Notices by JamesWNeal (jameswneal@mstdn.social)

Trump: Mount Rushmore is in such a state of disrepair. People are so unhappy about it, attendance is way down. I have a plan to fix it by remaking the carving of least popular president so it looks like me.

DOJ - SDNY "just found" over a million documents.

Latest document dump - (Wapo) An assistant U.S. attorney for SDNY wrote in 1 Feb. 2020 email released this week it was “basically impossible for us to keep track of what we’re getting, and what has been completed, w/o some kind of identification or labeling system.”
A follow-up message in the email chain later that month states that investigators received access to “well over a million documents, & we don’t have any idea what we’re looking at.”

By now you've heard the official response to this is basically, "lies, all lies," but my unofficial take is Epstein was telling a kindred pedophile that he was planning on taking his own life, may have already succeeded by the time the message got to Nassar, but first he wanted to put out there that Donald Trump was just like him - only he was managing to get away with it.

(original note and transcription attached)

California Attorney General asks the public to help identify federal agents engaging in misconduct. And yes, you can submit video. Here's the link. https://oag.ca.gov/ReportMisconduct

RE: https://mstdn.social/@JamesWNeal/115737281617390260

Smith said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents . . . and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

And as G.O.P. lawmakers debate the best way to address rising #healthcare costs, some Republicans have signed on to two separate discharge petitions — one by Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, and another by Representative Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey — that would tee up votes on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of the year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/us/politics/republicans-undercut-speaker-johnson.html

RE: https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/115684423177335238

In reality, Trump, then a New Yorker, does not appear to have ever lived in either home, let alone used them as a principal residence. Instead, the two houses, which are next to his historic Mar-a-Lago estate, were used as investment properties and rented out, according to contemporaneous news accounts and an interview with his longtime real estate agent — exactly the sort of scenario his administration has pointed to as evidence of fraud.

@josh @bmacDonald94 Social media crippled news media and we're all paying for it. Until social media gave businesses an alternative way to advertise, media had a good lock on those ad dollars, could charge what they needed to in order to pay the bills, the journalists and make a profit.

Social media also gave every Tom, Dick and Harry the opportunity to make a pretty nice living pandering to partisans.

So is media part of the problem? Sure. But note AP & others are now asking for donations.

@josh @bmacDonald94 First, let me make a distinction between the WHPC and media in general, the latter having been getting all up in Trump's business a lot of late (note he now has a web site dedicated to trying to turn even more of the country against those who are pissing him off). WHPC is there to ask the WHPS to explain things & to listen to her explain why Trump is great. Not much breaking news comes out of that room these days. 2/3

@josh @bmacDonald94 writing on the fly here . . . Not to say WHPC can't be like a dog with a bone when it wants to be, but these days they (more likely their bosses) see the risks as too great. TrumpLawsuits, TrumpVengefulExecutiveWhatever, TrumpCabinetAttackDogs, TrumpManiacalSupporters, you name it, he's put the fear of the anti-god into them and I think in some owner's suites, it's working.

This I am NOT HAPPY about.

But I can't imagine them standing up to Putin either. 3/4

@josh @bmacDonald94

The reason I don't dump on the media in general in part is because that's what Trump does and I'm not interested in helping him vanquish a foe.

Now I get it. Some people just hate on the media - and their posts get a lot of play for it. Media's not always lived up to its own ideals (neither have I), but when it's good, it's very, very good.

The problem we're facing in this country is not that media "isn't covering important stuff." It is.
4/5

@josh @bmacDonald94 It's early, no coffee, so bear with me as I explain why I don't often dump on the media and why despite that, media at the moment reminds me of the pro-Palestine protesters during the 2024 presidential campaign.

The latter was all over the Harris rallies, but not the Trump rallies. Some people are saying (forgive me) it was because they all were sure Harris would win, would listen, but Trump wouldn't.

maybe - in part.

I always thought they recognized the risk. 1/2

@josh @bmacDonald94

Personal note: I used to have to deal with reporters for a living. I know that side of the game fairly well. I know how to take advantage of lazy journalists, so I sure know they exist.

But I am the sole surviving son of a journalist (sounds like a slur. It's not in my book). So I know that side of it better than most.

We have met the enemy and we is us.

Damn, I need more coffee. -30-

@josh @bmacDonald94

I can't count the number of times somebody decided to play the "MSM won't tell you this," or "MSM isn't covering this enough," as a way to get attention & it ALWAYS WORKS."

I swear I'm the only person on the planet who, upon seeing one of those posts, does a simple searth to see how often media DID say it, DID cover it. Often the list I see is longer than this thread.

No the problem isn't the media.

It's us.

The nation as a whole isn't reading, watching, listening. 5/6

@josh @bmacDonald94 Final, Final note (I swear) I realize you weren't dumping on the media in general, just saying not everybody in the WHPC are hardly doing what you think they should be doing (I tend to agree). It's just that every damned day media we're supposed to believe are in the bag for Trump - WaPo, NYT in particular - are the ones managing to uncover shit he and the people who work for him are doing to fuck us all over and I just don't think they're getting credit for it.

@josh @bmacDonald94 Certainly. I get that not a lot of Americans ever watched a White House press briefing, let alone one from DOD (I did throughout the pandemic), but if they did today, some would be shocked at how infantile government spokespeople have become, others at how seldom the people in the room (some I don't consider #journalists) really challenge the answers they're given.

On the bright side, the "Pentagon Purge" isn't working. The journalists who walked are still getting scoops.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@GovTrack/115650336055224709

Same is true for Rep. Michael Rulli [R-OH6], and Rep. Eric Swalwell [D-CA14]. Perhaps they're not "missing," at all - just not bothering to show up for roll call votes.

Hed you won't see: Trump Administration Throws Admiral Under Boat, Hopes No One Asks who Gave Him The Order. https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-hegseth-maduro-512c66b99b2a13e9d1a3ed2699e78228

I'm not a scientist, but was too smart to try and play one on TV.

What I did was try to be a bridge between scientists and the public.

They'd say it their way. I'd say what I thought they'd said. They'd then tell me where I was wrong, eventually getting me to a point where what I'd tell the public was accurate, if not as complete, as nuanced as what they tried to convey to me in the first place.

I am not and never will be, an Elon.

#introduction

@josh @bmacDonald94 This particular strategy - use of the official White House account (and a promised "truth" newsletter looks like an attempt to skirt prohibitions aimed at preventing taxpayer money being used for campaigning. It'll be interesting to see the deets on the first "truth" newsletter. I have a feeling a lawsuit might be in the offing.