🚨 A truly stunning thing happened yesterday.

Timing so perfect that I wouldn’t dare put it in one of my novels, because no one would believe it.

1/ In 2018, a dinner took place among Ohio’s newly elected Governor, his Lt. Gov Husted, and two executives of the utility First Energy.

That dinner was the real-life “room where it happened,” the central event of a massive scandal that blew up into the largest bribery…

2/

🚨 🚨

The Long Demise of the Old Ohio GOP

A 🧵

If you’d called a meeting in January 2019—gathering Ohio Gov. DeWine, Ohio Lt. Governor Husted, GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken, Attorney General Yost,

1/ Secretary of State Frank LaRose, State Senator Matt Dolan and other officeholders—and told them that:

1) in just a few years, the next Senator and later Vice President from Ohio would be the young author who’d recently moved back from

2/

BREAKING 🚨

WHITEBOARD: LG Husted Will Be Ohio’s next Senator

A 🧵 on just how shady this guy is

OH Gov DeWine will name his LG, Jon Husted, to be OH’s next Senator

In any normal world, this would be a stunning choice

But this is Ohio, where corruption is normalized…

1/ …so even though this appointment is being made amidst an investigation for the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history—and Husted was deeply involved at key moments of the scandal—it will hardly raise eyebrows

Which says so much about how broken OH politics are

The basics:

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🚨 🥚 🚨 🥚

NEW: Will Trump Reduce the Price of Eggs?

So….Trump focused intensely on grocery prices in the recent campaign.

Throughout, Trump promised to bring down the price of eggs and other grocery items.

As the Washington Post reported:

1/ “In August at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump stood near a table of produce such as milk, eggs, cereal and coffee and attributed the price hikes to Harris.”

2/

🚨 🚨

Last week, newly sworn-in Ohio Speaker Huffman declared that the state can’t afford to fully and constitutionally fund Ohio public schools.

Well, here’s a datapoint every Ohioan needs to know:

1/ The amount of money diverted to pay for the new universal private school vouchers (which largely fund the tuition of students who were already attending private school and could afford that private school) last year…

2/

🚨

NEW: Endless Attacks on Education

A 🧵

You wouldn’t know it, but all of the four following things are true:

1. Ohio was one of the pioneers in the public school movement in the early 1800s, which anchored much of the state’s success and growth that followed;

1/ 2. Ohio was ranked fifth in the nation in the quality of its schools as recently as 2010 (ranked by Education Week);

3. Ohio’s Constitution authorizes the state to support a single system of common schools;

2/

Amazing how quiet Ramaswamy has gone since his disastrous tweets from a few weeks back.

But the right-wing war he ignited continues.

1/ The MAGA right and the tech bros hate each other.

Here’s Bannon’s latest.

2/

🚨 🚨

Vance’s Likely Replacement in Ohio, and What It Says About Ohio if He’s Appointed

A 🧵

Among its many qualities, who knew that the city of Miami was an overwhelming leader in the occurrence of Medicare fraud?

1/ Not me, until I read @Gladwell ‘s
latest book (“Revenge of the Tipping Point”).

But it turns out, South Florida is an absolute outlier when it comes to runaway Medicare fraud.

2/

🚨 🚨

No Ignoring Trump’s International Antics

A 🧵

Some are suggesting that we simply ignore Trump’s obsessive and wild antics regarding other nations (and allies), because they are a distraction from his “real agenda.”

1/ But as bad as that domestic agenda is (trust me, I know—I wrote an entire book about it), we dare not ignore his disturbing international machinations.

In the broader context of current tensions in the world,

2/

🚨 🚨

Ohio’s Huge Opportunity

A 🧵 I hope you’ll read and RT

This will sound odd at a time that feels—and is—challenging (yesterday was especially bizarre), but some very good news also happened late in the day.

In Ohio, of all places.

1/ Those from Ohio will know the name.

Those beyond Ohio may or may not—but I predict you will come to hear it in the next few years:

Dr. Amy Acton. @amyactonoh

Outside of celebrities and athletes…

2/

🚨

Along with @jenmercieca and @TheRickWilson , I was asked by @chaunceydevega at @Salon about my thoughts going into the New Year.

Here’s what I said:

“I enter the New Year knowing that Trump and his allies’ promises pose many risks to our nation…

1/ …the democracy we’ve known, our communities and the lives of countless Americans. So, clear-eyed about these risks, of course, I worry.

At the same time, with weeks passed since the election, the word that best describes my current mood is “resolute."

Why?

2/

🚨 🚨

January 6 and the Wanna-Be King’s Speech

Today is the final January 6 we will have before Trump’s return to the White House, where he will use presidential power to erase his and others’ crimes against America from our collective memory and history books.

1/ Of course, they’ve been trying to whitewash it all ever since. And it’s worked to some degree.

But once Trump re-assumes the Presidency, he and his minions will use their official powers and legal processes to go much further.

2/

Oligarchs and Education

A 🧵

In response to the HB-1 visa debate, unlike Vivek Ramaswamy, my first thought didn’t turn to “Friends” or sleepovers.

No, my mind went to a different place:

1/ And that is: some of the very oligarchs decrying that our nation does not generate enough home-grown talent to fill high tech jobs are also the ones who have been destroying our system of public education for decades.

2/

Service, Personified

When he won the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2002, Jimmy Carter shared lessons he learned from a teacher back in Georgia:

“I thought often during my years in the White House of an admonition that we received in our small school in Plains, Georgia…

1/ from a beloved teacher, Miss Julia Coleman. She often said: ‘We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.’

When I was a young boy, this same teacher also introduced me to Leo Tolstoy’s novel, “War and Peace.”

2/

🚨

MAGA Games, Day 2

A 🧵

This was supposed to be the week of Squid Game 2, and Beast Games (if you have kids, you know).

But who knew that an unscheduled breakout of MAGA Games would rival them?

Day 1 was the unexpected explosion.

Day 2…

1/ the shrapnel still reverberated around the right-wing universe.

Vivek Steps Back

First, Vivek Ramaaswamy, who started it all, pulled back and attempted to move on—although others didn’t want to let him.

But on his way back to “work,” he couldn’t help…

2/

🚨 🥊 MAGA Infighting 🥊

A 🧵

Day 26 — December 26, 2024

The Christmas spirit faded quickly in MAGA-world, as the following day was marked by an explosion of infighting among its factions and biggest names.

1/ A week of of social media debate about tech companies hiring large numbers of employees from other nations, via HB-1 visas, exploded when DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy attempted to explain the trend. American culture is broken, he tweeted, marked

2/

🚨

Day 22 — December 22, 2024

Still a private citizen, Trump staked claims on the territory of two sovereign nations. After the President of Panama rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that the US should reclaim the Panama Canal from Panama, Trump replied: “we’ll see about that!”

1/
Early this morning, Trump staked another claim—this time declaring that the United States should seize Greenland from Denmark:

2/

🚨 🚨

NEW WHITEBOARD

Lessons from the Musk/Trump Shutdown Chaos

A 🧵

While it’s unclear what will happen in the coming days, Musk’s chaos machine has clarified a number of realities even before the Trump term begins:

WATCH, RT and

1/ 1) with his billions, willingness to invest it in primaries, and huge digital/disinformation megaphone via Twitter/X, Musk has more power/sway than Trump and is not afraid to show that to the world (past fat cats hid this fact better);

2/

🚨

Re what happened yesterday re Cheney….remember what Trump demanded of Zelensky in that phone call—an announcement of an investigation.

That’s the Putin tactic.

And for Trump, the big win. Does most of the damage whatever the law is, and whatever the ultimate result…

1/ I explained this in “2025”:

“Remember, the president’s top priority is publicly announced investigations. Right-wing TV repeating the words ‘treason’ and ‘abuse of power’ in every segment. That’s the victory. Everything that follows is the gravy.

2/

🚨 🚨 Happening So Fast

In my book “2025,” as well as our podcast “Trump’s Project 2025,” I captured what would happen to media in the event of a Trump victory.

The entire book is an attempt by a Magazine to cover the Trump agenda. But their coverage is censored over time:

1/ “The pressure came immediately after January. The day after the first story.

We were fake news, the new administration warned our publisher.

Too one-sided.

The criticism grew louder after February—the IVF story. Show both sides, they demanded.

2/

🚨

Day 13 — December 13, 2024

Arguably the most successful part of Trump’s first term was Operation Warp Speed—the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines that Trump happily took great credit for late in his fist term.

1/ More broadly, humans did few things more effectively over the past century than develop and disseminate vaccines for a wide variety of ailments and diseases:

2/