honestly there has nothing been more flabbergasting than Democrats having faced down getting blown up / shot / kidnapped and then pretending like they have no power to do anything about it

It turns out it’s not that they didn’t care about their constituents, they’re just abject cowards who can’t even stand up for themselves in an ongoing emergency where the lack of consequences makes a second, third, fourth attack more likely????

“Ah ha, but let’s not ruin Biden’s first one hundred days”

A mob just tried to kill you??? Like, there’s bombs and stuff and a cop died???? Why the fuck do you think we’re on a normal schedule anymore!!!

Silicon Valley companies with soul-crushing moral cowardice built into their DNA have moved faster, *what is wrong with you*

The only thing fascists worship is power, or rather, the semblance of power. The only thing that sets them back is feeling like losers. You can’t play 4D chess with an ideology so one dimensional it isn’t actually an ideology

1. Sometimes, God calls us to leave where we are because we have forgotten that we are on a journey to the promised land. When we arrive at Horeb, we somehow forget the real aim and become lost in the temporary. @NDBCVI @olaballo @Eromski @sola_ff @YouthsLagos #makeitworkin2021

2. But, we will not settle for the ephemeral. We are pushing forward to reach the promised land. We refuse to be satisfied with yesterday's happenings. If God told Israel to leave Horeb, why can't we leave too? #makeitwork @dejitula @afolake26 @matchmakers_re @fiyin4God @NDBCVI

3. Israel camped at Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai or the Mountain of God. It was a unique place. There, Moses led Israel to covenant with God. There Moses received the Ten Commandments. Mount Horeb was a special place. But God told them to break camp and advance. Why? @NDBCVI

4. Sometimes, a place of significance can become a barrier. It can become the reason for not growing and pushing forward. Horeb represents a place of significance. Why should you pay attention to Horeb? #livetogrow

5. First, Horeb represents the place of ENCOUNTER. All of us should cherish our place of encounter. It is the point of joy, the place of pleasure, or the location of delight. Horeb was an exciting place for the Israelites and Moses. @NDBCVI

So... I arrived for carer's vaccine appointment this morning, fully in line with rules as I have a contract arranged via the council themselves. I was told the rules had changed over the weekend and anyone looking after only one person was no longer eligible.

"You're joking me, right?" I say. No, sympathetically she says she has been told this very morning (it's 0805) that the rules had changed at the weekend and I cannot have the vaccine. I'm not usually lost for words. I manage not to swear (v impressive for me).

I say I am lost for words but can I please see a manager, explaining I am the sole carer for an 88-year-old disabled woman with a heart condition and no vaccination. I plead for an exception. She is kind but firm: I am not eligible but she will fetch a manager.

I explain again to the manager, who takes one look at my contract and immediately confirms that I AM eligible. There IS a rule change, but it relates to people claiming carer's allowance, not to those with a formal contract to care for someone.

So I get that some confusion is inevitable in an operation of this scale, but clearly there are people out there who legitimately booked appointments as carers on the basis of carers' allowance and the rules have changed over the weekend. It will be devastating when they arrive.

Amazing what is going on with narratives that justify ever more draconian policies.

1. Lockdowns China did would never be acceptable in a democracy.
2. Covid is really scary and we don’t know how badly it affects people. Maybe the chinese knows something we don’t. Let’s err on the side of caution.

3. It doesn’t seem to impact kids as much, and the figures show shielded protection is viable - but we need to protect against LONG covid. 4. The first wave outbreak seems not to be matched by same scale of excess deaths as second wave. But mutant strain now about!

5. We don’t know if mutant strain will be treatable with vaccines or if it will impact children - better to err on side of caution and shut everything down again. 6. Data suggests hospitals are within winter crisis norms - but these are not the data points you are looking for.

7. The data points you are looking for are anecdotal testimonies from mostly anonymous NHS staff as well as new regimes and protocol constraints which make all the previous data null and void.

So like white people starting to give that black cop credit, as they should. But I’m still not sure they get it, so let me explain a little more succinctly, the play by play that likely happened in that mans mind.

He realized that the entire seat of power of the US govt was I defended, as was he, with no backup, when he looked over his shoulder. That he was the last line of defense, between the barbarians storming the capital. These barbarians, being racist white nazis.

And in that moment, when all of his training kicked in? And he made the heroic split second decision to save the senators lives, and delay as best he could? You know what he realized his absolute BEST weapon was? In that SPLIT SECOND?

It wasn’t his service weapon. His badge, his training. Lol it was the fact he was a BLACK man in front of a racist mob. Nothing else mattered, nothing else would be as effective. And he KNEW that, so fathom what that means for someone defending said racist country

With his life. Lol his gun wouldn’t help save these white elected officials, many of whom had directed this white mob against him...he knew the deep burning racism of said white mob, would be enough, on seeing a black man to forget what they even stormed the capital for.

VENDING EXPENSES

For everyone who is interested in a vending business, I am going through all of the steps of creating one right now.

And

I want to show you everything so let’s talk about it

-A THREAD-

Your Largest costs are always going to be

- Transportation of the machine (if you have to rent a Uhaul)
- The Machine
- Product

I want to go over all of this with you all

Let’s talk about transporting them first

If you don’t have a way to transport the machine I would always recommend borrowing a truck from someone you know first.

If that’s not the case generally a 1 day uhaul rental will be fine.

P.S. rent a dolly as well

Depending on the machine size the uhaul rental will vary but shouldn’t break the bank. $100-$200 max.

Now is the fun part.

Purchasing the machine

I got this machine on Facebook Marketplace for $1050

Seaga SM22 combo snack/drink machine

Having a book out when the bookshops are shut and publicity tours aren't an option (except via zoom) is tough. Lockdowns favour big names over smaller or newer authors. But here are some amazing things you can do to help authors ride this out...

1) Review their books on amazon: it's most people's book search engine, and even more when there are no bookshops to browse or booksellers to ask... for example ahem...

2) TELL THEM you enjoyed their book. They may be feeling glum. You will 100% make their day.

3) If their book isn't out yet, preorder it! For eg this from @ldlapinski is coming in April. Most booksellers will be ordering smaller quantities than usual, this gives them a reason to order more! Also you might get a lovely package from @rshipbshop

Oops forgot a bridgerton gif for the last one. Enjoy this one.

Pastors who grew up in dysfunctional families also share a crushing sense of responsibility.

We learned early on that if we performed like we should, we could control our environment, prevent catastrophes, & temporarily "fix" our circumstances. Now, we do this in ministry. 1/

We take responsibility for everything out of, ironically, an over-inflated sense of importance to the situation-"if I don't do it, it will all fall apart." This is part of why we gain a sense of significance from ministry-we are doing what always gave us purpose-fixing things. 2/

However, in ministry this means:

1) we struggle to share responsibility b/c we have never experienced a collaborative environment. So we take on more than is truly possible and set ourselves up to fail, which, not surprisingly, deals us an even deeper emotional blow. 3/

When we fail, we cannot see that the problem was not our inability, but the amount of pressure we put on ourselves and our unwillingness to share the load. 4/

2) We have difficulty trusting responsibility to those around us. It's easier, even safer, to do it ourselves. This is both b/c of our sense of "control" over the situation, & our fear of being let down by another's promises. This undermines the productivity of the whole team. 5/

1. Thanks @glenmpani for your support when my mother passed on. You raised an interesting point on democracy that we should discuss further

2. Forms of democracy have existed in many societies at different times . Even prominent writers, such as Held (1996), suggest that democracy has evolved among societies and different cultures.

3. Both the form and practice of democracy are often contested and as aptly submitted by Street (2011: 305) “There are, of course, as many definitions of democracy as there are democratic theorists.” @glenmpani

4. While democracy is generally taken as the ideal form of rule, it is hotly disputed in other cultures.

5. Held,(1996: 7) believed that the most discernible and attractive form of democracy is one in which citizens in principle can extend their participation in decision-making to a wide array of spheres such as political, social and economic.

Earlier today, a group of anti-mask protestors did maskless shopping at the Beverly Connection Target in West L.A. After they entered, they got into a few verbal altercations with customers.

A shopper aimed a bottle of cleaning spray at the anti-maskers. He seemed to spray them with the cleaning liquid.

“It’s not a pandmic, it’s a plan-demic, it’s a scam-demic,” one of the anti-maskers said to a man who engaged with them for a few minutes.

Soon after, two LAPD officers entered the store, approached for crowd and spoke with them for a few minutes. The man who engaged with group earlier asked for them to be removed from the store.

The officers left a few minutes later without making arrests or giving citations that I know of.

🧵TERRIBLE NEWS IN KENTUCKY EVERYONE:

SB 9—the “Born Alive” bill enacted by the Republican-controlled legislature—is now law because @AndyBeshearKY failed to veto it.

That’s good news for forced birthers in Kentucky—not so much for pregnant people. #TeamLegal

The bill sat on Beshear’s desk for ten whole ass days. He could've vetoed it.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he just let it go into effect. And the cherry on top of the shit sundae? Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

So that's fun.

So what exactly *is* the Born Alive law?

It is a fear-mongering and myth-making law based on THE LIE that abortion providers are somehow aborting newborns on the regular.

I don't know about you, but aborting a newborn is called murder or infanticide where I’m from.

Kentucky's "Born Alive" law is utter propaganda.

It is also a blatant attempt by Republican legislators to control how and when physicians provide abortion care as @heyitscalla pointed out in this piece for @RewireNewsGroup:

Kentucky’s “Born Alive” law (SB 9) requires a physician performing an abortion "to take all medically appropriate and reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of a born alive infant."

You can read the bill here:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights!
Read this Thread please carefully!
ALL governments that are in lockdown violates their own UN rights! Look at this and read carefully.

The full article can be found here

Art 1:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood

1/3
Art.2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property,

2/3
birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing

3/3
..or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

THREAD #Cascadia thinks green. We think we're they climate leader that we Can, Should and Must be. But despite promises + initiatives, #GHG emissions from #BritishColumbia, #Washington & #Oregon just keep rising. 1/9
#GtZ #PNW @INVW Viz by @compatibilism @grist

Today @INVW launched a year-long reporting project about #Cascadia's capacity to gear-up on climate action, get off fossil fuels, and slash carbon emissions... A deep dive on how 1 region can DECARBONIZE. 2/9
#GtZ #PNW #BritishColumbia @springshoeanimation

series Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia opens with #BritishColumbia, #Washington & #Oregon's Lost Decade - How #Cascadia set some of North America's first and boldest #GHG targets, and failed to deliver.

Yes, #Cascadia's economies expanded 26 percent after the Great Recession. But so did #California. It had policies to guide economic growth - particularly to temper growing emissions from cars and trucks. #BC #WA & #OR did not. 4/9
@INVW #GtZ #PNW

All year we'll be exploring the people, policies and firms working to finally start transforming #Cascadia into the climate fighter its residents expect and need. It's an ambitious reporting project, nearly unique in its cross-border US-Canadian focus. 5/9
#GtZ #PNW

Excellent video on the use of race in college admissions. If you do not have time to watch the video, the screenshots set out the basic precepts along with the narrowly tailored cases in which race MAY be considered.
h/t: @ConceptualJames

Today marks the establishment of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee as a freestanding Committee of Parliament. So here is a thread on treaty scrutiny in the House of Lords to celebrate the occasion 1/16/

Parliament has never been very good at scrutinising treaties. Bagehot noted the problem in 1872 in the second edition of his seminal work The English Constitution 2/16

I suspect the reasons for this are twofold: first the fact the negotiations of treaties are the responsibility of the Executive under the royal prerogative... 3/16

And second the UK’s dualist legal system - which means that international agreements do not take effect in domestic law until they have been enacted in domestic legislation. 4/16

This sounds like a safeguard. But in fact agreements tend to be signed before any legislation (if it is necessary) is brought before Parliament. So Parliamentarians are left with a rather binary choice... 5/16

Klopp joined Liverpool in October 2015 with the club 13th in the PL. Having inherited Brendan Rodgers' squad, he saw them finish the season in 8th. To rebuild, FSG made wholesale changes from the front office to the first team, and they experienced their fair share of poor form.

Despite having a clear idea of which areas of the team needed strengthening (in particular, defense), it obviously didn't happen Immediately. Liverpool finished the 2016/17 season in 4th place, having conceded the 2nd most goals of any team in the top 7.

Ahead of 2017/18, LFC spent big [£168m]. But Klopp's side were still very much a work in progress - conceding 16 in the first nine (including a 4-1 loss at Spurs with Lovren subbed on 30'). They signed van Dijk in January, righted the ship, finished 4th and lost in the UCL final.

Having sold off dead weight (£185m) in 2017/18, LFC once again spent big in 2018/19 [£175m]. Key acquisitions bolstered a core who by then knew Klopp's tactics inside out. They lost just once in PL, narrowly missed out on the title by a single point to City and won the UCL final.

With the desired team assembled, LFC only spent £4.5m in the summer before 2019/20. They hit the ground running and bossed the league, winning it comfortably. Klopp's arrival had marked a transformation at Anfield - patience and belief in his project yielded legitimate results.