BC BIDEN
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BREAK: Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.

The Trump administration is over.

 Technically another 9 mins to go for the official handover. But it’s a formality.
Biden: "This is America's day. This is democracy's day. A day of history and hope....Today we triumph not of a candidate but of a cause. The cause of democracy. The people, the will of the people has been heard. And the will of the people has been heeded."
"At this hour my friends, democracy has prevailed."

Biden thanks his predecessors from both parties "from the bottom of my heart."

With, perhaps, the exception of one.
Biden addresses the pandemic and its economic consequences: "Few people in our nation's history have found themselves in a moment as challenging as the one we're in now...but the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer."
Biden says the country must confront and defeat the problems of domestic terrorism in America.

15 or 10 years ago American presidents would have been using that term to refer to Islamist terrorism. Post Trump administration, it's about the far right. Transformation.
Biden: "I know speaking of unity might seems a foolish fantasy these days...but our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we're all created equal and the harsh ugly reality of racism, nativism, fear, demonisation...the battle is perennial."
Biden: "Let's start afresh, all of us, let's begin to listen to one another agin. Hear one another, show respect to one another. Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire, destroying all in its path. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manufactured."
Biden believes in this unity theme. The danger for him is that (a little like Obama) he believes it can actually be achieved. And that is setting himself up for one alrighty fall.
Biden, referring to America's first female Vice President @KamalaHarris says "don't tell me things can't change."
Biden's best passage yet: "These last weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a responsibility, especially leaders...to defend the truth and defeat the lies."
And that's going to be the difference. A president who didn't like or care about fundamental democratic principles, conventions, institutions and norms (including the value of truth) has been replaced with one who does. Not necessarily more than another politician but Biden is.
Biden: "We'll lead not only by the example of our power but by the power of our example."
Biden: "I give you my word- I will always level with you. I will defend the constitution. I will defend our democracy. I'll defend America...together we shall write an American story of hope not fear, of unity not division, of light and not darkness."
It's hardly a unique insight but it is hard to overestimate how different the last two inauguration speeches have been. America's capacity for renewal (and rapid transformation) is breathtaking.

More from Lewis Goodall

Lewis Goodall
Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Trump’s doctor: “This morning, the President is doing very well.”

Conley: “the team and I are extremely pleased with how the President is doing.” Says that Trump’s symptoms are now improving.

Second doctor says that President’s kidney function, heart function are both normal. Says that he’s not on oxygen and in “exceptionally good spirits.” Says that Trump said “it feels I could walk out of this today.” Says he’s walking around the medical unit.

Doctor is repeatedly asked about whether Trump is on oxygen. Says he’s not on oxygen “now” or “today”. Sidesteps question about whether he’s received it up to now.

Doctor says “since Friday morning” Trump hasn’t had a fever
TRUMP
Lewis Goodall
Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Some quick thoughts on what we just saw

Firstly hardly a unique insight but hard to overstimate the difference between the two last inaugurals. America has meandered sharply along its political arc.

Biden's rhetoric reached high. Every sentence seemed purposefully...


...constructed to negate every political and personal characteristic of his predecessor.

And insofar as he's not Trump, that he does accept, cherish and understand democratic norms, institutions and conventions in a way that Trump never could, Biden will make a real difference.

He will change the tone and tenor of politics, not only in America but across the West. As I've said before, just replacing Trump is a substantial victory for him and will earn him praise from historians.

But that aura will disappear quickly. A governing project it will not make

But how much praise he receives and stature conferred by posterity will depend on what happens next.

Because the big overarching question for me, watching this, is which of those two inaugurals, Trump or Biden's, is going to seem unusual in the future.

The relief that many are feeling is predicated on a type of politics ending. But it is at least as possible that it is Biden ..not Trump who is the last gasp of something. Is it Trump who is the dying embers of a dying, increasingly powerless old white America...
SOCIETY
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Lewis Goodall
Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Overheard in a Newcastle cafe, two very despondent students, clearly not long arrived in the city: “I might as well just go home. What is the point in being here? I told my Mum last night, I just feel so lonely. Wish I’d taken a gap year.” The other nodded, in sad agreement.

More cafe conversations-a woman who has recently gone back to work and is now facing down the barrel of imminent unemployment again with the hospitality shutdown which is prob coming here: “I was so buzzing to get back to work. I can’t believe it’s back. Don’t know what I’ll do.”

A local bar owner who has popped in for a coffee: “up to now we’ve just about been making enough money on Saturday to survive and make it through the rest of the week. Depends what the government does. But we’re on the edge.”

And the cafe owner, been here 19 years: “things had been a bit better but this week trade has fallen off a cliff. I came in yesterday and the day before and I just closed because there was no point. Whatever they announce I’m praying it isn’t for long or they extend furlough.”

This cafe btw is a cracker, when I lived in Newcastle came all the time. If you’re ever in the area (restrictions permitting) @QuayIngredient is where you need to go.
SOCIETY
Lewis Goodall
Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Charles Walker, Vice Chair of the 1922 Tory backbench committee in the Commons tells TWTW that he thinks the government knew it intended to “cancel” Christmas on Wednesday or Thursday but waited for Parliament to rise to do it. Says many of his colleagues find this “egregious.”

When put to Walker that Matt Hancock said this morning that wasn’t the case, it was the briefing on Friday which prompted the decision, Walker says: “Hmm yeah...well I’d have to disagree with the SoS on that.” So he’s either saying Hancock isn’t being truthful or is misinformed.

Walker: “Surely at some stage a senior government minister has say I’ve offered my resignation to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister has to say- very early I’ve had to accept this.”

Reminder- Charles Walker is Vice Chair of the Tory backbench committee.

Walker heavily implies it’s Matt Hancock he wants to see resign: “I’m not asking for the government to collapse. I’m asking for a Secretary of State to take some responsibility.”

The Charles Walker interview is extraordinary in what he is inferring. A senior Conservative MP is essentially accusing his govt and ministers of deceit about what they knew about the new strain and when and by implication the timing of the new lockdown.
GOVERNMENT
Lewis Goodall
Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
More study aids and generous grade boundaries for 2021's exams will be welcomed by many teachers and students. But doesn't address a fundamental problem of the next exam season: equity. Because there's great variation in how different schools have been affected by self-isolation.

Let's take the most recent attendance stats which I still don't think have really registered.

Most recent data- attendance rate across England of 83%

In secondary schools it's 78% (!)

So more than 1 in 5 secondary pupils are off school, largely for Covid related reasons.

But that’s just an average. Some schools’ attendance are at levels where they can’t really function, or certainly provide the quality of education they normally do.

Teachers’ are split between trying to run online lessons and those in schools.

Whole year groups are off.

Some students are in isolation, return to school and within days are in isolation again.

As I’ve reported before, IT provision is still patchy. Lots of reports of kids not doing work at home either because they get of the swing of it or they don’t have the IT resources.

And that’s before we get on to staff isolation, which is also proving a nightmare in many places.

In other words, you have to have everything go right for your education not to be impacted by Covid right now. And that’s affecting some places more than others.
EDUCATION

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\U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8I Support Our Military & Law Enforcement\U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8
🇺🇸I Support Our Milita...
@TheWiseOwl_AZ
1. Trust The Plan, Q

On Thurs. 14 Jan. right before B*iden’s Inauguration and due to foreign interference in the 2020 Presidential Election, Trump instigated the Insurgency Act, declared Martial Law and deferred his power to the US Military. Since then the US has been...
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Joe Cunningham
Joe Cunningham
@JoePCunningham
"Ban" is a verb meaning to "officially or legally prohibit" something. If the Biden administration is not approving new fracking permits, how is that not "officially or legally prohibiting" new fracking permits?


The economy is bleeding, and the Biden administration's response is to cripple one of the few industries that has been consistently employing people throughout this crisis.

But, his allies in the media don't want him to take that PR hit, so they run cover and play word games. Biden's exact words were "We are not going to ban fracking. Period." The "Period." there would imply that ANY ban is off the table.

If you are going to prohibit via executive order - which is nothing more than a law passed outside of the normal legislative process - anything, you are "legally" prohibiting it. There are legal consequences to violating that regulation.

So yes, definitionally, Biden has "legally prohibited" fracking in some way, shape, or form, which is the opposite of his campaign statements.

In other words, he lied.
BIDEN
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Noah Berlatsky
Noah Berlatsky
@nberlat
it is okay to criticize joe biden. we're going to need to do a lot of it in the next four years, so might as well get into practice.

he has always said a lot of stupid shit, and I suspect he will continue to do that. he's always been bad on lots of issues, and I suspect that will continue as well.

he is susceptible to pressure though. which is a reason to pressure him.

he's sort of going to end up as one of the greatest presidents ever or as a disaster at this point, given the nightmare hole he's got to crawl out of. so...hopefully people will point out when he's fucking up or we're all fucked.

Clyburne and Schumer have already said his 10k student debt plan is weak tea and he should do better. and they're right! hopefully he will listen and not be a dope.
BIDEN
kwanza "openly black" osajyefo
kwanza "openly black" ...
@kwanzer
So post President Biden’s inauguration speech, we’re going to see more #SouthernStrategy rhetoric emerge.

In particular, white folk being upset about the terms “racism” and “racist.”

And, I’m going to share response technique that my mother always used to clarity her points...

Condemn the actions not the person.

White folk see “racist” through a shallow criteria of taboo racism; saying “nigger” in the open or being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Even then racism will be met as an abstract. It’s why even overt racism doesn’t always register.

See; domestic terror attack on the US Capitol.

So because they want to internalize the term as a slur, without giving a single thought to their behavior — separate them.

Condemn the actions not the person.

It’s a great way to dismantle the tactics and put a spotlight on what racism is.

Here’s examples of my mom doing it...

“You’re not bad, but what you said was bad.”

“You’re not stupid, but what you did was stupid.”

This allowed her to correct me by examining my actions, extrapolating deeds and their effect on others.
BIDEN
Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: 20 years a blogger; Will Biden bust trusts?; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/8eRWqssqXf

#Pluralistic

1/


20 years a blogger: Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting.

https://t.co/XyvbPirvhE

2/


Will Biden bust trusts?: Obama's third term would be a disaster for antitrust.

https://t.co/FMc798VhI0

3/


#10yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire https://t.co/exhhsaAnzD;

#10yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire https://t.co/6t7jy4xIRt

#10yrsago Interview with hacker anthropologist Biella Coleman https://t.co/uf1wSr4X4L

4/


#5yrsago Income inequality makes the 1% sad, too https://t.co/DYzjE2uRFz

#1yrago The bubbles in VR, cryptocurrency and machine learning are all part of the parallel computing bubble https://t.co/qWZmB7u1sD

5/
BIDEN

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*The Evidence Collection*

There is overwhelming evidence of election fraud. Therefore it is the duty of the Executive, Legislative, & Judicial branches to throw out the fraudulent votes & to honor their oath to protect & defend the Constitution of the USA.🇺🇸🦅

A list below.🔻


1/ Navarro Report: The Immaculate Deception - Six Key Dimensions of Election Irregularities -

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It was pretty simple to do—Apple Time Machine backups let me do it with one click.

That first tweet captures, in two pictures, how badly Apple has “lost the plot” (to quote @wylieprof). On the right is the Apple MagSafe adapter, from 2013. On the left, what I had “upgraded” to.

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Sri Adi Jagannatha Perumal Temple, Thiruppullani, TN

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It is one of the 108 Divya Desam temples. Thiruppullani Sri Adi Jagannatha Perumal is also called as Sri Kalyana Jagannatha Perumal. It is believed that those who have difficulties or dhoshams regarding marriages and childbirth worship Jagannatha Perumal...👇
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Thuravoor Narasimha Swamy or Thuravoor Mahakshetram is situated in Alappuzha with Narasimha Swamy and Sudharshana Moorthy as main Prathishta.
Temple has separate Sannidhi for Vadakkanappan ( Narasimha) and 👇


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*Heads-up that this thread will feature some extreme examples of homophobia and transphobia.*

Hey folks, have you ever wondered why trans people face constant accusations of fetishism, sexual predation and child abuse/grooming? Well, today let's talk about stochastic terrorism.

So, first we have to talk about what stochastic terrorism actually is. Remember when there was a conspiracy that there was a pedophile ring operating out of a pizza parlour basement, and a crazed gunman showed up? It's that sort of incitement that stochastic terrorism describes.

It's the demonisation or incitement against a group of people or individuals with the intent that other, unaffiliated parties will act upon it; it's the releasing doctored footage and a shooter show up at Planned Parenthood as a direct result of what he's been led to believe.

So with that in mind, let's talk about Russia's extreme anti-LGBT laws that banned the "promotion" of LGBT lifestyles to children. A move that specifically marked LGBT people as a threat to children, and resulted in neo-nazis meting out vigilante "justice" against gay men.


Groups such as this would lure unsuspecting gay men via dating sites, and brutalise and humiliate them on camera. They did so under the guise of combating child abusers, one group calling themselves "Occupy
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