BC LAW
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I'm slightly obsessed with this "#PenceCard" nonsense which is like the Platonic ideal of the current level of Trump election stealing conspiracy theory nonsense.

 Here's a thing about the United States: the vice president famously *does nothing*. By design. The job is not like the vice president of marketing or whatever where the guy has a job. Mike Pence is the spare president. He's there in case anything happens to the first one.
In the original formulation under the constitution, the vice president was the runner-up of the presidential race. Nobody ran for it. There was no assumption that it would be an ally of the president; more likely they would be rivals.
They're officially "president of the senate" just to give them something to do to keep them around the capital but they're not a senator and only get to vote if there's a tie, so most of the time that ceremonial role is fobbed off an actual senator.
But this senate presidency that we give the vice president currently has attached to it some purely ceremonial duties in the very perfunctory part of the election process where votes are counted and reported to Congress.
That's the reality of the vice presidency: it's a nothing job. Vice presidents have no power. Frequently presidents delegate things to them because the presidency is a hard job and the president can't be everywhere, but the vice president is an office with no actual power.
But the conspiracy theories among Trump True Believers need there to be a miracle genius turnaround play *somewhere*, and each time one of their miracles falls through (as they all do, because they're made up), that ups the pressure to find the next one.
So somebody wanks out a "legal opinion" that Pence could and in fact *must* use his "plenary power" (this is a phrase they all love because it sounds official and important) to refuse the "fraudulent" votes, because it's illegal for him to accept them.
And because things sound more legal and official when you attach arbitrary things to them and because doomsday cults need deadlines, they attached to this the idea that he must reject the votes "by the third Wednesday in December".

Which was a week ago, incidentally.
But conspiracy theories don't care about any calendars except their own, so in their world, TODAY is the third Wednesday in December, which means that they expect and demand Pence plays "the Pence card" in the next twenty minutes or so.
When Mike Pence fails to play "the Pence card" because it's not a thing and he has no actual power and "the Pence card" isn't even a saying like "the Trump card" is... this will only convince the faithful that Trump has an even bigger, better card to play later.
Anyway, I'm waiting until midnight to turn in because I want to see some of the reactions.

I expect there will be some meltdowns, but probably even more people seamlessly pivoting to "Well obviously he wouldn't do it in public." or "It's actually January 6th."
Or even trying to figure out a way to make next Wednesday "the third Wednesday in December".
I should also mention that some of the flock have decided the Pence Card *has already been played*; since Mike Pence's name showed up in a lawsuit to throw electors out, they think that's him doing it.

Small problem is: he's a defendant in that case, not a plaintiff.
This is a thread on the lawsuit that has been mistaken for the "Pence Card", with a note on how it's actually suing Mike Pence could obligate the government to defend him. If it makes it to trial, which seems dubious.

https://t.co/kmPoiQ3KYa
Here's another thread on that suit listing many, many, many ways in which it is ripe for dismissal.

https://t.co/Agqr6NmrbG
My understanding of the suit's current status is that the judge has ordered for a hearing schedule to be set after the plaintiffs prove that they have properly served all defendants (there are many), which may not even actually be possible.

https://t.co/4i8Qzz3yLJ
And it's midnight. Time to survey the reactions.
Merry Pencemas, everybody.
Looks like the predominant response so far is to blame Pence for not playing the non-existent #PenceCard; some people are shifting expectations to January 6th and some are assuming it's more Secret Governance We Can't Know About Yet.
These people are very big fans of the idea of Secret Governance. Which is the opposite of what the stuff they get mad about would lead you to believe. But they love the idea of secret arrests, secret trials, secret executions, etc.
And of course the theory that the lawsuit that, I repeat, is *suing Pence* must be Pence playing the #PenceCard because it's a legal document and Mike Pence's name is on it and nothing actually means anything to these people, it's all just free association.
Anyway, I have to go to bed. I just...

I'm not sure I've successfully conveyed how *bizarre* the idea that an election would hinge on some unique power we gave to the vice president only, which only affects the election of the president and vice president.

It's bananas.

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Alexandra Erin
Alexandra Erin
@AlexandraErin
A few people are suggesting that the impeachment delay is necessary and unavoidable because of the time it takes to whip votes (make sure that the votes are there and the shakier edges of the coalition are firmed up).

This may well be true.

But as ever, messaging matters.
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Alexandra Erin
Alexandra Erin
@AlexandraErin
"Attacking him how? Yelling at him? Yes. Okay, I apologize. Can we move on?"

She's on video running and tackling him. She physically attacked him.
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Alexandraah! Erin
Alexandraah! Erin
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So, I got an email recently from someone thanking me for having pointed out that it's okay to PayPal a dollar, because that's usually what they have and they'd always thought of pledging/tipping a dollar on social media as rude, like tipping a waiter a penny.

It really isn't.

Some people have the impression that with transaction fees a dollar isn't "worth it", and might even effectively cost the person who receives it money. Also not the case.

The difference between a digital performance or service, like I provide on Twitter dot com, and the labor done by a waiter or bartender or driver, is that they're doing the job each time for each and every person who receives it. I do the same job for everybody who receives it.

It's worth it for me in the sense of being a sustainable way to spend my time if the money I bring in, in aggregate, is enough make it worth it. That works out the same if it's one generous patron dropping a ton of money at once or a crowd of appreciative audience members with $1

And in fact, in terms of long-term sustainability and independence, it's better to have lots of small patronage than a few high rollers.
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Alexandra Erin
Alexandra Erin
@AlexandraErin
I've talked about this before and I will probably talk about it again, but a lot of people will write off stuff they don't want to believe as obviously being false and unworthy of consideration, and then claim after it proves true that they weren't told.
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Alexandra Erin
Alexandra Erin
@AlexandraErin
I haven't been harping on it because it at least contributes to taking it seriously, but this is part of why I shudder every time they call the halls of Congress "sacred" and talk about them being "desecrated".
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Consortium News
Consortium News
@Consortiumnews
We're standing by in the virtual courtroom for @CraigMurrayOrg's trial to begin. Our tweets will be on this thread. More info on the case can be found at

Presiding are Lord Turnbull, Lord Menzies and Lady Dorian. Court its now in session.

#CraigMurray
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Tashny Sukumaran
Tashny Sukumaran
@tashny
Surendra Ananth @surendraananth, you violated my conditional consent. I assented to unprotected intimate relations with you on the STRICT condition that you tell me if you have relations with anyone else. You failed to do so, and I became ill as a direct consequence.

You refused to reveal your own STI results to me, but claimed to others they were negative and alleged I had multiple other partners, slut-shaming me. You gaslit me saying you had told me about your other partners.

You called up @justice_sisters and @SistersinIslam to tell them I was crazy, jilted. You rebuffed attempts to organise a community mediation so we could address matters. You said I was crazy for speaking to your boss and father in an attempt to keep other women safe.

You have a PATTERN OF BEHAVIOUR of misogyny, harassment and sheer disrespect for women. This was sent to a friend of mine who has never expressed interest in you and has a partner.


You think women are playthings, notches on the bedpost. You, @surendraananth, are no human rights advocate.
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Gorey Details
Gorey Details
@GoreyDetails
This will be a thread containing the more sensitive information @LLinWood tweeted tonight.
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Danny Cevallos
Danny Cevallos
@CevallosLaw
1] Family handcuffed at gunpoint by police sues Aurora, Colorado. Terrible images in the complaint. These cases are filed all the time. This time it's different: Colorado has a new law.

2] According to the complaint, APD relied on license plate scanner that indicated plt's license plate matched
that of a stolen vehicle. But it was a motorcycle with Montana plates, not an SUV with Colorado plates, which was what plt was driving.

3] This would be a challenge to win in Federal Court. Police "can rely on information obtained from a police computer database in order to establish probable cause." Hughes v. McWilliams, (SDNY 2009).

4] Police reliance on cpu information is "reasonable even if the information is incorrect, provided the police officer did not know or have reason to know that the information was false or unreliable." Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1, 15-16 (1995).

5] But it seems from the Complaint that the police knew that the vehicles didn't match and possibly that the states were wrong (and aren't motorcycle plates a different size?).
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Fabiana Cecin \U0001f3f4 \U0001f339
Fabiana Cecin 🏴 🌹...
@fabianacecin
But you see you don't actually understand how lawmaking works there's this set of procedures and dates that BLEAAAARGHHHHHvomitvomit


Neoliberalism is an economic genocidal ideology predicated on maintaining capitalism, and capitalism is the impoverishment, oppression and death of poor people because that's the OBJECTIVE of capitalist ideology. It's a malthusian ideology.

Neoliberals are the original Alt-Right

Capitalism has ZERO todo with "markets vs. no markets," or "central planning vs. decentralization." That's *propaganda*. That's a diversion.

Capitalism is the NAME OF THE ABSENCE of any support for poor people. In capitalism, giving ANY power to poor people is a CRIME.

Capitalism has an *exception* to the strict forbiddance of giving any economic power to the 99%, and that is the concept of "Merit."

If you act as a SLAVE (wage slave), then you can get some crumbs to *temporarily* avoid your death. While you are mechanically useful.

These fucking Neoliberals which are 99% of the Democratic Party in the US are all POSING as nice people. They are not. They are all sociopaths.

This economic fascism is so thoroughly normalized in the US that nobody has a concept of what capitalism is.
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Brown's article at Buzzfeed starts off pretending it's some kind of really off-the-wall notion that Hillary Clinton paid for the creation of the Steele Dossier that was then used to justify the FBI's spying on the Trump campaign & transition team.


After that awful start, he swerves to making accusations that the Epoch Times is connected to the 'cult' Falon Gong.

You can read the article here:

Brown insinuates with no real evidence whatsoever that the Epoch Times is 'Falon Gong-linked'.

The 'evidence' he supplies in his article to 'prove' @EpochTimes is 'Falon Gong-linked is this:

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Listening to this Puran one gets automatically attached to Vishnu and Shiva and realize that there is no difference between them. Vyasji divided this book into four parts. It has eighteen thousand shlokas. This whole book is in the form of dialogue between Suutji and Maharishi's.

The first part Brahmkhand, consists of Shrishti description. Here Shri is known as Para Brahma and description of Gokul is also mentioned, It also narrates the argument between Brahma and Narad in which both were defeated, and then Narad went to Shiva to attain more gyan.

Shivji advised him to go to Bhagwan Saavarni for this. Narad goes to Saavarni ashram to seek Knowledge and is totally amazed by the sorroundings.

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Importance of Shri Krishna through various stories. Then there is the discussion of Prakriti and its various hues. Listening to this gets you wealth.
Next is Ganesh Khand which describes the Punyak vrat done by Parvati ji. After this it narrates the birth of Kartikeya and Ganesh.
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So it turns out that Google Chrome was making everything on my computer slow *even when it wasn’t running*, because it installs something called Keystone which is basically malware.

I made a website because this shouldn’t

Wired first reported on how bad Keystone was 11 years ago when they put it into Google Earth (they seem to put it in all their popular

The fact that Keystone hides itself in Activity Monitor is bizarre. (The only sign of it was excessive CPU usage of WindowServer which is a system process).

I don’t know if Google was doing something nefarious with Keystone, or a third party figured out how to (which Wired warned about). But either way, I’m not inclined to give Google-the-organization the benefit of the doubt (despite the many good people who work on Chrome)...

...since it's been a decade+ and this still hasn't been "fixed".

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(\u3063\u25d4\u25e1\u25d4)\u3063 \U0001f499 \U0001d440\U0001d4b6rymo Belfast \U0001f499\U0001f331\U0001f340 \u24cb\U0001f397\ufe0f
(っ◔◡◔)っ 💙 𝑀𝒶rymo Belfa...
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THREAD PART 1.

On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙


He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.

On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq


"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."

Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.
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