MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
ABUJA

PRESS RELEASE

FG DECLARES DECEMBER 25, 28, 2020; JANUARY 1, 2021 PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

The Federal Government has declared Friday 25, Monday 28 December 2020 and Friday, January 1, 2021 as public holidays to mark the Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year Celebrations respectively.

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola (@raufaregbesola), who made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, felicitated with Christians and all Nigerians both at home and abroad on this year’s Christmas and New Year Celebrations.

Aregbesola urged Christians to adopt the creed of Christ on faith, hope and love.

“We must emulate the life of humility, service, compassion, patience, peace and righteousness that the birth and Ministry of Jesus Christ signified, that will be the best way to know Christ and celebrate his birth”, he said.

@AlexandraChalup "As MAGA World’s hopes for an election redo have slipped away, an equally improbable idea has begun to percolate among Donald Trump’s most bitterly disappointed followers: secession." 12/21/20 h/t @AlexandraChalup 1/

2/"Texas GOP chair Allen West floated the idea of a new union of 'law-abiding states,' and Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann—previously best known for dressing up as “gay Hitler”—pledged to file a bill in Austin to put the question of Texas secession to voters."

"Rep. Randy Weber also posted pro-secession material on his Facebook page, becoming the first official in Washington to advocate for disintegrating the U.S. Trump’s most reliable media supporters have likewise spread the idea nationally." 3/

"Rush Limbaugh, recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this month claimed the country was suddenly 'trending toward secession.'" 4/

"Actual secession in the U.S. remains, for the moment, something outside the realm of feasibility." 5/

“Giving prosecutors more authority & leverage to punish those who are despised—white racist fascists, for example—will inevitably result in more poor nonwhite people being prosecuted.” White crime often leads to harsher punishment for Black & Brown

"Even hate crime legislation specifically intended to help prosecute crimes motivated by white supremacy & other forms of bigotry, can have a disparate negative impact on minority groups. In 2019 Black people (roughly 13% of population) were accused of nearly 24% of hate crimes."

"Half-century ago, the Mafia was seen as a pervasive, violent threat. Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO the most sweeping federal criminal law ever enacted. At the time, lawmakers weren’t talking about going after Black groups." Well?

Despite RICO passed in response to predominately white Mafia threats, Black people are now "disproportionately prosecuted under RICO In a 2012 study, approximately 86 percent of federal criminal prosecutions of gangs using the RICO statute have targeted racial minorities." Why?

"[T]he implicit racial biases of prosecutors" is what drives prosecutions of Black people under RICO. "They tend to only see a White gang as a “gang” when it is formally organized while far likelier to apply the label to an informal group of Black friends in a neighborhood."

1/11
The House of Reps approving $2000 relief checks rather than $600 dollars. That’s a big deal. $2000 checks could ease the pain just long enough for millions of Americans to remember this is the good our government can do in moments like these. #velshi

2/11
The bipartisan bill was met by Mitch McConnell at the front door of the senate with the words "The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends who don't need the help.” #velshi

3/11
The bipartisan bill for $2,000 checks was met by Mitch McConnell at the front door of the senate with the words, "The Senate is not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of Democrats' rich friends who don't need the help.” #velshi

4/11
What is, indeed, “rich” is Mitch McConnell - estimated to be around the 9th wealthiest person in congress - and who makes $193,000/yr, talking about people’s “rich friends”.
#velshi

5/11
If you add $2,000 to the $1,200 checks that went out in March, that’s $3200 over 9 months. $11.85/day. Nobody’s getting rich off of that. #velshi

32 of the past 36 years, before TRUMP, BUSH/CLINTON was in top 3 Positions in US Federal Government:
Some back story first:
Prescott Bush backs Nixon - Nixon becomes President Nixon appoints George HW Bush as Ambassador to UN, then in 1973 Chairman of RNC, George HW Bush urges

Mitch McConnell is telling GOP senators their decision on a Trump impeachment trial conviction is a 'vote of conscience' https://t.co/tzuXEyD8ap by @tomlobianco ($) in @Politicsinsider

"His message to me was this would clearly be a vote of conscience," Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, told @Politicsinsider "He's always been respectful of members that way."

Cramer, a former House Republican & early supporter of Trump who stuck w/ him through his 1 term in office, said that he doesn't want to vote to convict Trump. But he said he might be open to voting in favor of barring Trump from serving in office again after last week's attack.

Such a vote to permanently end Trump's federal government career requires just a simple majority but would only happen should two-thirds of the Senate vote to convict Trump. That has never before occurred to a president in more than 230 years of US history.

The domestic attack on the Capitol has lawmakers from both parties rattled ahead of Biden's inauguration, where about 20,000 National Guard troops have set up camp in and around the nation's seat of legislative power.

I've been trying to put this into words for a while now:

I truly think Biden understands the presidency more than perhaps any President since JFK. He is very aware of this moment and his role.

At some point you should stop underestimating him.

Conservatives pretend Biden is senile while others categorize him as just a "Joe from Scranton". Both are very wrong.

Yes, he's got a regular guy persona. But he also lapses into quoting Irish poets, Lincoln, and St. Augustine at the drop of a hat. He's not shy about it.

He's incredibly in-tune with the American Ethos: he knows the role of the Presidency, in both a practical and inspirational role. His idea of the presidency is fundamentally as a transformative role. I've seen nothing to suggest the contrary.

He gets it. He freakin' gets it.

The bar is so low after Trump that a half-assed attempt would clear it easily and look miraculous in comparison.

Nah. Joe's gunning for the record. At some point you have to stop complaining he's complacent when he puts a 1.9T package as priority #1 and signs 30 EOs in 3 days.

I don't think enough has been written about the transformative impact a successful Biden term could actually bring. We're going from an administration who honestly didn't even try to one staffed by experts and experienced veterans.

People will notice the effects.

Delusional. And no way to run a country. Far higher barriers to trade with the EU from Friday. And still subject to EU influence on our laws. To deny this is also to deny the ability to tackle the problems we will face.

We ended up with particularly high level playing field conditions in the EU deal because the UK didn't take the subject seriously. We got a worse deal on fish than anyone thought possible, and got nothing in return. All because of cakeism. Or patriotism as they call it.

Now we face higher trade barriers to our nearest market, which means our businesses need to be even more competitive to overcome them and succeed. Is that acknowledged?

Our neighbours, the EU, use all manner of pressures to keep neighbours in line in terms of trade. That financial services equivalence, pity if you didn't get that. Data equivalence, have 6 months free if you don't change your laws while we make you sweat...

Northern Ireland, as we repeat endlessly, Johnson cakeism of no checks? Somehow no longer mentioned after the EU got what they wanted. See also, fish, level playing field. EU priorities, EU won. Johnson cake, all gone, not eaten.

1. Fri. 15 Jan. Zoom call with retired Generals, Colonels & Lin Wood: https://t.co/YGaFI5adpm

- 25,000 troops are now in DC, under the guise of riot control for the inauguration.

- More troops across the country-all major Democrat cities-are on standby which is 1hr recall

1)You want 2021 to be a better year? Well, it’s up to us to make it better for ourselves, because the government’s plan is to keep you in masks & locked up forever, so if you don’t start taking back your freedom, no government will give it back to you. All it takes is a spark...

This is the mind-blistering fact that everyone should be aware of. The government still has *no plan* for ending the pandemic. Or even for ending the lockdown. I knew we had a troupe of clowns in charge, but this is beyond incompetence.
My column.

Taiwan's most recent death from covid-19 was on May 11th last year. It stopped the virus without lockdowns. How? Mostly through its genuinely world-beating test-trace-isolate-and-support system, developed with the help of participatory democracy. Compare, contrast and weep.

See those numbers on the y axis? They are the actual numbers. SEVEN deaths in total from covid-19, in a nation with over twice our population density. This is what competent government looks like.

From the outset, the Taiwanese government built its system on mass popular engagement and active consent. It also understood the central importance of getting TTIS right, part of which means providing a 5-star service for people who have to go into isolation.

Taiwan's approach was the exact opposite of the racist trope with which some people have tried to explain its success: "people in East Asian countries do what they're told, we don't". It actively built public engagement and enthusiasm, while our government centralised everything.

A hearing in the case of one of the Capitol rioters accused of assault is about to begin.

Some background via @Matt_Naham: "'Mateo Q' Accused of Attacking National Guardsmen at Capitol. His Tweets Are Exactly What You Would Expect."

Live-tweet ahead.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Reona J. Daly asks the defendant's consent to participate in today's hearing remotely.

The defendant, Mathew Capsel, agrees.

Judge Daly asks whether Capsel is asking the court to appoint counsel for him.

"Yes, ma'am."

She reviews his financial affidavit, and she agrees to his public defender.

The prosecutor asks for detention, saying that he's a danger to the community and a flight risk.

They will proceed on that motion.

Prosecutor said that Capsel had a suicide attempt over marital issues.

"There's violence in this defendant's history, as a juvenile and as an adult."

He alleges that he has a history of trespass as well, before the Capitol insurrection.