THREAD: BREAKING: JD Vance says he would consider privatizing Veterans health care. This is something I know a little bit about. 1/ I worked for the Veterans Health Administration for over a decade, and that entire time, republicans have been trying to privatize our healthcare. Spurred by private health providers, big donors, and lobbyist's money - the want to move Veteran care to the private sector. 2/

Tim Pool is claiming that $100K per podcast episode is the normal market value of a show that gets 100K-200K views. I own a podcast network with shows that outperform his, and that’s absolutely not true. 1/

https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1832193194726949335

Market average is about $9 CPM (per thousand spins) per brand. Even with a 100% fill rate (unheard of) with 6 brands (also unheard of), that’s about $7,200 per episode for 100K views. $14,400 for 200K. Reality is closer to half. And that’s gross (before the network, ad agency, and talent agents take their cut). $100K per episode is market value for a show that gets MILLIONS of downloads. 2/

THREAD: GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: The republicans are threatening to shut down the government by attaching the SAVE Act to the government funding CR.

The SAVE Act penalizes CITIZENS by forcing them to prove their citizenship in order to vote - when it's already illegal for non-citizens to vote. 1/ This is a voter suppression tactic designed to stop CITIZENS from voting - particularly marginalized communities. The goal is to wear people down with paperwork to get them to give up on voting, because republicans never pass bills that make it EASIER for citizens to vote. 2/

THREAD: SPACE BEANS: This is what I bet happened with the trump sham ceremony at Arlington. This is speculation based on past behavior (with some actual events peppered in.)

1. Trump got some internal polling numbers (I still don't get why the public gets different polling than the candidates, but I digress) - so the Trump campaign got some unfavorable polling numbers that show Harris is the candidate of freedom and patriotism (speculation) 1/ 2. So the Trump campaign decides they need to hurt Harris with Veterans and the Military. They cook up an idea to create a wreath-laying ceremony on the anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal. So they call up Arlington, who abruptly tells them they are forbidden by law to create campaign ads at Arlington. (It's been confirmed that Arlington told Trump ahead of time that he couldn't film there.) 2/

OMG. 1/

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1829128926121079164

Okay, I'm going to do my best to ignore the Superman shirt thing for a second and answer the @AlanDersh question about how DoJ is going to prove trump knew he lost the election. 2/

THREAD: I’ve had MSNBC on for ten minutes and here’s what I’ve heard.

Gabe Gutierrez commenting on the Harris Walz rallies says something to the effect of “well she is being criticized for not doing press conferences or interviews.”

He said this with a straight face, never mentioning Trump failing to do any interviews or press conferences and just one rally.

And no, the one hour “press conference” with hand-picked journalists asking spoon-fed questions off mic from Mar a Lago does not a “press conference” make. Gabe failed to mention Trump lied 162 times in that hour, and left out all the times this week that Harris and Walz DID take questions from reporters. 1/ Next, they criticize Kamala for not having any policy out yet. LOL WHAT?

Then they immediately play a clip OF SOME POLICY shared by Harris at a rally THIS WEEK saying we need comprehensive immigration reform including increasing security and a path to citizenship.

Then MSNBC comes back and asks “IS IT ENOUGH OR DOES SHE NEED TO DEFINE IT MORE”

Omg fuck OFF. We can’t get trump to answer how he plans to deport 11M people while putting babies in tender age facilities and you’re gonna sit here and WONDER what Harris’s policy is? SHE’S BEEN VP FOR OVER THREE YEARS. START THERE.

or maybe wait another two weeks for trump’s health care plan. 2/

NEW: THREAD: Just noticed that the Attorneys General and Secretaries of State of Arizona and Michigan have had their blue check marks removed. What’s going on? 1/





So I checked other states where fraudulent electors have been indicted. Wisconsin AG lost his verification badge. 2/

I’d like to walk through the Vox article shared here. 1/

https://twitter.com/antitoxicpeople/status/1810751140281360585

First, I’d like to point out that Biden made 18 appearances in this time period. Not three. And Biden has undergone a neurological exam, and has done so every year since he’s been president. So this is BS. 2/

Hoo boy. Special counsel just provided Judge Cannon with all the examples of how dangerous Trump’s rhetoric is in support of his motion to modify the bail conditions. Check this out: 1/ 2/

A SHORT THREAD.

This article from the Times says Trump has more money that Biden. I don’t see a source here, but it must be the FEC, right? I mean, this is the @nytimes. They would just print stuff willy nilly, would they? 1/ Hmm. Interesting. I’m listening. What’s your source, though? Must be the FEC right? 2/

THREAD: SCOTUS RAHIMI: TW/CW: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: I’m relieved SCOTUS ruled 8 - 1 that a domestic abuser under a restraining order cannot own a firearm, but I’m equally appalled at Thomas’ repugnant dissent. Here’s why. 1/ Thomas writes that the law in question “is not triggered by a criminal conviction or a person’s criminal history, therefore it strips an individual of HIS (interesting use of pronoun there) ability to possess firearms and ammunition without due process.” With zero due respect Clarence, to hell with you and your selective due process. 2/

NEVADA! A quick 🧵

@RosenForNevada needs your help to defeat MAGA Sam Brown and codify Roe! Brown thinks Trump did a great job 🤯 Keep Brown OUT and send Jacky Rosen back to the Senate. 1/
MAGA Sam Brown wants to BAN ABORTION and has birth control in his sights. He wants to gut Social Security and repeal Obamacare, and would love nothing more to extend tax breaks to his wealthy friends. 2/

Alright. I’m watching Jaws for the first time. I’m 50 years old. I don’t have a good excuse for not having seen it yet.

So far, it seems as though business guys don’t want the main guy to put signs up in response to a shark attack because they don’t wanna lose money. Typical. 1/ Oh! There’s the old “that’s some bad hat, Harry” line. OOOH THE MUSIC IS STARTING… blood in the water!! 2/

THREAD: For Ken Dilanian at @MSNBC, who says Garland didn't do anything for 18 months. Can someone get this to him because he blocked me in 2019 when I called him out for getting the Mueller findings wrong. First, here's a non-exhaustive list of what Garland did before he appointed Jack Smith. 1/ Next, here’s recent reporting from the New York Times showing Garland started investigating Trump as soon as he got to the DoJ in March, 2021. 2/

THREAD: THE JURY: I’m really optimistic about the election interference case based on the notes from the jury today. First, the four pieces of testimony they asked for were specifically mentioned by the prosecution in closing arguments. 1/ Two of the four excerpts of testimony are from Pecker and Cohen about the meeting where they devised the conspiracy to alter the outcome of the election. Pecker corroborates Cohen on that agreement. 2/

BREAKING: Cannon has DENIED Jack Smith’s motion to modify Trump’s bail conditions (for saying the FBI and Biden wanted to assassinate him. She denied WITHOUT prejudice because Smith failed to meet and confer with Trump on the motion. 1/ Cannon says Smith’s failure to meet and confer “lacks professional courtesy” - even though Smith did confer and Trump’s lawyers asked for a couple more days. Will DoJ go to the 11th, or try again? I think they’ll try again first. END/

THREAD: A couple of observations on the eve of closing arguments in the first ever criminal trial of a former president, and on the night trump’s lawyers tried to blame the DoJ for their own misrepresentations in a filing in the first ever espionage/obstruction case against a former president. 1/ First, on the summations: to his own detriment, Donald Trump will underestimate the intelligence of the jury. He’s going to assume they’re too stupid to know who weisselberg is, where he is, and why he’s there. 2/

THREAD: First, people were mad that Trump wasn’t being investigated. When we learned he was being investigated, people became angry that he wasn’t being indicted. 1/ When he got indicted, people were angry that he wasn’t on trial. Now that he’s in trial, people are angry that he’s not been convicted yet. 2/

THREAD: Here's what the Mueller Report has to say about Cohen: "After the FBI searched Cohen’s home and office in April 2018, the President publicly asserted that Cohen would not “flip,” contacted him directly to tell him to “stay strong,” and privately passed messages of support to him." 1/ "Cohen also discussed pardons with the President’s personal counsel and believed that if he stayed on message he would be taken care of. But after Cohen began cooperating with the government in the summer of 2018, the President publicly criticized him, called him a “rat,” and suggested that his family members had committed crimes." 2/

THREAD: all in all a great summary here, but I take issue with some of the language. First, none of these electors are being treated as “dangerous criminals”. None are in pretrial detention. Several have been given leeway on violating bail conditions. And none are charged with violent crimes. 1/ The reason some have been charged and others haven’t is because some broke the law and others didn’t. It’s not because prosecutors have special feelings about whether they’re “dupes” or “dangerous criminals”. I don’t see any “dupes” being charged in any state. In PA and NM, the electors said “we will not sign something that says we are the official electors. Put some contingency langue in here” and in AZ and MI they said “fuck yeah we’re the real electors even tho we know we aren’t. Keep this quiet.” The rest took plea deals. None of that is weird or inconsistent. 2/

BREAKING: Merrick Garland opened an investigation into Trump as soon as he got to the DoJ in March 2021.

Actually, this news is over a month old. But I bet you haven't heard about it much in the media. 1/ According to multiple sources familiar with multiple conversations in the first months of Garland's tenure, "Garland gathered his closest aides to discuss a topic too sensitive to broach in bigger groups: the possibility that evidence from the far-ranging Jan. 6 investigation could quickly lead to former President Donald J. Trump and his inner circle." 2/