April 23, 2022

Now House R's are getting involved in Musk trying to buy Twitter

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1517869903100792832?s=21&t=joyy7QdyGVfxK_Cgc4PvRw

April 20, 2022

The US Capitol is being evacuated. WTF

https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1516909574975938563?s=20&t=CvkQ2QwF5544C4ikhZmRi8JFxil-NmRcOclKIHXZTz4




False alarm. DOD apparently didn't notify anybody.


https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1516914665888133120?s=20&t=CvkQ2QwF5544C4ikhZmRi8JFxil-NmRcOclKIHXZTz4

April 11, 2022

Wtf! Playwright David Mamet is a rw nut job?

https://twitter.com/speechboy71/status/1513556704314728460?s=21&t=m0H1HvKIuDhMtGKgNQJK8g


David Mamet on Fox News: "Teachers are inclined, particularly men because men are predators, to pedophilia"

April 5, 2022

Trump will be back on Twitter shortly, thanks to Elon Musk

TECH
Elon Musk thumbs his nose at the SEC again with Twitter stake
PUBLISHED MON, APR 4 20222:32 PM EDTUPDATED MON, APR 4 20226:20 PM EDT

Alex Sherman
@SHERMAN4949
Lora Kolodny
@LORAKOLODN


The Securities Exchange Commission has another reason to come after Elon Musk. The world’s richest man disclosed Monday that he’s acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, sending the social media company shares up more than 28% in afternoon trading.

The SEC mandates that anyone who acquires more than 5% of a company’s common shares disclose their holdings within 10 calendar days. Musk signed his filing 21 days after March 14.

On March 25, the day after the 10-day period lapsed, Musk posted a poll on Twitter, with the following preamble: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507259709224632344?s=20&t=Gl1Z_137iwUeTiwm4Epl7g


Musk’s intentions with his large stake are unclear. In late January, conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, who was convicted of campaign finance fraud in 2014, tagged Musk in a tweet telling him that he “can dramatically change the political and cultural landscape” by buying and taking over “a major social media platform.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/04/elon-musk-thumbs-his-nose-at-the-sec-again-with-twitter-stake.html

March 29, 2022

"It's really maddening when Westerners speak about a negotiated solution to Ukraine war"

https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/1508765978066399235?s=20&t=-yBnWcUfyxz_mLiNr8nN5w

It’s really maddening when Westerners speak about a “negotiated” solution to the Ukraine war. Let me translate that lingo into plain English for you. The subject of the “negotiation” they speak of is how much of Russia’s conquest Ukraine should have to accept. If you are not a 👇

Ukrainian, you have exactly zero standing to engage this subject. Our role is to support the Ukrainians to the maximum extent we can without triggering a wider conflict. It is emphatically not to tell them how much of their country to give up or what limitations on their 👇

sovereignty they need to swallow. I’m sorry if you don’t like war. I don’t either. But this one is not your war or mine to end. Asking people to negotiate when their army is starting to turn the tide is presumptuous in the extreme. It’s up to them whether to take risks to take 👇
back Donbass and Crimea and the various territories the Russians are occupying.


Another key point on this matter that I want specifically to direct to international law Twitter:
To the extent you engage in this rhetoric you are taking a meat axe to the UN Charter and you should be honest about what you’re doing.

The Charter makes unlawful the acquisition of territory by the use of force. And it makes lawful the defensive use of force to prevent this. It does not say that when Country A invades Country B, the world will decide how much of Country B’s territory Country A gets to acquire 👇

through it’s use of force, and it does not say either that Country B will under threat of annihilation be pressured to accept limitations on its sovereignty instead of pursuing its lawful right of self defense to protect ALL of its territory.👇

When you accept the rhetoric that the “sides” should “negotiate” a “solution,” what you’re really saying is that the charter can go fuck itself when the threat of escalation scares you too much. That’s fine if that’s what you believe. But don’t expect us to 👇

take your bromides about the “rules based international order” terribly seriously if that’s where you fall on when it counts. If you take the rules-based system remotely seriously, you have to consider any negotiated resolution that allows Russia to keep any part of Donbas or 👇
Crimea and forces Ukraine to accept that as a gross failure.
That’s all I got.

March 23, 2022

Surge in alcohol-related deaths raged in US during onset of COVID pandemic, study says.

Alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. jumped by nearly 26% at the onset of the pandemic in the highest year-over-year increase recorded by researchers over the past two decades, according to a new study. Researchers say these deaths reflect the hidden tolls of the pandemic as more and more Americans turned to alcohol to cope with the stress, isolation and economic hardship brought on by COVID-19.

In the past 20 years, the second highest year-over-year increase was just 5%, White told McClatchy News. The massive spike in alcohol-related deaths in 2020 happened over a 9-month period from the start of the pandemic in March through the end of the year, he said.

“Overall in the country there was a 2.9% increase in total alcohol sales, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s huge, and it’s the biggest increase in sales we’ve seen since 1968,” White said. “And so, Americans were drinking a lot more alcohol.”



Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article259684565.html#storylink=cpy

It was the largest increase since 1968. Here's what happened that year: MLK Jr. assassinated

RFK assassinated

Student protests, Democratic National Convention, Tet
Offensive

March 23, 2022

Opinion: What if everyone voted? The case for 100 percent democracy.

E.J. Dionne Jr. is a Post Opinions columnist. Miles Rapoport is a senior fellow at the Ash Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former Connecticut secretary of state. This essay is drawn from their book, “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting,” published this week by the New Press.


The first step toward ending our voting wars is to recognize that every citizen should play a role in shaping our nation’s destiny.

In the wake of changes that made voting more convenient, and resulted in record turnout in 2020, state after state is making it harder for citizens to cast a ballot. Congress is deadlocked on whether the federal government should protect this most basic of all democratic rights. False claims of election-rigging in 2020 led to a violent attack on the very process of transferring power. As a nation, we vacillate between inclusion and exclusion, between embracing democracy or retreating.
Breaking this cycle requires a game-changer. We propose universal voting.


Under this system, every U.S. citizen would be legally obligated to vote, just as every citizen is obligated to serve on juries. By recognizing that all of us, as a matter of civic duty, have an obligation to shape our shared project of democratic self-government, we could move from our 2020 voter turnout high — some 66.8 percent of eligible voters — much closer to 100 percent democracy.

Universal voting takes seriously the Declaration of Independence’s insistence that government is legitimate only when it is based on the “consent of the governed.” The Founders did not say “some of the governed” (even 66.8 percent). Including everyone in our system of government would live up to the promise made at the birth of our republic. Universal voting would tear down barriers and elevate our civic obligations. It could undergird other reforms and make clear that our country’s commitment to democracy is unapologetic, confident and complete.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/23/universal-voting-would-end-legal-battles-over-ballot-access/


I'm 100% in favor but the GOP will fight this tooth and nail.

March 15, 2022

Some interesting analysis on why Youngkin won the VA Governorship by 2.It wasn't mask mandates

and school closures. It was the fact that 75 and over voter turnout was up 2.7%

https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1503414902945456128?s=20&t=rVvBvs0HykHedGXXYkxh7w


How did VA give Biden a 10 pt victory, only to see McAuliffe lose by 2 a year later? The popular narrative after election day pointed the finger at CRT, mask mandates, and school closures driving a swing bloc of suburban parents. Our new analysis suggests a more complex answer.

You'll find the analysis here, but here's the short version:
https://insights.targetsmart.com/did-education-sway-the-va-election-maybe-but-probably-not.html

The biggest difference between '20 and '21 was senior turnout. More voters over the age of 75 voted in VA in '21 than have voted in any election other than 2020. While aging population explains that partly, the huge 2.7 pt increase in age 75+ vote share was mostly about turnout.

Were these seniors driven by school issues, despite not having school-age children? Possibly, and likely partially, but to be clear, that's very different than the narrative of parents of school kids infuriated by what they were told was being taught in their schools.


Let's look at the second narrative: mask mandates and school closures causing a swing to the GOP. Our analysis found no correlation between the number of days with in-person education during the '20-'21 school year and swing to the GOP in the Governor vote.

In fact, the counties with the least in person days were largely in NoVA, and exhibited below average swing, while the areas that swung the most to the GOP (mostly SWVA) were in person for most of the year.


The senior vote surged. By a lot.

Turnout among voters age 75 or older increased by 59%, relative to 2017 while turnout among voters under age 30 only increased by just 18%. Notably, turnout of all other age groups combined (18-74), which would likely include parents of school-aged children, only increased by 9% compared to 2017.

These are massive changes in the electorate in an election that was far from a blowout: Youngkin won by just 2%.

Voters age 65 and older are an estimated 15.9% of Virginia’s population according to the census, yet accounted for 31.9% of all ballots cast in 2021.

348,314 more seniors (ages 65+) voted in Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election than in the 2016 presidential election.
The Virginia market with the largest increase in senior vote share (ages 65+) from 2017 to was Charlottesville (67% increase), followed by the spill Raleigh-Durham market (48% increase).

Notably, turnout among voters of color also surged in 2021 compared to 2017: African-American turnout surged 13%, Hispanic turnout by 17.5% and Asian-American turnout by 37%. (An earlier version of this analysis compared final early vote data from 2017 to 2021. That error has been corrected.)

March 12, 2022

WTF. Iran just launched rockets against the American Consulate in Erbil, Iraq

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1502782218841776137?s=20&t=VeeII7HVAtEnIiXhRipxfg


BREAKING:

At least 6 Fateh-110 missiles have just been launched from Tabriz, Iran against the American Consulate in Erbil, Iraq.

Massive explosions have been recorded by Iraqi civilians near the consulate.





This isn't the first time. Happened in 2020 as well at the Erbil airport. Might have nothing to do with Russia.


9:19 p.m. ET, January 7, 2020
Two ballistic missiles hit Erbil, sources say
From CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali

At least two ballistic missiles hit two separate areas in Erbil, two Kurdish security officials tell CNN.

The attacks occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iraq.

One missile landed inside the perimeter of Erbil International Airport without exploding, the second missile hit an area 33 kilometers (about 20 miles) west of the city of Erbil without causing casualties.

Hear more details: https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/us-iran-soleimani-tensions-intl-01-07-20/h_c633b7ccb8e78db079f9e3079f989870


https://twitter.com/NaveedAJamali/status/1502793901941399557?s=20&t=VeeII7HVAtEnIiXhRipxfg

March 11, 2022

Now Russia is bombing Belarus, to get them involved

https://twitter.com/euromaidanpress/status/1502298521806032899?s=21


Ukraine's Air Force Command c says Russian planes struck Belarus from Ukrainian airspace

Acc. to border guards, Russian planes flew out from Dubrovitsa (🇧🇾 turned around over Ukraine's Horodyshche&Tumen, after which they struck Kopani, on the territory ofBelarus



https://twitter.com/euromaidanpress/status/1502300291567427588?s=21