having a cup of tea while waiting for a shortening / molasses / boiling water / brown sugar slurry to cool enough to add yeast to it, so hey, howzabout a quick sermon about the nature of God and how we do or don't see it reflected in the godly, and in poseurs? a thread:

I have to start with heavy sticky theological stuff that I personally am underqualified to fully parse so bear with me. There are many ways of understanding omniscience,

and people have for millennia debated whether an omniscient being would necessarily be able to see the future before it happens --

the God of the Bible, the O.T. God, is generally considered by believers to have this power of precognition. Anti-choice people lean hard on Jeremiah 1:5 in this regard ("Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you"),

and of course if we take prophecy to be the literal reading-out of future events (I don't, but that's a different sermon), then precognition is a whole Godly thing, it's one of His main lookouts. With me? OK:

Proud Boys Out In #WashingtonDC Chants Of "Fuck Antifa"☕

Source: https://t.co/3HW3zh6cwM

More Video Of The Proud Boys In #WashingtonDC

10AM Tomorrow Proud Boy Will Meet Up Again #WashingtonDC

Proud Boy Has A Speech And A Prayer With The Group #WashingtonDC

Proud Boys Meet Up With Other Patriots In The Streets #WashingtonDC

Here is a synopsis of a situation outside of our place in DC Saturday night and some things to think about going forward about the limits of policing. (1/?)

So, about two hours ago, there was a man across the street from where we live screaming and threatening no one in particular on our side of the street.

It's unclear from my vantage whether the man is mentally ill or was simply intoxicated, but suffice it to say he's not in his right mind during this outburst.

In a major US city, this is not particularly unusual, though anyone in the immediate vicinity could be excused for feeling uncomfortable.

I'd imagine description would read something like: B/M, 6'0", 30s, grey hoodie, black pants, pacing & yelling in threatening manner.

For 15-20 minutes, he was totally left alone. At some point, MPD was called, and they came-- but no lights or sirens, established a very loose perimeter--and let him continue to rant at nobody in particular.

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

#Assange extradition verdict is due shortly. I will be reporting on the case through a remote video link to the Old Bailey. #Assange #Assangetrial

We can now see the dock in court 2 of the Old Bailey as we wait for #Assange to arrive. The verdict is scheduled for an hour, but may be over more quickly. #Assange #Assangetrial

Assange has been charged in the US of 17 counts under the US Espionage Act and 1 count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. #Assange #Assangetrail

There is no public interest defence to charges under the US Espionage Act. Prosecutors have also indicated that Assange will not benefit from first amendment rights as he is not a US citizen. #Assange #Assangetrial

The case has potentially huge implications for journalists and press freedom. It could criminalise many standard journalist practices, such as gathering information from sources and protecting their identities. #Assange #Assangetrial

1/15 You'll hear a lot of talk today about how what happened yesterday is extraordinary and antithetical to our history. It's important to reject that idea, not out of cynicism or pessimism but because that pretense of innocence is dangerous. Let's talk about U.S. Cruikshank.

2/15 Cruikshank is a case virtually every single con law casebook discusses though most con law professors don't necessarily spend a great deal of time talking about but it's instructive about how we frame yesterday's events.

3/15 In Cruikshank, decided in 1875, SCOTUS considered whether, under the Enforcement Act of 1870, the federal government had the power to prosecute members of a white mob that killed between 80 to 150 Black people. The case was essentially about a mass lynching.

4/x The Court concluded Congress lacked the power to authorize such prosecutions because the massacre involved criminal matters constitutionally left to the states. In short, the court said the massacre was a series of murders and it was up to the states to prosecute such crimes

5/15 The thing is if you read the opinion, you'll get a vague sense that a mob was charged with violence but you'll never get that it was about the 1873 Colfax Massacre - the single deadliest instance of violence during Reconstruction and one that occurred because of an election

THREAD: Been thinking a lot about images of the Jan 6 Capitol Hill attack, Inauguration Day, and cognitive dissonance. It got me wondering how, if ever, we could bring conspiracy-minded loved ones back into the fold. (1/N)

My initial reaction to conspiracists freaking out over Biden’s inauguration was schadenfreude. But then I started questioning why I was reacting this way, and if there might be a teachable moment for many of us. (2/N)

I’ve been pretty quiet on Twitter for a while now; most of my work is more behind-the-scenes nowadays, and my time away from Twitter has been recuperative for me. (3/N)

So I haven’t talked about the enormous amount of time I’ve spent over the last year monitoring domestic extremist and conspiracy-based online communities. The well of hate I see in these spaces seems bottomless. (4/N)

And yet when I spent Inauguration Day monitoring Gab, MeWe, MyMilitia and other places where white nationalists, Q believers, etc gather, alongside the usual hateful rhetoric, I saw confusion. People truly struggling to process what had just happened. (5/N)

THREAD: Today, @courierjournal published Beyond Breonna, a series on systemic racism and how Louisville can end it.

It was spurred by the death of Breonna Taylor. But these issues have existed for generations. People are tired of the same

As @FBruceWilliams said: "It kills me when people ask, 'Well, what do you want?' ... Why is it so difficult for people to believe (a Black community) wants for its residents the same opportunities, services, convenience and quality in their

The series covers disparities in health, education, housing, employment and criminal justice.

We start with health because Black people are dying younger in Louisville - from homicides, chronic illnesses and now the

Environmental conditions - such as access to healthy food, quality housing and clean air - contribute to higher rates of illness in Black communities.

And disparities in treatment have made Black patients mistrust the

Alisha Beatty had 7 miscarriages before she said doctors took her seriously and looked into the cause.

"I was always told, 'It's an act of God, these things

This man spent almost ₹50 lakh, let go of his 3BHK dream to run a ‘Rice ATM’ for the needy in #Hyderabad

https://t.co/QdULpAMYaV

In the gruelling months of the #coronavirus lockdown earlier this year, several stories of migrant workers and the poor being stranded without jobs and money emerged. This also led to the emergence of stories of @SonuSood and the likes – the real heroes who offered help.

One such story is that of Ramu Dosapati, from Hyderabad-
an HR executive in a corporate firm, he has been running a ‘Rice ATM’- a 24X7 supply of rice and other rations for the needy in Hyderabad since April, 2020.

Dosapati claims to have spent almost ₹50 lakh out of his own pocket and has no intentions of claiming it back.

Just about a month into #lockdown, Dosapati’s younger son wanted to have chicken for his birthday. Dosapati went to the nearest shop to buy chicken, only to find a security guard buying chicken for ₹2000. “I was quite surprised as to why this lady is buying so much chicken...

1)

While @staceyabrams credits me & my wife w/ investing in GA "before it was logical," the signs were there if you knew what to look for. The question now is who's next?

In my latest for @thenation, I point to 4 factors for turning a red state blue. THREAD

1.) Favorable demographic trends

Texas has the second-largest pool of nonvoting people of color (after already blue CA), and the numbers of potential voters of color far exceeds the margin of difference in statewide elections.

Joe Biden lost Texas by ~600k votes, and despite the record turnout on both sides, 4.5 million eligible people of color still did not vote according to exit polls and census data.

2.) "Level 5 Leaders" also known as:

Leaders who combine personal humility with indomitable will and are "infected with an incurable need to produce results" for the cause.

and Brianna Brown are Abrams-like Level 5 leaders who have built a relentless and effective civic engagement machine that has helped tip electoral outcomes in cities and counties across the state.

1/ To all who answered my question ab the college spread run game, I'd argue that RichRod & Urban were the first devotees & developers to have major success with it. RichRod started at wvu in 2001 & Urb at BG also in 2001. It was Urb's unbeaten 2004 Utah team that hit bigtime.

2/ In an interview I heard that season, Urban noted that so much of what they were doing was based on Tom Osborne's offense using inside & outside zone principles, but just from the shotgun. That's how the game almost always evolves-someone borrows something and tweaks it...

3/ the evolution of the "zone read" goes something like this: 1) teams needed a way to control the cutback defender on IZ run plays, 2) the naked bootleg was the first constraint play off IZ, 3) then came "orbit motion". Both of these actions created conflict for backside DE...

4/ SG teams used IZ as a base run play so they also used the naked and orbit actions. The legend goes that one day in pract a RichRod QB accidentally "read" the BSDE rather than just handing the ball off on an IZ play. They started tinkering with that and found that it worked...

5/ this solved the major shortcoming of the naked and orbit actions--both those things were "guesses". If you called naked, and the bsde didnt squeeze the cutback, your qb could get a face full of hard plastic and metal. By reading him from the SG, this problem was solved...

Thread on Al Qaeda & Taliban:

Ever since Joe Biden has won the elections, we’ve seen some fascinating proposals about the future strategy of Afghanistan. Almost all the analysts and think tanks were dissatisfied with Talibans commitment to break ties with Al Qaeda,...

1/9

... which is a serious matter of concern for the United States.
Although the Taliban have agreed to break ties with Al Qaeda but we’ve seen some recent reports that the two groups are sill collaborating.

2/9

The relationship between Al Qaeda & Taliban is decades old, they’ve helped & stood for each other in most difficult times. When the Taliban agreed to begin negotiations with the U.S, they knew that they would have to break ties with Al Qaeda or other Islamist militants.

3/9

Taliban knew that breaking ties with Al Qaeda will be America’s primary demand, they entered the negotiations after they had a consensus on breaking ties with Al Qaeda.

So far we’ve seen evidence that Al Qaeda has endorsed US-Taliban peace agreement, this suggests that...

4/9

... Taliban had Al Qaeda’s consent for negotiations with the US. Both parties agreed that breaking ties was the only viable option in order to achieve their primary goal of expelling ‘all foreign forces’ from Afghanistan.

5/9

I've been speaking with Charlie Brown, Managing Director at @Chartwells_UK over the last few days.

I've been losing my patience a bit. It's not been as quick as I wanted, but we are here now. Some of this was organised today, some is from other days but here's a round up:

1/

Over the February school holiday, if there is no Government funding for #FreeSchoolMeals, at all the schools @Chartwells_UK is working in, Charlie commits to putting out boxes anyway.

So if @BorisJohnson @RishiSunak & @GavinWilliamson won't step up by then, Charlie will.

2/

From now, the school lunches boxes from @Chartwells_UK, are also going to cover breakfast as well. Chartwells will take the extra costs associated on the chin. They are fully aware they need to do better, and this is something we both feel is positive. (That was his idea).

3/

All the hampers that went out in the first week, like my rubbish one, that you all saw, aren't being billed. Chartwells need to suck it up. They can't charge Local Authorities (schools) for that now can they! That was an early point of agreement, so you may have heard of it.

4/

Starting with my school, and with a lot of input from teachers, kids & parents, Chartwells will improve the menus for lunches served at school (dinner hall ones). All schools have different menus, so this is a long term project, it'll take a while, but it's important.

5/

#YemenCantWait there is the most brilliant plea for an end to the War on the People of Yemen right now at https://t.co/V4hiU04urX What a TRIBUTE to the #Yemeni People. SO many really care for #Yemen, @joebiden must ends the label of the #Houthis as a Terror Organisation.

Great to hear this from you on #YemenCantWait and looking forward to seeing you cease USA logistical and military support to #Saudi on their campaign in #Yemen, and that they pay reparations and lift the blockade. Yes please send that AID. @ABlinken

Couldn't be more proud to hear @johnfinucane on behalf of @sinnfeinireland and #IRELAND at the #YemenCantWait @Zoom Conference tonight.

Millions of Children, (1.5 times our population in Ireland), do not have access to safe water in #Yemen STOP the #Saudi blockade.

says that Ireland must be a symbol for PEACE. Immediate Ceasefire and Lifting Blockade DEMANDED. Funding must be restored. We have seen our share of poverty, war and hunger in the Ireland past, we will not stand by and endure that others feel it. #YemenCantWait

@FranceInsoumise now "#France selling arms, canons, missiles and ships to #Saudi for offensive purposes and to commit war crimes, along the Saudi #Yemen Border. France in breach of the arms trade treaty in all of its actions. IT IS NOT COMPLEX @EmmanuelMacron "