THREAD: Toronto – OPSEU/SEFPO President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says proposed changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) announced today would create chaos and uncertainty for many of the province’s most vulnerable people @OPSEU #Odsp

Thomas says the changes would force those with disabilities to navigate an entirely new support system, and he’s concerned such a proposal was put forward in the middle of a major public health crisis.

David Garrard, a multi-millionaire pro-Israel lobbyist funded the UK Independent Group, also a major financial backer of Labour Friends of Israel, a front group for the Israeli embassy and was recently appointed to its board #LabourLeaks #TheLobby #LFI

Prior to Palestine solidarity activist Jeremy Corbyn becoming party leader in 2015, Garrard donated almost $2 million to Labour under former leaders Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. #LabourLeals #TheLobby #LFI

Despite leaving the party, Garrard continued to fund individual anti-Corbyn MPs within Labour.

The Independent Group was formed by eight Labour MPs who quit the party.

While they were still in Labour, Garrard funded two of these eight. #LabourLeals #TheLobby #LFI

Garrard donated almost $28,000 to Ian Austin – a leading supporter of Labour Friends of Israel.

Austin to Sky News, “I’ve been campaigning against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership for years.” Joan Ryan resigned from Labour claiming Corbyn’s “hatred for Israel”.

The official register of donations to MP's shows that in 2016 and 2017, Garrard donated almost $9,000 to Ryan and more than $50,000 to Chuka Umunna. Garrard has also donated almost $20,000 to Tom Watson – who has long opposed Corbyn. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut #LFI #TheLobby

Council Accountant Bags Jail Term for Fraud In Maiduguri

The Maiduguri Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today January 11, 2021 secured the conviction and sentencing of one Mala Mallam Yawudi to three and a half years in prison...

...before Justice Aisha Kumaliya of the State High Court Maiduguri for forgery and stealing to the tune of N645,000.00 (Six Hundred and Forty-Five Thousand Naira).

The convict pleaded guilty to the three-count charge preferred against him by the EFCC.

One of the counts reads: "That you Mala Mallam Yawudi, while being an Accountant of Works Department in Dikwa Local Government Area, Maiduguri, Borno State, sometime in 2014 at Maiduguri, Borno State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court...

...dishonestly misappropriated certain property to wit; the sum of N645,000.00. (Six Hundred and Forty Five Thousand Naira) belonging to Bukar Wakil (now deceased) who was declared dead in November 2015...

...and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 308 and punishable under Section 309 of the Penal Code Cap 102 Laws of Borno State of Nigeria."

THREAD
1/8
I want to ask the good people of #Irish Twitter to not share the article in today's Sunday @Independent_ie about the 'mother & baby home' investigation report. It's no scoop, the report will be publicly available from Tuesday. #RepealTheSeal #Stand4Truth

2/8
All today's article does is add to survivors trauma, yet again, by having our personal stories & information splashed across a national newspaper for clicks, likes & increased revenue before WE have read the report. There is zero empathy in the decision to publish.

3/8
Equally, there is zero empathy in the leak. The cynical part of me believes it to be a deliberate act to take the heat off the minister, @rodericogorman, by creating a distraction from the contents so that he, & others, are seen to be outraged. Good for PR.

4/8
I wish that weren't true, but going on the evidence I've witnessed with my own eyes over the last 40 years in terms of trying to access my own records, lobbying for legislative change, trying to find & connect with my birth family, trying to find my father,

5/ 8
I have zero faith left that any Irish government has the will & the ability to take responsibility for a full & proper investigation. The legislation being brought to government on the same day as the report is to be presented will, effectively, prohibit a single inquest on

Hilarious Rush Limbaugh moment from his 2009 CPAC address -->

How the Future of India and USA, was determined by the inability of the Austrian Kings Joseph I and Charles VI, to produce male heirs..

When Joseph 1, died of smallpox in 1711, he had two daughters but no son. As a result, his brother Charles VI, succeeded him on the throne

Given that it was 1700s and the presence of a Son was considered paramount for succession, and the Salic law, in effect at that time barred women from inheritance, Charles VI was the last male heir to the throne, unless Charles VI had a son.

Which he didn't.

But he had 2 daughters, Maria Theresa & Maria Anna. Realizing that his kingdom would be divided on his death, he decided to change the law, and allowed his daughters to inherit the kingdom

Which was pretty sad for thhe daughters of his elder brother, Joseph, who he disinherited

Every other European power was smacking their lips in anticipation, of devouring the wonderful Austro Hungarian empire as a sweet desert, as it's division was imminent.

Things came to head in 1740, when Charles VI died and Maria Theresa became the Empress of Austria.

Half the Europen powers, Like France, Prussia and Spain, sided with the daughters of Joseph, because they wanted to takeover Austria

Britain, Dutch and Russia, sided with Maria Theresa.

This resulted in an 8 year war called the war of Austrian Succession, in which 3,00,000 died

@fvckinashman @KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann 1. Thanks, Jay. Yeah... the Gracies have had connections with oppressive violence in Brazil from day one. Their recent interaction with the fascist dictatorship (1964-85) is still not sufficiently told. @UrbanAntonio has been collecting pieces here and there.

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 2. There is another phenomenon that grew as an offshoot of Gracie-inspired BJJ: the neonazi BJJ groups in large cities like Sao Paulo, Rio and Brasilia. Their shady relations with the repression institutions is still not sufficiently documented, as a lot about ....

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 3... what happened in the dungeons of the dictatorship. Anyway, they have established a strong tradition of fascist support in BJJ. They openly support Bolsonaro and we believe (but have no hard evidence) that several MMA ...

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 4... fighters in Brazil were intimidated into publicly supporting Bolsonaro. It's not hard to understand why: their tentacles are long and they can end a career. If you go back to social media in 2018, all of them posted something ...

@KarlitoRichII @JoLuehmann @UrbanAntonio 5... supporting Bolsonaro.

If any of you find info written in Portuguese about that, send it my way and I'll translate it. We have some awesome people in the fights there like @souljacker and @JrGabrielBjj but the left is still microscopic in BR MMA.

In July 2020, the whole month, The Lincoln Project was everywhere. Profiles at NBC, CNN, WaPo, NYT, NBC, ABC, the New Yorker. NONE of them did any serious vetting of the group or their claims

only reporter Ebony Bowden, at the NYPost really looked at TLP with any objectivity

Portugal is famous for its mild climate and sunny beaches, but each year hundreds of people freeze to death and millions struggle to survive frigid winter weather.

Here's a quick thread based on my @POLITICOEurope story on Portuguese energy poverty

When I lived in Lisbon my friends and I joked that although the Portuguese were famous for melancholia, uncharacteristic (and unrealistic) optimism defined their approach to thermal insulation: homes seemed to be built as if the weather was expected to be perfect year-round.

While the weather is, indeed, really great for most of the year, it can also be really awful sometimes. In the Summer temperatures can shoot up to truly unbearable levels for weeks on end, and in the Winter the icy humidity can easily make you feel like you're freezing 24/7.

This reality is a huge problem precisely because so many Portuguese people live in homes that don't have the capacity to shelter them from the heat when temperatures rise and the cold when they drop. And that means that every year that means people die because of the weather.

This issue can be traced back to the rural exodus that took place during the second half of the XX century, when millions fled the interior to seek better futures either outside the country — immigrating to France, Germany and Luxembourg — or in cities like Lisbon and Porto.

#Yemen is a very active topic on Twitter these days, with a number of online campaigns underway, some of which are trending globally. What’s new and interesting is the massive participation by Yemenis using these hashtags #HouthiTerrorismInYemen & #StopHouthiTerrorismInYemen 1/13

These hashtags were started by a group called “Aqyal,” an emerging social movement that fights Hashemite supremacy and calls for equal opportunities for all Yemenis. It’s widely supported by Yemeni youth, including those affiliated with the existing political parties. 2/13

Aqyal was able to rally people across the political spectrum against Houthis for the first time, and this success was due to 1) their independence, 2) all of them are volunteers, 3) transparency in organizing, and 4) the fact that it’s a just cause. 3/13

On the other hand, Houthi supporters have rallied behind these two hashtags #YemenCantWait & #DayofAction4Yemen
These hashtags were originally started by NGOs& independent activists, but their goal coincided with the goal of t Houthi, which is ending support for Saudi Arabia 4/13

The top goal of Houthis since 2015 is to neutralize Saudi Arabia, so the group can more easily take control over the rest of Yemen. Therefore, Houthis hid behind these campaigns, taking advantage of NGOs’ anti-Saudi message.5/13

German farmers are in revolt, but lack global ‘liberal’ lobby support, unlike India: Here are 3 reasons why?

https://t.co/JuFiBHYYYK via @OpIndia_com

German govt brought in a new “insect protection law.” It 'll curb d use of certain pesticides to save insect populations from collapsing. But many German farmers insist that these laws 'll destroy their livelihood. Or as they put it more succintly,“don’t kill farms to save bugs.”

To make their statement, German farmers even brought their tractors to the historic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Sound even more familiar?

Nobody tried to seize symbols of German state power and plant alternative flags. Also, nobody used swords against police personnel nor tried to chase them into a ditch. Such losers I tell you, those Germans. They don’t understand how “peaceful protest” is really done.

But I cannot help wonder. As Rihanna would say, why aren’t people talking about this? What happened to humanitarian liberal media all around the world and their supposed reverence for farmers? Don’t the “annadatas” of Germany deserve some love?

I’ve thought long and hard about this. There is a constellation of circumstantial evidence around the most recently identified variant P.1, and what has been happening in Manaus, Brazil which makes me very seriously concerned. A thread 🧵

First Manaus has already been very hard hit by the pandemic. News reports in earlier stages told of rushed burials and bodies piling up

The crucial thing was the rapid rates of transmission, not really mitigated by ‘flattening the curve’ any. total per capita mortality was not as high as might be expected elsewhere, but only because the age structure of the population in Manaus skews young

(I just did the calculation, the numbers of deaths are quite consistent with independent estimates of age stratified IFRs as per

By October 2020, 76% of the population were estimated to have been infected. This is based on a convenience sample of antibodies found in blood donors. I don’t like convenience samples and the true figure might well be lower, but not a lot lower

Let me clarify why is it next to impossible for #Hindus to win this ongoing Ideological/ civilizational war with us #Muslims:

If the #Hindu cause is +1, #Islamic cause is -1, and 0 is neutral, then we #Muslims are fighting hard for -1 while U Hindus R aiming for just 0!..(1/12)

..Let me explain:

V #Muslims attack #Hinduism.
U #Hindus attack only Traitors & Pakistan!

V fight for #Islamic cause.
U fight for #Nationalist cause!

We #Muslims want #Sharia state.
You #Hindus want #Secular state! ...(2/12)

... V R fighting #Religious war.
U just fighting political war!

V vote on Islamic grounds.
U vote on #SabkaSathSabkaVikas

V #Muslims never raise voice for #KashmiriPandits but burn cities for #Rohingyas!
U #Hindus speak for not only KP but also for Sufis & Balochis! ..(3/12)

...V #Muslims rename Rampur to Rahimpur
U #Hindus rename Aurangzeb rd to Kalam rd!

V speak for Junaid & Akhlaq only
U speak for GorakshakGopal & soldier Aurangzeb in same breadth!

V straight away abuse ur Religion & God
U only oppose the radicals amongst us! ...(4/12)

V want rights to abuse only ur religion
U want rights to abuse all religions including urs!

The flags of #Pakistan is fully #Islamic but the flag of India is just 1/3rd #Hindu!

Pakistan has less than 1% Hindus remaining but Indian #Muslims are grown to 25%! ...(5/12)

Now for something other than the United States: Germany's centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) are choosing their new leader next week. The winner has a very good chance of succeeding Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany. Here's what you need to know:

First, a little context. Merkel became leader of the CDU in 2000. After she stepped down in 2018, the party held a leadership contest in which Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK), Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz fought to succeed her. AKK won.

AKK, who is Germany's Minister of Defence in addition to leading the CDU, really struggled to bring the party together. I don't want this thread to run to 400 tweets so I won't go into detail here but it's fair to say that some of the losers never accepted defeat

AKK decided to step down as leader of the CDU early last year. A new leader was supposed to be elected quickly but corona happened and the party kept delaying. Logistical challenges aside, a lot of people worried about doing too much party politics while the world burned

That's how we got here. So what's going on? There are three candidates running to become new leader of the CDU: Norbert Röttgen (left), Armin Laschet (middle), Friedrich Merz (right)

Man Jailed Ten Years over Farming Scam in Kaduna

Justice Darius Khobo of State High Court sitting in Kaduna on January 22, convicted and sentenced one Kamilu Tukur Ruma to Ten years imprisonment for obtaining N742,000 (Seven Hundred and Forty-two Thousand Naira) from one Zainab Garba as investment in a phony farming business.

After paying the said sum, Garba discovered that the farm land situated at Rigachukun Kaduna which the convict showed her, belonged to someone else.

The charge reads, “that you Kamilu Tukur Ruma sometime in April, 2018 in Kaduna within the Kaduna Judicial Division of the High Court being entrusted with the sum of N742,000,00 (seven hundred and forty two thousand Naira) by Zainab Garba...

...for the purpose that the money will be invested in farming business located at Rigachukun, Kaduna dishonestly converted the said money to your own use in violation of legal contract which you made in regard to the sum...

After presiding over the backward march of Kenya, politically and economically through the arrogant support of Jubilee, the Kikuyu now have a solution – TO EXTEND JUBILEE MANDATE THRU UHURU’S DEPUTY. seventh thread on Railaphobia

A joke is told of a very difficult restaurant customer who would complain over anything. One day he rejected a chapatti served to him because it was small. The waiter took the chapatti to the kitchen, flipped it over on the other side and returned it to the customer.

It was the same chapatti WITH AN ILLUSION OF CHANGE.I have argued in a past thread that the biggest political fraud unfolding in Kenya is the repackaging of William Ruto from a top Jubilee potentate to a saviour who will lift Kenya from the abyss Jubilee has sunk us

Who is doing this repackaging? You are right: its the Kikuyu community. We defied the call history over ICC. We should have stood with the court to ensure the dragon of impunity was slain once and for all.

We lost the opportunity and now the country is many years backward, almost worse than where it was in 2002. This time, Kikuyu have chosen the wrong side of history AGAIN. They want to renew Jubilee’s mandate with an illusion of change

The presence of the #terrorist & intelligence arm of #QudsForce on Turkish soil. How #Turkey enables Iranians to operate as a central base country, for the logistical & operational operation of QF & #Iranian intelligence vis-à-vis target countries in Europe & the Middle East.
1

Iranian intelligence sees it as #Iran's "operational backyard" vis-à-vis the Middle East and Europe, as #Turkey has a number of clear advantages, including:
- proximity to Iran and relatively easy mobility of operatinal it and through it (air and land)
2

- Iranian citizens do not need a visa to enter the country
- This geographical location central and attractive holding secret meetings with #terrorist organizations throughout the world (Middle East, Europe, South East Asia)
3

- Cooperation With headquarters of #terrorist organizations operating from #Turkey & neighboring countries such as Syria and Lebanon.
An increase in the level of daring & impudence of Iranians is identified due to the feeling that everything is allowed & possible in Turkey.
4

In February 1981, pro-Franco army officers attacked the Spanish Parliament hoping to halt Spain's evolution toward democracy and liberalism. 1/x

The coup was soon suppressed, in large part because of a miscalculation by the dying Franco regime. In 1975, the regime had restored the old Spanish monarchy, hoping to glamorize authoritarianism. Instead, King Juan Carlos opposed the coup - and most of the army obeyed. 2/x

Here's where the story gets interesting for our current purposes ...

The coup launched to thwart Spain's shift to democracy instead consolidated Spanish democracy. The next year, 1982, social democrats won the biggest landslide in Spanish electoral history. 3/x

The elected social democrats formed a government without a single minister connected to the old regime. State support of the Catholic church ended. Family law was modernized, minority language rights were protected. If Franco had opposed it - the new Spain wanted it. 4/x

The process was not instant. Not until 2019 would the state remove Franco's remains from the lavish tomb he built to himself. But the process was inexorable. The pro-Franco attempted coup guaranteed the total doom of Francoism in Spain. 5/x