1. You may be wondering WTF is happening at the New York Times.
Let me explain in plain English.
2. Google and Facebook are destroying the journalism industry. The legacy publications that have survived are under pressure to appeal to the widest possible audience.
When the NYT plays "both sides," it's not about journalism. It's about the business model.
3. The NYT does some amazing journalism but, in a lot of cases, it's poorly positioned to challenge people in power. It needs ACCESS to powerful people for its reporting. And it needs to be a comfortable place for powerful corporations to advertise.
4. The NYT times is happy to suck up your anti-Trump dollars with these "truth" t-shirts. But, as any Times reporter will tell you, they do not oppose Trump. It's a scam perpetrated by their marketing department.
5. Unfortunately, journalism that is aligned with power, rather than opposed to it, is becoming the norm. Local independent outlets are being bought up by huge corporations. Coverage is being neutered and homogenized.
6. If you are looking for an alternative model that is focused on taking on power, check out my newsletter, Popular Information. Our scoops come from primary source documents and ordinary people.
1. Yesterday, the NYT dropped a bombshell: Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been aggressively lobbying Trump not to end the fighting and pushing him to launch a ground operation.
Why would Trump listen?
Follow the money.
2. Oddly, the NYT does not mention that earlier this year the Saudi government financed a $7 billion development with the Trump Organization.
These licensing deals are essentially all profit for Trump. It's putting money right in his pocket.
3. The NYT story also does not mention that Trump’s chief negotiator, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, is being paid tens of millions annually by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is controlled by MBS.
And Kushner is actively soliciting MBS for billions more right now.
1. HealthEquity, the nation's largest administrator of health savings accounts, just donated $1 MILLION to Trump's Super PAC.
Previsouly, the company had never donated more than 5K to any political committee
WTF is going on?
🧵
2. Today, Americans are facing dramatically increased health care costs, with millions losing coverage and 1 in 3 cutting daily living expenses to cover medical bills.
For the HSA ndustry, however, these are boom times
3. In a triumphant March 17 earnings call, HealthEquity, the nation’s largest administrator of HSAs, reported “accelerating earnings power… significant margin expansion, and record HSA sales.”
Founder Stephen Neeleman attributed the success to Trump policy, including the "Big Beautiful Bill"
1. A few months before it started a war in Iran, the Trump administration decommissioned the last of its four mine countermeasure ships. These ships were “capable of finding, classifying and destroying moored and bottom mines.”
Now the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
2. The anti-mine vessels were to be replaced with three more advanced ships. But those ships have been plagued with technical problems. And two of the three ships were just spotted in Malaysia.
3. Had the Trump administration been competently preparing for Iran to try to close the Strait of Hormuz, it would not have begun operations without an effective anti-mine fleet in the region.
3. Kushner is seeking billions in additional funding from the Saudi government as he serves as one of Trump’s top negotiators with Iran. Notably, “Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] made multiple private phone calls to Trump” in February, advocating a U.S. attack"