There's a R1000 maintenance tweet doing the rounds. It's not it per se I want to talk about but the conversation on it does trigger a lot of things in me& life in SA generally. The issue of low or nonexistent incomes in many households tends to escape us.

We tend to view life only with our lenses of privilege or bias depending on our station in life. The reality for many rural &township households is extremely brutal in this country. There are still people who earn R1000 or less as a month's wage. They often do heavy manual labour

It took time for my grandparents to be convinced to go over R1000 in paying their live-in helper. That was some years ago. My grandfather had pension from eThekwini municipality &my grandmother is on SASSA.They were lucky to accumulate some savings, they run their household fully

But we are a very lucky few to have grandparents in their late 80s who are still this financially independent. Sure we do things at home but not the basics, including not having to build a house for them etc. This is almost out of the norm experience.

A lot of people in our country have salaries below R10 000 pm. They have to divide this between their needs (food&transport), some dependents and sending remittances back home so that their parents and other loved ones can put some bread on the table &complement some grants.

So it turns out that @RepBillJohnson is pretty cozy I guess with one of the guys who just tearfully confessed to his part in the #CapitolRiots

Here is Adam Newbold, former Navy SEAL, in an @ABC report that includes video of him boasting of "breaching the capitol" and how "to get in, we had to destroy doors and

Adam is a director of ATG Worldwide, a company in Lisbon Ohio that provides weapons and tactical training. Their website says they serve "a wide variety of federal agencies, law enforcement and military

They have a Facebook page, with Adam's more recent videos about what a hero he was standing up to save his country. These new videos omit his previous boasts of destroying federal property and "breaching" a building with his fellow

And that page also includes a lovely post about ATG Worldwide having a "range day" for @RepBillJohnson and his

The Pennsylvania State Senate begins its new legislative session of the people's business with.....

An argument about masks and whether or not Senators on the floor should be required to wear them.

#WTAE

They're taking a vote now to require senators on the floor to wear masks for today's session.

They DID NOT call on Jim Brewster for this roll call.

Some

OK.

Democratic Senator Steve Santarsiero from Bucks County has requested a delay in swearing in Senators pending resolution of the judicial challenge to Brewster's win.

Critical of Ziccarelli's "specious" actions, and says she didn't go through proper procedure in courts.

"This happens not in a vacuum, it happens in the context of some very serious threats to our democracy today," Santarsiero said.

Brings up tomorrow's certification challenges expected in DC despite Joe Biden being elected and certified as the winner of Presidential election.

"They are not intending to seat Senator Brewster despite the fact that the people of the 45th district have spoken."

"This is the most serious issue that has come before us" in his time in the senate, Santarsiero said.

"All because one candidate is displeased with having lost."

The new Skills White Paper (Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth) has been released.
https://t.co/zYgAMVte2G
Here are some of the things regarding the evolving technical education system in England we'll be looking at:
#SkillsWhitePaper #FEWhitePaper

1. Employers will be put at the heart of helping to shape additional technical training options alongside apprenticeships.
#SkillsWhitePaper #FEWhitePaper

2. Local Skills Improvement Plans will be introduced, bringing education and industry closer together to set the course for the technical training offer in an area to ensure if can respond to local employer need.
#SkillsWhitePaper #FEWhitePaper

3. New higher technical training options to be developed with a view to creating parity of esteem with academic options at the same level.
#SkillsWhitePaper #FEWhitePaper

4. Modular approaches to be introduced for technical training options to support lifelong learning, an important option for career changers
#SkillsWhitePaper #FEWhitePaper

WHAT THE FCUK IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
Well, here's a 1/13 thread about why #britain thinks it's powerful. We don't know if we're top-table or in the relegation zone #SmartPower.
A leader talks of his country's great past and its magic future. You believe him. Are you wise? 1/

You want your country to top every league table it can.
But maybe he's a charlatan who will take his country down, you’re sure of it.
The leader says he wants his country to be the world-beating number one nation.
Great, but one problem. The world we grew up in is over 2/

Imagine living at the same time after #Napoleon, the Kaiser, #Hitler, the fall of the #BerlinWall when the world order was overturned and a new way of life begun.

Well, that's now.

Every thirty years or so a battle is fought for the future... 3/

Once every 100 years everything changes. We had the Spanish century, the French century, the British century, the American century, now we face the Chinese century.

All were epic struggles and all needed a once-in-a-century bloodbath to separate the winners from the losers..4/

Every century a crisis arises not only to control the state but to change it and the way the world is run.
We're at the beginning of a new era in history.
A new battle for power is underway.
But what are the rules of the game, and how smart the leaders who play it? 5/

Yesterday saw the Government reach a compromise with Peers over the devolution aspects of the UK Internal Market Bill. The Lords were standing strong over an amendment on Common Frameworks - so what has been agreed & where do we go now? 🧵

First a quick recap: the bill enshrines 2 Market Access Principles in law 1) Mutual recognition, anything acceptable for sale in one part of the UK is acceptable in another 2) Non-discrimination, no discrimination against goods from another part of the

The purpose of these is to prevent trade barriers, caused by divergence, between parts of the UK. But the 4 governments were already working on 'common frameworks' to manage divergence *by agreement*. The Scottish & Welsh govs argued these were sufficient

Lord Hope's amendment aimed to exclude areas were divergence has been deemed acceptable through common frameworks from the Market Access Principles. The gov amendment makes it clear existing powers for UK ministers in the bill can be used to do that.

So this is good news on the devolution front. But it doesn't solve everything - common frameworks only cover policy areas returned from the EU & the devolved governments also have concerns about other parts of the bill. So what are the key questions now?

Finally found the time to digest the Energy White Paper properly. Here is the slowest hot take ever (thread).

TL;DR: The WP (rightly) mainly focuses on progressing some chunky tech decisions. It also reveals several emerging faultlines that still need to to be resolved...

Big clean power tech delivery: delighted to see moves on nuclear, CCUS, offshore wind (inc. floating), building on announcements in the 10-point plan. We are going to need a bucket-load of low carbon power. So moving into negotiations with EDF on Sizewell very welcome step.

Progress on CCUS, particularly industrial clusters (already announced in 10-point plan) is also excellent news. Politics and industry now much better aligned than 5 years ago when second competition canned. Positive also to see BECCS feature, a potentially important technology.

The commitment to greater openness in modelling is also a real shift that will lead to better policymaking. As the White Paper said: "[Ensure HMG models/data are] open to all and trusted by the department and wider stakeholders." Geeks of the energy world rejoice...

This includes once again publishing clear information on prices and bills (I confess I may have played a part in its disappearance). Think tankers should be happy (I ruthlessly mined it for stories/papers when @Policy_Exchange)

If you don’t see the connection between the Nashville terrorist blowing up a city block and the violent Capitol insurrection, you’re not paying attention.

We have allowed and even enabled white extremism to thrive in this country by not addressing them as what they are - terrorists - and by not punishing their actions for what they are - terrorism.

The GOP has wrapped these extremists into their tent for decades. These have always been rebranding off the same them - white extremism and accelerationism.

These calls for “unity” from the terrorist apologists or even those who incited the terrorism is so disingenuous as to be absurd. We absolutely should not allow them to dictate the narrative about what they created.

You see, the implication in all of these calls for “unity” aren’t just disingenuous, but contain an implied threat about exactly what they have enabled:
“If you don’t let these white extremists off, there will be more white extremism.”

This Jan, at least one of Spurs' three important weaknesses should be resolved:

1: Lack of dynamism in Central Midfield barring Ndombele/Lo Celso (only one of them can play at a time.)

2: Aerial inferiority of the backline.

3: No consistent Goalscorers barring Kane x Son.

1: Midfield Control.

Since Spurs are a team that focuses more on clinical attacking transitions on the counter, there is no need for extremely technical midfielders.

To play the way Spurs do, it's enough for the midfielders to have decent technique but an outstanding workrate.

The issue comes with Sissoko not being able to distribute the ball during transitions.

His role is needed. Replacing him with Lo Celso specially when the backline isn't solid on its own is suicidal.

So a midfielder who can be that extra edge of support on both fronts is needed.

Solution at Central Midfield: Marcel Sabitzer

Alongside Konrad Laimer, Sabitzer formed a formidable pressing pivot.

Yes, you're all focusing on what he does from an attacking front, but defensively, his ability to relentlessly press throughout the game is what Spurs need a lot.

Your views on Sabitzer might be split. Some want him in simply because he contributes more than Lo Celso

In reality, the truth is, Sabitzer is needed because it gives another GOOD midfield option

Imagine when the choices would be Ndombele, Gio, Sabitzer, PEH, Skipp, maybe Winks

My two cents on this important article from @David_Philipps. I've been trying to tell people for years now that SOF has absolutely no special ability to resist attacks on their cognitive spaces. We have no special training to deal with

I first started noticing this during the Obama admin as I was watching Special Forces veterans (mostly on Facebook) jump onboard with clear Russian propaganda, the source was not even concealed. These were Cold Warriors, now worshipping Putin as a defender of Christianity.

It was absolutely bizarre watching people who I thought should know better salivate over a foreign dictator while they decried Obama as a usurper undermining the fabric of America. Putin was the strong white man, Obama was the secret Muslim. Their minds had been captured.

Okayyyy, I’ll join everyone else in responding to today’s news (instead of just sighing, gazing into middle distance). The profit incentive baked into private prisons is a mess. But you know what else is a HUGE MESS?

The revenue incentive in the federal jail market. 🧵

The federal government spends an estimated $1.3 billion to house people in a loose network of local jails. These agencies—primarily the US Marshals and ICE—are directly under federal control.

All of this federal $$ has incentivized counties to BUILD BIG when they’re thinking about adding local jail space.

The wonderful Jack Norton @jcknorton calls this “an intercounty carceral arms race... to build and bigger and bigger

As he point out in the piece, this was catalyze largely by “The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984,” which I like to “the lesser know crime Bill ™️.” After passage, the no.
of people detained by the Marshals increased 32 percent in ONE YEAR.

The fact that so many people are now held for ICE in local jails—or at least that the contracts are in place to allow that—is a legacy of this bill. And you know who was was among the bill’s biggest champions? That’s right, one @POTUS Biden.

The Royal Family Members at the very top of world control, i.e. “The Tribe of DAN”, who are
the framers and architects of “THE EMPIRE OF THE 3 CITY STATES”, consisting of, London
City, the District of Columbia’s City-State, and the City-State of the Vatican....

2020 has been a devastating year. We could all do with some good news.

Here are some of @CrisisGroup’s 10 reasons for hope in 2021.

1. Vaccines. Several vaccines developed in record time have already been approved against #COVID19.

Their roll-out gives good reasons to believe 2021 will see a dramatic turnaround of the pandemic.

2. Return to diplomacy. After 4 years of the Trump era’s erosion of multilateralism and tensions among the P5, the Biden administration could help restore U.S. engagement in multilateral conflict resolution efforts and at the Security Council

3. Climate. The U.S. is likely to rejoin the Paris Agreement and lead a renewed charge to fight climate change and its destructive consequences.

See @CrisisGroup’s research on the complex relationship between conflict and climate ☟


4. In Afghanistan, ongoing peace talks could lead to meaningful progress.

There are many obstacles on the road ahead, but the current negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban represent the country’s best shot at peace in a

#BenjaminFulford
01-11-2021

#Khazarian Mafia Seeks to #Surrender as #SecondAmericanRevolution Underway

The events of the past week, and the coming weeks, will go down in #history as one of the #biggest, if not THE biggest, #revolutions in history

Report https://t.co/XyjfsPODfW

We #WDS are not talking just about the fall of the United States of America #Corporation; we are talking about the end to a system of #slavery that has continued for thousands of years

The #USmilitary is now officially on the warpath

Report

What was POTUS's main goal since 2016?

"Our movement is about REPLACING a failed & corrupt political establishment with a NEW GOVERNMENT controlled by you, the American PEOPLE"

All of the Constitutional processes HAD to fail before this could

This is the UK’s internal “who won the negotiations scorecard”, apparently. (via

On rules of origin, suggests that compromise found on batteries and electric vehicles (woo!)

But I have questions about the cumulation “Win” ... as the UK opening position was much more expansive than written here, and win looks like what we knew EU was offering.

That’s quite the spin, lads.

Would that win be rejecting be the ‘investor’ category proposed ... in the UK’s draft FTA text?

This is simultaneously both incredibly useful AND hilarious.

National Guard Gearing Up At Washington D.C. Capitol

#WashingtonDC