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Jul 3 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. The FCC has suspended a rule, schedule to go in effect this year, that would have banned prisons from price gouging on phone calls.
Right now, at some jails, a 15-minute phone call can cost over $11.
The decision benefits some of Trump's top donors.
2. The rule scrapped by Trump's FCC would do two things.
First, it would cap the rates jails and prisons could charge for phone calls.
Second, it would ban kickbacks from telecom companies to prisons.
1. On March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush began the bombing campaign in Iraq, justifying the attack with manipulated and bogus intelligence.
Twenty-two years later, history is repeating itself.
Let's review the facts.
2. The clear judgment of U.S. intelligence is that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Khamenei has not authorized a nuclear weapons program
DNI Tulsi Gabbard said this explicitly and publicly in March
1. On March 20, 2002, President George W. Bush began the bombing campaign in Iraq, justifying the attack with manipulated and bogus intelligence.
Twenty-three years later, history is repeating itself.
Let's review the facts.
2. The clear judgment of U.S. intelligence is that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Khamenei has not authorized a nuclear weapons program
DNI Tulsi Gabbard said this explicitly and publicly in March
1. @amazon, @Verizon, and other major corporations have ended or reduced their support for Juneteenth celebrations this year, forcing events in major cities to be significantly scaled back, a Popular Information investigation reveals.
2. In Denver, the annual Juneteenth Music Festival was cut from two days to one day due to "a sharp decline in corporate sponsorships."
An archived version of the festival website reveals that @Verizon, a "Silver" sponsor of the 2024 event, was not listed as a sponsor this year.
1. In 2024, Trump said he would deport every undocumented immigrant in the country. "I think you have to do it," Trump said. "They came in illegally."
He said "illegals" were "poisoning the blood of our country."
Then, for a few days, he abruptly reversed course.
Why? Let's follow the money
2. In a Truth Social post last week, Trump said his "very aggressive policy on immigration" was taking "very good, long time workers" away from the agricultural and hospitality industries. These workers, Trump said, are "almost impossible to replace." Therefore, "Changes are coming!
1. Starlink is turbocharging the operations of a lethal jihadist group operating in West Africa, JNIM
Elon Musk has the capability to limit or prevent the use of Starlink by groups like JNIM but has chosen not to, instead prioritizing growth
2. Before Starlink, JNIM often relied on couriers and paper maps.
Now, JNIM is "using real-time maps, encrypted messaging platforms, and even live streams to plan and secure attacks with incredible coordination," Dr. Obasesam Okoi told Musk Watch.
1. In an extraordinary public flogging, the Florida State Board of Education repeatedly threatened a school superintendent with criminal prosecution unless he removed a Judy Blume book from all library shelves.
One member called the district librarians "child abusers."
2. The State Board summarily declared that Judy Blume's Forever and 54 other works of literature were "pornography," even though none of the books met the legal definition of pornographic material.
Many of the targeted books are award-winning literature that have been read by students for years.
1. A United States Congressman has accepted a job with a private firm.
He won't disclose the name of the firm.
But, despite all this, HE WILL REMAIN IN CONGRESS INDEFINITELY
It is an unprecedented situation that creates a severe conflict of interest
Follow along for details
2. "It is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from Congress," Rep. Mark Green said in a press release. "Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up."
But he will STAY IN CONGRESS until he gets to vote for the GOP reconciliation bill
1. When Trump ran for office, he pledged to "restore free speech."
Then, as president, he deployed the military against people protesting his immigration policies.
This wasn't an isolated incident
It is part of an attack on freedom of speech, targeting anyone who does not share Trump’s ideology
2. The Department of Justice announced it will target journalists who "undermine" Trump's agenda
The FCC has targeted media companies over content Trump doesn’t like
The State Department revoked visas of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestine protests
1. Trump has publicly and privately fantasized about deploying the military on US soil against protesters for years.
In LA, with little justification, he has made those dreams a reality, violating longstanding democratic norms.
He has manufactured a crisis.
Let's review the history.
🧵 2. Trump strongly advocated for using the military to quell racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. He publicly encouraged governors to deploy the National Guard to "dominate" the streets.
1. Trump and his Republican allies say their budget cuts are targeted at waste, fraud, and abuse
But Trump's new 1,223-page budget proposal, quietly released on Friday afternoon, reveals the real target:
Poor children
2. The Trump administration is reducing funding that helps pregnant women, children, and breastfeeding mothers who are nutritionally at risk afford fruits and vegetables.
1. @Verizon's CEO @hansvestberg said the company was "fiercely committed to diversity and inclusion across all spectrums because it makes us and the world better."
THAT WAS A LIE.
The company abruptly ended all its DEI efforts last week in exchange for the Trump administration approving a merger. 2. In a letter to FCC chair Brendan Carr, Verizon said it was "ending its DEI-related policies…effective immediately."
The company said it would eliminate all positions related to DEI, scrub DEI from its website, and end "workplace diversity goals"
1. In 2018, many CEOs boycotted Saudi Arabia's investment conference in protest of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Since then, US intel concluded the murder was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince MBS
Yesterday, many of those SAME CEOs traveled to Saudi Arabia to lunch with Trump and MBS
Let's name names
🧵
2. In 2018, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said: "I'm very troubled by the reports... about Jamal Khashoggi...unless a substantially different set of facts emerges, I won't be attending"
1. We've been told there's a federal budget crisis that necessitates gutting the social safety net and slashing funding for medical research and national parks
Meanwhile, Trump's budget includes a record $1 TRILLION in military spending
Who benefits?
Military contractors like @elonmusk
Let's dig in
2. Trump is proposing a $1.01 trillion military budget — $119 billion more than this year — alongside a $259 billion cut to non-military spending.
1. Trump says imposing tariffs on nearly every nation on earth is essential to force companies to make investments in the US instead of abroad
But since January, the Trump Organization has announced new multi-billion $ development deals in the UAE, Qatar, India, and Vietnam
And NONE in the US
2. In Qatar, the Trump Organization is partnering directly with the government. This violates Trump's own, extremely weak, ethics agreement he released before returning to the White House.
1. Next school year, thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to learn about Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud.
The lesson will not be part of a course on conspiracy theories, but an official component of the new social studies curriculum.2. The new curriculum requires students to "analyze contemporary turning points of 21st-century American society. One task: "Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information."