years will be of great importance to you....

2. Right now whichever phase we work in- whether it is a baby room or a university- it is fair to say that we are all working flat out to do the very best for those we work with. But in this thread I wanted to share with you some of the mess that our sector finds itself in...

3. Firstly- whilst most schools and educational establishments are closed to most students, and whilst we battle with Zoom, teams, google classroom and as lateral flow testing starts to be rolled out- the picture in the sector working with our youngest children is very different.

4. This is the first real piece of mainstream media attention we have seen.
*Cases are rising.
*Staff are not on immunisation plan
*No lateral flow testing on site.
...and if they close to protect staff/children- they may never

5. Now imagaine within your own sector- imagine if you were told there would be a new statutory test coming into force from September 2021. A test that would take you away from your pupils before you've got to know them. A test that won't be for your benefit- or even theirs.

1) Seeing a lot of attempts recently by NRIs in Canada & the usual Khan Market gang to drive an artificial wedge between Hindus & Sikhs in order to overtake the ongoing dialogue between farmers & government for their own malicious agenda.

A thread-

2) First of all, Sikhism IS a different religion legally and we respect that. But neither party can deny the common structure, shared culture & heroes - two branches of the same tree. Recent attempts at Abrahamization and subnationalization are both dangerous & fake.

3) Guru Gobind Singh-

"Sakal jagat main Khalsa Panth gaje
Jage dharam Hindu sakal bhand bhaje"

"The Khalsa sect will roar around the world. Hinduism will awaken, its enemies will flee."

4) Idolatory and worship of deities was common practice in Gurudwaras as late as 1920s when the Khalsa Akali movement took over. The Sikh empire had ritualistic pujari Santani Sikhs until the mid 19th century.

There was no us vs them. This "othering" is very recent and top-down

5)"Hindus, do not fear, Guru Tegh Bahadur is Guru Nanak's successor. If Muslims bother you, I'll take care of them. For I am the protector of Hinduism."

"... To ham hain sab sadar Arya Dharma rakshak pragatiyo hain"

It's odd that 2020 is almost over and I've not seen one person the whole year go viral for using astrology to predict how shit a year it would be this time last year.

Not one post from november or december last year going "the stars say pandemic, lockdown, unemployment, your parents will die." Etc

It's been a whole year. One person would have gone viral for having a post this time last december saying their astrologer predicted basically *any* part of this year

At the same time: remember the sheer joy of thinking he was dying? Billions of people eagerly urging that to materialize? Wishing all the negative energy you could possibly want on one man?

Kinda disproves that whole thing, huh.

2020: the year woo failed, entirely.

Not even preppers got out of it. They were the first people to start proudly coughing in each other's mouths to own the libs upon their fantasized biological disaster finally occurring.

Criminalisation of drug use results in the mass incarceration of people who use drugs. Illicit drug offences represent the second most common offence for custodial sentences in Australia.

Beating the drug epidemic is going to take a holistic approach.There is no one-fit all solution to the scourge of drugs it has to be a combination of education, good parenting,mental health services, better rehab facilities in our regions & prisons & getting tough on dealers.

Harm minimisation programs such as pill testing and safe injecting rooms & needle exchange programs won't solve the drug epidemic but they do save lives, they do make the community safer & they minimise the harm to the drug user, their families & the community.

Once a drug addict arrived at my prison the damage has already been done to the addict, to the families of the addict and to the community.

We don't need issues like this to become a political point scoring debates. Whilst our politicians continue to ignore that harm minimisation programs work young people continue to die from bad pills at music events and from dirty needles.

Every argument against raising the minimum wage involves pointing to some other part of our broken system as if it were a beloved cultural treasure to defend rather than just the next unacceptable thing that needs fixing.

“How is it fair to pay people making minimum wage $30k a year when high school teachers start at that?” as if stagnant wages for teachers were an unrelated matter; don’t worry, Bill, we’ll get to it.

Everyone should have the means to survive and thrive and if the current system doesn't provide for that then nuts to the current system; we shouldn't work for it, it should work for us.

This is (pretty obviously to me) the real reason our leaders are so resistant to giving people the relief money needed to combat Covid.

They can't risk exposing the truth that you can actually just give people the money they need and nothing will break.

Our leaders are working to protect a system, but they shouldn't work for the system, they should work for us. The survival and thriving of human beings is the goal. Any part of any system that doesn't work toward that goal can be jettisoned.

Is this obvious, it feels obvious.

This is big. Seems the Sunday Times had to win court approval to publish. Here's the evidence provided by the experts to the court in the Keira Bell case.

"Gillberg said there was “growing anecdotal evidence that many would regret their decision to undergo the biological sex change”. Doctors should tell families that they were “dealing with a live experiment on adolescents and children”."

Gillberg: “Thousands of adolescents are being offered ‘treatment’ with puberty blockers, sex-contrary hormones, and then, finally for some, with a variety of surgical procedures...

... In the UK as in Sweden, this is in spite of the non-existent research evidence that these treatments are of any long-term benefit to the young people in question,” he said.

"Gillberg, who is also chief physician at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg, is on a list published by the media group Thomson Reuters of the most cited and influential researchers."

I think I'm having one of the biggest aha moments I've had all year, which is that in many ways folks who belong to the "woke" left & those who belong to the "reactionary" right want the same things; & in this context, I mean it not as a critique, but an opportunity for hope.

Ladies and gents I sense a thread coming along. ;)

If you ignore the toxic impulse some folks on the left have to label certain things as "whiteness," what they claim to want is to actually create the conditions that fight against alienation and isolation.

If you look at some of the documents floating around in DEI circles, they define "equitable cultures" as those that value "interdependence & collaboration," "seeing discomfort as growth," & "seventh generation thinking" which is a philosophy that comes from the Iroquois tribe.

If you boil down much of it (& again, view the weird "whiteness" piece as a bug & not a feature), what is actually being requested is a deviation from the factory-oriented/central planning styles of work and a more communal oriented way of work life.