The reality of demagoguery is you cannot control the hate & division you unleash.

You seeing America? Pls notice the distinct absence of the National Guard though the president set the agenda for this rally.

This is his legacy. This is #MAGA. This is America

There AREN'T "good people on both sides", Trump.

He told them to stand back & stand by. Here they are.

Guilliani said at today's rally "trial by combat"

The ugly truth is they've weaponised fear & hate BUT they didn't create it. They weaponised what was already there.

A collosal failure of so many institutions. His entire presidency was leading to this moment and law enforcement weren't ready?

That's the reality that a lot of people are unwilling to confront. It's not just Trump. He is a distilled manifestation of what has never been exorcised. All of it was just waiting there for decency to be replaced with blind ambition & greed.

The levers of white supremacy & racism are as present as they ever were. All it took was for someone to say fuck being decent, tap into the primal. It happened in the UK first and then, having resorted to the same playbook, lightning struck again Nov. 16

@BorisJohnson gaslighting dither & delay Government helped create conditions for the new covid strain to emerge

1/ When it became clear that schoolchildren were likely contributing significantly to the spread of the virus, his Government denied & issued legal threats to schools

2/ Scientists issued repeated warnings that allowing households to mix during Xmas would lead to a surge in cases.

@BorisJohnson Government refused to heed that advice, U-turned predictably days before Xmas, causing chaos to people’s plans, with crowded scenes at train stations.

3/ Viruses mutate & adapt as they multiply and, if we continue to have high levels of transmission in the population i.e. more cases, this provides fertile ground for new mutations to arise.

Sadly, but very avoidably, this is exactly what @BorisJohnson Government has provided.

4/ Too Little Too Late.

Through repeated negligent decisions and consistently late actions, @BorisJohnson Government has not only missed many opportunities to control the virus in the UK but actively worsened it.

5/ In September 2020, when cases were once again rising sharply, was another example of @BorisJohnson Government deciding not to

Trump acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, allowed the National Guard deployment to be delayed by more than 4 hours, despite desperate please from the head of the Capitol Police and the Gov of Maryland

By the time the NG arrived, four people lay dead. Why did Miller and Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, block the deployment?

Piatt said “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background." But officials were pleading. The Capitol mob was inside, attacking...

We don't know what conversations they might have had with Trump et al. But let's look at SecDef Miller's background for a bit

Miller, who took office just a few weeks ago, after the Nov. election, served as a Green Beret in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's no indication that he served with anything other than distinction. But since helming the Pentagon, he gives signs of bring a devoted Trumpist

The one "Insurrection" video you MUST see.

@NewYorker reporter @LukeMogelson
followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the Senate chamber.

Some quick thoughts... #Thread

1. Except for race, the crowd is incredibly diverse -- age, education, far-right subculture, region, even gender (although less so those inside the Capitol).

As the confirmation hearing for retired Gen. #LloydAustin gets underway, here's a roundup of what should be covered and what he will face as defense secretary.

"Does Austin still see himself as an apolitical actor removed from the politics of policymaking, or does he believe that accepting a Cabinet nomination places him squarely in the political realm?" -- @jblankshain

"At Austin’s hearing it will not be enough to accept the tired statements of ‘this is not who we are’ or that ‘the military has zero tolerance’ on issues of gender discrimination, but to pinpoint exactly how he proposes to bring real change to the military." -- @Jason_K_Dempsey

"What is your view on whether the power to decide who is prosecuted for what under the Uniform Code of Military Justice should be transferred from nonlawyer commanders to uniformed lawyers independent of the chain of command?" -- @globalmjreform

"The new SecDef will have to meaningfully re-center character as a requirement for military service: the need for all service members to work respectfully and effectively with their teammates regardless of race, gender, or religion." -- @suefulton

1/ Secretary of Defense nominee Lloyd Austin at Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing:

"Globally I understand that Asia must be the focus of our effort and I see China in particular as a pacing challenge for the Department"

2/ SecDef nominee Lloyd Austin on advance policy Qs

"Globally...most significant challenge I will face will be to ensure DOD's contd efforts to prepare & strengthen the US military for a dynamic, future security landscape driven by accelerating competitions w China & w Russia.."

3/ SecDef nominee Austin in written answers says strategic competition w/ China & Russia primary challenges but "because of its ascent and the scope and scale of its military modernization, China is the top priority"

4/ SecDef nominee Austin in written answers on his assessment of the military threat posed by China...

5/ SecDef nominee Austin on whether the NDS needs to be revised notes: "For example, the pace of China’s military modernization, its increasingly aggressive actions in the INDO-PACIFIC and its ability to threaten the US Homeland are concerning and must be continually reexamined"

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.

Read slowly and carefully.
Knowledge is power.
https://t.co/sb5HWwD8HQ📁
>Irregular warfare is far more varied than conventional conflict: hence the importance of an intellectual framework that is coherent enough to provide guidance, and flexible enough to adapt to circumstances.

.@POTUS: "For the past year, we couldn't rely on the federal government to act with urgency and focus and coordination we needed. And we have seen the tragic costs of that failure."

Biden: "While the vaccine provides so much hope the rollout has been a dismal failure thus far...I understand why many governors, mayors county officials tribal leaders, feel like they're left on their own without a clear national plan to get them through the crisis. "

.@POTUS: "Let me be very clear: Things are going to continue to get worse before they get better. The memorial we we held two nights ago will not be our last one, unfortunately. The death toll will likely top 500,000 next month, the cases will continue to mount."

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.

@realmajordan @gheliason @RichHiggins_DC @tobeycakes @1GigiSims1 Wanna bet the UK govt wants to use the "Base" to smear the Pro Brexit populists in their country? Let's see if they use them as an excuse to persecute them once Boris thorough destroys their economy.

WHAT IF... Q was designed by bad actors to whip up support for 3 years, for the sole purpose of developing a mass "cult following" of people who loyally follow the themes, catch phrases and direction of Q? Why would they do that?