I have a feeling Assange is going to relocate from UK/Europe in short order, once this matter concludes (yes, appeal, but chances are lesser than yesterday). I remind folks he already attempted to flee to Russia just prior to US unsealing first indictment. (con't)

Rommy Vallejo, former head of the former Ecuadorian intelligence entity, the SENAIN--who left the agency in February 2018, a month after an aborted attempt to exfiltrate Assange to Russia (which he reportedly directed)-- was located in the United States of America in Jan 2020.

So Asssange's ties to Russia are not mere inferences and hyperbole even based on information in the public realm.

The question today is not what is Assange's relationship to Russia, but when did it begin 2012 or earlier?

Assange is not the first journalist cum intel operator to conduct subversive propaganda or as US alleges espionage against the US. The 2010 to 2016 period matches the height of Soviet espionage against US in the Interwar years.

Dear MAGA, why do you follow this con? First he told you Mexico would pay for the wall. They didn’t. Then he warned you that caravans of illegal immigrants were invading. They weren’t. He said the ACA was a disaster and that he had an amazing plan to replace it. He didn’t.
(1)

He said he was the strongest against Russia. But he wouldn’t even condemn Putin for putting bounties on our troops. He said it was a perfect call. It wasn’t. He said he would save the coal industry. He didn’t. He said other countries would respect us. They don’t.
(2)

He said he only hires the best people. But fires those same people. He said if Clinton were elected it would be nothing but investigations. We’ve had nothing but investigations his entire 4 years. He said he would be tough on North Korea. They have more missiles than ever.
(3)

He said they’re coming for the suburbs. No ones coming. He said Covid was a hoax. It’s not. He said it’s just like the flu. Over 350K are dead in 10 months. He said he shut down travel from China. Not true. He said everyone who wants a test could get one. They couldn’t.
(4)

He told you masks don’t work. Let me say that again. He told you masks don’t work. Cmon. He said the day after the election Covid would just go away. Since the election every fucking day has been worse. Over 4K died just yesterday.
(5)

GHANA’S ELECTORAL COMMISSION AND WHY I KEEP DEFENDING THEM BUT THEY KEEP DISAPPOINTING ME

A thread

Ghana has had 8 general elections under the 4th republic and every election has had its challenges
I must say that, the EC, political parties and other stakeholders have always tried to bring in measures or reforms to make an election and its processes better than the previous

From voting with opaque ballot boxes in 1992 to using voter ID in 2000 to using a biometric system in 2012, the integrity of Ghana’s electoral system has been difficult to undermine or rig

However it seems as someone who has championed the course of the EC and its activities, recent events has me worried and reason I think Ghanaians must ask for the right and legal things to be done to protect the sovereign will of the people

I had never trusted election figures until 2012 and these are my reasons; From 1992-2008, the electoral system had frailties that could be manipulated to the advantage of one party
There were reported cases of over-voting, multiple voting and others not on the register voting

THREAD
What is overlooked in analysis of #RussiaProtest after @navalny's arrest? It's sophistication that the Kremlin has developed in addressing such threats, and lack of realistic strategy by Putin's opponents. Let's put together some unpleasant facts 👇

2/ Of course, it's hard not to be impressed by @navalny's and his family's courage, as well as by energy and scale of protests on January 23. Good summary by @yaffaesque for @NewYorker here:

3/ @navalny's investigation about Putin's palace (>96 million views now!) and street protests are seen as a serious challenge by the Kremlin, which is visible in heavy-handed crackdown on Navalny's team&family, as @HenryJFoy & @maxseddon document here:

4/ Jan 23 protest had the widest geographic coverage (>120 cities all across Russia), and the crowd numbers were significant, particularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It's important to note that the price tag for unsanctioned rallies is now higher than before...

5/... and protesters risk much more than 100k people who came to Bolotnaya Square in Moscow back in 2011. Add COVID, and 40k crowd (@Reuters estimate) in the capital will look like a success. But here comes the tricky part.

HOW CHINA CHOOSE THEIR LEADERS

On twitter, I have seen many people say China is evil because it’s an Autocratic Government and Why don't Chinese support western style democracy? Why do Chinese people support President Xi, who has no votes?
Now, let’s enlighten ourselves.

1/n

Unlike the so-called "democratic countries," the Chinese people value experience more than votes or other abilities for government officials.
From the Sui Dynasty on (1400 years ago), officials were selected and promoted by examination, not by blood or birth.

2/n

In today's China, if you want to enter politics, you have to take a hard and competitive road. Whether you come from a grassroots family or a political family, you have to go through every step. Only in this way, you can reach the top of power, like President Xi.

3/n

To get started, you have to own a college degree, at least for most Chinese govt officials. You have to take the national civil service examination and be admitted. In 2019, 92000 people took the exam and 14537 were admitted, with the admission rate of 1.58%.

4/n

The ruling party in China is the CPC. In addition, there are 8 other parties. You have to join one of them. If your idea is to become the supreme leader of China, I suggest you join the CPC. You will be one of the 90 million CPC members. They are all your competitors.（5/N）

THREAD ON CHINA AND GLOB0HOM0

The conventional understanding of right & left, liberal & conservative, breaks down when applied to China

China, while ostensibly communist, differs from other communist countries and from Western leftist ideology in several important ways.

I.

China's "socialism w Chinese characteristics" is heavily nationalist & even racialist, in contrast to the internationalist & anti-racist bent of Western leftism. They have a clear (though somewhat flexible for political expediency) understanding of who is and isn't Chinese

The Han ethnic majority forms the core of Chinese identity, while other (Asiatic) ethnic groups within Chinese territory are still considered Chinese w equal citizen rights but who will be fiercely repressed if they cause problems (Tibetans and Uighurs)

Everyone else a foreigner

II.

China is fiercely protectionist

Their banning of Western social media served 2 purposes: 1) keep glowy foreign subversion out of their cyberspace, and 2) create domestic alternatives such as Weibo and WeChat for greater economic benefit to themselves

China was let into the World Trade Organization thanks to efforts by Bill Clinton (who took CCP $$$) and George W. Bush. They said China would become more liberal and democratic

Last month marked 4 years since the Battle of Aleppo was concluded.

Since then, over 500 projects have been implemented in the city, and 2500 projects in the governorate.

An extensive thread of the progress that has been made over the past four years:

4.2 million m2 of rubble and debris has been removed, and the removal of circa 6070 destroyed or burnt vehicles.

117 water sanitation projects have been implemented, in addition to the implementation of asphaltation projects amounting to 1.2 million m2 of asphalt.

Circa 4650 lamp-posts have been rehabilitated or installed to relight the city. Many of these run on solar lightning.

47 green spaces and parks have been rehabilitated, including the Central Park of Aleppo. This year (January 2021), Aleppo City Council has already begun rehabilitating three more parks - Seif Al Dawla Park, Al-Ansari Park, and Al-Sukari Park.

Last October, Israelis were rightly horrified to hear that ~400 acres of forest burned down as a direct result of an IDF training exercise carried out in a nature reserve,despite warnings.
Now look at what happened when the IDF insisted on training in a Palestinian village today:

This is Jinba, a village in Firing Zone 918. Large-scale artillery forces arrived there this AM w/ armored vehicles. In response to @acri_online who reminded them of the damage caused last time, the IDF promised to avoid damaging residents' property. But somehow, this happened:

And this is what some of the agricultural lands looked like this morning, after the heavy armored vehicles flattened them. The residents depend on this land for their livelihood. Several months of hard work can be destroyed in a matter of minutes. (Video: Guy Botavia)

Destroying agricultural fields isn't new. Here's what a Nahal Brig soldier saw in 2004-05: "There was wheat that overflowed beyond the fields, so the instruction [...] that the platoon commander got, or at least what he said to us, [was] to trample."

Here's another picture from this morning, this time from fields belonging to residents of the neighboring Bir al-Eid:

#WWG1WGAWORLDWIDE #QAnons #USA #Germany #Europe #NesaraGesara @realDonaldTrump @John_F_Kennnedy @JFKjrQ
Gentlemen, I added you to it above because I hope many people will read this. Comparisons (memes) and statistics lose their meaningfulness when parameters change.
1) According

.@N12News assessment of Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi's tenure as IDF Chief of Staff at 2 yrs:

2-@n12news:IDF finishing 2 good yrs since Kochavi's appointment: few Israelis harmed by terror, terror attacks stopped at border, including sea and land penetrations from Gaza , bombs on Syrian border, rocket attacks, Cyber attacks

3-@n12news: On the offensive, IDF engaged in, intensifying "war between wars" -- most activity carried out by air or sea, small part through cross-border special forces ops. Not just in Syria, but also Iraq, Lebanon, Sinai, in addition to reported cyber attacks in Iran

4-@N12News: Significantly damaged weapons, bases, armament factories. "Iranians evacuated 50% of forces in Syria, moved bases east," mistakenly thinking this would complicate IAF missions. Damage also to Syrian Army, its missile factors and defense systems

5-@n12news: War Between Wars will expand in coming yr, but this brings Israel closer to point where opponents can no longer restrain themselves

The subject of true and false prophesying has been raised recently. See @derekradney especially. It’s important because as @PLeithart notes in his fine commentary on 1&2 Kings, Israel’s history is not so much political as it is prophetic.

One example - Ahab. Not only does he despise & reject the three prophets God mercifully sends him, but he embraces the hundreds who falsely prophesy in God’s name. That latter fact is the issue. It’s not that the false prophets are invoking Baal but YHWH.

Ahab’s prophets are false for numerous reasons but let me cite just one. They aimed to reinforce an unholy alliance between Judah’s future king and Ahab’s daughter Athaliah, a disaster that resulted in the attempted destruction of the Messianic hope.

Prophetically backing unholy alliances - defending the union of what God has separated - nearly led to the disastrous destruction of Judah. They are false not simply because of false predictions but because of errant theology.

I’m going to put this as plainly as I can. The Church today is disturbed, divided, and misled because of false prophets. They aren’t false in an obvious sense (or only in a narrow ‘charismatic’ sense) because they operate within otherwise orthodox settings & use orthodox terms.

Broad, philosophical thread about how a hybrid authoritarian regime like Russia uses repression when citizens protest.

On this day of protests for #Navalny across Russia.

#RussiaProtests (1/21)

First of all, the defining ethical feature of the modern world is that each human life has equal moral worth.

Only the most extreme regimes can disregard - without consequences - that their citizens are cognisant of this.

#RussiaProtests

(2/21)

In Belarus, escalating violence against protestors caused the regime more damage than it had hoped.

Unlike Belarus, where the special police numbers a couple of thousand, the Russian special police can handle vast numbers of protestors.

#RussiaProtests

(3/21)

So could the Putin regime order the special police, the broader national guard, and regular police to round up 10,000 protestors, and adopt Gestapo-like tactics on them?

At this stage, no- the regime would consider that an act of existential self harm.

#RussiaProtests

(4/21)

The regime can take extreme steps with individuals, e.g. Navalny. But it's not ready to universalise this to all citizens.

Moreover, it can't. The bodies of state responsible for organised violence in Russia compete with one another, & aren't part of a vertical system.

(5/21)

THREAD: tomorrow, Jan 25 is the global day of action for Yemen. Here’s a list of everything you can do to support it 🇾🇪👇🏼👇🏼

Show up in person if you can! there are protests happening all over the world. You can look at the action map here and RSVP to one!

Register for the online rally happening tomorrow featuring @mrdannyglover, @jeremycorbyn, @CornelWest , @shireen818 and more! We will be highlighting the importance of ending US/UK/Canadian etc support for the war and the weight of the crisis!

if you can’t get out to a protest, no worries, social media action is super important too! Use these super easy toolkits to take action online.
Here’s one the entire world can use!

Here’s one for the UK! thank you @STWuk ❤️

1/ This 10 year old Buhari-branded Tee must be my oldest piece of cloth (bar a couple of agbada inherited from our patriarch).

The story?

In 2011, when Buhari was a hard sell in the South, before he joined forces with Tinubu et al, some of us volunteered to sell him

2/ So a group of us on Nairaland then came together, raised some funds among ourselves. I was the coordinator. I remember one Nairaland guy - from Kogi? - I didn’t know came to my then office and dropped N500k cash and 100 pieces of this Tee from the booth of his car.

3/ We raised about N800k in all and did jingles in radio stations in Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Rivers states. I think we called ourselves Buhari Online Support Group or something like that. We also did some publicity material and distributed those shirts.

4/ I churned out over 20 articles in newspapers making a case for Buhari candidacy. That was also where I got to be friends with people like Femi Adesina and Tope Fasua, through pages of newspapers.

5/ Well, with GEJ’s 2011 goodwill (recall the “I had no shoe” & “Breath of fresh air” campaign mantras?), +with absence of political xture (forget volunteering by small boys like us, you cannot make inroads into a region without xture), GMB only managed to get 200k votes in Lagos