For most of my lifetime, people on the Left focused on the perils of Big Business while ignoring, or actively embracing, the menace of Big Government. A great deal of the Right did the reverse. Both Bigs are perilous, especially when they fuse into a combined threat to liberty.

The growth of both government and corporate titans was inevitable, especially after a century of industrial and technological revolutions. Technology makes it possible to have larger endeavors, both public and private. Economies of scale bring enormous benefits.

Industrial advancements meant government had to get bigger to handle even its most basic responsibilities, like national defense. The World Wars erased the model of a tiny central government handling a few key elements of defense. Every war became a clash of industrial titans.

After the wars, people - not just voracious political opportunists, but many average voters and nearly all of the intelligentsia - fell in love with the notion of using the power of industrialized warfare to address domestic issues. Every crisis became "equivalent" to war.

People expected more of government, so it grew - and then it exploded. Meanwhile, Big Business was growing too, and it delivers tangible benefits that would be impossible to achieve with only small, decentralized local companies. There is an inescapable logic to corporate growth.

MINI-THREAD: 1) Tea Pain has never been more ashamed of our government than he is now. Over 100 Republican members of the House and a dirty dozen GOP Senators are throwin' in with Trump's seditious attempt to overthrow a certified election.

2) True enough, Republicans don't believe America is a Democracy, rather a Republic, but by definition a republic is where "sovereignty rest with the people through their elected representatives." Republicans also believe in "States Rights" rather than centralized power.

3) Sadly the GOP are lookin' at these two foundation principles in their rear view mirror. Trump has transformed (more like deformed) the Republican Party into a cabal of sycophants ulceratin' to crown an authoritarian as their "Unitary Executive". In other words, a king.

4) Remember all those years GOP have stood on their little soap boxes and wept big crocodile tears for the weakenin' of "States Rights?" This Wednesday they are gladly, gleefully ready to overthrow 50 state-certified election results and circumvent the will of the people.

5) So, what is the Republican Party now? It's simple, because it can be defined by a new, single overridin' principle. "Power at all cost."

The rule of law has been forsaken in lieu of the "ends justify the means. "

I wrote about the charges filed so far in connection to the assault on the Capitol, how they compare to those filed against J20 and BLM protesters, and the problem with things like over-broad conspiracy charges and felony murder.

A few thoughts.

Officials said that they are going to leave “no stone unturned” in the investigation, which they said is likely to last years. DC's acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin called this probe “unprecedented, not only in FBI history, but probably DOJ history.”

The @FBI said it’s investigating 170 people so far, and that number will likely “grow to the hundreds in the next coming weeks.”

And prosecutors say they’re considering a broad set of charges: from trespassing, to theft of mail, digital devices, and possibly national security information from the Capitol, and up to assault of a law enforcement officer, seditious conspiracy, and felony murder.

According to The Prosecution Project (@ProsecutionThe), 111 people were arrested or charged for actions connected to the Capitol siege as of Thursday — most with relatively minor misdemeanors like unlawful entry and curfew violations. 30 people were facing federal charges.

During the time of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, a famous company, Enron, planned to install a factory in Dabhol, Maharashtra.
But, it could not happen, due to the resistance of the locals.

As a result, angry with the changing odd circumstances, Enron filed a case of compensation of । 38,000 crore on the Government of India.
Vajpayee government appointed Harish Salve (whom you all know).

Salveji won the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav by fighting in the International Court of Justice as an advocate for the Government of India.
But you will be shocked to know that, Enron's lawyer became P.Chidambaram i.e. P. Chidambaram went against India.
Time went on.

Later 'UPA' government formed. Cabinet Minister Chidambaram could not fight a lawsuit on behalf of Enron. But he remained a legal advisor and, in favor of Enron
Next disclosure is stunning.
Chidambaram immediately removed Harish Salve from Enron case.

Khabar Qureshi appointed instead of Harish Salve. You got it right.This is the same Pakistani lawyer who, in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, filed the case of Pakistan government.Congress has given 1400/- crore to Pakistani lawyer on behalf of the GoI as a lawyer's fee.

Some thoughts on the recently announced Critical Worker Benefit. Grab a coffee☕️ #ableg cause this is going to be a thread.🧵

First, let me say that I'm glad @jkenney is finally spending the money @JustinTrudeau sent AB. Overall, this is a good thing. But I have...questions
1/9

First, let's temper our praise here... The Fed Govt sent $$ to every province in MAY 2020 earmarked for critical workers.
This money was always destined for Albertans and Kenney sat on it while other provinces got it out to the workers that needed it.

Why do private sector employees have to rely on their employer to apply and distribute Gov't funds? That seems like a...strange...decision.

What if an employer doesn't know or doesn't bother? What if they don't distribute it properly? Is there any recourse? Just...strange. 3/9

Do employers have to deduct tax? CPP? EI?
What if somebody worked 300 hours during the qualifying period but no longer works for the employer?

Are payroll departments expected to set up a new earnings code just for a one time payment in Alberta? 4/9

What counts to the 300 hours worked between Oct-Jan? Vacation? Sick time? Disability? Leaves of absence?

Or is it strictly hours physically at work?

What if your employer reduced hours or even worse, laid people off? You're outta luck when you need it most? Neat! 5/9

We've been hearing this a lot: the House managers have successfully shown how horrible the January 6 insurrection was and also highlighted Donald Trump's vulgar comments. But they haven't really proven the connection between Trump's comments and the attack. This is nonsense. 1/

There is a criminal case to be made against Trump for his role in inciting the inspiration, and @CREWcrew has made that case in its criminal sedition complaint against Trump. But this is not a criminal case, and does not require that kind of proof.

On a basic level, this case is painfully obvious. Donald Trump spent weeks and months and years saying, falsely, the election would be fraudulent and then that it had been stolen. This primed his supporters to believe their democratic rights were being take away. 3/

Trump spent weeks and months and years fueling a sense of grievance among his supporters and hostility to any political opponents, as well as condoning violence or mildly condemning it with a clear wink and a nod obviously meant to encourage it. 4/

In the weeks after the election, he compounded his big lie that he had won with efforts to take bogus claims to courts and to pressure officials at every level of government to overturn the results. He portrayed the across the board rejections as further persecution. 5/

1/9

While debt-to-GDP ratios already have a limited but very misunderstood use, it seems economists are finding bright new ways of misunderstanding them. Now we say that when nominal interest rates are lower than nominal growth rates, the

2/9

downward pressure on the debt-to-GDP ratio makes rising government debt and larger government deficits more sustainable and more easily justified.

This is totally confused. When the nominal interest rate is lower than the nominal GDP growth rate, it only means that net...

3/9

borrowers are getting a disproportionate share of growth relative to net lenders. This in and of itself changes the comparability of the debt-to-GDP ratio, so the fact that the ratio may decline tells us nothing about its sustainability which, I'm glad to say, isn't...

4/9

a mistake Olivier Blanchard makes in this article.

At least three things matter. First, whether or not rising debt is sustainable depends almost wholly on underlying conditions in the real economy, and only trivially on the arithmetical relationship between...

5/9

the interest rate and the growth rate. Second, this approach simply assumes away financial distress costs, in which case debt capacity is infinite anyway and the interest rate becomes irrelevant. And third, it assumes that the nominal debt level matters independently...

🚨🚨🚨🚨Situation Update, Jan. 7th, 2021 – False flag attack STAGED to complete the steal

The false flag raid on the Capitol Building yesterday, led by Antifa and BLM operatives dressed as Trump supporters, set the stage to justify the final betrayal of America as Dems and

Perhaps no House member that Democrats would less like to hear this message from.
"Rushing this resolution to the floor will do nothing to unify or heal the country," says @Jim_Jordan at House Rules. "These actions, again, will only continue to divide the nation."

>@RepMcGovern not having it: "I'm glad that all it took for you to call for unity and for healing was for our freedom and our democracy to be attacked. But for the last several months the gentleman from Ohio and others have given oxygen to the president's conspiracy theories."

More @RepMcGovern: "We all want healing, but in order to get to healing, we need truth and we need accountability." Notes he was in the Speaker's Lobby and saw the mob trying to rush through the doors. "I saw in their eyes hate and evil."

More @jim_jordan playing down the Stop the Steal push: "Mr. Chairman, I said Joe Biden won the election, but there were problems with how it was done."
McGovern: "People came here, Mr. Jordan, because they believed the lie...this election was not done in a fair & square fashion."

Jordan tries to equate the Trump/Republican "Stop the Steal" effort with Democratic challenges to Trump's votes on Jan. 6, 2017. McGovern, exasperated, noted he recognized Trump as winner and Clinton had long since conceded.

@StarstuckT @Odiepops @YesScot The UK is no longer the UK it was in 2014, due to rampant corruption and illegalities in actions of Tory UK

@Odiepops @YesScot

@Odiepops @YesScot Furthermore, one of many lies used to coerce and manipulate UK electorate is that #ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 would result in Scotland having to leave the EU.

In 2014, there was no open discussion that UK was considering staging a referendum on whether or not UK would leave the EU.

@Odiepops @YesScot That the lie used to dissuade Scots from voting for #ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 effectively convinced many Scots to vote against #ScottishIndependence 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and with hindsight, their BEST INTERESTS, indicates that those same Scots highly favoured EU membership.

@Odiepops @YesScot

1. On Wed. 20 Jan.Military Intel Contact said that by Sun 24 Jan things should become clearer. The illegal presidency of pedo-Sat*anist Joe B*iden should begin to be disclosed, along with the disclosure of the crimes of many other traitors / criminals in DC.

@ProjectLincoln @tedcruz Texas failed to winterize its generation sources the last time this happened in 2011.

Now ask yourself, why?

Simple. Texas's extended power outage is a result of negligent GOP infrastructure policy.

THREAD.

@tedcruz The Texas GOP has continuously rebuffed plans to invest in better infrastructure to upgrade TX power grids.

Texas was warned to weatherize power plants.

Why didn’t they?

@tedcruz TX power companies said electricity prices are too low to provide incentives (profit) to build new plants or improve older ones. (a result of privatization of basic services.)

@tedcruz The electrical grid in Texas was deregulated, privatized, and removed from interconnected networks to avoid federal regulation and increase profits for a small number of wealthy individuals.

Go figure.

@tedcruz If TX ERCOT grid was on the national grid, or simply reinvested in their privatized infrastructure, they'd be fine by now.

They did neither, b/c it wasn't profitable.

It's a failure of TX leadership –– total, inexcusable, and utterly catastrophic.

Not fucking windmills.

OK. I have seen a lot of attempted dunking on Texas...red state bad, bad government, etc...because of the electricity issue in this record cold. So, I am going to do a thread here. I am no engineer, but I want to point out some obvious facts. 1/n

This is a natural disaster of large proportions. At no time in recorded have this many Texas counties been below freezing for so long...ever. We are prepared for short stints, not an ice age. It snowed on Galveston island and much of the state is covered in snow and ice.

This chart shows electricity production since Feb 4. Note the large share from wind prior to the cold snap. Texas typically does not use as much electricity in winter, so gas plants are typically offline and have smaller reserves of gas.

But as the cold hit, renewable production fell by as much as 93%. Gas plants fired up and easily met the ERCOT stress test levels initially, but electricity quantity demanded was rising, so was gas for heating. Eventually, there were shortages of gas that led to a drop in prod.

Why shortages? Because gas producers were contractually obligated to export gas all the while residential heating demand was rising as well...hence Gov Abbot's order. It provides more cover for force majeure contract breakage.

UK Government just released 70 pages of case studies today, showing how the borders will operate after 1 January 2021.

They're essentially hardcore porn for red tape fetishists.

Doomed, we are. Doomed.

(e.g. exporting fish; exporting mechanical goods)
https://t.co/zWpkdGJeim

This is exactly what should have been presented years ago so that firms could prepare.

Or, arguably, before the Brexit referendum. Just the 70 pages of case studies released TODAY could have tipped the result the other way. Not everyone is blinded by sovrinty & hating forrins.

Going back to the examples...

The person in France buying (say) UK mechanical goods will take one look at the procedures involved, and Google an alternative supplier inside the EU instead.

As for the fish, they could probably swim to their intended destination faster of their own accord than following the new process, if only they had water in between to traverse.

The purchasers will smell them coming a mile away.

Auto parts. I am practically weeping at my keyboard.

Thread – Does the Buck Really Stop with Mike Pence?

1. A pal sent me this Facebook post by “Rod D. Martin.” I pass it along as food for thought in the frenzy leading up to the “great expectations” of 6 January.

2.

We absolutely must resist the massive fraud which has just been perpetrated on our country. But at the same time, we must not grasp at hopes which are not hope.

3. Some believe that the Constitution grants Vice President Mike Pence almost magical powers to overturn the improperly certified election "results" from the stolen swing states. They base this on just one clause, plus a lot of internet rumor.

4. This is the relevant sentence, from the 12th Amendment: "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted."

5. The [various] theories being articulated freight this clause with a shocking amount of weight. Where, for instance, does this clause state that Mike Pence's rulings are unappealable?