BC GOVERNMENT
Saved by @jay_millerjay

Press conference with city/county officials + Austin Energy GM Jackie Sargent.
WATCH:

 Austin Energy GM Jackie Sargent: For many of our customers here and across the state, they have been dealing with this. I'm so sorry our customers are experiencing these horrible conditions. I want you to know we're doing everything we can to restore power.
We are meeting the customers' needs as best as we can. We're continuing to respond to ERCOT's need for the electric grid - they're still operating at low reserve margins. If you have power, still help conserve.
We are now dealing with an ice storm event. It's impeding operations of some of our equipment. This ice storm is impacting our customers, some who had power and now don't.
I do have a bit of good news. Even though ERCOT’s reserves are low, they have given Austin Energy permission to restore some customers. We’ve restored 16 circuits across our service We are prioritizing customers who have been without power the longest.
However, this power may not stay on the whole time. If ERCOT resources remain available, once those circuits stabilize and the chances of system overload have decreased, we hope to begin outage rotations. The more load we are authorized to add back.
We're hearing some concerns, some speculation about hospitals. All tier 1 critical loads are currently energized. No plans to add them to rotating outages. However, they are vulnerable to ice storms and other weather events. Encourage backup generation.
Our crews have been working 24/7 and in these elements. Some of our crews are reporting incidents of harassment, threatening them and even throwing things at them. I know people are extremely frustrated. But please, I bet of you, do not approach AE crews.
Sargent: They are essential workers responding to emergencies and they are there to help you.
Austin Water Greg Meszaros: customers are experiencing significant lower pressure or outright water outages. As our system is being drained down and can't meet demand.
Meszaros: Asking customers to not drip their faucets. If you have a burst pipe, please isolate on your property or call it in. If you see a main break in a street, please call that in.
City Manager Spencer Cronk: We know this is frustrating. I am sorry this is happening. Shelters are available at Palmer Events Center and Del Valle High School.
Cronk: We need to save water. We need to save energy. We need to save gas.
Mayor Steve Adler: I see understand how many people are frustrated, confused and angry. To be in a situation where we have 5 million people without power in Texas - it's a huge failure in the grid. We weren't ready for a sustained 18 below condition.
Adler: We need to conserve water and that's the immediate priority.
Q: Are rotating outages happening around the city?
Sargent: Currently, we not stable enough to have rotating outages. We are seeing some outages due to the ice storm. We are working on all of that at this time.
Q: Why is PEC, other co
Sargent: As you look at the load that is served by AE across the community, we have a lot of medical facilities, govt facilities, we have other loads that are critical in nature due to being the capital of Texas.
So if you look at the # of circuits available, assume that we have 200 circuits available, if 100 are designated as critical load, they are not available for us to shed to respond to an ERCOT directive. So we only have the other 100 left. The amount of critical load, compared to
other providers. That's why we maxed out. There was nobody else we could get to implement and turn on the other circuits. We had this weather event. It froze up equipment - so it doesn't operate until manual intervention.
Until we can have enough headroom, we won't be able to enact rotating outages.
Q: What can customers expect from their upcoming bill?
Sargent: We do realize there are going to be impacts and we're going to be mindful of that - maintain balance of affordability and reliability.
Q: Why can't outages be more granular?
Sargent: The way the system was setup, was to cycle through circuits and look at amount of load instead of individual consumer load. We do have remote disconnect meters, but they're not part of this application because we need to do it in
blocks of power. To go through it individually one by one would be overwhelming. Once a circuit is off and there is no power to that meter, you no longer have that remote operating capability.
Q: Why is SW Austin area under boil water notice?
Meszaros: There was a large main break in that area, maybe multiple ones. We're seeing main breaks and pipes bursting by the tens of thousands. Our entire system is under stress.
Adler: As it is in other cities as well.

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https://t.co/fsmrOtgImm

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"For more than a decade, Mr. Afrasiabi was allegedly paid, directed & controlled by #Iran's gov to lobby U.S. gov officials, including a congressman; and to create & disseminate information favorable to the Iranian gov."

Seen here with former regime president Mohammad Khatami.


"Afrasiabi has also been secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the IMUN. Afrasiabi has been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn on the IMUN’s official bank accounts since 2007..."
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Thread:
I'm thinking about Tim Keller's influence.

There is the curious fact that Keller is well-regarded among the culture elite (or at least has not suffered the sort of vilification one might expect given his influence). How can we explain this?

Looking at Prodigal God and other writings, you see that his approach to urban ministry is deeply political in a way that appeals to Democrat-heavy cities. It involves two moves:

1) equalizing sins: elevating the sin of hypocrisy, "moralism," and "religion" (the sins of "conservatives") and equating these with the sins tolerated among liberal (e.g., homosexuality)
&
2) emphasizing "self-righteousness" as a sort of chief sin (the sin of "red states").

Keller effectively downplays the sins that liberals tolerate while elevating the sins of their political enemies, the red state conservatives.

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I've been seeing a lot of discussion around the dosage gaps recommended by government for the Astra/Oxford & Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. My thoughts on the potential benefits & risks of such an approach, and the need for much greater transparency around these decisions. Thread.


The UK govt announced recently that both the Oxford & BioNTech vaccines would be now administered with a gap of between 4-12 weeks (so prioritise administration of first dose, given limited resources).

What is the basis of this?

The basis that's been discussed seems to be that
1) the first dose is likely to confer some degree of protection against disease, so better to roll this out as fast as possible, and
2) that for Oxford/Astra efficacy may be higher when the gap between doses is greater.

I discuss some of the technical details around the Oxford trial below for those interested in these. If you'd just like a summary of this, please skip to the summary tweet titled 'SUMMARY'.

What does published evidence show? The Astra/Oxford data are a bit messy because of protocol changes during the trial. This is because the trial was originally planned as a single dose trial, but a booster dose was added when developers realised that this would likely help.
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Parker Molloy
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@ParkerMolloy
If you're curious what Trump's defense will look like, all you have to do is turn on Fox News. My latest at @mmfa

The tl;dr is that for years right-wing media have been excusing Trump's violent rhetoric by going, "Yes, but THE DEMOCRATS..." and then bending themselves into knots to pretend that Dems were calling for violence when they very, very clearly weren't.

And in fact, this predates Trump.

In 2008, Obama was talking about not backing down in the face of an ugly campaign. He said "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

https://t.co/i5YaQJsKop


That quote was from the movie The Untouchables. And there's no way anybody reading that quote in good faith could conclude that he was talking about actual guns and knives. But it became a big talking point on the

In 2018, Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking to a group of Georgia Democrats about GOP voter suppression. He riffed on Michelle Obama's "When they go low, we go high" line from the 2016 DNC.
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Christiaan Triebert
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@trbrtc
At least six people providing security for Roger Stone participated in the Capitol attack, our new Visual Investigation shows. Here's how the guards (all Oath Keepers) went from guarding Trump's longtime confidant to standing inside the Capitol on Jan. 6:

Mr. Stone, a convicted felon who was pardoned by Mr. Trump, has a long history as a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” political operative. On Jan. 5 and 6, Oath Keepers provided security for him, something he himself confirmed.

We combed through hundreds of videos and photos and drew on research from @CTExposers to visually identify Mr. Stone's guards on Jan. 5 and 6. — from that group, these six entered the Capitol during the insurrection.


Here's how. On Jan. 5, Mr. Stone made two public appearances in D.C. in support of Mr. Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. In the afternoon, he spoke in front of the Supreme Court. Five of the six Oath Keepers we’re tracking can be seen in this video.


The Oath Keepers are a far-right, anti-government militia — and there's plenty of footage to visually identify them around Mr. Stone on Jan. 5 and 6. Here's another video from that same event in front of the Supreme Court.
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