As it seems that everyone right of centre will be purged from this platform in due course, whilst acknowledging that my lowly position means it’ll be a while before they get around to me I thought I’d go for broke whilst I’m still here.

Here goes.

Parody accounts aren’t funny.

Men & women are different.

Tax cuts are good. They stimulate economic growth & let people spend more of their own money.

Alcohol is enjoyable. So is sugar.

Judge people on merit, not gender or ethnicity.

There is such a thing as the canon in the arts. Good, better, best.

I don’t care what box sets you’ve watched.

Cycling enthusiasts are weirdly culty and self-righteous. Which is unfair on a perfectly good form of transport.

America is a force for good in the world.

Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty.

There is little worse or more dull than the desperation amongst so many on Twitter to (pretend to) be offended.

Party politics - a good thing.

It’s possible to question whether government has the right response to something without being a conspiracy theorist.

Real friendships exist in real life; the virtual world can mean that the real is neglected. OTOH, in enabling people to be in touch with others they might otherwise never have found, social media is a good thing.

It’s possible to like both dogs AND cats.

Columbo is the best TV.

Comparatively few Americans understand morality and rights. Fewer still understand the foundations of these things—as they have a singular, common, objective root.
1/

Most believe morality to be concerned with or rooted in religion or “decency.” Many believe rights to be things that government or sacred documents bestow upon people. But all of that is wrong.
2/

There is but one fundamental objective morality, one fundamental objective right. That being the unalienable right of an individual to his/her own life, genius, effort, and all the realized potential of these things—meaning property: the fruits of genius and effort.
3/

Anything and everything that violates this fundamental morality is, by definition, immoral. For there is no other objective definition of or standard for morality. Any other definition or standard put forth by anyone is a lie meant to perpetrate evil upon people.
4/

It is this incorruptible, objective standard that lays the foundation for just law. For, like governance, the sole objective purpose of law is to uphold & defend individual rights. Therefore, any law at odds w/individual rights is moot & repugnant to the Constitution.
5/

#Eritrea has been a pariah state for its conflict with all its neighbors and went through more than a decade long sanction that have started in #IGAD #AU & by #UNSC for its role of destabilizing the region; direct involvement in arms and contraband trading; &supporting #Al-Shabab

.@AbiyAhmedAli, nominated and subsequently appointed as PM by the “late” ruling coalition EPRDF, on 2 April 2018; following the four years of street protests, that multiple report had been indicating the involvement of foreign forces, including #Eritrea.

Immediately Abiy initiated rapprochement with #Eritrea. To the surprise of everyone, despite Eritrea’s consistent position of handing over the disputed territories before initiating any normalization for almost 2 decades, agreed to the normalization without any pre-condition.

Abiy visited Eritrea and Esayas reciprocated with an official visit after 20 years; and the unholy matrimony was consummated with a Comprehensive peace and cooperation agreement neither ratified by the parliament nor known its content by anyone.

Unprecedented in the history of the #UNSC #Ethiopia replaced its PR to the UN DR. Tekeda with only 6 months left to its term, by @TayeAtske with the singular mission of lifting the sanction imposed on #Eritrea without any change of behavior from the side of the regime in #Asmara.

Istigatha - a thread 🧵.

Found in the collection of risaa’il and fataawaa of Shaykhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullaah) found in the Maktabah ath-Thaahirriyah,

In the screenshots, what is found in brackets is an addition from Mukhtasar al-Fataawaa al-Misriyyah.
(1/25)

(2/25)

It is not allowed for one to worship anyone except Allah. Dua is a form of worship. We must call upon Allah alone

It says in Surah Jinn verse 18

“And the masaajid are for Allaah (Alone), so do not call upon anyone along with Allaah.”
(3/25)

(4/25)

Abdullah bin Mas’ud (radiyallaahu ‘anhu) said: “People used to make du’aa to the Angels, and ‘Uzayr and al-Maseeh (the Messiah, Isa bin Maryam, alayhis salaam), so Allaah the Most High said:
(5/25)

CW Nightmare

In the torn out belly of an old, sprawling hotel, I found myself investigating strange happenings in the fledgling restaurant that sprouted in the blasted ruin.

Swarthy men gutted the collapse, using every nail & timber to build the eatery and it's long tables.
1🧵

I swear to have seen a spider, large as a dinner plate, with an ape-like face and twitching human fingers for legs, ground down to bloody points. But only a flash witnessed in a broken pane of glass. The bike thing was some illusion. A twisting of light and color, nothing more.

It was then , in the darkening hours of the day, that six young travelers entered, seating themselves at the single large feast table. Colorful, happy, bawdy souls in all, they seemed unaffected by the haze of terror that lingered among the workmen.
3🧵

I found no sign of mold or damp, gas or chemical, any phenomenon to explain the various sightings.
The matron, dutiful and mild in manner, brought the travelers beer, soft pretzels, and honey butter - leaving them to chitter and indulge.
4 🧵

The workmen, in the growing dark, left as quickly as a flock of larks, in one writing mass at the foreman's whistle. Unashamed in their obvious terror. Each man nodded to me, the stranger, in quiet gratitude and sorrowful fancy, as I dared to remain after dark.
5 🧵

There is a distinction between what is something you ought to do and what is legal. It is legal to drink yourself to death. It is probably not a good idea. The distinction is not a small one. Let's apply it to the social norms many people suggest we adopt on silencing others.

I hear quite frequently arguments to the effect that private platforms are legally _allowed_ to silence people. And yes, they are, and yes, they should be. Is this a good idea, though? Let's have a quick look for a moment.

It's possible to imagine a society where every restaurant refuses service to people of the wrong political background, every supermarket checks to see if people arriving match a particular political affiliation before selling them groceries.

We can imagine neighbors only talking to other neighbors of the correct political tribe, jobs refusing to allow people with the wrong political beliefs to apply, etc. This is probably a thing that is legal or at least ought to be legal.

Is it, however, a recipe for a peaceful society? Or would it ultimately lead to something more bloody than the wars of religion during the Protestant Reformation?

I'd love to think that @michaelsheen's thoughts and responses to Welsh nationhood are the start of a new wave of discussion surrounding who, what, why and how of Welsh Independence.

As support and engagement for #IndyWales increases and the integrity of "Britain" spirals out of control to its inevitable demise, so does the argument against it which more often than not a wave of regurgitated clichés that we must endure.

In turn we have to be careful about this ourselves. We cannot repeat the same rhetoric without evolving our point. And let's be honest Welsh Independence is a good enough point as it is but what can we do to bring those into the fold?

There's plenty of things we can do. Discussion is a key point. It'e tiring for me when I'm the butt of jokes in work for supporting IndyWales and starting a business that's based on it. Yet the arguments by these people are always the same; too poor, too small, too dumb. Boring.

Centuries of misrule, subservience, servitude and asset stripping have led this country and all those within its borders to suffer. And suffer as a whole we have. our shared history with England is a hard one, filled with

It has been instructive to look back at our tweets re' the pandemic from early in 2020. So here are the questions we have today as we start in 2021. Feel free to add to the list. Let us see how these age a year from now:
1/n👇

1. Getting the world vaccinated -
How can we get the vaccine to everyone? First, we must make enough, then overcome the hesitancy, solve the problems of logistics of distribution and administration. We are struggling in all these areas.
2/n 👇

2. The dosing regimen-
Is it better to give 1 dose of 2-dose regimen to more people vs. give both doses to few?
Data from both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that if you look at the cases after 12 days of 1st shot to the second shot, the efficacy may be in 80-90% range
3/n 👇

3. Vaccine prioritization:
Should we first give the vx to younger HCWs to keep hospitals open or to all the elderly who are likely to be sicker and the reasons hospitals will be overwhelmed?
Israel is doing a fantastic job getting all the elderly vaccinated first.
4/n 👇

4. Variant strains:
RNA virus tend to mutate. Vx are targeting the Spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2. Will there be enough mutation at critical points to make the virus resistant to the Vx?
This will require regular sequencing/monitoring. Besides the UK, who will do this?
5/n 👇

As we celebrate the end of this difficult year and welcome 2021, I’d like to take an opportunity to review the past year in our 35th Ward. Thread🧵👇🏽

We started this year by passing our 606 demolition moratorium, which has helped preserve our built environment, promote environmentally sustainable building practices, and protect affordable two- and three-flat apartment buildings near the 606 trail.

In January, we also amended Chicago’s sanctuary city ordinance to require our police department to report any requests they receive from ICE. This was a major step forward for accountability, transparency, and immigrant protections.

In February, we continued our work to address displacement and win housing justice for all Chicagoans by advocating for Just Cause for Eviction legislation.

We also continued to advocate to close the loopholes in our sanctuary city ordinance.

1/11 TO ZANEF

let me be as very frank as possible. If you do not reign in @Sophie_Mokoena who has committed to spitting venomous fake news on Zim & leadership, then forget that this letter will have any consequence on my conscience. The @SABCNews through it's @Sophie_Mokoena

2: has instigated global hatred on Zim & her pple in SA thru spreading naked fake news typical of vendetta journalism bt u never called her out. If yu defend her when she is called to order & to stop publishing unverified falsehoods, then u hv no moral ground to do so on me.

3: @Sophie_Mokoena & @peterndoro masterminded the conspiracy to agenda Zim through a blackmailing campaign dubbed the #zimbabweanlivesmatter which was co-sponsored by fake news peddlers politicians in the @mdczimbabwe & cared not verify them from authorities.

4:It is disturbing to see the @SABCNews importing videos from other juridictions & presenting them as ongoing violence in Zim, presenting Zim like a typical Hobbesian state of nature society of an all against all? That I shall challenge with much vigour as director or myself

5: Each time I have received a call from @Sophie_Mokoena after I post my reservations she has alluded to forces above her whch she has not dared to share w u. Recently she made false alarms abt Beitbridge Border presenting a fake situation as if those who were there were homeless

🧵 THREAD 🧵
1) Recent Аzeri propaganda campaign, “Аrmеոiaոs have a gеոе for schizophrenia & other mental disorders”, is a narrative often gloatingly thrown in the middle of heated debates as a derisive argument against the collective sanity of

2) So let’s debunk this.

The study they refer to, is a groundbreaking peer-reviewed paper by Armenian molecular geneticists. What it says is that by studying 225 affected and 225 healthy subjects they found a correlation between schizophrenia and a *variant of the “C1QB gene”,

3) at least in ARM population”, further studies in other populations would have to be done to confirm the results. This is a short summary of the paper’s conclusion.

So what is this “C1qB gene”? Is it an “Armenian gene”, as Аzeris like to claim? ⬇️

4) C1qB “gene” is a subcomponent of C1q protein complex which is a component of C1 complement system — C1 is what makes up the innate human/animal immune system. It is involved in a bunch of very crucial immune system functions.

5) Azеris claiming “they don’t have this gene” is the most amusing response I get. Well, the only way you wouldn’t “have it” is if you were a spiոeless cell, i.e. an amoeba; or in the best case if you were very siск (C1q deficiency), or

🚨🚨okay fine here what I got 🚨
You wait for a big drop from .@CodeMonkeyZ but if you want something serious to focus on, check this out. Who owns qalerts? Who develops it? Not 8kun. They have a role but not nearly as big as you think. How does Q relay intel? Have a gander...

Dear Sydney: some tips for wearing masks....

* Invest in finding the right mask for your face. Some material may be irritating, some designs may be the wrong shape for your head, some ties may hurt your years. If you’re going to be wearing a mask every day have a think about what works best for you

* Get the seal tight to your face: it shouldn’t be bagging around your chin or cheeks.

* You can stop glasses fogging up by making sure the seal of the mask is close to your skin of your nose or using a little cloth tape to stick it down

* Brush your teeth before leaving the house. Chew gum or suck on a mint. Don’t eat anchovies and onion just before putting a mask on

My New Years resolution is to provide more actual useful info was thinking maybe it would be shitpost less but I don’t like setting up for failure so here’s a thread on how I think about supply / demand imbalances over cycles thus far I’ve lived

1. Bitcoin is an extremely unique asset in that supply cannot react to demand in any meaningful capacity, miners can add hashrate and mine albeit slowly faster but it’s not enough to drive material supply side changes

2. This differs from a lot of commodities say oil or silver or gold or leggos as people want more of these and prices go up producers produce more they feed the ducks

3. Altcoins imo have largely been a market force driven by this issue though a lot of get rich quick and some actual innovation sprinkled but I think this is why the asset class has grown horizontally at its core

4. Either way you have periods where demand clearly crushes supply often halving related but nonetheless fucking up the imbalance and the momentum does the rest

The following four scenarios will be discussed at the continued session of the 13th #OPEC & Non-OPEC meeting today:
1-Given the expected growth of demand by 5.9million bpd in 2021 and the expected growth of supply by non-OPEC countries by 1.1million bpd, as agreed in Dec... #OOTT

.... the 23 countries will increase production by 500 thousand bpd for the month of February - similar to January.

2- Given the expected growth of demand by 3.9 million bpd in 2021 , and the expected growth of supply by non-#OPEC countries by 800 (or 900) thousand bpd,...#OOTT

... as agreed in December, the production by the 23 countries will increase by 500 thousand for the month of February - similar to January. This scenario is practically the same as scenario number one, expect for lower forecasts for demand and supply. #OOTT

3- No increase (of 500 thousand bpd) for the months of February and March, and an increase of 500 thousand bpd for the moths of April, May and June each. In this scenario as well the ministers will hold monthly meetings to appraise the market and decide. #OOTT

4-The 500 thousand bpd increased in January to be decreased for the month of February. No increase for the month of March, and instead an increase of 500 thousand bpd for the months of April, May, June, and July. The probability for this scenario is considered to be low. #OOTT