Government | Buzz Chronicles

Victory for journalists, press freedom after tribunal finds there is no reason to bar people from using the UK's freedom of information act simply because they are not in the UK. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas

The decision comes after the First-Tier tribunal stayed 16 Freedom of Information by appeals by journalists and ordinary people, because they were either not UK citizens, or had UK nationality but were living abroad. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

Today's decision means that the Freedom of Information Act will continue to operate as it always has done for the past 15 years. It is open to any person regardless of nationality or place of residence.@SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

Upper Tribunal judge O’Connor said today:" We found there is no territorial limitation that should be read into FOIA." Reasons will be given later. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

The decision means that after long delays - and arguably unnecessary - delays a number of important public interest FOIA requests can now resume. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

PATRIOT
@scarfizal

Well, Kukah is a bishop, Perhaps he sees and hears things mere mortals can't see.He said there could have been a coup if Buhari were not the president.

The idea is that Buhari's sins and incompetence necessitate a military coup. Kukah is a bishop, otherwise, I would have said he is serpentine. Regardless of how well or badly Buhari might have functioned, the suggestion of the probability or propriety of a coup is mischievous.

But Kukah is a bishop so I won't say he is a trouble maker. Let's just say he is mistaken. In 2018, Kukah resurrected Atiku and helped cleanse him of political leprosy. It was in desperation to unseat Buhari. Kukah and company lost woefully.

Today, Kukah, the democrat, is talking about a coup. When the bible forbids certain things it says, let it not be heard amongst you. One would think that a coup is a word that shouldn't ever come out of Kukah's mouth.

The coup Kukah is hinting about would have been staged by a section of the country to correct Fulani nepotism or domination, right? Kukah is the leader of the peace committee but here he was throwing firewood into the fire in the name of telling the truth.

$Rob\u1d49\u02b3\u1d57 Graham\U0001f637, provocateur$

Robᵉʳᵗ Graham😷, provoc...
@ErrataRob

Conspiracy theorists often sound rational, such as this video. He makes a good point that people simply dismiss their evidence ("you shouldn't say that") without taking the time to determine the truth.

I want to discuss why.

Was the US presidential election hacked? My morning thoughts\u2026 https://t.co/dg7eMfv7al
— Jeremy Cioara (@CioaraJeremy) December 31, 2020

The issue is that it's not us rational people who won't take the time to determine the truth, but the conspiracy theorists. They keep dredging up things they don't understand and demand that rational people explain them.

Such is the case in the report cited in the video. The person in video hasn't spent the time to determine the truth about that document. He doesn't understand what it contains. Yet, he demands we explain it to

He claims it's by a military intelligence expert and that's why it's credible. It's not -- it's by a guy Joshua Merritt who worked in the motor pool who flunked out of his intro to military intelligence

No, this is not an "ad hominem". It's them saying the "evidence" is credible because he's an expert. Thus, we should point out the guy is not an expert, and that the "evidence" must be judged on its own merits.

$\U0001f1e8\U0001f1e6 Bill Comeau Vaccinate all LTC 1st. \U0001f489$

🇨🇦 Bill Comeau Vaccina...
@Billius27

Prediction: the Ontario govt led by Premier Ford and Dr. Williams has been consistent: they want businesses open as much as possible. They will be getting an earful from their backers. We should therefore expect an unscientific, irrational decision to open up much too early.

To do this, they will push hard to reopen schools since the workforce needed for these businesses can't work without school and day care for kids. They will lean on arguments like child mental health, business suffering, and improved safety inspections. They will gaslight experts

They may even resort to more open letters from mayors, business associations, and business petitions. They might even resort to pointing out how well Ontario is doing vs even worse countries or states. They will leave PHU's to make local decisions without support.

They may even resort to directing rapid test inventory to manufacturing sector workplaces, even though those sectors (eg auto parts) have little to do with "essential". They may even direct vaccines to "essential workers" over the 60+ at home vulnerable.

They may even horde federal dollars to focus them on businesses vs programs like paid sickness benefits or expanded testing. Past behaviour points to future behaviour.

$The Reckoning \U0001f4a5$

The Reckoning 💥...
@sethjlevy

Here’s my question @SenTomCotton, if the Congress’s role is simply to rubber stamp the state certified electoral college then why include in the Constitution a mechanism, specific to the election of a President, that includes the ability to object to state certified electors? 1/

Jake Sherman
@JakeSherman

☀️ @PunchbowlNews AM:

What is @LeaderMcConnell doing?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock with noise-canceling headphones on, you know that the left has been clamoring for Schumer to blow up the legislative filibuster.

@LeaderMcConnell Progressive groups are spending $$ it to happen. @AJentleson has made a cottage industry out advocating for the elimination of the 60-vote threshold. @AOC wants it gone. @BarackObama too. Even Harry Reid says it’s a matter of when, not if, the filibuster is gets thrown out.

@LeaderMcConnell @AJentleson @AOC @BarackObama So what is McConnell’s first ask of Schumer? To guarantee Schumer won’t do the very thing that most of his party wants to see him do.

@LeaderMcConnell @AJentleson @AOC @BarackObama And that’s what’s holding up the entire Senate -- McConnell's ask of Schumer to guarantee he won't blow up the filibuster. The chamber can’t efficiently function without an organizing resolution, and without some clarity on the filibuster, they won't have an organizing resolution

@LeaderMcConnell @AJentleson @AOC @BarackObama And that's why @JoeBiden nominees are moving slowly in the new president’s first week. Despite being in the minority, Republicans still technically chair committees.

Oeishik KB DS MGC
@TributeProjects

The pardon power of the President of the United States is the most narrowly tailored plenary power in the history of plenary powers. Its limits are inherent in the meaning of the word 'pardon.' No such thing as a 'preemptive pardon.' Don't cite Nixon/Ford. Facts are not same.

Nixon had a pending 'Articles of Impeachment' that would have turned into criminal indictments had he left office without a pardon for them. In that sense, they were not preemptive, as matters of impeachment hadn't yet been introduced in the House formally & were still ripe.

Donald's impeachment happened. No pending charges or any articles of impeachment with offenses that would turn into criminal indictments once he leaves office. So he can't pardon himself, not b/c self-pardon's moral & ethical heresy, but b/c he has nothing to pardon himself over.

About the pardons he has granted to people who were convicted of crimes related to the Mueller report: this pardon does NOT preclude a future DOJ from picking up the Mueller Report & prosecuting on other violations of federal criminal law that weren't previously prosecuted.

Depending on statutes of limitations of specific violated statutes, a future DOJ can & most likely will go after the same pardoned people for a whole different set of criminal offenses outlined in the Mueller Report. This includes un-indicted coconspirator AKA Individual One.

Steve Herman
@W7VOA

Cannon House office building being evacuated, per notification to staff.

Here's the official notification.

Update: Multiple buildings on Capitol Hill reportedly ordered evacuated.

Outside:

Capitol Police are now firing tear gas into the crowd. pic.twitter.com/T0ToS93oyn
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) January 6, 2021

More video:

BREAKING: Trump supporters have breached the Capitol building, tearing down 4 layers of security fencing and are attempting to occupy the building \u2014 fighting federal police who are overrun

This is the craziest thing I\u2019ve ever seen in my life. Thousands, police can\u2019t stop them pic.twitter.com/VVdTUwV5YN
— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) January 6, 2021

President-Elect Alexan...
@kr3at

UNKNOWN EMERGENCY- At US Capitol Hill

#Washington #DC
-UNKNOWN EMERGENCY-@dcfireems fire crews appear to be at the scene of the US Capitol building for an unknown emergency matter.

First alarm response on scene (from the looks of it on camera).

Cc: @alanhenney @RealTimeNews10 https://t.co/qzbbgKyTyx pic.twitter.com/PvZQsvvqsE
— Shane B. Murphy (@shanermurph) January 16, 2021

The SNP
@theSNP

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Firstly, can I thank you, Presiding Officer, for this recall of Parliament today and join you in wishing everyone all the very best for a new year that we hope, despite its very difficult start, will bring better times."

NS: "The Cabinet met this morning to assess the up to date Covid situation - which I must say at the outset is extremely serious - and to discuss what further action is necessary to minimise further spread of the virus. I will set out our decisions shortly."

NS: "However, I can confirm now, in summary, that we decided to introduce from midnight tonight, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes. This is similar to the lockdown of March last year."

NS: "However, before I set out these decisions in more detail, I want to take the opportunity to explain in some detail why they are so necessary.

In the last few weeks, there have been two significant game changers in our fight against this virus."

NS: "One, the approval of vaccines, is hugely positive and offers us the way out of this pandemic.

But the other - the new faster spreading variant of the virus - is a massive blow."

Jim Himes
@jahimes

Catching my breath after the attack on the Capitol, I’m reflecting on all that we have to do. First, everyone involved in the insurrection, from the President to Josh Hawley to the Lectern Guy must be held accountable. That appears to be happening. But... 1/9

Long after Lectern and Viking Guy are in jail, and ex-President Trump is wrestling with various prosecutors, we will be struggling with the toxic apocalyptic violent hate religion that is their legacy. 2/9

Second, this isn’t just Lectern and Viking Guy and a deranged President. This letter was sent by a parent in New Canaan whose child’s teacher had offered suggestions on how to talk to kids about the attack. Every sentence is provably untrue and filled with hate and violence. 3/9

For context, New Canaan is an enormously affluent, educated center-right town. It’s GOP, but old-school New England Republican. I actually won the town for the first time in 2020, thank you Donald Trump.

And yet, one of it’s citizens produces a screed worthy of Alex Jones 4/9

Speaking of Alex Jones, here’s a video of him at DC’s pre-insurrection MAGA rally: grievance, rage, incitement of violence. IMO, it’s this stuff, not the wokeness of Professors of Semiotics at Middlebury that put 1A at risk. The professors have never tried to kill me. 5/9

Kay
@LadyKayRising

1/ HOW DO WE RECLAIM OUR REPUBLIC?!?!?! Recently, there has been much talk about a secession of states… but that idea should set off MASSIVE alarms in your head. It is setting ourselves up for an ultimate ambush. Allow me a few moments to explain why…

2/ While analytics performed by ex-military analysts have shown the red states would HANDS DOWN win in a civil war, they neglected to include the UN variable. The UN and their NWO have their spindly tentacles sunk into many of our border states...

3/ In liberal heaven New York, Gov Andrew Cuomo has been doing everything in his power for years to drive as many conservatives from the state as possible. He has LITERALLY said, “We don’t want you here”. He has kept the rural upstate portions of the state close to destitute...

4/ They do everything they can to keep big businesses out and prefer as many of their inhabitants on welfare, or close to it. Conservatives have been fleeing the state in droves for years now, and the upstate region population is dwindling… and that is all by design...

5/ Similarly, back in the early 90’s, Rosa Koire, now a retired forensic commercial real estate appraiser specializing in eminent domain valuation, began to notice victims of wildfires were being prevented from rebuilding on their land in certain areas...

Laffy
@GottaLaff

"Fueled by psychopathic narcissism of a delusional autocrat in WH, the Capitol Hill rioters didn’t speak openly of white supremacy yet never had to bc it so drenched their cause like the kerosene-soaked rag of a Molotov cocktail."

If @Will_Bunch wrote it, you should read it™

In 1967, MLK warned too many whites want democracy for them, dictatorship for Blacks

2021's Capitol riot was King's nightmare run amok, proving white supremacy is foundational to America.
Can we finally bend the moral arc the right way?

My new column https://t.co/tEs2y6Oxlb
— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) January 17, 2021

2/ "The white mob that sacked the seat of U.S. government the moment it promised to look more like the real America was the living, contemporary proof of the “hard fact” that King warned about 54 years ago..."

3/ " But the very real gains of the last year... have encountered the harshest law of American physics, that for every step forward on race there is an unequal and often more powerful backlash, so strong in 2021 that it even breached the citadel of our fragile democracy"

4/ "While the Jan. 6 mob may have invoked the spirit of 1776, it was propelled instead by the cruel, icy currents of 1619, the year that the first slave ship reached our soil."

5/ "Some 80 years of white authoritarian government in the Deep South mocked any spirit of 1776."

CulturalHusbandry
@APhilosophae

Thread.
A 'soft' separation is in our best interest. The Constitution allows one state to enter into a compact with another. Multiple states may also enter into compacts. We see this with the DMV where 47 states have enteted into a data exchange.

Another example is the Atlantic Salmon Compact that permits New England states to manage fish stocks in the Connecticut River Basin. They do this collectively, among the states.

With a failed federal congress, corrupted SCOTUS and dangerous subverses operating within the executive this may be Constitution loving states best option. And it is well within their power.

We could, among our states, sign on to Agriculture, immigration, tech, commerce, and/or education compacts among many, many others that would allow us to regulate ourselves as a seperate entity without needing the federal govt or the malignant states approval or signatures.

We create and establish new partnerships for varying policy areas which hardens the alliances, thus creating strength. Thus begins the 'soft' seperation. Red states combined provide their voters with what theyve actually voted for. No need for New York pork spending.

$\U0001f525Kareem Carr\U0001f525$

🔥Kareem Carr🔥...
@kareem_carr

When academic experts like me try to share our knowledge on social media, we attract our own special kinds of reply guys (and gals!).

Here's my list of academic reply guys! 👇

The Traffic Cop. This type wants you to "Stay in your lane!". You can use social media or you can know what you're talking about but you can't do both! The traffic cop understands that democratic debate works best when everybody involved is ignorant.

The Trash Panda. The trash panda is very picky and will only consume information from unofficial sources. Everything else is fake news! People with PhDs, Government officials, World recognized experts. BAD! Facebook posts, WhatsApp viral videos, Youtube comments. GOOD!

The Conspiracy Theorist. This type assumes the only reason you're giving advice is you're trying to control them. So you want them to ask an expert how to solve a problem, then listen to the answer and then do what that person says? No sir! That sounds like mind control!

The Contrarian. There is nothing you can do to convince this type. If what you're saying is unpopular, they will side with you and once your opinion becomes popular, they will be on the other side. That's just how it is.

$Provost of Antifa / \u0633\u064a\u062f\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0641\u062a\u0646\u0629$

Provost of Antifa / سي...
@MsEntropy

These are the people paid to analyze situations for us.

Good God, how frustrating.

Call me with questions, Chris. Happy to fill you in on a decade or so of work on the matter.

The reason I keep thinking about the gallows erected outside the Capitol is that it appeared to be *an actual gallows*, with a noose and a platform. And I truly wonder if this was intended for something more than just...symbolism. pic.twitter.com/QIAHvO69Ou
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 9, 2021

“Zip-ties: what are they for?”

Layoff the cops, you guys - they really want to get to the bottom of this for us pic.twitter.com/IyQ5rnyJiM
— Provost of Antifa / \u0633\u064a\u062f\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0641\u062a\u0646\u0629 (@MsEntropy) January 10, 2021

Twitter is infested with some of the absolute dumbest takes I have ever seen on the issue of white supremacy, insurgency, and political violence.

Please vet your sources.

People are falling for so much utterly ridiculous shit, my God.

Money Grab FC
@MoneyGrabFC

I completely agree. Remember that talent is distributed evenly, whereas opportunity is not. In the US, you have to buy opportunity, you don't earn it. Is it a governance problem or a mindset problem? Bit of both.

Gather round boys and girls! It's thread time!

First, thanks for engaging. As far as the kids, maybe use a different word to describe them? IMHO, far too many kids in the US could become brilliant soccer players or musicians or scientists but never have a chance because of the system. How do we fix that?
— Brian Urbancic (@SciGroupie) January 16, 2021

Where do we start? It's hard to say, as they're all priorities, and we would be fighting on many different fronts. These points will be addressed in no particular order.

Our first stop takes us to Iceland. In the US, there are so many unqualified coaches working with youths. Even many DOCs have low or no licenses. We need to get more licensed coaches, and higher licensed coaches, in front of our kids.

https://t.co/I4ZkCZIF4a

In most countries, a coach cannot work at a particular level without a license. That's a huge barrier in the US, because of the way coaching courses are taught. They are expensive, centralized, costly, time consuming. It prevents coaches getting them.

Spain has about fifteen thousand pro or A licensed coaches. That's simple. Hold more courses, in more convenient locations. And with the advancements in technology, so much more can be done online. Coaches won't have to fly across the country several times.

$Shirtless Pundit \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8$

Shirtless Pundit 🇺🇸...
@ShirtlessPundit

As Required by #EO13848 on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a US Election:

“The Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury... shall jointly prepare a recommendation for the President...” /1

Sarlacc_Attack
@SnarlakAttack

Today militia groups will hold a rally in Olympia & at 1 PM will occupy the capitol grounds to prepare for forcibly taking over the legislative building on 1/11. Neo-Nazi Thomas William Hughes belongs to the militia "Evergreen State Patriots" & will lead the charge.

Known "Evergreen State Patriots" Damon Michael Huseman & Jeffery Brown attended the attempted break-in at the governor's mansion on 1/6/21. `

Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow

Today's threads (a thread).

Inside: My Fellow Americans; Digital manorialism vs neofeudalism; SC GOP moots modest improvements to "magistrate judges"; Pavilions replacing union workers with "gig workers"; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/X4sEk5g09z

#Pluralistic

1/

My Fellow Americans: Audio, text and commentary for every president's inaugural address.

https://t.co/LR7wvnV8i0

2/

My Fellow Americans is Yuvraj Sing's open licensed (CC0) /name your price book tracing the histories of US presidential inaugural addresses; it reproduces each address along with a scholarly essay exploring its context.https://t.co/xbfkZNleKS

1/ pic.twitter.com/MKJxjgvwIF
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 4, 2021

Digital manorialism vs neofeudalism: Tech companies as warlords with walled gardens.

https://t.co/uQ9rDCA8i3

3/

These warlords - Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft - all have the best cybermercenaries money can buy stationed at their gates and on their parapets, and they will defend you against anyone the warlord declares to be your enemy.

2/
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 4, 2021

South Carolina GOP moots modest improvements to "magistrate judges": Lewis Carroll was an optimist.

https://t.co/1AQpZYwhOj

4/

In 2019, @propublica and @postandcourier ran blockbuster investigations into SC's magistrate judges: inexperienced political appointees with no training who held South Carolinians' lives in their hands - and who use the bench to extract bribes, deal in overt racism and worse.

1/ pic.twitter.com/61opolmPqD
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 5, 2021

Pavilions replacing union workers with "gig workers": Prop 22's other shoe drops.

https://t.co/hlX0A0S96c

5/

#Prop22 was the most expensive ballot initiative in history: "gig economy" companies firehosed $200m over voters, outspending 48/50 state legislative races on a single question.

That question: can employers misclassify workers as contractors and escape legal obligations?

1/ pic.twitter.com/Ch3ySTq1Ub
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 5, 2021

Categories Government