thomas collins

[thomas collins @thomasc08910251]

@25YearsAgoLive I think one reason people might think you have been foreshadowing is those are the posts that have been getting retweeted.

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

Israeli talking heads suddenly championing the cause of “Las Malvinas” are really dumb. They want to punish a Labour government for their stand on Palestine, fine. But Labour don’t give a crap about the Falklands and would happily give it away. The people who care are Tories who largely support Israel. Well, they did before you lot started kicking off, some I have witnessed rethinking their stances.

[thomas collins @thomasc08910251]

@RameshBotha @arctotherium42 They should quit for reasons of morality and self respect, but there will always be a ready supply of petty tyrants to replace them.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

We all know journalists are evil. But here is a primo example of a journalist also being lazy as heck.

Can you think of a lazier headline than this one?

Ukraine's 'Chernobyl' indeed.

Another infamous journalist trick is to label something as "controversial" without ever saying what the controversy is. This way they poison the well and don't have to admit they're just jerks.

Then there is "Betteridge's Law of Headlines". This is when the headline asks a question in which the answer is quite clearly "no". Example: "Will opening your marriage make it stronger?" or "Is Alexa always listening?" -in ALL these cases, if the writer had proof of "yes", he would have said so. But he knows it's a lie.

Add more.

[PoIiMath @politicalmath]

California fined a church $1.2 million for violating lockdown protocol. The fine was upheld by a California appellate court just last year.

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

@Noahpinion @Ayei_Eloheichem Now imagine if we apply this test to legal immigration…

[Will @Evolving_Moloch]

Francis Galton on domestication, making the same argument Jared Diamond would make a century later - "All savages maintain pet animals, many tribes have sacred ones, and kings of ancient states have imported captive animals on a vast scale, for purposes of show, from neighbouring countries. I infer that every animal, of any pretensions, has been tamed over and over again, and has had numerous opportunities of becoming domesticated. But the cases are rare in which these opportunities have led to any result. No animal is fitted for domestication unless it fulfils certain stringent conditions, which I will endeavour to state and to discuss. My conclusion is, that all domesticable animals of any note have long ago fallen under the yoke of man. In short, that the animal creation has been pretty thoroughly, though half unconsciously, explored, by the every-day habits of rude races and simple civilisations."

[George Selgin @GeorgeSelgin]

Reducing the number of government employees yet managing to spend more than ever to support the resulting “shrunken government” isn’t something to boast about.

[Jeannette Dessaigne @JDessaigne]

Juror intimidation is a felony in Massachusetts. Kevin Reddington must be disbarred, arrested, and prosecuted for his crime.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Give me a break! Do not confuse a strong look with strong action! Do you recall The Reset, the Syrian Red line, Crimean annexation?

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

A Hero That Trusted His Intuition.

The problem wasn’t that Morgan Stanley didn’t believe him.

Rick Rescorla had already been right once. After the 1993 basement bombing of the World Trade Center, the firm’s security chief walked the towers, studied the site, and reached a conclusion most people preferred not to hear: the World Trade Center was still a target. Next time, he said, it would not be a truck. It would be an airplane.

An airplane. In a 1993 report.

Executives listened. Then they looked at the lease.

Morgan Stanley was the largest tenant in the complex—twenty-two floors of the South Tower, thousands of brokers, and a trading infrastructure that could not be packed into boxes and wheeled across the Hudson.

They literally made it a trading center.

The contract with the Port Authority ran until 2006. Walking away from premium Manhattan space of that scale would have meant penalties measured in the hundreds of millions, plus the operational chaos of relocating an entire downtown machine. So the company stayed.

Rescorla adjusted. If they could not leave the building, they would learn to escape it.

He built a protocol and treated it like doctrine. Unannounced drills. No exemptions. Brokers who billed by the minute were pulled off their desks and sent into the stairwells two by two, starting from the top floors, leaving a lane for firefighters coming the other way.

People complained. He did not care. Practice, he believed, was the only thing that would beat panic.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower. From the 44th floor of the South Tower, Rescorla could see the fire. Then the Port Authority came over the speakers: the South Tower was secure. Stay at your desks.

Rescorla grabbed a bullhorn and ignored them.

He started the drill his people already knew by heart. Floor by floor, two by two, down the stairs. He sang as he moved—Cornish songs from childhood, then “God Bless America”—keeping the line moving, refusing to let the stairwell become a stampede. Seventeen minutes later, the second plane struck the South Tower.

By then, most of Morgan Stanley was already on the way out.

Of the 2,687 employees in the building that morning, all but 13 survived.

It was stunning.

Rescorla could have been outside with them. He went back up instead. Colleagues told him to leave. He said he would, as soon as he was sure no one was left behind.

He was last seen around the 10th floor, heading higher.

The South Tower fell at 9:59 a.m. They never found him.

He was one of the 13.

He was a hero in every sense of the word.

Remember Rick Rescorla, he remembered for us.

[George Selgin @GeorgeSelgin]

Those who doubt my claims are encouraged to read Julian Zelizer’s classic essay on New Deal fiscal conservatism: https://t.co/15kcCHR2wT

[Marjon @MarjonQ17isBACK]

Dear God don't let any Georgia COPS see them

[Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley]

Reddington’s attack on the holdout juror in front of the courthouse was, in my view, an outrageous and reckless moment. It would warrant a response from the judge about stoking the rage against this one juror.

[thomas collins @thomasc08910251]

@ShamashAran Where exactly is that tail coming from?

[Fusilli Spock @awstar11]

I'm sorry but, attorneys attacking jurors is the beginning of the end of our judicial system.

This guy must get sanctioned and harshly

[thomas collins @thomasc08910251]

@PlasticChairDis @planefag Well, the Frogs wouldn't want us either.

[Rex Manning @ItsRexManning]

Dear Trenton Gardner:

Fuck you.
Pussy ass bitch.
Shooting a baby donkey for "charging" him.
Eat a dick and choke on it.
Coward.

Make his sally ass famous.

#TrentGardner
#JusticeForHeeHaw

[thomas collins @thomasc08910251]

The Case Against Flock https://t.co/xS7xah5cIl via @YouTube

[Mr. Ovis🐑💼(Office Worker Sheeptuber) @MrOvis_]

THEY DID THE MEME!!! THEY DID THE MEME!!!!!!!!!!