1/ Republicans and Reactionaries, a thread.

There will be post-mortems ad infinitum on how Trumpism rose and fell, but those narratives will always be incompete or deliberately evasive if they don't reckon w/the fact that the GOP itself made Trump possible.

2/ It's undeniably true that we have always had fringe, extremist movements in the USA, whether Know-Nothings or Birchers. What kept them on the fringe was their comparative *political* irrelevance.

3/ Since the Goldwater campaign in 1964, however, the Republican Party began adopting elements of extremist/fringe ideations, slowly at first and then with gusto.

4/ It started with Goldwater's paeans to "State's Rights," which have always been a stalking horse for institutionalized racism. After Buckley's pro forma denunciation of the JBS, it then accelerated with incorporation of anti-UN ("anti-globalist") notions.

5/ Well-documented in the literature, the craven Southern Strategy of the late '60s through mid '70s -- another overt/covert appeal to racism (cf, the notorious Lee Atwater "n****r n****r" interview) -- continued the GOP's embracing of the hard(er) Right...

Thread:
What does State Sponsored Genocide on ethnic #Amharas and #Agaws in Metekel Zone in BSG look like?
Representatives of ethnic #Amhara residents in Metekel have travelled to #BahirDar to raise the ff grievances:

Ato Ayal Engide

“In April 2011,Ethiopian Calendar(1/)

[two years ago], right after Ethiopian Easter, they(ethnic Amharas and Agaws) were forcibly chased out of the rural parts, before they could even finish their Easter celebrations. When we knew we were next, then those of us who were in the urban areas, ended up moving to (2/)

Amhara Region. In May, there was a reconciliation between Mandura Woreda in BSG and Guanga Woreda in Amhara RS. All of us that were displaced believed that this was a true reconciliation and moved back to BSG. But those from the rural parts were still not allowed to go back. (3)

“Targetted killings of ethnic #Amharas and #Agaws has been happening for a while now. But recently, it has been out of control. For example, three brothers who were my neighbors were killed in 2011. Their names were Habte, Ayalew and Yeshewas and are all buried together. (4/)

After the reconciliation, the BSG administration started bothering us again. 12 families were killed in Banjimago. We can tell you by name who are doing these killings and it’s the Zonal administration. (5/)

I’m honestly just so sick to death of seeing hypersexualised female celebrities. It’s so, so damaging and to think that my nieces are growing up surrounded by it makes me worry constantly about the next generation of girls and women.

And it’s so fucking prevalent. Hypersexualised female celebrities are the norm, not the exception. Especially black/brown women. When I think about how every single Top 40 song sung by a female is about male pleasure, it hits home how profoundly mired in patriarchy we are.

Can we just have female celebrities that aren’t forced to sexualise themselves? Is that too much to ask for the diet that young girls grow up on?

Ariana grande’s latest album is *literally* named after trying new sex positions—for a man. The most famous pop song by women of last year, WAP, was literally about male pleasure and the lengths women will go to for it, and included the lyrics, “I wanna gag, I wanna choke.”

Don’t even get me started on the imagery. The music videos, the photography. The constant fucking nudity. The way almost every dance move is an allusion to sex.

Here's a happy story to end the week. For years @RonJichardson and I had fantasised about going to New York. For almost as long as we'd known each other we'd dreamt of going and having a holiday there. In 2011 we sorted it and set off on our adventure.

We went for 10 nights which is a long time in New York. It was emotional. For both of us NY was the land of dreams. Seeing the Ghostbusters Fire Station is still one of the highlights of my life. My main memory is of the bars. I think we went to every bar in New York.

The best thing about going for 10 nights is you can do the tourist stuff pretty quick and then you're just mooching about as if you live there for a week. The days are long, especially when you're doing a pub crawl every day.

One of the games we'd play at home was The Lookalike Game. On a train, in a pub or on the Tube you'd spot someone and say "over your right shoulder, looks like a short Les Dennis" or "by the bar, a male Barbara Streisand". It was purely for our own amusement.

Towards the end of our trip in New York we're walking down a busy street in downtown Manhattan. We're playing the lookalike game. Jon says "he looks like Billy Connolly". I look up and there's a radiant man in a North Face gilet. He didn't look like Billy Connolly.

1 / A thread about ‘gender markers’. I’d never heard of the term until I visited a friend in hospital after they’d just been castrated and had their penis inverted (‘bottom surgery’ in gender woo woo speak). I went along to be supportive and gave my friend a pink “It’s a girl!”

2 / card. Because I knew that would make my friend feel good. Also brought a cupcake, stuck a candle in it and celebrated the new ‘birth day’. At one point I reached for my bag on the floor and as I got back up unsuspectingly caught a glimpse of the bloodied bandages in between

3 / my friend’s legs, that was only visible from that particular angle. “You’re having your first period!” I squealed nervously, and felt a weird pang in my groin, knowing my friend used to have a rather sizeable and beautiful penis b4 the surgery and now it was all so... flat!

4 / We laughed and my friend also joked about having been worried that the newly created ‘canal’ wouldn’t be deep enough (for penetration, I assume), but that the surgeon had said it was pretty deep (due to big penis) & my friend better be careful not to lose anything down there

5 / There were 2 other friends there - males identifying as women. The talk was all about surgery, and particularly FFS (facial feminisation surgery). I never knew that was a thing. FFS is about reducing or removing the appearance of ‘gender markers’. I felt so naive and asked

1/9
Insights gained from helping EX SERVICE PERSONNEL, who have entered the criminal justice system to progress into employment

I have had the privilege of meeting numerous veterans in prison & helping many to secure permanent jobs in the community.

#InclusiveRecruitment

2/9
People leaving the armed forces need more support than is offered.

Some have complex resettlement needs including mental health challenges & struggle to adapt to civilian life.

Many have non-mainstream qualifications & struggle to secure employment without practical help.

3/9
Most veterans are used to having a regimented structure to their lives & rules to follow.

In the absence of such structure, many dwell on their experiences & slip into despair; others turn to drugs, alcohol,or crime.

Employment helps, providing a support network & stability

4/9
Veterans who are suffering from diagnosed or undiagnosed PTSD make up a surprisingly high percentage of the prison population.

"10,000 UK armed forces veterans are in prison, parole or on probation." Liz Saville Roberts, Justice, Plaid Cymru @LSRPlaid

#PrisonersArePeople

5/9
Years ago politicians promised veterans a career in the prison service after discharge.

Unfortunately, those promises were not delivered; thousands of Armed Forces Personnel did come to prison - BUT not as officers, instead as prisoners themselves.

#PrisonersPeopleToo

“Hey DDD, men will sleep with anything? Right?🐷” Oh boy! That’s a view I’ve heard many times before. Like a lot of folk psychology, there’s a tiny kernel of truth🌽here that's blown way out of proportion. And I think I know what it is… [1/17]

First of all: There's a full spectrum of mating pickiness both sexes. Men so picky they never lose their virginity and women with unusually low standards. There’s a lot of noise and variation. Thus, we should be sceptical about neat black and white🐧claims about the sexes. [2/17]

That being said, there are often patterns to be found in the noise. Enough to draw some conclusions about the *typical* mating behaviour of each sex, but not enough to predict the behaviour of individuals with a high degree of accuracy. [3/17]

One of those patterns appears to be that more men than women “lower their standards” when it comes to sex. But, and here’s the important part, it’s in a particular context: short-term mating. [4/17]

Humans, by and large are pair-bonded mammals. From megacities to small bands of hunter gatherers, humans seek a special partner to fall in love💕and share their life with. And as far as we know, this has been the case thousands (perhaps millions) of years. [5/17]

THREAD: In 2013, Wade "It's time for me to get mine!" Robson debuted his tall tale accusations to universal disbelief, even among heavily guilt-centric audiences.

Of all pundits, Harvey Levin & TMZ staff were actually the most vocal in pointing out the absurdity of his claims.

When the details of Wade's claims first emerged and following his NBC tell-all, the overwhelming majority of TMZ's userbase (who have always been critical of MJ) also doubted them.

- 92% Didn't Believe Wade (168,500)
- 75% Wade Big Fat Liar (412,713)
- 75% MJ Not Pedo (612,329)

Initial sources in TMZ's circle suggested Wade's claims were based on "repressed memories" - The unfounded junk science commonly used in false CSA accusations (including those made against MJ by Kapon and Bartucci Jr.).

Wade made a point to tell Lauer it wasn't repressed memory.

TMZ correctly noted the lawsuit was about "wanting money from the estate" despite Wade claiming otherwise.

They showed videos of people calling the claims out, including Omarion & Joe Jackson.

They included Mesereau quote: "Why call yourself a creditor if it's not about money?"

TMZ aired a phone call w/ Debbie Rowe who expressed staunch disbelief about these claims—Levin agreed.

DEBBIE ROWE: Wade's publicity-seeking attempt is opportunistic & oozes in falseness. It will quickly be forgotten and will do nothing to tarnish MJ's extraordinary legacy.

Yesterday, the CDC released new guidelines for schools. Clear, science-based guidance was long overdue, so everyone was agog all week.

Did they get what they wanted? This is a long 🧵, buckle in.

Before I dive in: I have no agenda here. I am not anti-kids, anti-schools or anti-teachers. The only thing I am is anti-virus. I follow the science, but despite what both sides insist, the science is not straightforward, or we wouldn't have this much division and dissent.

So, back to the CDC guidelines: Pro-opening advocates hoped for a sensible read of the evidence and teachers unions for strict precautions and vaccinations. Did they get what they want? Short answer: No.

There is no issue that is more divisive right now (ok, masks and vaccines). But kids of all colors are suffering, and the long-term loss of education and emotional toll might be devastating. OTOH: the rates in the US might be dropping but objectively they are still very high.

Schools should be the last to close and first to reopen, but many communities have not done that and probably will never. Those communities have not "budgeted" for schools by closing bars and restaurants. In fact, many are now reopening closed businesses before schools.

Thread — I’m very happy and relieved that my elderly parents got their first shot of the coronavirus vaccine this week. But the story of how they got it is nucking futs and illustrates just how messed up the vaccine distribution system is. 1/?

Just for background, they are both Pennsylvania residents living right now in South Florida and they are both between 65 and 75 years old. They own a small condo in a retirement community. They both have co-morbidities, like most people their age...

They watched in horror when Trump held huge rallies in Florida that spread the virus and they hung their heads in disbelief as Gov DeSantis bungled the response every step of the way. They did the best they could and were very lucky not have caught it...

When the vaccines started to be sent out, they wanted to wait to get their shots until after healthcare workers and people over 75 got them. They were confused by the lack of information about distribution and tried to get information, to no avail...

Inside their retirement community, the residents tried as much as they could to get a vaccine distribution outpost deployed there, but nothing ever happened. The phone line advertised for information led to nothing, when it wasn’t jammed. Emails disappeared into the abyss...

Do the events in Ondo and Oyo states remind us of anything?

For me, it does. First, the gradual but sure erosion of the sovereignty of our nation-state. Note: I exaggerate the meaning of sovereignty here: that ultimate power of the state that resides in the people.

A thread

Our sovereignty is a fiction as it doesn't lie in the people; it lies in the cabal - a fiendish cohort, gang of criminals who have captured the nation - state.

Secondly, it highlights the Yugoslavia-tion of Nigeria. Or what my friend @ChidiOdinkalu describes as the

gradual restructuring of Nigeria. How can restructure happen without it being noticed? We've to look in the direction of Yugoslavia to understand how 6 ethnic nations - with same language (Serbio-Crotia) - were forced into a union and how centrifugal & centripetal forces worked

to destroy it or knolled the death's knell as someone described it earlier on my timeline.

Inspite of, three issues are emerging from the Ondo and Oyo saga:

1. The reassertion of the civic public - or what I call the civil activia - the active civic.

Here, there is a growing insistence by the people on the sovereignty of the people: the people have become the counterweight to forceful power and are resisting attempt by power to determine state protection. Sunday Igboho represents this

Vaccines against the three major killers of the world's poorest: TB, HIV and malaria are unlikely to have vaccines anytime soon unless vastly more money is committed to researching them, according to the Bill Gates-funded Gates Open Research...

Combined, HIV, TB and malaria kill up to 6 million people a year worldwide, yet the foremost leading voice for production of vaccines in the world says getting vaccines for them is not a priority. Why is that?

When one considers that only about 500 people die of TB in the United States a year, it becomes clear that millions dying in Africa, is not important enough to warrant putting more effort into researching vaccines for them

This reveals - albeit expected - a level of hypocrisy from those who claim to want to save the lives of Africans from a pandemic which doesn't even do anything to Africans, at least relative to the Big 3 killers...

Furthermore, other solutions including a hepatitis C vaccine, a combination vaccine against the four leading causes of deadly diarrhoea and a rapid TB cure have been identified by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and by extension the WHO as non-priorities

Y’all, my Great-Grandfather was on his second day as the newly appointed deputy sheriff when he was shot and killed by escaped convicts whom he caught robbing a gas station. The law at that time required that they be put to death, and the verdict was unanimous...

Four men who were involved (the oldest being 23) were condemned to die in North Carolina’s cutting edge gas chamber. His widow, my great-grandmother, was a devout Christian who actually believed what Jesus said and lived like it. She(!) started a petition to NC’s governor...

To grant clemency to the men who murdered her only husband. Moved and shocked by her holiness, not only did the trial judge sign the petition, but EVERY (!) juror signed as well. Governor Hoey received it, and...

On March 6 1940, just an hour before the four condemned were to meet their bitter almond asphyxiation, the governor called and granted clemency. The men served time and were eventually released. The newspaper has as the only quote of one, “Praise God!”

Personally, I understand the death penalty. People do awful things, and I don’t find it heart wrenching that they meet this fate. Yet. I am Catholic: this means I fully accept the teaching of the church whether I ‘feel it’ or not. Mercy heals the world, not vengeance...

Part of the ecosystem we need to contend with is that the federal grants from which many research assistants and postdocs in science are paid set the pay for RAs and postdocs too low. Faculty may feel tempted to shrug and pass on the bad pay without pushing back. That’s fucked.

If your grant doesn’t allow you to pay certain salaries, be up front during the hiring process about that. I talk openly to my students about why the numbers are what they are, depending on my funding source.

It is also the case that when I apply for grant money, I try to ask for a higher than typical salary and I do try to justify my request in my budget justification. I still haven’t won a grant with a postdoc in it so I don’t know how that’s going.

In the long run, I’ve reminded my students and postdoc that I think unions are great!

A union contract that binds the university to pay them a certain among actually makes it so that my request to federal agencies is “this is what I am required to pay.” Academic unions ftw!

I also think that all faculty should, to the extent of their ability given their circumstances, participate in advocating for an increase in minimum wages and an increase in federal and state funding for science and universities to cover the increased cost.