The stunning announcement of >$6B in philanthropic donations in one year by @mackenziescott deserves wider

Fine piece by @nkulish in the @nytimes that addresses some of the key

But this should be just the start.

Important first to put the $6B total in context. Total grantmaking in 2019 by @darrenwalker at the @FordFoundation was ~$350M. Total at @Hewlett_Found was ~$450M.

So @mackenziescott is ~15x some of the largest and most discussed foundations.

To the best of my knowledge, what we know about her philanthropy stems from a total of two posts on @Medium.

No address. No website. No known staff. We don't even know much about the entities she's using -- DAFs, LLCs, private

What's interesting about her philanthropy?

*Proves it's not that difficult to give away a billion dollars.
*No strings attached giving - all general operating support over multiple years
*No reporting requirements, AFAIK

1.
WoLF submitted an excellent brief defending women’s rights under Title IX👇👇:

"Plaintiffs ask the Court to proclaim that women & girls are no longer a discrete category worthy of civil rights protection, but men and boys who claim to have a female ‘gender identity’ they are”

2.

If the Court rules in their favor, it will mark a truly fundamental shift in American law and policy that strips women of their Constitutional right to privacy, threatens their physical safety, undercuts the means by which women can achieve educational equality, and

3.

[...] ultimately works to erase women and girls under the law. It would not only revoke the very rights and protections that specifically secure women’s access to school athletics, but would do so in order to extend those rights and protections to men claiming to be women."

4.

"Women and girls are thus protected under the law from subjective beliefs about whether and how women should work, vote, have children or not have children, and how they ought to look and behave.

5. U.S. civil rights law recognizes the need to protect people from the subjective beliefs of others, including subjective beliefs founded on sex- stereotypes. ...In stark contrast, being ‘transgender’ depends on the continued existence of sex-stereotypes.”

Thread: 1. Hyperreality comes from the observation that in postmodern society the division between virtual and the real becomes illusive. Hyperpolitics is the blending of hyperreality and politics, or of politically themed infotainment (especially conspiracies) and politics.

OUR HUSBANDS TAKE OUR CARS, SALARIES AND SPEND IT WITH GIRLFRIENDS: HON NHARI

HON. VAIRET NHARI: Thank you Mr Speaker, I want to add a few words on the issue of violence even members of Parliament we suffer from domestic violence. @GMCZimbabwe @wlsazim @womensvoicezw @MAZ_Zim

HON. NHARI: If I am given a motor vehicle, and take it to the constituency, the husband will deny me the use of that vehicle saying he is the one who permitted me to go to Parliament.

HON. NHARI: So, you must not use the car and female Members of Parliament will end up using public transport to conduct Parliament business. The husbands take our salaries and spend it on beer and girlfriends.

HON. NHARI: That is abuse and children that grow up in such families go into early marriages because of stress. The fight between the mother and father makes children sad and some will turn to drug abuse as well as prostitution.

HON. NHARI: Members of Parliament let us teach our people that they are some lawyers that offer services for free such as @ZimWomenLawyers and MUSASA. They can assist you if you are involved in domestic violence.

Who are all the hypocrites who voted against abolishing the Tampon Tax back in 2015 but have had a sudden change of heart? First up, Steve Baker, Conservative MP for Wycombe.

Next we have Bernard Jenkin, Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex. The patronising way in which he calls Stella Creasy "feisty" really shows his commitment against sexism. Nice job!

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor and Conservative MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, also voted against the 2015 motion to abolish the Tampon tax. What's with the autographed graphics, Rishi? Do you think you're some kind of rock star?

Harriet Baldwin, Conservative MP for West Worcestershire has posted the lie that it was EU membership which prevented us ditching the Tampon tax. Harriet, you voted against the 2015 motion to abolish this tax. Have you forgotten?

James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk didn't post his own tweet. But he did retweet Rishi Sunak. James, how soon you forgot your vote in 2015 against abolishing the Tampon tax!

//thread/

This was the very first experience I had in an LGBTQ social circle when I first openly came out as a lesbian at 18. I had just gone through a difficult breakup and was depressed and lonely for lesbian community, so I thought I would go to my university’s Pride Club.(1)

Pretty much all the members were female, with the exception of one gay man and one trans woman (who was 31). Not one single girl in the group identified as bi or lesbian, but rather several combinations of ‘queer’, ‘pansexual’, ‘genderfluid demisexual’, and ‘non binary’.(2)

We began by introducing ourselves and stating our preferred pronouns. I already felt super out of place but I went along with it anyway. When introducing myself as a lesbian, the head of the club kindly asked me to refer to myself as ‘queer’ or ‘gay’ so as to be inclusive of (3)

everyone’s identities. I apologized and agreed to the terms but it stirred up something inside me, pretty much the exact same feeling I had when I came out to my family and they refused to acknowledge or accept that I was a lesbian.(4)

The topics of discussion ranged from dating, gender expression, and the difficulties Victoria faced as a ‘trans lesbian’ and how so few people in her life would validate her identity. Victoria was showered with praise and support, and not one single person had any (5)

all the boy cousins split off to talk about romances and personal growth since the last family reunion. the girl cousins go down to the creek to smoke cigarettes and throw knives

our conversation inevitably turns to the dark and mysterious world of the girl cousins. “why do they smoke those things? they smell so nasty!” teddy cried. “i saw a pack of birth control pills sitting out on lisa’s desk,” ronald said somberly.

quickly a consensus is reached that we need to find out exactly what the girls are talking about. gerald and i volunteer for recon. spying seems dishonorable but we agree bigger things might be at stake. edwin caught tara rolling her eyes at the Sunday school teacher.

we slip down to the creek by a trail cut by a jack rabbit. as we sneak, sly and quiet as foxes, the sense of boyish mischief departs and an oppressive feeling sets upon us instead. the thicket grows darker and the shadows twist the wrong way. we look at one another very coldly.

coming to a bank looking over the sand bar we see the girls sitting cross legged in a circle darkly painted on the sand. one girl sits in the middle but her face is covered by a kind of mask. a deer’s head. fat black flies buzz around her and her chest is painted sticky red.

I keep seeing people on here suggest that making fun of the neo-Nazis undermines an understanding of how dangerous they are. I disagree. I think ridiculing them is both good and necessary. A short thread:

First: ridiculing Nazis is a great American tradition:

Satire is a potent cultural weapon and has been utilized in a political context since ancient times. It serves several functions: in a scenario where it's used to skewer people in power, it's a way to speak truth to power.

In a context more like this, where it's used to ridicule a guy in a silly costume who demands organic food for his shaman diet, it serves a related but slightly different purpose. Everyone needs to understand how dangerous that guy is.

And his stated desire to assassinate members of Congress make that clear. But if you only understand that guy as emblematic of a visceral danger to both individuals and the republic, and only portray him as a grave threat, you run a different risk:

The Horn-Locking Exercise: State Governors versus Herdsmen

The dangerous insecurity experienced nationwide got to a head in Ondo State with a vacation order from the government to all illegal occupiers of the State's forest reserve areas.

#EndInsecurity
@edobong_akpabio

Ondo State has been in the news for months now for the high rate of kidnapping, armed robbery, murder and callous attacks on citizens travelling on the highways, in broad daylight, by criminals hiding in the bushes and forest reserves and suspected to be herdsmen.
#EndInsecurity

The story is the same all over the country - brazen criminals, masquerading as herdsmen attacking, maiming and killing innocent people, even razing down whole communities with impunity. Farmers have been some of the hardest hit, with loss of lives and property.
#EndInsecurity

Some of the scenario described by the farmers include; farms invaded/crops destroyed and farmers kidnapped/murdered/injured in unprovoked attacks by the criminals; crops harvested illegally to feed their cattle, farms razed in arson attacks, ambush attacks, etc.
#EndInsecurity

Today, there are terrorists in the NE; bandits in the NW; kidnappers-for-ransom on the highways; & criminal herdsmen (+ others) attacking the rest of the country. In most cases, the criminals are alleged to be herdsmen of Fulani extraction, carrying AK-47 rifles.
#EndInsecurity

I wish he was more direct about how we got here, but this is powerful. Pandemic response has had a devastating impact on 100s of millions of people in poor countries. Covid death is *not* the only thing that matters. How come this isn't the focus? 1/x


"Starvation is agonizing and degrading. You lose control of your bowels. Your skin peels off, your hair falls out, you hallucinate and you may go blind from lack of vitamin A. While you waste away, your body cannibalizes itself: It consumes its own muscles, even the heart." 2/x

"the U.N. warns that famine is looming in Yemen, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria, with 16 other countries slightly behind in that trajectory toward catastrophe" 3/x

"Outside of the rich world, the casualties are not octogenarians with the virus so much as children dying of hunger because of economic disruptions, or middle-aged adults dying of AIDS because they can’t get medicines." 4/x

"Lockdowns meant that casual laborers had no income, and tuberculosis patients couldn’t get medicine. Campaigns to battle malaria, polio, AIDS and vitamin A deficiency were left in disarray." 5/x

Why did this young black man die after being arrested?

Mohamud Hassan was arrested, detained overnight, released from police custody without charge. The next day he was dead.

Support his family to help them find out why

#Justice4Mohamud

2/ In America, you're 5 1/2 times more likely to go to prison if you're black
In Wales, you're 6 1/2 more likely to go to prison if you're black

Mohamud's family are fighting for justice.
Watch the video & share it with the hashtag #Justice4MohamudHassan

3/ Mohamud's family are fighting for justice. You can support them by donating to their crowd justice fund to help them pay for legal representation and independent investigators. #Justice4MohamudHassan

4/ #Justice4Mohamud

On 09/01/21, Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, a healthy young black man, died shortly after his release from police custody with severe injuries. We want to find out why he died, and take appropriate action.

5/ How did our beloved Mohamud die?
Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, 24, was arrested by South Wales Police at his home on the evening of Friday 8th January 2021 for a breach of the

THREAD: It’s important to hold each criminal accountable. I will say this on what has become a daily basis. The criminal conspiracy run out of the WH pre/during/post 45** is global. When piecing together a conspiracy as large as this naturally Prosecutors want the “big” 1/

fish arguably 45** (certainly) & equally important, his puppeteers. My professional opinion is smart attys both state & federal have been piecing together the puzzle since whiff one. 45** & crew pretty much included every crime imaginable including murder & for that the 2/

time necessary to make your case is significant. But we have people to deal with ASAP like DeJoy who continues his push to destroy USPS & maintains his enormous conflicts of interest. We have the riot guide & insurrectionists. We have Rudy & ppl like that Eric fella. We have 3/

the necessity to build an independent/apolitical agency to hold all these criminals accountable. We have the illegal pardons & the deliberate deaths of 400,000 souls at the hands of Jared & everyone else. We have the call with GA to flip the election & Graham’s call for 4/

the same. We have Nunes exposed during the 1st impeachment trial along w other legislators. We have the Mueller report & we have Barr politicizing the DOJ. He conveniently resigned prior to the riot & there’s no way he was unaware of the crimes about to happen. That is a crime 5/

my 2020 was boring and sad and lasted forever and i lost my job and had my left fallopian tube try to murder me and i got pumped full of poisonous drugs that made me sick and i cancelled my trip to ireland and my car was totaled and there were rats in my furnace but i didn't die

oh also i had emergency surgery and evacuated my home because of a month of horrific wildfires that burned up the whole canyon and my dad's friend george with it. but that's all

i mean aside from the plague obviously and the getting tear-gassed in my own backyard in my vegetable garden by a gang of jackboot thugs. and every politician i supported losing spectacularly lol

BUT DID I DIE??? NO

that's basically all i did tho, not die. i didn't read any books. i did some silly little crafts that brought me no great joy. i went camping once and tried to make the best of a sad damp social distanced outdoor friendsgiving. i didn't learn anything whatsoever

A horrifying report from the Government Office of Accountability (@USGAO) on two secretive and abusive DHS programs at the US-Mexico border. Before the analysis, a reminder that neither @POTUS nor DHS secretary nominee @AliMayorkas have agreed to end them.

Very troubling to see the stunning lack of context on the length and conditions of detention from @USGAO. @CBP held asylum seekers in unsanitary, punitive conditions well beyond the 72-hour limit. GAO also takes for granted certain false or misleading assertions by DHS.

Before I dig into those issues, a couple of highlights from the data. CBP placed a total of 5,290 people into either program (HARP for Mexicans, PACR for non-Mexicans), which hold asylum seekers effectively incommunicado while they are rushed through a “credible fear” interview.

Of the total, at least 3,730 people placed in the
programs were removed from the US. There are about 50 people in detention now pending removal (whose cases should be reviewed given the deportation moratorium!). These folks were all denied a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum.

The majority of people placed in the programs were families with children (not single adults). Only 20 percent of those asylum seeking families spent 7 or fewer days in CBP border jails, which is already way too long. 86 percent of people spent "20 days or fewer" in border jails.