Okayyyy, I’ll join everyone else in responding to today’s news (instead of just sighing, gazing into middle distance). The profit incentive baked into private prisons is a mess. But you know what else is a HUGE MESS?

The revenue incentive in the federal jail market. 🧵

The federal government spends an estimated $1.3 billion to house people in a loose network of local jails. These agencies—primarily the US Marshals and ICE—are directly under federal control.

All of this federal $$ has incentivized counties to BUILD BIG when they’re thinking about adding local jail space.

The wonderful Jack Norton @jcknorton calls this “an intercounty carceral arms race... to build and bigger and bigger

As he point out in the piece, this was catalyze largely by “The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984,” which I like to “the lesser know crime Bill ™️.” After passage, the no.
of people detained by the Marshals increased 32 percent in ONE YEAR.

The fact that so many people are now held for ICE in local jails—or at least that the contracts are in place to allow that—is a legacy of this bill. And you know who was was among the bill’s biggest champions? That’s right, one @POTUS Biden.

1/ @kyrstensinema I’m not sure if you remember me, and no worries if you dont. We shared a donut in the call center during the Prop 107 campaign. I helped a little with your social media on your 2010 State Senate run. I helped gather signatures to get you on the ballot in 2012...

2/ @kyrstensinema ...I mention all that so you know I’ve been a supporter with my time and effort since you started public service and so you don’t think I’m some random troll when I ask you what I’m about to ask you...

3/ @kyrstensinema ...I’ve watched you thread a nearly impossible needle of being blue at heart but still growing your influence in a red state. You’re a proud member of the LGBTQ community, a Democrat and a woman, who now sits in Barry Goldwater’s Senate seat. It’s astonishing...

4/ @kyrstensinema ...That balance you’ve maintained so you can grow has led you to be sometimes not as far left as I’d like, but I still trust and support you because of what I’ve seen you do. You led Arizona to be the first state ever to defeat an anti-LGBTQ ballot measure...

5/ @kyrstensinema ...the influence you’ve grown in Arizona and the Country has never been more needed than it is at this moment. The President of the United States tried to start a war with the People of the United States and he had the help of other members of the Senate...

When I hear weak and tepid calls for unity, I’m reminded of these words by Martin Luther King Jr. and also this letter which was a resounding critique of white moderates.

“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be?” 1/5

Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. 2/5

We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality,and thus fell below their environment. 3/5

The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.

The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Letters from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963). 4/5

There can be no unity with white supremacists, nazis, and others who raided the Capitol

But citizens of good faith across diverse political/religious affiliations can find courage to seek a more beautiful way-become extremists for love.Truth tellers. Healers. Justice makers 5/5

Stepping back from the ledge - a thread.

The military and veterans have been mythologized far too long. All are infallible heroes regardless of their service record. 1/

Yet on Jan 6th, veterans and some members of the military, encouraged by the President and other politicians, actively participated or supported the insurrection in DC. 2/

All this because the favored candidate lost and a self-fulfilling prophecy of alleged election fraud led to his inevitable defeat. Defeat equated to theft. 3/

How did we get here? In part, a disinterested public willing to overlook our flaws while correcting Vietnam’s scornful legacy. Military leaders repeatedly telling their subordinates how special they were – the 1% trope. 4/

Actually myself & a few others were contacted by a Bernie FO to help find captains for districts & it got done. Bad actors in the campaign said “I made them look bad,” bc it was about optics, even if I was asked. Their anger went as far as forcing my # from my friends.

I was traveling to Iowa to cover the primary & kept getting calls incessantly demanding I take a tweet down. They badgered my friends until they gave my PERSONAL #. I refused to it was my gd right. Especially since I was asked to use social media to find help. The job got done.

There was absolute 0 “leaking of documents”. I have two other people who were also helping and someone very high up in the campaign who had to apologize to me & was angry I was harassed, bullied, emailed, & threatened via social media. We wrote a letter that never got an answer.

This was AFTER several on the ground activists knew there were bad actors in the campaign but were trying to work w it & stay silent for Bernie. One of the many mistakes the campaign made was put optics over honesty, & that was bc it was largely directed by DC consultants.

Ultimately I came to find out this whole “making us look bad” took precedent over listening to seasoned field organizers, Bernie 2016 volunteers, & many grassroots activists who had a different approach. It was all about the top dogs looking good & not very #NotMeUs.

At least 1,090 have been arrested at protests around Russia against @navalny's jailing

One of the protesters in Moscow. Looks familiar somehow...

.@navalny protesters are young & angry. Riot police not in a good mood either

13 arrested protesting @navalny's jailing even in far-off Yakutsk, where it was -54F today (via @shaunwalker7)

Now at least 1,338 @navalny protesters have been arrested around Russia. Kids in Moscow start throwing snowballs at riot police (via @tggrove @OvdInfo)

I will not comply (thread)

HR 127 - previously introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) - now has full bill text available. And it's worse than we thought.
Taken strictly on the surface, this legislation would implement:

Here's something we all know is true:

When things go well, whoever is president benefits -- whether he deserves it or not.

When things go badly, the president gets blamed -- whether he deserves it or not.

Let's go from there:

1/11

We all know what Occam's Razor is: The principle that the simplest of competing theories is most likely true.

Folks, we're standing in Occam's Sawmill staring right at Occam's Buzzsaw here.

Covid cost Donald Trump re-election. 2/11

Perhaps he would have lost anyway. Perhaps not. But covid slammed the lid.

If you believe Trump didn't deserve blame for the pandemic, I won't argue.

No one whose house got flattened by a tornado deserved that either.

3/11

Truth be told, the fact Trump's clear and decisive loss wasn't worse than it was is an impressive testament to the underlying political strength of the Republican Party.

4/11

The idea Trump's defeat is attributable to fraud would have been a hard sell before he and his allies racked up a 1-59 win/loss record in court. And the one win, in Penn., was trivial. 5/11

News Safety Update 2#: Let's talk about Situational Awareness! SA is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening. More simply, it's knowing what is going on around you. @RTDNA @NPPA @rcfp @pressfreedom #tvnewsers

The concept of Situational Awareness isn’t something for spies or secret agents. Applying it to real world conditions is actually rather simple. Situational Awareness is keeping your head on a swivel, looking around to observe what’s going on, who’s there, what they are doing.

What is going on around you that might cause you trouble? If based on your observations and predictions, you feel unsafe, then Situational Awareness means you're able to make adjustments to what you are doing, like changing your body language, behavior or location, to be safe.

Cooper's Color Codes are a great way to remember levels of Situational Awareness. You want to be in condition Yellow when you're on location, in your vehicle, out in the field and even in the newsroom.

Condition White: Unaware and unprepared. If something dangerous occurs in this condition you will be caught off guard and not ready to rapidly react to escape harm.

In remarks today at the southern border, @POTUS: Millions of our citizens watched on Wednesday as a mob stormed the Capitol and trashed the halls of government.  As I have consistently said throughout my administration, we believe in respecting America's history and traditions...

That is why we are here today: to talk about what we must do to uphold the rule of law in America and how we must continue to support our law enforcement heroes.

For years, politicians ran for office promising to secure the border – only to get elected and do the exact opposite.  But unlike those who came before me, I KEPT MY PROMISES. Today, we celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the completion of the promised 450 miles of Border Wall.

We arrested nearly 500K illegal aliens with criminal records. We removed nearly 20K gang members from the US, including 4,500 members of MS-13.
...
Through the landmark reforms we have put into place, we have ended the immigration chaos and re-established American Sovereignty.

Now, instead of Catch-and-Release we have DETAIN-AND-REMOVE.
...
We instituted a series of historic policy changes to shut down asylum fraud.

If Republican leaders are actually interested in "unity" rather than using its rhetoric to avoid accountability, here's something they could do. It doesn't involve much in the way of consequences, but it does feature truth-telling, apologies and requests for reconciliation.

To be clear, I don't think any of this would actually happen, but it would be nice (if insufficient) if it did.

Ronna McDaniel, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley could issue a joint statement and do a press conference in which they acknowledged that Joe Biden is president-elect and that he won a free and fair election by a sizable margin.

They could say that there is no evidence of meaningful election fraud and that judges, including ones appointed by Trump, have rejected much of what the president and his allies have been complaining about.

They could apologize for misleading their supporters over the past months and say that they understand why Democrats may think their claims fueled last week's violence and are horrified if that is the case.

They are using the same Hegelian dialectic to break up the USA. Rothschild and its forward Fire base Israel and their golem creations Russia/China/WEF.

Transferring all the technology to Russia and China

Building the Bridge and Road and placing Israel at the heart of the Bunting Clover Leaf Map.

That is what the Abraham Accords and Yinon Plan was about.

The year 1973 was a KEY YEAR. It was the year of the Yom Kippur War.

Even those casually following immigration are likely aware of the active role Trump's attorneys general played.

This participation entailed unprecedented use of "referral & review"... a power with a problematic & twisted journey beyond Trump...

More in my report out today⬇️

Referral & review dates back to a time when the immigration bureaucracy was housed within the Justice Department.

The power helped the attorney general to manage this system - knitting adjudications, rulemaking, & other decisions into one coherent immigration policy framework.

That's not to say it wasn't without its issues!

Allowing the attorney general—the country’s chief law enforcement officer—to intercede in individual immigration cases has raised questions about the true independence of the immigration adjudication system.

Plus, the attorney general can issue referral & reviews without transparency or briefings, which has negative implications for the legal and policy soundness of the decisions and their acceptance.

But then! 2003 happens.

Under the government restructuring following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, most of the immigration system was moved out of the Justice Department.

The attorney general was left with the immigration court system and...referral & review.

The GovLab's Stefaan Verhulst will be testifying on smart city oversight before the NYC Council's Committee on Technology at 1:00 PM. You can watch him and the other witnesses live in Virtual Room 2 at:

Chair Holden opens the meeting. by speaking to the promise and potential that smart city technology offers, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He notes how big data, the internet of things, and other innovative solutions could help New Yorkers address real challenges.

However, he stresses, these come with privacy and security risks. The chair talks about the need to mitigate these challenges and ensure the benefits provided by smart city technologies outweigh costs.

Following the Chair's opening statement, John Paul Farmer, Chief Technology Officer of New York, offers testimony from the Administration.

He notes his focus will be on the city's work in Internet of Things, where NYC leads nationally and internationally.

"The Mayor's Office of the CTO has focused on improving the connectivity infrastructure needed to operate as a smart city," says Farmer

"Equitable connectivity is a foundation of the smart city. Widespread broadband is needed to connect the tools and sensors that make up IoT."

.@SteveSisolak, you state you support schools reopening.

Well, educators do also. We support schools reopening SAFELY!

Here is how you, our Governor, can support us in CCSD. 1/9

1️⃣ Ensure that there are enough vaccines for teaches to receive two doses in the preferred timeframe.
2️⃣ Encourage Superintendent Jara to make this a priority, as well as send out a statement to district employees of his plan to ensure we will not open schools until all 2/9

And now a happy-making Christmas story. “Alan Jones settles defamation lawsuit with SBS.” https://t.co/OhEaHlVea7

“SBS filed a defence of truth to the imputations that Jones was a racist, a misogynist, a liar and a disgraceful high school teacher.”

“SBS also denied the meanings claimed by Jones, pleaded the defence of honest opinion, and asserted that Jones’ reputation was already so bad it could not be damaged by the broadcast.”

This relates to a tribute segment on “the Feed” by Alex Lee which said Jones "made a career out of bullying people", "gleefully used racial slurs" and "spread lies and fake news".

As the story says: Jones claimed in court documents that the broadcast conveyed ten defamatory imputations about him, including that he "achieved his success as a broadcaster by habitually seeking to intimidate vulnerable people".

That SMH story goes on to list a number of other things that Jones claims the story suggested.

Anyway SBS said this was either all trust or honest comment. An agreement was reached to take down the segment, and no apology or compensation to Jones is needed.

This weeks “AMERICA THIS WEEK With Eric Bolling” monologue:

WELCOME TO AMERICA THIS WEEK... 
THERE'S NO SUGAR-COATING IT... LAST WEEK WAS TOUGH TO SEE...
TOUGH TO HEAR...
AND TOUGH TO RE-LIVE AS MORE AND MORE DETAILS EMERGED ABOUT THE ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL AND THE LIVES LOST...

LOST. 
BUT WE AS A COUNTRY HAVE TO FACE THIS HEAD-ON... 
THERE'S NO GOING BACK TO THE WAY WE USED TO BE. 
THIS MORNING, I REALIZED THAT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT TO CHANGE.
  NO MATTER HOW I VOTE, NO MATTER WHAT I SAY, AMERICA IS NEVER GOING TO BE THE SAME...

I'VE BEEN COVERING POLITICS FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES.. 
AND THIS MOMENT IN TIME... WE ARE FURTHER APART AS A NATION THAN EVER BEFORE.. 
AT LEAST, IN MY LIFETIME..
MY FRIENDS ARE SPLIT.. 
THE LIBERAL ONES WON'T TALK TO THE CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS...

"SEE I TOLD YOU IT WAS GOING TO END THIS WAY"...
YA KNOW WHAT..? 
THEY WERE RIGHT. 
THEY HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS WOULD HAPPEN.
MY CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS ARE STILL SHAKING THEIR COLLECTIVE HEADS.. 
WOW.. THINGS WERE GOING GREAT FOR FOUR YEARS..
  WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?...

THEY ARE RIGHT TOO...
THINGS WERE GOING GREAT FOR CONSERVATIVES.. 
THEY GOT THREE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES SEATED.. 
TAXES WERE LOWERED…
REGULATIONS WERE ROLLED BACK LIKE NEVER BEFORE SEEN.
  SO WHAT HAPPENED?
AS A LIBERTARIAN, I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING....