Alan Bellittera

Two decades plus in newspapers, looking for next career adventure. Formerly at Bradenton Herald and Tampa Tribune. Fan of 49ers, Lakers, Braves, Lightning, UCF

[Alan Bellittera @AlanBell35]

@DavidBearman Looks good!

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

The reporting by NBC on our depletion of weapons and by the Times on the selection of a CNO is more evidence that Hegseth—with his firing of competent general officers, politicized promotions, and a culture where truth-telling is punished—has done real damage to our military.

[Alan Bellittera @AlanBell35]

@JHendersonTampa @espn Looks to be a parody account. Not the real Jon Rothstein. And I don't see anyone else reporting that Bilas was part of the cuts.

[Jared Ryan Sears @JaredRyanSears]

We were told gas would be $2. It is $4.

We were told inflation would come down. It went up.

We were told the economy would get better. It worsened.

We were told tariffs would be paid by other countries. They were paid by you, and are now being refunded to the companies that made you pay them.

We were told DOGE would cut trillions from the budget and send us all checks. It cost more than it saved, and the debt is rising faster than before.

We were told there would be no new wars. 16 servicemembers have been killed in a new one.

We were told the war was won in March. It rages on in July.

Republicans have lied to you about everything. Their only plan for the next election is to lie to you some more.

[Alan Bellittera @AlanBell35]

@that1buckeyefan @RaysTheRoofTB It's all about liability. Books took tons of action on Mariners before season, so they will only drop the odds so far to protect that liability. Mariners are even shorter (+1000) on the site I use.

[Alan Bellittera @AlanBell35]

@TennisUpdates26 Date are incorrect on last four days of U.S. Open. Semis are Sept. 10-11 and finals are Sept. 12-13.

[Isaac Saul @Ike_Saul]

A reminder on the evolution of 2020 "stolen election" theories: First we had mail-in fraud + Dominion + "illegal law changes" (Nov–Dec 2020) then → Georgia election workers + foreign interference/Italygate (Dec 2020–Jan 2021, concurrent) then → 2,000 Mules (ballot stuffers) (2022) then → social-media-censorship revival via Twitter Files (Dec 2022) then → renewed foreign-interference claims (2024–present).

Through all this, we've had:

1. Dominion getting $787 million from Fox News for defamation

2. Rudy Giuliani admitting he lied about Georgia election workers (and the jury awarding the workers $148 million)

3. Sidney Powell admitting in court "no reasonable person would conclude" her claims of election fraud “were truly statements of fact"

4. The Gateway Pundit retracting claims of election fraud in Atlanta

5. The Media company that put out D'Souza's 2,000 Mules film apologizing and removing it after law enforcement proved it falsely accused people of fraud

6. Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) settling with Smartmatic

It is NOT true that none of these allegations have seen a court room. Most have. Of the 64 cases of fraud that Trump and his legal team filed in court, 30 were dismissed that included a hearing on the merits, 14 were voluntarily dismissed by Trump and his allies before a hearing, and just 20 were dismissed for lack of standing before a hearing on the merits. One case, involving far too few votes to impact the election, prevailed in Pennsylvania. That case was about voter ID deadlines, not election fraud.

Those are the facts.

Whatever happens Thursday night, please try to remember them.

[middleclassparty @middle_class_us]

The advice for the housing crisis is get roommates.

The advice for grocery costs is cook at home.

The advice for the commute is move closer to work.

The advice for debt is cut spending.

The advice for burnout is find balance.

None of these are solutions.

They are instructions for how to be poor more quietly.

[Rep. Jack Kimble @RepJackKimble]

The Islamic Republic of Japan is now threatening to block The Strait of Hormuz following hostilities with the United States.

[Brad Polumbo @brad_polumbo]

If you are a waitress and no-call, no-show even one shift, you could get fired.

But you can be an ancient elected official at the highest levels of our government and just go AWOL for weeks or even months with no real explanation, and we're supposed to pretend that's... fine?

[Renzo™ @fwrenzo1]

The most successful trick the elites ever pulled was making "Poor" a personality flaw instead of a systemic result. We live in a world where a guy who inherited $100M calls a teacher "lazy" because they can't afford rent. And half of you believe him.

[Danny Manus @DannyManus]

Mitch McConnell is actually the best Metaphor for, and representation of, America and our political system. He spent almost a century making the world a better place for only himself and his friends, married an immigrant while working tirelessly against other immigrants, manipulated the system to increase his power only to be usurped & made impotent by someone even more unethical, unscrupulous and power hungry. Then when the system is finally done with him, they keep his dead body on life support just to use him for one more power move until finally allowing him sweet sweet death while his wife flees the country and his children go into hiding. And when it's all said and done, he'll be best remembered for a meme that made him into a turtle. America.

[Jeff Darlington @JeffDarlington]

From today's broadcast at Wimbledon, produced by Tory Zawacki Roy, this is the story of a farmer's desire to create a grass tennis court that turned into something so much more. ESPN presents The Court of Dreams:

[Alan Bellittera @AlanBell35]

@HistorianTennis I attended Wimbledon in 2004. This was the first match I watched. Didn't have a Court 2 ticket, but there was a corner of the court that was SRO. As someone who grew up watching tennis in the 1980s, couldn't believe my luck to see @Martina play singles at Wimbledon.

[NYTPitchbot @DougJBalloon]

My Uber driver in Branson was a Kennedy-Goldwater-Nixon-Nixon-Ford-Reagan-Reagan-Bush-Dole-Bush-Bush-McCain-Romney-Trump-Trump-Trump voter. He said that after Tuesday’s primary results in New York, there’s no way he’ll ever vote for a Democrat again.

[Noah Bergren @NbergWX]

Pretty rare earthquake activity tonight on Earth.

Both of these things happening within 2 hours of each other:

1 in 1,000 to 1,200 years

• A “doublet” earthquake in Venezuela (two quakes of similar magnitude in the exact same spot)
• A totally separate 6.9+ quake somewhere else (Japan)

[The Shallow State @OurShallowState]

His name is no longer on the Kennedy Center, but there's a tarp over it so he can avoid humiliation. The ballroom, always an excuse for a bunker, is an endless eyesore, and not privately funded as claimed - but they want to fund it from taxpayers, so he can avoid humiliation. The blue reflecting pool isn't blue anymore - the algae are growing, as algae does, but they're dumping hydrogen peroxide into it so he can avoid humiliation. His attempt to get artists to play for his birthday, failed - which was a massive embarrassment, forcing him to say he was the one who cancelled it, said to avoid humiliation. The Iran war is a whopping defeat, a surrender, and a global disaster, and they're trying to figure out how to help him spin it so he can avoid humiliation.
This is the Trump 2.0 presidency. Thin bluster and fake bravado designed to disguise humiliations.
How humiliating.

[A.J. Perez @byajperez]

Eric Trump trying to squeeze UFC Hall of Famer/broadcaster Dan Cormier for inside info is disgusting. @danawhite has to be pleased members of the Trump family think UFC is fixed. Cormier deleted the tweet (below) within a couple minutes.

[Alan Bellittera @AlanBell35]

@HunterBiden You're right, it's a completely different level of corruption. Too bad you gave those idiots the ability to successfully play the whataboutism game.

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

"Late Kakistocracy" is that phase of democratic decline where the regime starts running out of ppl who will work for it, and so the folks who aren't qualified for their current positions are promoted to even larger positions for which they are even more unqualified