Categories Government
One of the men photographed carrying zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor unmasked as a decorated Air Force veteran. My latest for @newyorker: https://t.co/6gt0wVAOTt
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 9, 2021
2. First, an important distinction: The military can *recall* most retirees to active duty. But that's not the same thing as whether they can be tried by court-martial for offenses committed *while* retired (and before being recalled).
That's where things get complicated.
3. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) authorizes courts-martial for *any* offense committed by those who have retired from a "regular component" and are receiving pay, along with members of the Fleet Reserve and Fleet Marine Corps Reserve (who are effectively retirees).
4. But the UCMJ authorizes courts-martial for offenses committed by those who have retired from *reserve* components only while "receiving hospitalization from an armed force." And #SCOTUS held in 1955 that the military cannot try those who have *separated* from the armed forces.
5. So whether Brock can be tried by court-martial — under current law, anyway — for his role in Wednesday's attacks depends upon his *exact* status as of Wednesday, i.e., whether he is separated from the Air Force, retired from active duty, or retired from the reserves.
But...
Here are the relevant passages from the brief

He cites this as the reason he voted to reject the electors on Jan 6, 2021
.@RepRickAllen letter to constituent in #GA12 #Georgia #gapol justifying his Jan 6 vote to reject electors from certain states. #elections #ElectoralCollege pic.twitter.com/OznoglV55X
— Ayman Hossam Fadel (@aymanfadel) January 16, 2021
.@GaSecofState announced a partnership with @universityofga to study absentee ballot signature matching
Another post-election effort by @GaSecofState is a signature matching audit beginning with Cobb County, identified as a model of proper election procedures
Short cut to JCVI rationale behind extending interval between doses of #covidvaccine (thanks @mgtmccartney)
— Dr Mark Porter (@drmarkporter) January 1, 2021
Note efficacy is "calculated" rather than proven at this stage.https://t.co/EbZWcJYkFt
For the Ox/AZ vaccine, it's fairly simple. The trial demonstrated efficacy at a range of dose intervals. Antibody responses after the boost were significantly stronger with longer intervals - see table
(so in response to @drmarkporter's point, higher immune responses with a longer interval is proven & now public. I haven't seen a similar analysis for efficacy against disease but the data exists and I suspect the regulators & JCVI committee have)
For Pfizer, there isn't direct evidence of efficacy with a >3wk interval. But as widely publicised, efficacy in the period from 14 days after first dose to 21 days is high.

Can we extrapolate from this to a longer interval? It's a judgment call. On one hand is evidence-based medicine's scepticism of anything not directly proven 'beyond reasonable doubt' in an RCT; on the other is a 'balance of probabilities' approach based upon the biology.
They need to be thoughtful, not scared of doing so. 1/
(2 of 4) Commandant Sends #13: Protest at the US Capitol
— Army War College (@ArmyWarCollege) January 6, 2021
"And in light of that, I believe it is prudent to remind everyone of our duty to restrain ourselves from political commentary in any venue. The importance of an apolitical military cannot be overstated."
Yesterday, our nation's capital was attacked and the capitol was briefly occupied. 1100 members of the DC National Guard were activated, as were more than 6000 NG troops from half a dozen states.
They're now operating in a highly political environment. More could join them. 2/
Calls for our military to remain apolitical really mean: (1) our military must be non-partisan; (2) it should not interfere or influence elections; & (3) service members should not portray their personal opinions as the military institution's opinions. 3/
While there is a lot we don't know, there are indications that at least some police yesterday acted in a biased way -- allowing the mobs to bypass barriers to attack and enter the capitol building.
Personal/partisan sympathies cannot interfere with a military unit's duties. 4/
Leaders and commanders should talk to their formations about these issues, and try to understand if there are service members for whom that might be a problem. (Hint: there probably are.)
You can't do that if you're not communicating with them and having real discussions. 5/
First, some history that some are likely to remember. Does anyone remember The Vandals? Not the band, but the actual tribe of Germanic people who were pushed around Europe when it was the Roman empire. Maybe worth a read: https://t.co/N7zRAeAgq6 2/
As you might imagine, these people weren’t the brightest bulbs in the box or one of them would have built an electric car that you actually wanted to drive. Or just simply proclaimed that the earth was not flat and revolved around the sun. 3/
Any student of history will tell you that it repeats itself. We call what happened in DC “domestic terrorism”, but when I was a kid, this would have been called “felony vandalism”.
We’ve been here before. That link again in case you missed it: https://t.co/N7zRAeAgq6 4/
If you’re like me, you’re pretty pissed off at having wasted 12 years with modern-day Vandals destroying the change we could believe in and almost destroying the entire American experiment. If it weren’t for COVID, most still wouldn’t notice. But here we are. 5/
So ask your congressional rep where your checks are, because it's on congress to get it through.
Nah. Where\u2019s the $2000?
— \U0001d544\U0001d55a\U0001d564\U0001d565\U0001d552\U0001d559\U0001d542\U0001d556\U0001d55d\U0001d55d\U0001d56a (@MistahKelly) January 26, 2021
Biden did sign an executive order last week to push the treasury to expedite delivery of the initial $600 payment that was already approved in December, because a lot of eligible folks still haven't received it, even though the deadline for disbursement was Jan 15th.
Y'all wanna hold Biden to his promises this term, hold your folks in house and senate to theirs, because it's their job to negotiate plans and bills and pass them. Not everything can be done through executive order. Biden's ability to do what he says is reliant on them.
The proposed American Rescue Plan hasn't even been approved by congress yet - they couldn't start work on drafting the bill before he was sworn in, but *they* are the next step to your money.
Yes, that exact congress (senate may be 50/50 but Dems are in control and Harris has the tie-breaking vote), because they couldn't start work on this until Biden officially took office.
The same Congress y'all said needed to be turned blue before things could get done? Oh okay. https://t.co/ShJ9qEwKKz
— \U0001f451 (@jasminaza_) January 26, 2021
Polls have consistently shown that the UK public currently has a much higher level of trust in TV and radio media than they do in the UK newspaper industry, which has consistently been found to be the least trusted in Europe: https://t.co/EY7DnA8SvW /2
The UK public's low level of trust in our newspaper industry should perhaps come as no surprise. In 2016 the Daily Mail and Sun were both called out for "fuelling prejudice" in an international report on rising racist violence: https://t.co/mdwZoWPtgf /3
In 2015, the United Nations spoke out, condemning "decades of sustained and unrestrained anti-foreigner abuse, misinformation and distortion" in the UK press: https://t.co/maP2ZIElrL /4
By contrast, UK broadcast media are currently held to a much higher set of standards. Although not perfect, OFCOM has strong powers to tackle racist and hateful coverage within TV and radio, eg: https://t.co/hXjbtkgU2s /5