NEW—CDC was truly suffocated by Trump WH at every turn. Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at CDC, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, witnessed WH dismissal of science, WH’s slow suffocation of CDC’s voice, meddling in messages & siphoning of CDC budget.
https://t.co/HeuNbUggiw

2) ““Everyone wants to describe the day that the light switch flipped—It didn’t happen that way—more of like a hand grasping something, and it slowly closes, closes, closes, closes until you realize that, middle of the summer, it has a complete grasp on everything at the CDC”

3) “Mr. McGowan and Ms. Campbell, both 34, say they tried to protect their colleagues against political meddling from WH and HHS but was largely stifled by the Trump administration.

4) “The White House insisted on reviewing — and often softening — the C.D.C.’s closely guarded coronavirus guidance documents, the most prominent public expression of its latest research and scientific consensus on the spread of the virus.”

5) “The documents were vetted not only by the White House’s coronavirus task force but by what felt to the agency’s employees like an endless loop of political appointees across Washington.
Mr. McGowan recalled a White House fixated on the economic implications of public health.

Srimad Bhagvatam - The Book form of Sri Krishna.

Of all the sacred Vaisnava scriptures, Srimad Bhagavatam is considered the topmost. All the Vedic scriptures are compared to a desire fulfilling tree and Srimad-Bhagavatam is compared to be the ripened fruit of that tree, +

the essence of all scriptures. Padma Purana states:

pādau yadīyau prathama-dvitīyau
tṛtīya-tūryau kathitau yad-ūrū
nābhis tathā pancama eva ṣaṣtho
bhujāntaraṁ dor-yugalam tathānyau
kaṇṭhas tu rājan navamo yadīyo
mukharāvindaṁ dasamaḥ praphullam

+

ekādaśo yasya lalāṭa-paṭṭaṁ
śiro’pi tu dvādaśa eva bhāti
tam adidevam karuna-nidhanam
tamala-varnam suhitavataram
apara-samsara-samudra-setum
bhajamahe bhagavata-svarupam

“The First and Second Cantos of the Bhagavatam are Sri Krsna’s lotus feet. The Third and Fourth +

Cantos are His thighs. The Fifth Canto is His navel. The Sixth Canto is His chest. The Seventh and Eighth Cantos are His arms. The Ninth Canto is His throat. The Tenth Canto is His beautiful lotus-face. The Eleventh Canto is His forehead. The Twelfth Canto is His head. +

I bow down to that Lord, the ocean of mercy whose color is like that of a tamala tree and who appears in this world for the welfare of all. I worship Him as the bridge for crossing the unfathomable ocean of material existence. The Bhagavatam has appeared as His very Self.” +

Thread --> #pennsylvania state police #dauphincounty . TROOP H. @DauphinCounty @PriesMike @PAStatePolice
1. While i do NOT support #DefundThePolice The inundated abuses of the Elizabethville barracks need attention. If video recordings w/audio were lawful I'd have done so.
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2. Yesterday I witnessed a shit show at a local magistrate's office north of #harrisburg #dauphincounty #pennsylvania. Commonwealth v. McClelland, With the Supreme Court’s ruling, prosecutors will again have to present more than just the arrest at a preliminary hearing.
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3. This means the arresting officer MUST BE PRESENT in order to testify. Any officer sent in lieu of arresting officer is hearsay.
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4. I witnessed from my car a state trouper, outside on his cellphone assumably with his barracks yelling and cursing like a brooklyn truck driver . Says hes sent to cover said officers cases but has NO PAPERWORK.
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5. Im admittedly entertained by this meltdown. Im citing case law loudly from my car. State assembly code.
Case MUST BE DISMISSED. He heard me, however he ignored me like the busboy at hooters.
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After a couple years of ads telling men to do laundry turned out, weirdly, to not boost fertility, Korea is back to financial incentives, which prior research has shown do work but at a very high price.

Korea is adding a $275/month allowance for the first year of a baby's life, increasing the pregnancy medical benefit by $400 or so, and providing an $1800 baby bonus. There's also some unspecified benefits related to leave and high-parity families.

The thing to understand is that these efforts are not *actually* huge. Quoting things in won gives you big numbers so it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we're not talking about enough money to actually offset a large share of wages.

I'm a fan of baby bonuses and first-year benefits. They're probably the most bang for the buck.

But this isn't actually all that many bucks!

These benefits add up to about $5,500 in benefits. A similar program compared to average incomes in the US would be about $8,700.

Kanye West made $170 million this year, but took a $2-5 million PPP loan from the federal government that could have gone to a small business whose owner didn’t have it sitting in his personal bank account.

It was 2% of Kanye’s income. This is

PPP program was a finite amount of funds meant to help keep people employed.

But because funds went to people like Kanye, who has the means to pitch in and save his own employees’ jobs and not beg the federal government to pay, many smaller businesses went without.

He can say it saved 100 jobs at his company but he ignores the fact that
*he* could have saved 100 jobs at his company.

I focus on Kanye because Forbes just released its highest paid celebrities list and he was #2 (behind sister in law Kylie Jenner). But hedge funds and other celebs also got PPP loans. The program did not favor small businesses in real trouble, restaurants in particular.

Kanye, Khloe Kardashian, Tom Brady, Jared Kushner’s family, billionaire developers—all snapped up these loans. Their access to banks—and no doubt in some cases the Trump Admin—helped them get to the front of the queue.

Yesterday, @MassAGO Maura Healey and her team issued a groundbreaking report finding that the Bristol County Sheriff's Office violated the civil rights of immigration detainees.

Let's take look at some key findings (thread

First, some background.

The BCSO is administered by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. @GlobeAbraham has reported on his close relationship with Trump's White House. He corresponds with Stephen Miller, the notorious architect of Trump's anti-immigrant

Although the BCSO is a state facility, it has also contracted with ICE to hold people detained for federal civil immigration proceedings.

ICE essentially pays a per diem rate for each detainee.

In 2019, the Mass. State Auditor found that BCSO improperly failed to remit more than $300,000 in ICE payments to the

BCSO also has a 287(g) agreement with ICE. It allows BCSO personnel to be deputized to do some of ICE's work. ICE does not pay for their hours. It is essentially a donation of state employee time to federal immigration

1. From convo on @Morning_Joe today about @DrIbram's new article which asks that progressive policy not be blamed for D losses/underperformance.

One of my main concerns is intraparty factionalism/fighting. Everything a "moderate" & "progressive"

2. D fights- a R gets a vote. Certainly radical (and yes, defunding police departments IS radical) policy proposals that fall on the outside bands of the distribution are less attractive to this idealized "swing" voter who is, in our minds eye" always a high info, high reasoning.

3. I guess you'd call them a "fine dining" type voter. But we KNOW that actually, most swing voters are NOT like this. Don't believe me- check out @axios Swing Voter Project, which ran focus groups with Obama to Trump voters through the whole cycle.

4. Indeed, what @richthau learned about America's "deciders" is likely to haunt his sleep for ever as it personified a sticker I keep in my office which is a quote from George Carlin: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." (K.I.M. when we talk "stupid"

5. on my threads about people, we're not talking IQ, or overall stupid. We're talking civics. We're talking about political literacy. Very smart, successful people can't name their senators or their governor & are thus, civically stupid. And I'm sorry, not sorry for labeling them

Since everyone is still talking about how successful of an evil genius henchman Bill Barr was, let's catalog all the times he corruptly tried to help Trump but fell flat on his face:

Barr tried to get the case against Michael Flynn thrown out, but this effort failed entirely. Trump ended up having to pardon Flynn, to clean up Barr's failure.

Barr tried to get Roger Stone's prison sentence reduced to the minimum, but Stone ended up getting the multi-year sentence he was always going to get. Trump had to commute Stone's sentence, to clean up Barr's failure.

After Michael Cohen was let out on house arrest due to the pandemic, Barr tried throwing him back in prison to prevent him from publishing his anti-Trump book. But a judge quickly freed Cohen, who succeeded in publishing his book.

Barr tried to install his own guy as head of the SDNY, presumably to stop the arrest of Steve Bannon. But Barr blew it, the SDNY remained in proper hands, and Bannon ended up getting arrested.

Caution: Thread

Unsolicited advice to INC & Oppo. Parties

I had done an analysis of performance of non-BJP parties, particularly INC in 2019 LS elections to look for lessons for 2024. I focused on INC as it occupies no2 position in our polity despite its dwindling profile
+

Accordingly I divided the States/UT into 3 categories - A, B and C

Category A represents those States/UT where INC remains either No1 or No2 as per vote share in 2019 elections (Primary Party); Category B refers States/UT where INC is not No1 or No2 but has/can have partner
+

Category C represents States/UT where INC is a marginal player and where alliance is also not practically possible.

As we know, BJP won 303 seats (NDA at 355) (incl. SS-18). INC won 52 (UPA at 92). Other Parties won 96 seats
Category-wise breakup of 52 seats given in Table:

+

INC remains a primary force in 245/543 seats, ie 45%; however, it managed to win just 38 seats here, ie 16% success rate

Please be noted 245 includes TL(17), JH(14) and ND(7) where INC was no2 but I am doubtful if it will be so if elections are held now

Breakup of 245 below👇
+

Of 27 States/UT in Category A, INC drew a blank in 15 of them. Only 2 States, PJ and KL contributed 23 of 38 seats. Balance 15 came from 10 States/UT and it did not cross 3 seats in any of them

Pl note INC strongholds(!) are distributed across country but with very little heft+

A thread.
on Solarwinds. you all have seen information on this?
If not, please see @truthserum4all and work your way through their postings. Great information.
Our Government is compromised. That's a fact. our governments are compromised. see @TexasWhiteHats2 @Johnheretohelp

A very interesting post by A⃠n0n H/T

1) Dems will lose 25%-50% of seats per 14th Amendment, Section 2, FOR TEN YEARS
https://t.co/qUE6h6NdZ2
This phase, < 24 hours for State Legislatures to do their Constitutional duty, before Electors vote on Dec 14th.

The farmer is not our saintly anadata!

Yes they deserve respect for what they do but it's fact that he doesn't do anyone else a favour by growing foodgrains. Remember farming is his occupation that earns him a livelihood that provides for his family. Just like the rest of us.
1

No one is forcing a #farmer to carry on farming if he can't make it pay for itself.

We have witnessed farmers migration for better life in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and UP.

2

We know that farmers are given free power, free water, subsidies on seed, subsidies on fertiliser, MSP, and others. Farmers are not even charged income tax.

Even after all this benefits if "Large Farmers" can't be profitable there is something wrong in their intention!

3

It is true that farming is subsidised around the world. But not to the extent that is being demanded in India. Both in absolute terms and in relative terms our farm subsidies are very high.

It is still ok but the benefits should be given to small and marginal farmers

4

We need to allow consolidation of farm holdings and our subsidies need to be rationalised.

More than our farmers it is the landless labour of rural and urban India that deserves our sympathy and government support.

5

History is full of Kings and warriors, their victories and innumerable tales of their heroics. But it hasn't been kind enough to showcase the hardships a mother had to face. Therefore, this is an attempt to throw some light on the life of one such Queen mother.+

Princess of a family in which Mahārājādhirāja Kārtvīrya Arjuna was born; the Queen of one of the most powerful dynasties to rule this part of the planet; mother of the crest jewel of Kshatriyas and one of the greatest warrior kings to ever rule, Maharani Karpura-Devi.+

Born a Kalachuri princess, Queen Karpuradevi was married to Someshvara Chauhan, son of Mahārājādhirāja Arnoraja Chauhan of Imperial Chauhan Rajput dynasty of Sakambhari, and Kanchandevi, the daughter of Solanki king, Siddhraja Jayasimha of Gujarat.+

Someshvara spent his early days in Gujarat under his maternal grandfather's watch. After king's death, his nephew Kumarpala Solanki took care of young Someshvara who grew up to be a fierce warrior. He was married to the daughter of Achalraj, Kalachuri king of Tripuri.+

Days passed, Maharaja Someshvara and Rani Karpuradevi were blessed with a child, a child who was destined to immortalise his name in the history of Bharatavarsha. Soon after the first child, they were blessed with another child, while Maharaj Arnoraja Chauhan was still alive.+

CANADA and the CHINESE CONNECTION. There are many facets to this, and we’re seeing how it’s all playing out right before our eyes. I lost my thread earlier, so I will be doing some quotes as opposed to writing it all out.
China in late 2019. In January 2020, the Canadian

UP food thread-

Tundey kebab

Lucknowi biryani

Tehri - awadhi cuisine

Nargisi kofta- awadhi cuisine