French police are threatening to join protesters, demand better pay and conditions https://www.newsweek.com/france-protests-police-strike-gilets-jaunes-yellow-vests-pay-overtime-1264961
Comrades from @BYP_100 were in Harlem this morning swiping Black & Brown folks into the subway for free to protest racist #BrokenWindows policing. NYPD showed up to harass & intimidate them. Over 90% of people arrested for farebeating are Black or Brown. #SwipeItForward https://t.co/m7dbO8KP0u
Hey everyone. It has come to our attention that some of the references in this tweet are problematic and insensitive. We're posting here in the thread so that people who have engaged with this tweet will join us in our learning moment. 1/4
But! There was a maybe-meteor over SF Bay, that's cool
Did you see the bright light in SF Bay Area sky? Based on clouds in the photo it's not another cloud formation. It could likely be a meteor fireball - very bright meteor. Waiting on confirmation from AMS. Haven't seen video yet. If you have, please share! More @nbcbayarea 6
#FreeMariaButina
Embassy's diplomats visited Maria. Our fellow citizen is still in a solitary confinement in complete isolation. She has spent over three months in this detention regime. We demand her earliest release.
➡️ https://www.facebook.com/RusEmbUSA/photos/a.493759737501088/933766476833743/ 👈@StateDeputySPOX
I mean plus she hasn't had "an accident", so all things considered we're doing quite well
the Senate has begun a live quorum call. Senators should make their way to the floor for a vote on the motion to instruct the Sergeant at Arms to request the presence of absent Senators
An institutional Google shareholder is calling on the tech giant to disclose information about the risks associated with a controversial Chinese search engine product, "Project Dragonfly" https://politi.co/2ConaL2
NEW detail: Bill Barr shared his memo attacking the Mueller probe with the top lawyer representing the White House in the investigation around the same time he gave it to Rosenstein. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-attorney-general-pick-criticized-an-aspect-of-mueller-probe-in-memo-to-justice-department-11545275973
What's remarkable about this story isn't that hackers breached the European Union's diplomatic network (and other orgs) and stole cables about Trump, China, and Russia.
What's remarkable is that a security firm found the cables and gave them to reporters. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/european-diplomats-cables-hacked.html
The Democrats, who know Steel Slats (Wall) are necessary for Border Security, are putting politics over Country. What they are just beginning to realize is that I will not sign any of their legislation, including infrastructure, unless it has perfect Border Security. U.S.A. WINS!
....Russia, Iran, Syria & many others are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says, because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us. I am building by far the most powerful military in the world. ISIS hits us they are doomed!
I know he definitely doesn't care but do you think his brain even processes the fact that his explanation for leaving Syria was that ISIS was defeated?
...He also said that the border was [air]tight due to CBP, which implies we also don't need the wall?
> The parliamentary budget office has estimated federal spending would need to increase $43.1 billion annually to provide every low-income household with an average of $9,421, beefing up the $32.9 billion Ottawa already spends on support for low-income Canadians.
That's not a lot of cash at all
But maybe it's intended to go along with province programs too... likely, actually
Although I suppose it's not too out of line with someone making minimum wage while working 20 hours a week
Thanks for being awesome Sherry (and also sorry Ford is terrible), because you pretty stand as a perfect example of one of the reasons basic income is a great idea (even if it's not easy to implement)
@GodEmperorDune yeah it's hard to wrap our heads around just how empty space really is. The asteroid belt is a great example of this. Folks often imagine it was being some super dense thing like you'd see in some star wars or star trek scenes... but in reality everything is hugely spaced apart.
"The moment I found out Trump could tweet himself was comparable to the moment in 'Jurassic Park' when Dr. Grant realized that velociraptors could open doors." https://politi.co/2Ewh3Wu
Can you imagine if every small town fact-checked the incoming helicopter reporter, it would be staggering and tremendous. https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-messed-with-the-wrong-small-town-d92f3e0e01a7
> The Schrödinger's ISIS paradox outlines a situation in which ISIS must be considered, for all intents and purposes, simultaneously a threat and defeated. Trump created this paradox on twitter because we've been in a weird paradox since 2016.
@TimStone that case certainly doesn't help with all the fake news claims. Though I doubt that many people in the US know "Der Spiegel" anyway, so not sure how big this case will be in the US
“A DER SPIEGEL reporter committed large-scale journalistic fraud over several years.” yikes! http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/claas-relotius-reporter-forgery-scandal-a-1244755.html
@MadScientist True, though I was thinking more from the perspective of all the stories we might not have to read if someone wasn't embellishing them enough to make them supposedly noteworthy
@TimStone On the one hand, 8 points is a lot. On the other hand, you can't really quibble about people reporting 62% support vs. 70% support when you live in a FPTP system.
He said it was bad that people, angry that Tucker Carlson is a white supremacist with a TV show, told advertisers, the companies they give money, to not show ads on his show, which exists because the companies gives Fox money
His rationale is that the PR department at Applebee's shouldn't decide what's racist which is a bad argument for other reasons but also not even how this works
It's just kind of hilarious because if "the PR department at Applebee's" had made the decision on their own we wouldn't even be discussing it!
We're only discussing it because the people who spend money at said places said it was bad and the companies went "Well we want your money, so we'll stop airing ads there"
Interesting Rosenstein comment about the Barr memo:
"Our decisions are informed by our knowledge of the actual facts of the case, which Mr. Barr didn’t have.”
@TimStone Yeah, it shouldn't be considered political but then you have people all up in arms about how the corporations are being political because they're pulling ads from crazy people they support.
I don't know that people would get upset about boycotting advertising for, like, Stormfront, so I do think a big part of the problem is that people still think of Carlson as "one of us," which I guess gets to a different problem
@TimStone a great thing about this effect is by Hannah gadsby, where everyone draws the line of “this is problematic” in such a way that they are on the good side of it
See also the interviews with literal kkk members who swear up and down that they are not racist after mentioning tons of racist things
@TimStone your favorite pair of #resistance grifter brothers are being used by Chinese state media to build support for the trade war
One of the ways Chinese state media and posters on WeChat push back on Trump’s China tariffs is to use the words/tweets of Americans. We found this and other articles like it when we analyzed recent discussion on China’s biggest social media platform: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/china-censor-trump-content-wechat
@GodEmperorDune Signal disrupters. You aim it at the drone, it interferes with its connection to the controller, and it lands automatically as it does when it moves out of range.
They already have them without needing to keep trained birds at airports lol.
The case against Harvey Weinstein will proceed to trial after a judge declines to dismiss any of the five felony charges against him https://cnn.it/2GAG855
CORKER: “Mitch is on the phone with Paul now, so....” *corker starts laughing*
Q: Why are you laughing?
Corker: “Well, why not?”
///
Corker: “Ya’ll have fun! I may not see ya’ll again for a while...”
Q: You’re not going to come back from TN for votes?
Corker: “I doubt it.”
Q: What’s going to happen?
CORKER: “Who knows? Does the person sitting beside him at the WH know?”
*Ted Cruz walks by and says to a reporter: “I think we need to follow through and fund the wall.”*
*Corker starts laughing again.”
CORKER: “You can’t make this stuff up!”
I also love how the whole episode with Collins awhile means that no one will believe McConnell if he says "let's fund it for now and then take away the funding later" like some people are suggesting.
I know that the whole "BUILD WALL!" gov't press release got a lot of attention, but really, people should not overlook how batshit crazy the @ICEgov press release was about seizing domains, where the agency seems completely unaware that copyright & trademarks are different. https://twitter.com/techdirt/status/1075808387017990144
James Wolfe's sentencing hearing is underway. The judge begins by noting she received a letter from a person who identified themselves as "MALE-1" in the indictment — believed to be Carter Page, based on public reports matching info in charging papers
Kind of want to know what her tone was there, as I feel no one has ever been excited to read a letter Carter Page has sent them
Please enjoy this devastating NYT review of a London restaurant which has opened in Manhattan.
It is headlined “What If Brexit Were A Restaurant?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/dining/bluebird-london-review.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Food
Rep. Cicilline: You do not know how many people have died in DHS custody?
DHS Sec. Nielsen: "I don't have an exact figure"
...
Cicilline: "I'm talking about people who have died in your custody. You don't have the number?"
Nielsen: "I will get back to you with the number." https://t.co/SxEmRe4CM2
Boycotting shows is attempted mind & thought control, intimidation (of producers & advertisers), flagrant censorship and an assault on the spirit and intent of the First & Fifth Amendments.
@TuckerCarlson
Yeah it's obviously a dumb argument I just don't even know what argument he's trying to make with the 5th there
Like..it's maybe a deprivation of ..property? Maybe? Because Tucker won't get money? Or something? Which would be a multiverse brain take given, like, at-will employment for starters, and then literally everything else wrong about that
@BradC After the Der Spiegel news this morning, I feel like I want pictures with every bashing description in this article to make me feel certain it's not way exaggerated.
“Racism is a national security vulnerability.” You can read my op-ed today on Russia’s targeting of African American voters & exploitation of racism on social media.@washingtonpost https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-face-the-facts-racism-is-a-national-security-issue/2018/12/18/f9746466-02e8-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html
Remember that bill from @SenRonJohnson defining natural cheese?
The House just failed to pass it on a 2/3rds vote.
https://projects.propublica.org/represent/bills/115/s2322
No actually I did not remember that god damn this year
@decadent_creed Hi Jesse, just to clarify Totes>>Isotoner does not support the statements of Tucker Carlson. When we became aware of this placement, we pulled our advertising from this program immediately.
in general i'm not a fan of doing things "for national security" but if it gets us to acknowledge that racism is still an problem and move forward in addressing it
@TimStone i had never heard of this company and thought it was fake
Matt Whitaker assembled a group of advisers who disregarded a DOJ ethics office recommendation that he step away from the Mueller probe over the appearance of a conflict of interest. New from @DevlinBarrett & @mattzap https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ethics-officials-say-whitaker-need-not-recuse-from-supervising-special-counsel-probe-according-to-a-person-familiar-with-the-matter/2018/12/20/76332392-046b-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.92c158242eee
Trump 2020 campaign used a shell company to pay ad buyers at the center of alleged illegal coordination scheme with NRA https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/12/trump-2020-campaign-coordination/ via @OpenSecretsDC
WHAT?! "In an astonishing departure from protocol, as the requests were being made, Treasury officials were using their government email accounts to send messages back and forth with a network of private Hotmail and Gmail accounts set up by the Russians." https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anthonycormier/russian-agents-sought-us-treasury-records-on-clinton-backers
Yesterday, @SlackHQ sent me an email. My accounts on various Slack teams had been immediately deactivated, with no prior warning. The reason? I've visited family in Iran and used Slack when there. Only my work's paid-for Enterprise account works still.
Yeah, I saw mention of that and it's just unbelievably stupid
For the millionth time, the B-1B isn't nuclear capable. Can't believe I am tweeting this to an Air Force command official account. https://twitter.com/AirMobilityCmd/status/1075845713903394816
@GodEmperorDune Look all they do is refuel stuff it's what gets them excited
Pres. Trump looks for Bob Goodlatte, confusingly says he may be in a hearing with James Comey, "trying to see how much he's lying today." https://t.co/xpr1CZiTcv
Actually this brings up the good question of whether or not Trump will remember people didn't get reelected and/or retired or if he'll still refer to them as if they should be there
@daverooneyca @Aviation_Intel Treaty restricted. We can have two nuclear-capable bomber types, so the B2 displaced the B1B. The B52 kept its seniority rights, and it likely will again when the Raider bumps our B2 fleet to conventional status.
> The USAF continues to rely on the B-52 because it remains an effective and economical heavy bomber in the absence of sophisticated air defenses, particularly in the type of missions that have been conducted since the end of the Cold War against nations with limited defensive capabilities.
What is not as impressive is the house taking trump’s tantrum seriously
Rep. McHenry: "We don’t want to be in the position of a Republican House taking a bill to the president that he’s going to veto, especially on something as important as his number one priority: the wall. So, it’s a tough call but we’re going to do what the president has asked."
It's like Java. Does my new rig need Java? Not really, I don't do anything these days that uses JRE. But it can run Java and maybe I might need it one day, who knows. Plus, like nuclear bombs, Java results in radioactive destruction wherever it's deployed.
@GodEmperorDune I mean there are the multiple instances of the plane having an accident that resulted in a nuclear bomb being dropped on US soil, if that counts
> At the time of her death in 1973, Post bequeathed the property to the National Park Service, hoping it could be used for state visits or as a Winter White House, but because the costs of maintaining the property exceeded the funds provided by Post, and it was difficult to secure the facility (as it is located in the flight path of Palm Beach Airport), the property was returned to the Post Foundation by an Act of Congress in 1981.
The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity in AD 988. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by Byzantine art, led from the capital in Constantinople. As time passed, the Russians widened the vocabulary of types and styles far beyond anything found elsewhere in the Orthodox world.
The personal, innovative and creative traditions of Western European religious art were largely lacking in Russia before the 17th century, when Russian icon painting became strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings...
There we go.
Correction: iconography is strictly religious art.
NOW: A federal judge has sentenced James Wolfe, the former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, to *two months in prison* for lying to the FBI about his contact with reporters. Story shortly.
Big. @jaketapper reports that Trump administration officials are now bracing for the president to announce the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan soon. No final decision has been made by Trump, the sources warned.
Wow. @maassive and @eff sued the DEA to get AT&T's Hemisphere records — and won. It's a good job they did, because the newly unredacted documents reveal rampant parallel construction by law enforcement to keep the program secret. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/and-after-what-we-learned-about-hemisphere-program-after-suing-dea
Dem @Call_Me_Dutch who voted with GOP on Yemen war met repeatedly with Saudi reps since the conflict began, accepting thousands in contributions from them, I found.
He was also one of few Dems to vote against banning cluster bomb transfers to the Saudis:
https://tyt.com/stories/4vZLCHuQrYE4uKagy0oyMA/2fBmCjKTywO2E6E22cSKKU