Mike O'Connor

[Mike O'Connor @CodingInJapan]

@RobinhoodApp Over here!

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

11 years ago today, Ken Paxton surrendered at the Collin County Jail on felony securities fraud charges.

This is his mugshot.

[Senate Democrats @dscc]

NEW: After voting to block the release of the Epstein files, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan received campaign donations from individuals associated with Epstein.

[Elizabeth Warren @SenWarren]

To be clear: Senate Republicans are caving on a deal that gives Donald Trump and his family immunity from tax audits potentially worth $100 million.

[Mike O'Connor @CodingInJapan]

@SuaKCravens @USCFootballNews @CoachD178 @JBP_Official ND only needs to be top 13. They got a special deal from the CFP committee

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

We all knew he was lying about the Reflecting Pool. The problem is that he lies so often that it’s almost impossible to keep up.

So I asked AI to compile claims from just the past twenty-four months and then checked them against official data, contemporaneous reporting and independent fact-checks.

Here is a partial list of 86 lies:
1. He promised to bring prices down “starting on Day One.” Grocery prices remained high and continued rising.
2. After winning, he admitted that prices are very hard to bring down once they have gone up.
3. He said egg prices had fallen 93 percent. They had not fallen remotely close to 93 percent.
4. He said he inherited the highest inflation in American history. He inherited an annual inflation rate of 2.9 percent.
5. When corrected, he changed the claim to the worst inflation in 49 years. That was also false. Annual inflation reached 23.7 percent in 1920.
6. He said there was virtually no inflation during his first term. Consumer prices rose approximately 8 percent.
7. He repeatedly claimed he had already brought inflation down, including during periods when the annual inflation rate was higher than the 2.9 percent reported shortly before he took office.
8. He told Congress inflation was “plummeting.” Prices were still rising overall, including major household expenses such as housing, electricity and medical care.
9. He claimed to have secured $18 trillion in new investment.
10. He then raised the figure to $19.2 trillion.
11. Even the White House’s own tracker listed far less, and its total included multiyear pledges, purchasing agreements, previously announced projects and commitments that might never become actual US investment.
12. He said America was building more factories than ever.
13. He said factory construction was rising.
14. He said the country had achieved its highest growth ever. Manufacturing employment declined, factory-construction claims depended on cherry-picked categories, and economic growth was nowhere near a historical record.
15. He called the country he inherited a dead country. The US economy grew 2.8 percent in 2024, faster than every other major wealthy economy except Spain.
16. He says foreign countries pay his tariffs. American importers pay them and frequently pass the cost on to American consumers.
17. He said the evidence overwhelmingly showed consumers did not pay his tariffs. Economic studies found that American consumers and businesses absorbed nearly all their cost.
18. He said tariff revenue came with “no inflation.” Prices continued rising, and economic research found that the tariffs themselves increased costs for American consumers and businesses.
19. He repeatedly said drug prices were down 70, 80 or 90 percent. No broad measure of prescription-drug prices showed anything close to those reductions.
20. He said Medicaid was “left the same.” The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation would reduce federal Medicaid spending by roughly $930 billion over ten years.
21. He said Americans were “not going to feel any of it.” The Congressional Budget Office projected that the legislation would leave approximately 11.8 million more people uninsured.
22. He said the Medicaid changes touched only waste, fraud and abuse. Independent analyses found that the legislation reduced coverage and federal spending far beyond fraudulent claims.
23. He said he had eliminated taxes on Social Security. The law created a temporary deduction, unavailable to many beneficiaries, that expires after 2028. It did not abolish taxation of Social Security benefits.
24. He said taxes would rise 68 percent without his bill. No credible independent estimate came close to supporting that figure.
25. He then declared, “I’ve kept all my promises and much more.”
26. He publicly promised at least 53 times to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, or even before taking office.
Continued in replies…

[Aaron Torres @Aaron_Torres]

"The competition in the league is so difficult."

Texas A&M + Ole Miss each advanced to the playoff last year. Each beat 4 different SEC teams who went on to *fire their coach* and two more who weren't bowl eligible (South Carolina/Miss State).

Its so dumb, its laughable

[CougarStats @CougarStats]

"Who has the strongest SOS?"

"The SEC."

"Why?"

"Because they play a bunch of SEC teams."

"How good are SEC teams?"

"Really good, because they play a bunch of SEC teams."

"How do you know if SEC teams are better than teams from other conferences?"

"They are better, because they play a lot more SEC teams than teams from other conferences."

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

Unearthed records just revealed that Ken Paxton owns 15 homes on a government salary.

This includes luxury real estate in Hawaii, Utah, and Florida.

[Lauren McGaughy @lmcgaughy]

NEW: Ken Paxton bought three condos in a luxury resort in Utah earlier this year. On the deeds, he listed a home in Frisco as his address.

Police reports we obtained refer to the home's owner as a woman, who is not his wife, that Mr. Paxton has been recently photographed with.

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

Americans celebrated 250 years of independence from Britain this weekend.

Ken Paxton spent it with the British.

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

BREAKING: "Trump said that his children have access to ‘inside information’ due to his presidency," per RollingStone

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

I am officially nominating Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) for the Nobel Peace Prize.

No President in History has ended the same war so many times.

Our Dear Leader has ended the war with Iran at least 38 times by CNN’s count.

No President has ever done this before.

And he is nowhere near finished ending it.

It’s a record worthy of the Nobel committee’s recognition. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

Ken Paxton was impeached for taking bribes from donors.

He became a multi-millionaire on a government salary.

He takes lavish vacations in Iceland while Texans can’t afford the basics.

Ken Paxton doesn’t serve us — he serves himself.

[Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome]

New research from @nytimes finds that the US government is actively doing "critical minerals" deals with FOURTEEN different companies that have financial ties to the Trump and/or Lutnick families - deals worth around $9 billion in all:

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Trump ripped up the walkway between the West Wing and the mansion to replace it with polished African granite carved in Italy. "Paid for by me," he claimed. Except that's not true. Taxpayers paid $689,232, per documents obtained by @michaelscherer https://t.co/7l2bkD0MIH

[Beau Sorensen 🇺🇦 @sorrogrande]

You’d think this is a joke. It is not.

[FOX Soccer @FOXSoccer]

The excitement of the game has no language barriers

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

why would trump's immigration policies contribute to the insolvency of social security? i was told that undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes

[Cody Worsham @CodyWorsham]

Fun fact: @USC_Athletics student-athletes earn 2.5x the national average per NIL deal, per data released by NIL Go in May.

And included in CSC's Range of Compensation calculations are "the local market and the market reach of his or her institution and program."

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝙇𝘼𝗖𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘, indeed. ✌️