Journalist and writer. Reported on Trump, trucks, energy, CRE.
Boston U., Indiana U.
Feb 10, 2023 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
🧵Facebook and @Meta's X-rated ads. Can we talk about the increasing number of X-rated ads that are popping up on Facebook's videos? It seems against community standards, given they have been on a tear of late threatening people for posting Hunter Biden jokes. -1-
Numerous @Twitter users are reporting they were threatened with 28-day bans on advertising and other behavior for posting a pic/meme of Hunter Biden and the Chinese spy balloon. Hunter Biden was in the pic, but clothed. -2-
Dec 22, 2022 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
🧵We are now in a weird situation where the @CIA and other U.S. agencies are working within social media companies such as @Meta and @Twitter (and @Google?) to undermine the reporting of corruption, but only within the Biden admin and the Democratic Party. (1)
Reporting on Hunter Biden's possible influence peddling and his contracts with the Chinese and Burisma should be a top priority of newspapers and the intel community. The public should know who is doing deals with the CCP. But ... (2)
Dec 22, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I never tire of hearing Jackie Robinson stories. He is beloved in Daytona Beach. The stadium is named after him.
Robinson stayed in Daytona Beach as a player for the Montreal Royals. There, he met Mary McLeod Bethune, who the HBCU Bethune-Cookman University is named for, per Wikipedia. (2)
Dec 21, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
🧵I hope you teach your students how true accountability is drying up. A good example is how McClatchy DC sent two reporters down the Trump-Russia rabbit hole in 2017, and when Mueller answered a lot of the intrigue in 2019, they declined to retract claims made. (1)
🧵It appears @ShellenbergerMD and #TwitterFiles stumbled across gold mine of journalistic collusion between FBI and tech reporters. The @AspenInstitute did "dry run" earlier in 2020 about Hunter Biden. Journos @NoahShachtman and @vermontgmg were mentioned in AI emails. (1)
It's unclear who was meeting of Aspen Institute's dry run earlier in 2020. But Garrett Graff CC'ed all these people, including a Times reporter; the editor in chief of Rolling Stone; and the head of Facebook's anti-influence operations. (2)
Dec 18, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
🧵The failing magazine @FastCompany really went to the effort of dissing the logo of Twitter Blue a few days ago. It then wondered why @elonmusk would do this. One problem: Twitter Blue unveiled the logo in November 2021. (1)
This is one of the biggest journalism failures I have seen of late. A failure in pitch and fact-checking but also something I mentioned in tonight's Space with @stillgray and @MarioNawfal: Newsrooms drop standards and rush copy when the target is right of center. (2)
Dec 18, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
🧵Legal immigration has plummeted since 2016. Why? One reason could be that the Donald Trump admin warned Congress (and the media) that unless reform compromise on legal and illegal was reached, they would slow-walk executive approvals. @StephenM told press this in mid-2017.
Alec Stapp of @IFP tweeted out this graphic, and Elon Musk agreed with his premise. Legal arrivals of permanent residents is dropping. That could be bad. (2)
Dec 5, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
🧵Harmeet Dhillon is thinking of running for RNC chair in surprise news. Dhillon -- @pnjaban -- is perhaps the leading national Republican attorney right now, someone who focuses on free speech and election issues. (1)
Politico is one of the outlets that broke the story. More here:
🧵There can be only one Trump: One pitch I regret not writing and trying to get printed over the last five years was that President Donald Trump is a one-time phenomenon. Not his ideas, I want to stress. But his candidacy and methods. Others who try to emulate him will fail. (1)
First, there is his money. He has a lot, and he knows a lot of rich and richer people. He is famously stingy, so he reveled in getting others' money to help him, which he could do. And he was famous, so he got a lot of grassroots money. (2)
Dec 3, 2022 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
🧵A couple journalism thoughts on the @mtaibbi tweets that @elonmusk allowed via access:
1. This *is* journalism. If it wasn't, you'd know. Some wasn't news to me but much of it was. The internal emails are all new to us. The @RoKhanna stuff shows Dems had concerns (!) ... (1)
Off issue: @RoKhanna is a very principled man. He assured @Twitter that Sullivan v. NYT (1964) covered them from lawsuits (it does), and that Pentagon Papers case (1971) made @nypost story legitimate (it does). (2)
Dec 2, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I wish @JohnLeguizamo would shut up. For crying out loud, his Twitter background pic shows him playing two women and a Mario brother.
Yes, certain roles should not be played by actors unsuited or inappropriate for the role: John Wayne as Genghis Khan? No. But -- clearly, Hollywood has some leeway. (2)
Nov 29, 2022 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
🧵With the successful re-election of Rep. Larry Bucshon (R) in #IN08, he has become the first congressman in Indiana's 8th Congressional District to win a 7th consecutive term -- since 1932. (1)
"The Bloody 8th" used to be a swing district. It gets mentioned a lot by congressional historians. The Evansville-based district, which stretches to Terre Haute, was called the Bloody 8th because of its swing status, and its fierce battles. #IN08#Midterms2022 (2)
Nov 27, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🧵Consumer confidence is dropping. But if you are wondering why the Democrats did better than expected, it's because consumer confidence had not dropped off a cliff. In October, it was higher than 102.5.
1985 was 100, by comparison. (1)
conference-board.org/topics/consume…
The Trump years, until COVID-19, regularly clocked in at above 120 and flirted with a Conference Board score of 140. COVID-19 saw a deep drop to just above a measurement of 80. (2)
Nov 27, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
After conducting numerous investigations into Trump, including the one-sided kangaroo court #Jan6 Committee, the Democrats and media are demanding House Republicans and @GOPLeader not investigate Joe Biden. Now this is what @brithume calls chutzpah. (1)🧵
How many times did you hear from 2016 to 2020 that the House and Senate needed Trump's taxes, etc.? The Democrats were so proud of their efforts to investigate President Trump they still have a congressional page devoted to it:
🧵The Security State types are out in force trying to convince us that @elonmusk's ownership of Twitter is a threat to national security, because some Russians, somewhere, may log on. This is a silly argument. (1)
First, the "fire in a crowded theater" is not the case law of the federal judiciary. The metaphor was used to justify a 1919 ban on criticizing the draft, which SCOTUS sadly upheld -- for a time.
The solution is to kick the person out, not involve the feds. (2)
Nov 15, 2022 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
THREAD. Ron Klain @WHCOS tells some remarkable lies. On @Lawrence (a gullible guy) Monday night, Klain said "no president ... since John F. Kennedy ... (has held on to) Senate seats and potentially even (went) up one Senate seat." This is untrue; @JonKarl also said this. (1)
The best MIDTERM performance on the Senate side by a party holding the White House since 1960 was:
1) 1962. Kennedy. Dems pick up 4 seats despite midterm. 2) 2002. Bush. Despite recession, GOP picks up 2 seats and control of Senate.
🧵If @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy and House @GOP win 218 seats soon, it will be a remarkable comeback for him. In 2015, he was in line for the speakership when John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to retire immediately. (1)
It was early October 2015, and Boehner said he wanted to leave after taking the gavel in January 2011. The conservatives objected to McCarthy for the next few weeks right up to the closed-door meeting in the Capitol, CNN reported. (2)
Not sure who GOP consultant @TheThomasGuide is -- besides the man who just started a Ron DeSantis Super PAC -- but talking to big liberal media about how stupid Republicans are is not the DeSantis way.
P.S. FL media less popular than COVID in FL GOP.
cc: @KurtSchlichter
In October, John Thomas dismissed the DeSantis use of state funds to move illegal migrants to Martha's Vineyard as "self-interest." He said "Republicans win on pocketbook issues with (voters), not busing migrants across the country."
(THREAD) This one stings. Rex Early, a longtime Indiana GOP activist and donor, has died, according to the Indy Star. Early was Trump's spokesman in the 2016 Trump Indiana campaign. Early was 88. #ingov#insen#indiana (1)
indystar.com/story/news/202…
Early was a former state rep in the 1960s and a Marine vet. He became Reagan's Indiana campaign chair in the 1980s. In 1991, he became party chair and raised money to stave off the state GOP's insolvency. (2)
Nov 12, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
Rick Scott was a great #FLGov from 2011 to 2019. He rebuilt the Florida GOP and then won the #FLSen seat. But he screwed up with his national plan, trying to build a platform for himself for a national position like Majority Leader. (1)
There's no denying that if you could list five to six things that slowed the GOP momentum in 2022, @ScottforFlorida's plan to vote on Social Security and Medicare every five years was a gift to Democrats, much like Paul Ryan's thick-headed budget plans in 2011. (2)
Sep 22, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Meghan, I love you and Ben. But this is wrong-a-mundo. Let me explain. #sayfie (1)
DeSantis probably knows the Trump base better than most. And they will resent a candidate who competes with Trump in 2024 -- even in a congenial manner. So I am betting unless Trump drops out, DeSantis will not run in 2024. (2)
