BC WAR
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

In 1997, the Clinton administration created the "1033" program, whereby the Pentagon gave away its "surplus" equipment to local law enforcement agencies, leading to the nationwide militarization of America's cops.

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 In the decades since, 1033 became a $5B industry: beltway bandits lobby their pals in the DoD to place massive orders for weapons and materiel which are immediately declared "surplus" and transfered to undertrained cops nationwide.

https://t.co/vHlrkJ48W2

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Opponents of this program hypothesized that it would obey Checkhov's Law: "A machine-gun in the police armory in Act One will go off by Act Three. And then again, and again, and again."

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They were right.

Empirical studies show that cops who get milspec penis surrogates through 1033 murder the fuck out of the people who pay their salaries.

https://t.co/ntFwCaJ3Ie

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But 1033's defenders insisted (without any evidence) that turning Deputy Dawg into a USMC Fallujah Street Patrol Cosplayer seriously improved the quality of US policing.

They were wrong.

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The Pentagon Inspector General's September 30, 2020 report on the program is definitive: "firearms and tools ... were not supporting law enforcement activities."

https://t.co/tIVXJ2mpmr

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What's more, they have a pretty good idea why these "tools" weren't helping law enforcement: they were handed out like candy without regard to need, without training, without supervision, and without accountability.

7/
They gave out a LOT of stuff. Snow camouflage pants. Grenades. MRAPs. Assault rifles. And they gave 'em to everyone: local cops. Park rangers. Campus police.

https://t.co/dqazZvWysT

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Here's some specifics of the giveaways:

* 391 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters

* 2,885 Humvees

* 1,105 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles

* More than 75,000 firearms

9/
There's a lot of subtext in the IG's report, as @thomdunn points out on @boingboing: for example, they lavish a lot of attention on the Selmer, TN police department, which filed 1912 requests for military gear.

10/
All in all, the Selmer PD received:

* 77 pr cold weather boots

* 58 digital cameras

* 115 hammers

* 154 screwdrivers

* 106 tape measures

* 15 aircraft maintenance tool kits

* 38 laptops

* 4 dump trucks

Number of officers employed by the Selmer Police Department: 18.

11/
Why did Selmer need one dump truck for every 4.5 officers? It didn't. "The official requested extra LESO property and stored it in case of a future need because it was free."

But even that didn't work out.

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"Selmer PD requested and obtained 30 generators between 2013 and 2017 for use in the event of a disaster, but the generators are no longer available for use. The LEA official stated that some generators were not maintained and their condition deteriorated over time."

13/
Selmer's cops said yes to whatever was on offer. Other PDs got seriously strapped:

* Alpena County MI Sheriff: 30 M16 rifles for 16 officers

* Meigs County TN, Sheriff: 25 M16 rifles for 18 officers

* Massillon OH PD: 49 M16 rifles and 49 M1911 pistols for 44 officers

14/
1033 came to nationwide attention during the Ferguson uprising, when the country boggled at the cops' bizarre, militarized presence in the streets. In the years since, attention has waxed and waned.

15/
But police militarization demands sustained attention. The cops didn't get full battle-rattle by accident. It was a deliberate strategy, with a name and an office...and a business model. It's time to end it.

eof/

More from Cory Doctorow #BLM

Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
When it's railroading time, you get railroads.

When the railroads turn into the personal satrapies of rail-barons, you get trustbusters.

A couple decades ago, it was online service time. We had the users, the telcoms systems, the computers, the modems, so we got platforms.

1/

We had that, but we lacked something important: effective antimonopoly enforcement. Lax merger laws allowed companies with access to capital markets to buy out or neutralize all their competitors, so we got monopolies.

Right on schedule, we're getting digital trustbusters.

2/

Now, some people aren't technically sophisticated, but they do understand a lot about competition law. That's how you get meat-and-taters antitrust proposals like @amyklobuchar's #CALERA, which address the structural problems with antitrust

Klobuchar's bill is hugely important. The reason we have monopolies is that we stopped enforcing anti-monopoly law 40 years ago. Monopoly isn't a tech problem, it's everywhere from sneakers to glass bottles to pro wrestling to candy to

Klobuchar's CALERA doesn't just seek to apply antitrust law to tech - it also explicitly restores the pre-Reagan basis for fighting monopolies: we fight monopolies because they concentrate power and corrupt our politics. All monopolies are guilty unless proven otherwise.

5/
SOCIETY
Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
The Night of the Short Fingers saw many of the US's largest tech companies blocking Trump and trumpist platforms like Parler, provoking a storm of punditry about What It All Means for the tech companies to have taken this content moderation step.

1/


The best expert I know on the subject is @jilliancyork, my @eff colleague. She's published "an ongoing list" of "everything pundits are getting wrong about this current moment in content moderation."

You should read it.

Here's some highlights:

“Deplatforming Trump sets a precedent."

York: "The only 'precedent' set here is that this is indeed the first time a sitting US president has been deplatformed by a tech company."

3/

But political leaders around the world have already received this treatment: Lebanon, Burma, etc. Even the reach of the deplatforming is nothing new: last summer's US Iran ban saw blocks of everything, up to and including Etsy listings for "Persian dolls."

4/
HISTORY
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Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
There are lots of problems with ad-tech:

* being spied on all the time means that the people of the 21st century are less able to be their authentic selves;

* any data that is collected and retained will eventually breach, creating untold harms;

1/


* data-collection enables for discriminatory business practices ("digital redlining");

* the huge, tangled hairball of adtech companies siphons lots (maybe even most) of the money that should go creators and media orgs; and

2/

* anti-adblock demands browsers and devices that thwart their owners' wishes, a capability that can be exploited for even more nefarious purposes;

That's all terrible, but it's also IRONIC, since it appears that, in addition to everything else, ad-tech is a fraud, a bezzle.

3/

Bezzle was John Kenneth Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it." That is, a rotten log that has yet to be turned over.

4/

Bezzles unwind slowly, then all at once. We've had some important peeks under ad-tech's rotten log, and they're increasing in both intensity and velocity. If you follow @Chronotope, you've had a front-row seat to the
INTERNET
Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
2022 is shaping up to be a bloodbath. The Trump census cooked the numbers to advantage Republicans, and GOP statehouses are poised to redistrict in ways that will hand potentially permanent minority rule to the GOP in Congress.

1/


There's a potential way out: #HR1, an omnibus bill of electoral reforms that would create durable, structural protections for voting rights and a level playing field for campaigning.

2/

To get a sense of how urgent the looming crisis is - and of how important HR1 is - listen to @ryangrim interviewing @schwarz and Rep @JohnSarbanes [D-MD] on this week's

In theory, HR1 could be blasted through - Dems control the Senate, Congress, and the White House, and the future of the party depends on it, but I'm far from confident that they'll find the discipline and political will to make it happen.

4/

The Democrats keep squandering their majorities and wasting opportunities to make real change - changes that are must-haves, not nice-to-haves; changes needed to head off existential threats to the nation itself.

5/
TRUMP
Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
A couple days back, I wrote up my best understanding of what happened with /r/wallstreetbets and meme stocks like Gamestop, trying to show how all the different, seemingly contradictory takes on the underlying financial stuff could all be true.

https://t.co/xWzre4r0Yj

1/


In the days since, a new series of contradictory takes has emerged, these ones disputing the meaning of this bizarre financial spectacle, and likewise what response, if any is warranted as it unfurls.

2/

I think that all of these takes can also be true, and as with the trading itself, reconciling them requires that we widen the frame.

Let's start with Jimmy Carter.

3/

In 1978, Carter's IRS created the 401(k), a tax-sheltered account for people who wanted to gamble on stocks to fund their retirement.

That was a fringe proposition at best.

4/

The normal retirement system was a "defined benefits" pension where your employer guaranteed you a certain monthly percentage of your salary from retirement to death.

The vast majority of Americans wisely prefered a guaranteed payout to a tax-advantaged gambling account.

5/
TRADING

More from War

1453
1453
@Conquest1453
" Pakistan Model " To Solve Türkiye’s S-400 Crisis With The US

By Mehmet Acet

@acetmehmettw


Let us start with the statements President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made ahead of his Azerbaijan visit concerning the U.S. & upcoming Biden term , which will commence on 20th January 2021 :

“ We still consider any statements we have made so far & will make as premature . Let Mr. Biden 1st take office & then we will sit down & discuss matters with him . Just as we came together in the past & talked , whether it be in Türkiye or the U.S. .

There can be no conflict between nations regarding politics . Diplomacy in particular requires such matters to be deliberated over in order to reach an agreement & find a solution . Certain people in your country may prompt negative action .

That is not important : they are amateurs in politics . I am confident that we will move forward with the U.S. in a very different manner .”
WAR
Jon Hawkes
Jon Hawkes
@JonHawkes275
A few thoughts on belly loading. No, not our collective plans for the xmas period, a primer on the science behind allowing the belly of a vehicle to contact the terrain, and the implications therein to mobility (spoiler: its always bad) #AFVaDay #miltwitter #tanktwitter


Usual disclaimer - this is Twitter, I don’t have much space and so some things are simplified or omitted for simplicity. This is a hugely complex science; I’m just giving a flavour of the considerations inherent in AFV design. With that out the way…

Another outwardly unexciting concept, but actually quite critical to off road performance. Belly loading is the condition where the tracks have sunk in terrain to the extent that the belly of the vehicle is now partially or fully resting on the terrain


Belly loading is a cascade situation. With the belly only contacting terrain in a situation where mobility is already challenging and ground pressure/grip maybe be failing, contact of the belly begins to transfer load from tracks to hull, further reducing the tractive performance

Eventually, a vehicle can become entirely stuck where weight is fully loaded on the belly, or so much so that the tracks are fully unloaded and can gain no traction any longer. At this point there is little that can be done and it may need recovery or digging out by hand
WAR
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DokterSpin
DokterSpin
@dokterspin
Suppose WWIII has already started, how would we notice?
My (grand) parents saw the German tanks and troops pass by their door. The Vietnamese and Iraqis knew when the bombs fell that the Americans were nearby. But bombs and weapons have long ceased to be the most important ...

....weapons in modern warfare. Information, communication and people on the street are the new powerful weapons. Big Tech is a weapon. A weapon of an invisible opponent.
Over the past 20 years, we have become accustomed to quick information and were no longer dependent ....

...on the legacy media for our opinion. My late father watched the National news (NOS) until his last days, a medium he relied on since its existence for his vision of the world. With the advent of the internet, I took a big red pill.

Where social media have contributed to a better opinion formation, it has been clear since Snowden that they are weapons. To be used by an invisible opponent. With a drag net, all information about you and everyone is collected.
WAR
Seth Frantzman
Seth Frantzman
@sfrantzman
Thread: Interesting to see the excuse factory already being out to work to make Zarif’s grotesque conspiracy theory about Israel palatable. Reasonable people explaining and excusing a conspiracy about Israel attacking the US to cause a war.

Iran’s Zarif plays on historic western antisemitism to push these gross views, arguing that the very militias that it empowers in Iraq and which openly carried out dozens of attacks over the last year are now “Israel fake casus belli”....

It’s one thing for Iran to complain about the US...or slam Israel, but to push a gross conspiracy about Israel attacking the US in Iraq to cause a war in Iran is disgusting and should be condemned but because Iran’s regime always gets a pass it won’t.

This horrid regime that executed a wrestler, that kidnapped and murdered a journalist...that imprisons people for things like dancing/singing...the kind of people who are in league with excusing it at every turn are are the worst.

These same people would rightly call out conspiracy theories in the west but they don’t hold Iran to an equal standard because of their coddling Orientalist gross adoration for the regime. So the regime’s awful propagandists get a pass for every wild conspiracy and thuggishness
WAR
#BOOM #BOOM #BOOM
#BOOM #BOOM #BOOM
@BOOMBOO99565009
Thread for Sat Dec 19, 2020
We know that we are at war with the Invisible Enemy. Now we are all in danger because hackers have penetrated all the security files of the United States. There is a risk of war. #POTUS will never go to war because he is a peace president. GOD HELP US!
WAR

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Thanks, Apple! I really was nostalgic for worrying about yanking my computer off the table.

Oh and I really appreciated not knowing if my computer was charging. What was great was the little whoop sound you used, so that the speaker before me could be informed I was charging my laptop.
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THREAD: 15 of the most useful razors and rules I've found.

Rules of thumb that simplify decisions.

Bezos' Razors:

• If unsure what action to take, let your 80-year-old self make it.

• If unsure who to work with, pick the person that has the best chances of breaking you out of a 3rd world prison.

Skinner's Law:

• If procrastinating on an item, you only have 2 options:

1. Make the pain of not doing it greater than the pain of doing it.

2. Make the pleasure of doing it greater than the pleasure of not doing it.

Luck Razor:

• If stuck with 2 equal options, pick the one that feels like it will produce the most luck later down the line.

I used this razor to go for drinks with a stranger rather than watch Netflix.

In hindsight, it was the highest ROI decision I've ever made.

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Oleg Karpov pisze, że gdyby Siergiej Sirotkin zdobył w pierwszej części sezonu więcej punktów od Strolla, to jego kontrakt z automatu zostałby przedłużony na kolejny sezon. Tak się nie stało i Williams ma możliwość szukania innych opcji i to właśnie robi. #F1pl

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Shy people are either overthinking or highly observant of the social setting.

And in many cases it can be both.

'So what do I do?'

You learn the 75/25 law.

'What is that?'

The law of charisma...👇

Let's address the over thinkers first.

Do you have any idea why you overthink?

'Yea. Because others are judging how shy I am.'

Incorrect.

Others are thinking about themselves, not you.

But the fact that you think they are thinking about you, you fuck up the interaction.

Now you stay in your head too much & avoid the present moment.

A major no no in the social world.

Your tendency to think that others are judging you for being shy, coincidentally makes you more shy.

And that's when you start giving off a strange vibration to the social setting.

This is when you begin attracting comments like 'why are you so quiet?'
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