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A few noteworthy things came out of a legislative committee meeting today.
First, we learned Alberta’s chief electoral officer asked the gov’t for a four-month extension for a complex investigation during the pandemic. The government said no. #ableg
https://t.co/CJtx0vFGkG
Elections AB won’t say what the case is the timelines suggest it could be the investigation into the UCP leadership race. The office has handed out more than $200,000 in fines connected with election financing irregularities in the 2017 race.
Several people have appealed those fines and findings to the court.
You may also recall leaked documents suggested Jason Kenney and Jeff Callaway’s leadership campaigns shared strategy and information https://t.co/NX91cdQQsN
And the RCMP are investigating. #ableg
The NDP says the government needs to come clean about whether it turned down the chief electoral officer’s application to extend the time to investigate the governing party.
#ableg
Also at today’s committee meeting, seven independent officers of the legislature had their budgets up for approval. The committee approved six of them.
MLA Brad Rutherford then moved to delay a decision about the auditor general’s budget. He says he wants more information. #ableg
First, we learned Alberta’s chief electoral officer asked the gov’t for a four-month extension for a complex investigation during the pandemic. The government said no. #ableg
https://t.co/CJtx0vFGkG
Elections AB won’t say what the case is the timelines suggest it could be the investigation into the UCP leadership race. The office has handed out more than $200,000 in fines connected with election financing irregularities in the 2017 race.
Several people have appealed those fines and findings to the court.
You may also recall leaked documents suggested Jason Kenney and Jeff Callaway’s leadership campaigns shared strategy and information https://t.co/NX91cdQQsN
And the RCMP are investigating. #ableg
The NDP says the government needs to come clean about whether it turned down the chief electoral officer’s application to extend the time to investigate the governing party.
#ableg
Also at today’s committee meeting, seven independent officers of the legislature had their budgets up for approval. The committee approved six of them.
MLA Brad Rutherford then moved to delay a decision about the auditor general’s budget. He says he wants more information. #ableg
If you send goods across a non porous border you need
-lots of paperwork. Filling it in triggers delays.
-trained customs staff. We're short by 50k. That'll cause delays.
- IT systems. Several haven't launched yet. More delays.
This is why there'll be shortages @jbhearn. /1
If you're exporting to EU, in the case of food products (dead or alive) you also need an official veterinarian (that's a thing) working with a certification support officer to deal with the sanitary and phytosanitory checks to generate a European Health Certificate /2
That EHC is then submitted at a border control post and also on the EU import control system. Only then can the truck travel into the EU. /3
Thing is, the importer in the EU will have to input *LOTS* of information into the EU's trade control and expert system (not the same as as the EU import control system) because it's arriving from outside the EU. /4
Alternatively the EU importer can skip all of the admin, fees and taxes triggered by importing from the UK by instead sourcing from a EU based company. That is why brexit will be an economic calamity for the UK; the operational reality is going to trump the economic theory. /5
-lots of paperwork. Filling it in triggers delays.
-trained customs staff. We're short by 50k. That'll cause delays.
- IT systems. Several haven't launched yet. More delays.
This is why there'll be shortages @jbhearn. /1
If you are an EU supporter or a U.K. Remainer then the best thing to do will be to start a rumour, preferably by an expert, that No Deal will lead to food shortages and panic buying. This will ensure it happens and then you can say \u201ctold you so\u201d you silly Brexiteers.
— Professor John Hearn (@jbhearn) December 14, 2020
If you're exporting to EU, in the case of food products (dead or alive) you also need an official veterinarian (that's a thing) working with a certification support officer to deal with the sanitary and phytosanitory checks to generate a European Health Certificate /2
That EHC is then submitted at a border control post and also on the EU import control system. Only then can the truck travel into the EU. /3
Thing is, the importer in the EU will have to input *LOTS* of information into the EU's trade control and expert system (not the same as as the EU import control system) because it's arriving from outside the EU. /4
Alternatively the EU importer can skip all of the admin, fees and taxes triggered by importing from the UK by instead sourcing from a EU based company. That is why brexit will be an economic calamity for the UK; the operational reality is going to trump the economic theory. /5
I think it’s better if you don’t ask “why were other parties unable to stake out a position?” but “how were the two parties able to claim such broad swaths of the political landscape?” No easy answers here of course, it’s one of the largest questions in political history.
I think the electoral systems, more so first past the post than presidentialism, come into it, but they’re not the main factor. Most of it comes down to America’s, all together now, material conditions.
As @cushbomb has been noting a lot recently, America’s wealth of wide open land which you could keep settling allowed potential labour unrest to be diffused. There was always more to get.
So you don’t end up with a Labour party, and around the time other countries did, America was going through the progressive era, which both parties were flirting with. The Socialists and Communists were repressed, so they couldn’t be the left alternative either.
The Progressive Party probably came the closest of anyone to breaking the GOP-Dem dynamic but honestly if they did they probably would have supplanted one of those parties entirely, just as the Republicans supplanted the Whigs, so it would have just been another 2 party system.
Who has a good paper on why the US has just two parties?
— Matthew Yglesias \U0001f366 (@mattyglesias) November 28, 2020
It\u2019s not first past the post (Canada, UK) or presidentialism (Mexico, Brazil) so what gives?
I think the electoral systems, more so first past the post than presidentialism, come into it, but they’re not the main factor. Most of it comes down to America’s, all together now, material conditions.
As @cushbomb has been noting a lot recently, America’s wealth of wide open land which you could keep settling allowed potential labour unrest to be diffused. There was always more to get.
So you don’t end up with a Labour party, and around the time other countries did, America was going through the progressive era, which both parties were flirting with. The Socialists and Communists were repressed, so they couldn’t be the left alternative either.
The Progressive Party probably came the closest of anyone to breaking the GOP-Dem dynamic but honestly if they did they probably would have supplanted one of those parties entirely, just as the Republicans supplanted the Whigs, so it would have just been another 2 party system.
Hi, I'm Keith and I'll be live-tweeting today's Cuyahoga County Board of Election's meeting at 10:30AM for #CLEDocumenters
@cledocumenters @NeighborUpCle
The Cuyahoga Board of Election's website is
This is a special meeting for the Certification of Audits from the November 3rd Presidential Election.
Join us by:
calling 1-646-558-8656 or
entering Zoom MEETING ID 627 627 4058
The Agenda for the meeting can be found here,
https://t.co/7nsCdaIxWQ
Cuyahgoa BOE meeting has started at 9:35 AM. All members are in attendance.
@cledocumenters @NeighborUpCle
The Cuyahoga Board of Election's website is
This is a special meeting for the Certification of Audits from the November 3rd Presidential Election.
Join us by:
calling 1-646-558-8656 or
entering Zoom MEETING ID 627 627 4058
The Agenda for the meeting can be found here,
https://t.co/7nsCdaIxWQ
Cuyahgoa BOE meeting has started at 9:35 AM. All members are in attendance.
Through a law lobbied by the SGPC & #AkaliDal the @narendramodi government had disenfranchised the relatively liberal Sahajdhari Sikhs who consist mostly of Vaishya - Arora Sikhs in 2016 giving Akalis full control over the Gurudwaras, & giving rise to TRUE sikh narrative. https://t.co/WJaZjdqJDN
Udasis the monastic wing of Sikhism that was started by Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand was expelled from Gurudwaras, their murtis thrown out & declared non sikh along with Nanakpanthis & several other Sikh sects that were close to Hinduism.
If Khalistan terrorism was not anti-Hindu should explain why one after the other each & every sect in Sikhism that is similar to Hinduism was thrown out since Akali movement of 1925? Sehajdharis are latest, in 2016 to be
Why were the the 1984 riots always mentioned by leaders across political spectrum, leaders in India & abroad. But have you ever heard anyone talk about those hindus who were killed by
One of the most ancient sects of Sikhs founded by Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand the Udasis, enjoyed state patronage & support under the sikh Empire of Ranjith Singh. How did they go from there to not even being sikhs in a matter of a few decades?
https://t.co/H7sYSUeBiS
To all those RW Hindus & Non-Khalistani Sikhs telling me Sikhs are all patriots & only minorities are khalistanis. Then how come this body that manages Gurudwaras & sikh temples & appoints Jathedar of Akal Takht is supporting Khalistani protests?! https://t.co/3cxn4NPT5n pic.twitter.com/e56K4BEy6t
— Syamkrishnan Kamath (@Dharmi2020) December 7, 2020
Udasis the monastic wing of Sikhism that was started by Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand was expelled from Gurudwaras, their murtis thrown out & declared non sikh along with Nanakpanthis & several other Sikh sects that were close to Hinduism.
If Khalistan terrorism was not anti-Hindu should explain why one after the other each & every sect in Sikhism that is similar to Hinduism was thrown out since Akali movement of 1925? Sehajdharis are latest, in 2016 to be
35,000 Punjabi Hindus were killed by Khalistani terrorists in Punjab. I am yet to hear any demand of justice for them!
— Amit Srivastava (@AmiSri) December 4, 2020
Why were the the 1984 riots always mentioned by leaders across political spectrum, leaders in India & abroad. But have you ever heard anyone talk about those hindus who were killed by
Sir, with due respect data about deaths are not hidden!
— Amit Srivastava (@AmiSri) December 4, 2020
But for Sikhs, the issue is raised at every level - in state & national politics, in public, in judiciary, even at international level. But have you seen anyone even mentioning those unfortunate Hindus? That\u2019s the point!
One of the most ancient sects of Sikhs founded by Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand the Udasis, enjoyed state patronage & support under the sikh Empire of Ranjith Singh. How did they go from there to not even being sikhs in a matter of a few decades?
https://t.co/H7sYSUeBiS
So I'm not the first, & won't be the last, to be irked by this. But anyway, here goes.
What Murph's reporting (& opining) on is a survey that showed, in a time of international crisis where Australia has performed relatively well, politicians benefit from a "competence dividend"
That's neither a surprise, nor something to be sneered at. But it's a one-paragraph story. It's what you'd expect to see.
The journalist's role, you'd think, would be to critically unpick that. Work through what premiers & the PM did to deserve it, or otherwise.
One case that could be made is that the premiers stepped up, acted visibly & decisively on behalf of their respective states, & the PM is largely riding on their coattails.
Murph, though, has been on a weird campaign to position Morrison in particular as a statesman-in-waiting.
Once the federal government authorised Job Seeker/Lover/Keeper, Murph was convinced this was (bound to be) the end of Ideological Warrior Morrison and we'd see the emergence of pragmatic Morrison who could govern reasonably, in ways atypical of the way his party had been trending
LOL
And LOL again.
The early economic interventions were made with a gun to his head. The idea he'd suddenly become a learning learner who learns was something Murph seemed desperate to hold on to, like it was important for her sense that federal politics could work properly.
What Murph's reporting (& opining) on is a survey that showed, in a time of international crisis where Australia has performed relatively well, politicians benefit from a "competence dividend"
\U0001f644 pic.twitter.com/odGMUKzPnT
— Richard Chirgwin (@R_Chirgwin) December 25, 2020
That's neither a surprise, nor something to be sneered at. But it's a one-paragraph story. It's what you'd expect to see.
The journalist's role, you'd think, would be to critically unpick that. Work through what premiers & the PM did to deserve it, or otherwise.
One case that could be made is that the premiers stepped up, acted visibly & decisively on behalf of their respective states, & the PM is largely riding on their coattails.
Murph, though, has been on a weird campaign to position Morrison in particular as a statesman-in-waiting.
Once the federal government authorised Job Seeker/Lover/Keeper, Murph was convinced this was (bound to be) the end of Ideological Warrior Morrison and we'd see the emergence of pragmatic Morrison who could govern reasonably, in ways atypical of the way his party had been trending
LOL
And LOL again.
The early economic interventions were made with a gun to his head. The idea he'd suddenly become a learning learner who learns was something Murph seemed desperate to hold on to, like it was important for her sense that federal politics could work properly.
Pashinyan spoke in the parliament amid opposition protest outside of the building. He answered the question of the deputies.
(Pashinyan's block holds the absolute majority in parliament)
Only the people can speak on behalf of the people, not separate groups - Pashinyan
Voices of individual groups cannot be considered the voice of the people - Pashinyan
It is not the media who decide who the prime minister is, people decide - Pashinyan
The question arises as to why the opposition does not demand early elections. Why do political forces have only one goal - to decide without the will of the people? Pashinyan
(Pashinyan's block holds the absolute majority in parliament)
Opposition protest facing the Armenian parliament in Yerevan. pic.twitter.com/I6AOZ9KLki
— 301\U0001f1e6\U0001f1f2 (@301_AD) December 9, 2020
Only the people can speak on behalf of the people, not separate groups - Pashinyan
Voices of individual groups cannot be considered the voice of the people - Pashinyan
It is not the media who decide who the prime minister is, people decide - Pashinyan
The question arises as to why the opposition does not demand early elections. Why do political forces have only one goal - to decide without the will of the people? Pashinyan
Thread:
When you see something like this we need to investigate a little and join the dots.
https://t.co/GIsIzIct4B
This guy always pops up somewhere along the way, so what is the true agenda here? Who are the players?
https://t.co/HOR94sif64
And now we tie George Soros to Lord Malloch Brown and the Privy council. Soros has just made Malloch Brown head of his Open Society foundation.
https://t.co/6ss7Brnzo4
Malloch Brown one of the heads of Smartmatic.
https://t.co/hvjUICnB3S
And of course let's not forget Domonion.
https://t.co/d3DlCLGoYO
When you see something like this we need to investigate a little and join the dots.
https://t.co/GIsIzIct4B
This guy always pops up somewhere along the way, so what is the true agenda here? Who are the players?
https://t.co/HOR94sif64
And now we tie George Soros to Lord Malloch Brown and the Privy council. Soros has just made Malloch Brown head of his Open Society foundation.
https://t.co/6ss7Brnzo4
Malloch Brown one of the heads of Smartmatic.
https://t.co/hvjUICnB3S
And of course let's not forget Domonion.
https://t.co/d3DlCLGoYO