BC TRUMP
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

Trump's border record: A brief, incomplete history w. links and numbers. Thread -->

 1) Border wall construction. CBP recently touted over 400 miles of construction. Only 80 miles is actually new wall, but the construction has nonetheless caused great harm to native lands and cultural sites, to the environment, to people whose homes are nearby.
Links:

https://t.co/iEpykHtkcW

https://t.co/HjGJKRRybN

https://t.co/HZDm3KfiNv

https://t.co/zYgeySWdYL
2) The border has been the site of family separations. Over 5,000 children were separated from their families at the border. The rollout was chaotic, and the trauma, immeasurable.

https://t.co/gUEvWKv9Mi

https://t.co/41Q6VCE2eh

https://t.co/zuYIdn9ULI
The administration forced families seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their cases wound through imm courts. Then the court hearings were suspended. ~60,000 people were placed in this program, in shelters and makeshift camps in Mexico, waiting indefinitely.
In some cases, family members were separated, with one allowed to pursue claims in the U.S. and the other sent to Mx.

https://t.co/4FdmAU1yZH

https://t.co/cghhstGOYe

https://t.co/iDysgY3n1B
Many faced violence and deaths in Mx. @humanrights1st has documented ~1300 cases of murder, rape, kidnapping, torture, and assault.

https://t.co/dHLq5N0Klb
In Oct, a govt watchdog report found that CBP purposely drew down processing capacity at the borders so as to not let people who wanted to request asylum into the country, they also turned people away after they had already entered, in violation of law.

https://t.co/YZaKCwXJ6i
As of December, 15,000 people were still on waitlist per the Strauss Center. After months of being told to stay in queue indefinitely, many left, or crossed unauthorized, just like experts said they would.

https://t.co/cSA7Pg8OjW
The Trump administration also rolled out secretive pilot policies at the border that rushed the process typically by which people request asylum.

https://t.co/AWF3PGStNE
In Feb, 2020, CBP gave these numbers for people in the above programs and those turned away through other policies.

https://t.co/zjlZh2SKZ5
In Sept, 2020 in a hearing, Sen. Sinema had updated numbers for one category:

https://t.co/LTwzyNPTMq
In March, 2020, the admin put out a public health order to summarily turn back ALL migrants coming to the border -- including unaccompanied children -- without allowing them to request protection. Altogether, in FY 2020, they "expelled" ~200,000 people. In FY 2021, ~190,000.
LINKS: CBP stats, add up "title 42" expulsions.

https://t.co/IQJQjKtK0f

https://t.co/wCcExdI8tI

https://t.co/PlTJA1WQ3S
Morgan told members of congress that the children were being screened for all types of persecution according to trafficking laws, but later told reporters that they were only being screened for torture.

See: 1) https://t.co/RGIhq17laP

2) https://t.co/3SYScJ30nO
Morgan has also insisted in many a briefing that the public health order is not an immigration enforcement tool, but a public health tool. See: https://t.co/YFekg3xQ3t

But there's plenty of reporting to suggest otherwise. See: this by @itscaitlinhd

https://t.co/XRxvhJNa98
There's a lot more, such as keeping asylum seekers and their children in detention in overcrowded facilities and mismanaging humanitarian funding, but I'll leave it at this for now.

https://t.co/b1eIPo3ZCl

https://t.co/Oc9OrbNdAD

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Noah Smith \U0001f407
Noah Smith 🐇
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1/Today's @bopinion post is about Trump's taxes, and what they show about how America allocates capital.

We appear to have some big problems.

2/Trump has a bunch of businesses that lose money. Our financial system has lent him money to throw into unsuccessful golf courses, hotels, and so

3/A lot of these loans are loans that Trump hasn't even paid back yet, using loopholes in the tax system to avoid paying taxes on those unpaid debts.

Why would creditors give money to a guy who wastes the money on bad businesses and doesn't even pay them back?

4/One seemingly obvious answer is that capital is just really cheap these days. Companies are able to borrow more easily than at any time in the last few decades.


5/But this presents us with a mystery.

Why hasn't an abundance of cheap capital caused the return on financial capital to fall? Interest rates are low, but stock returns have held up strongly.
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Paul Poast
Paul Poast
@ProfPaulPoast
What's the "value" offered by international relations scholarship?

What does it mean to think about world events "like an international relations scholar"?

Trump's order to withdrawal 🇺🇸 troops from 🇸🇴 offers a useful

This event could be viewed from a variety of angles, from the "micro-level" on up.

International Relations scholars/analysts can and do use each of the following angles, though not all are strictly speaking taking an "International Relations angle".

Let's explore the angles.

The "country-expert" angle entails discussing the event by laying out the situation within Somalia, providing details on key figures involved and perhaps how the conflict has disrupted Somalia's internal governance and

The "Military/Security analyst" angle involves outlining the details of what US troops presently do in Somalia and how they carry out their mission (including equipment, mission, and tactics).

See this @ChathamHouse report by

The "Area Studies/Regional Expert" angle involves discussing the decision as an event that will impact the Horn of Africa or East Africa more
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KB
KB
@TheKBTweets
Will Trump play the #PenceCard December 23 (today)?
Thread: Absolutely not. The assertion that he will hurts our credibility and the cause because people who trust some accounts pushing it will be demoralized when it doesn’t happen. Let me explain:

2/ For this thread again, we will assume the Electoral Count Act of 1887 is Constitutional and binding. It very well may not be, but it doesn’t appear we have any court that will ever say so.

3/ The ECA is found in 3 USC 1-21. In secs 12 & 13, it requires that on the 4th Wed of Dec (that’s today) the President of the Senate (that’s Pence) to notify the states if he/she (or the Archivist) has not received a “certificate of vote and list” mentioned in sections 9 & 11.

4/ Sections 9 & 10 are merely administrative. Sec9 says that electors from the state make & sign six certificates of the votes w/ a lists for Pres & VP & attach a list of electors. Sec10 requires the electors to seal up the certificates & certify that the list of votes are inside

5/ The Pence Card is the idea that today, the VP can review & decide that the dem electors sent by AZ/NV/GA/PA/MI/WI don't meet the reqs of the ECA and/or the Const so, in effect, the VP hasn't received proper electors from the states & has a duty to notify them of that fact.
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\u274cTimothy Tobin\u274c
❌Timothy Tobin❌...
@tatobin2
I would like to see Democrats produce even one shred of evidence or just one example of President Donald Trump calling for violence. Just one. That's all.

Meanwhile, they can enjoy their own words calling for violence repeated back to them ...

“There will be blood in the streets” — USAG Loretta Lynch (D)

“Show me where it says that protests must be polite and peaceful.” — CNN's Chris Cuomo

“There needs to be unrest in the streets” — US Rep Ayanna Pressley (D)

“Protesters should not let up” — Sen. Kamala Harris (D)

“I just don't know why there aren't uprisings all over this country. Maybe there should be.” — US House Spkr Nancy Pelosi (D)

“You get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere!” — US Rep Maxine Waters (D)

“I will go and take Trump out tonight.” — US Rep Maxine Waters (D)

“When they go low, we kick 'em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.” — USAG Eric Holder (D)

“How do you resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck?” — MSNBC's Nicole Wallace on WH Press Sec. Sarah Sanders

“I'd like to punch him in the face.” — Robert De Niro on President Trump
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THREAD: To cap off the Trump era, I interviewed a politically diverse group of constitutional scholars, presidential historians and experts on democracy to put together a definitive list of Trump's ten most egregious abuses of power. Here's what we found.

1) SUBVERTING THE 2020 ELECTION. There is broad agreement that Trump's worst abuse was his relentless effort to undermine the vote and overturn the legitimate results. No POTUS ever tried a political coup like this. It's simply un-American, experts said.

2) INCITING AN INSURRECTION. We all saw what happened on January 6. Trump incited a rally supporters in DC to attack the US Capitol while electoral votes were being counted. He got impeached for it. A permanent scar on his legacy, experts said.

3) ABUSING THE BULLY PULPIT. Different than other abuses because it's speech, not actions. But still, experts said this was a very big deal. His nonstop lying, attacks, racist rhetoric, and fanning of flames was deeply corrosive to our political culture.

4) POLITICIZING THE DOJ. Trump repeatedly crossed lines and violated norms that have been in place since Watergate to create independence between the WH and federal law enforcement. Wielded DOJ as a weapon against enemies and shield for himself and allies.
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1/x Fort Detrick History
Mr. Patrick, one of the chief scientists at the Army Biological Warfare Laboratories at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., held five classified US patents for the process of weaponizing anthrax.

2/x
Under Mr. Patrick’s direction, scientists at Fort Detrick developed a tularemia agent that, if disseminated by airplane, could cause casualties & sickness over 1000s mi². In a 10,000 mi² range, it had 90% casualty rate & 50% fatality rate


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https://t.co/sHqSaTSqtB


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Respectable Lawyer
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There's been a lot of talk about the missionary killed by the natives of North Sentinel Island. They're probably so aggressive because of this weirdo, Maurice Vidal Portman. So here's a big thread about this creep and some facts from my decade-long obsession with the island.


The Sentinelese are often described as “uncontacted,” but this not strictly true. They had a very significant contact in 1880 with Commander Portman.

Portman, the black sheep third son of some minor noble, was assigned by the English Royal Navy to administer and pacify the Andaman Islands, a job he pursued from 1880-1900 with the full measure of his own perversity.


Portman was erotically obsessed with the Andamanese, and he indulged his passion for photography by kidnapping members of various tribes and posing them in mock-Greek homoerotic compositions.


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Panic! in the Discord
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Neo-nazi group #PatriotFront held a photo op in #Chicago last weekend & is currently marching around #DC so it's as good time as any to compile a list of their identified members for folks to watch for

Who are these chuds?

Patriot Front broke away from white nationalist org Vanguard America following #unitetheright in #charlottesville after James Alex Fields was seen with a VA shield before driving his car into a crowd, murdering Heather Heyer & injuring dozens of others

Syed Robbie Javid a.k.a. Sayed Robbie Javid or Robbie Javid of Alexandria,


Antoine Bernard Renard (a.k.a. “Charlemagne MD” on Discord) from Rockville, MD.

https://t.co/ykEjdZFDi6


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Anu Satheesh
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Krishna and the False Vasudeva
#story

Paundraka Vasudeva was a King mentioned in Bhagavatha Purana. He was friend of Jarasandha, the king of Magadha. He believed that he is Vasudeva Krishna.
Once Paundraka Vasudeva received a letter from Shishupala, stating that he wanted


protection from Krishna, because it was Rukmini's wedding and Shishupala thought Krishna would take away Rukmini.

Paundraka Vasudeva agreed and went to Vidarbha, the Kingdom of Shishupala, but failed to provide protection as Krishna took Rukmini away. Paundraka Vasudeva was


feeling sad. His Minister's cheered him.
They said that Paundraka Vasudeva was the real Vasudeva and Krishna is a cheater. Everyone started to believe this and soon Paundraka Vasudeva soon started to taunt Krishna by saying that Krishna was a cheater.
Paundraka Vasudeva then


challenged Krishna to a war and Krishna said that he would give Paundraka his Chakra and Gadha. Paundraka suspected some foul play and went to King of Kashi for his protection. In battlefield, Krishna came in front of Paundraka, and said that he would throw his Chakra and Gadha


to him. But, Krishna's throw was perfect that the Gadha hurled him to the Ground and the Chakra killed him.
Krishna soon killed king of Kashi with an arrow and his head went flying to Kashi.
Thus Victorious Krishna was recieved by people of Dwaraka.
Hare Krishna 🙏🕉🙏
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