1. I'm going to go through a few issues with the NY Post article on Biden, which I won't link to, but you will probably see on Twitter today.
Follow along if interested.
2. First the information comes from a laptop that was allegedly "dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware" and never picked up.
The "shop owner," who is not identified, "couldn’t positively identify the customer as Hunter Biden"
3. The "shop owner" thinks it was Hunter Biden because of a Beau Biden sticker on the laptop.
This makes no sense. You drop off an expensive Mac laptop at a repair shop and don't leave your name or contact information?
4. But then, after claiming the shop owner couldn't identify the customer, the piece includes a receipt that was issued to "Hunter Biden" and includes an email and phone #
So why would the shop owner produce a receipt for Hunter Biden if he didn't know the ID of the customer?
5. The piece claims the shop owner then alerted the FBI to the existence of the laptop and it was later subpoenaed by a grand jury.
But the grand jury subpoena shown does not connect the laptop to Hunter Biden.
6. Then things get very weird. The shop owner says, before turning over the computer to the feds, they made a copy of the contents of the computer and gave them to Rudy Giuliani's lawyer
Mmmmhmmmm
7. The New York Post allegedly learned about this copy of the laptop through Steven Bannon.
Both Giuliani and Bannon are regular sources of disinformation
8. But this is the important point. Pretending, for a moment, that everything in the story is true (very doubtful) it is totally inconsequential.
Supposedly one "email" recovered on the laptop "proves" that Hunter once introduced a Bursima exec to his father.
9. This is a scandal? There is no word on the length of the meeting or what was discussed.
The New York Post says its significant because Biden then called for the ouster of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Bursima.
FALSE
The prosecutor was not investigating Bursima
10. The prosecutor was corrupt, which is why the entire international community was calling for his ouster.
Replacing the corrupt prosecutor brought more scrutiny on Bursima, not less
11. Allegedly, the laptop Hunter "forgot" to pick up also contains a 12 minute video of him smoking crack and having sex with an unidentified woman.
12. Nevertheless, this incredibly sketchy, totally unverified, and ultimately irrelevant story is being promoted by mainstream journalists who don't work for the New York Post.
Don't be fooled by that.
13. I should clarify that, assuming the email is legit, it doesn't establish that a meeting took place. Just that Hunter offered an "opportunity" to meet his father.
14. As of 9:50AM, the New York Post piece has been shared more than 26,000 times on Facebook
15. If you liked this thread, you'll really like my newsletter
"[W]e have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place"
17. 1:30PM UPDATE: This article and three other related NY Post pieces have now been shared 75K times on Facebook (via @crowdtangle)
@crowdtangle 18. UPDATE: The Daily Beast interviewed the owner of the computer repair shop who gave the info to Rudy Giuliani and the entire story is collapsing on itself
1. The nation's largest for-profit hospital chain is putting pregnant women at risk by failing to provide doctors with clear guidance about how to handle medical emergencies in states with abortion bans
Women in desperate need of treatment are being turned away
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2. The same for-profit hospital chain @HCAhealthcare is sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to the legislators behind these abortion bans
We documented hundreds of thousands of contributions to 129 anti-abortion legislators across three states
3. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that it is critical that hospitals "provide guidance that permits treatment to the full extent of applicable state law and support and defend their clinicians when they provide care to patients."
1. Amdist the chaos of April 2024, there is something that has gotten relatively little attention: a historic victory for union organizing in Chattanooga, Tennessee
And it wasn't just a victory for unions
It was a stinging defeat for Charles Koch and his right-wing allies
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2. The NLRB certified that workers at a Volkswagen auto plant in Chattanooga voted to join the @UAW. The union secured a commanding 73% of the vote.
Koch and others have spent more than a decade trying to prevent this from happening
3. In 2014, a constellation of right-wing groups launched an aggressive campaign to defeat an earlier unionization effort at the VW plant in Chattanooga. They spent months distributing "materials...detailing the negative economic consequences of UAW representation."
1. An inflection point in the situation at Columbia was the president's decision to call in the NYPD and arrest over 100 students who were protesting Israel's operations in Gaza on the south lawn.
To understand the gravity of this decision, some historical context
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2. In the early morning hours of April 30, 1968, then-Columbia University President Grayson Kirk summoned the NYPD to arrest hundreds of student protestors. About 1,000 police officers arrived on campus and, wielding nightsticks, violently arrested about 700 students. Almost 150 protesters ended up in the hospital with lacerations, broken bones, and other injuries.
3. The students were protesting Columbia's plans to build a large gymnasium in a public park used by the Black community in Harlem. 88% of the facility would be limited to staff and students. Only 12% of the gym would be available to community residents, and they would be forced to use a separate entrance at the bottom of the facility.
1. @berniemoreno, the GOP Senate nominee in Ohio, is being bankrolled by @charliekirk11, a far-right activist who argues that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake and MLK Jr "was awful"
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2. Moreno benefited from an early endorsement from Kirk's org, @TPAction_.
Moreno wrote that he was "honored to be endorsed by Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Action" and endorsed the work of the org.
"Few have done more to fight back against the radical left than they have. and I look forward to working with them to defend for our America First conservative values in the US Senate"
@TPAction_ 3. @charliekirk11 hired Blake Neff, the producer who was forced to resign from Tucker Carlson's show for posting racist screeds on message boards.
In recent months Kirk has collaborated with Neff to trash the work of MLK Jr and anti-segregation laws
1. One of the most important Senate campaigns this year is in Ohio.
The GOP nominee, @berniemoreno, has made being "tough on China" a centerpiece of his campaign
And, on the trail, he tells a couple of stories to bolster this claim
Just one problem: the stories are lies
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2. In 2011, Moreno was appointed to the board of Cleveland State University, eventually becoming chair in 2016.
Moreno claims that, as chair, he got rid of the school's Confucius Institute, an institution partially funded by the Chinese government that offered language and cultural programming
3. There was bipartisan concern that Confucius Institutes were being used to promote Chinese government propaganda
Burt Moreno had nothing to do with Cleveland State axing its Confucius Institute.
He left the board in 2018, and the Institute wasn't closed until 2021.