Ryan Scott

Husband, Father, Criminal defense lawyer (w/ occasional forays into appeals and post-conviction). Pretty good at catching things I just dropped.

[Marc Polymeropoulos @Mpolymer]

I understand politically why Rubio is doing this – because clearly he’s looking to 2028- but this is pathetic moral and ethical negligence, as this is a man who controls the most powerful nation in the world’s national security apparatus. And he’s hightailed it….. I think more people in the US national security space should call bullshit on this, rather than marvel at his political acumen. Which is just cowardice. If he is truly opposed to anything, he should just resign. Instead of this Houdini charade.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

"The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles"

"...the purpose of this is to destroy that missile capability."

"our mission and our focus is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities"

"the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities"

"I’m telling you what the objectives of this operation are.  The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild it, and make sure that they can’t hide behind that to have a nuclear program.  That’s the objective of the mission."
-- Marco Rubio, 3/2/26

https://t.co/yNCUakGrmx

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

People here claim I advised U.S. generals poorly. (I never advised them at all.) But never in my career in national defense did the United States ever lose a war to one of our worst enemies in just four months and then completely capitulate on every major issue.

[Cameron 🇺🇸 🗽🦅 @CameronCorduroy]

we killed hundreds of civilians, spent billions of munitions, and at least a dozen American troops' lives for the ability to pay Iran $300 billion

Art of the Deal

[Jon Ossoff @ossoff]

Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate Mike Collins is a notorious bigot, antisemite, and extremist currently under federal investigation for the illegal misuse of tax dollars. Collins, who is only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman, voted to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians, for the Iran War, and for the Trump tariffs.

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Pro-Israel groups deliberately turned Israel into a polarized issue and alienated almost the whole Democratic Party for the sake of a war that turned out to be as disastrous as Obama warned them and is going to end up with a deal that’s worse for them than JCPOA was.

[Colin Miller @EvidenceProf]

This could be big: "Supreme Court to Consider Constitutionality of Six-Person Juries": https://t.co/xGFzNIJRpY

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Applebaum: What binds Russia, China, Iran and North Korea is not religion or ideology.

China is communist, Russia nationalist, Iran theocratic. What binds them is fear of liberal language: rights, rule of law, separation of powers and independent courts. 1/

[Ryan Scott @MotionKingOR]

@WendellPierce My family loves Mr. Pierce, though we each have a different favorite character he's portrayed.

[Ryan Scott @MotionKingOR]

@ASFleischman Very true, but trial attorneys who care about preserving errors can significantly increase the chances of the case coming back. Unfortunately, a lot of trial attorneys simply don't care about that aspect of trial work ("I like to focus my energies on winning the trial.")

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

FBI agents raided a federal women’s prison in California so plagued by sexual abuse that it was known among inmates and workers as the “rape club.”

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is so insanely corrupt, I can’t even believe it.

More than half the donors to Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom just won over $50 billion in new federal contracts in six months.

And here’s the part that should make your blood boil.

Sixteen of these 27 donors were facing federal enforcement actions, antitrust reviews, labor cases, securities charges. Many of those cases have been quietly dropped or scaled back since Trump took office. You write a check, your legal problems disappear. That’s not a coincidence.

The White House won’t even release the full donor list. They’re hiding it on purpose, because daylight is the one thing pay-to-play can’t survive. A federal judge already ruled ballroom construction has to stop until Congress authorizes it.

Government is supposed to serve the people, not auction itself off to the highest bidder. When access goes to whoever pays the most, working families always end up paying the price.

We either end the corruption, or the corruption will end us.

https://t.co/4MGFzSseFl

[philip lewis @Phil_Lewis_]

“Idaho health officials are investigating how nearly 60 people got sick after drinking raw milk in the past two weeks” https://t.co/zAYee6RVq6

[Everything Price Sufferer (but especially eggs) @agraybee]

From 1966 to 2025 we dropped sterile flies over South America that ate screwworm and thus prevented them from spreading, but the le epic efficient cracked coders at DOGE thought this was a silly waste of the ~0 dollars it cost us.

[Ryan Scott @MotionKingOR]

@ASFleischman @jadler1969 Would Piker even consider himself a Democrat?

[Dan Shapiro @DanielBShapiro]

We've got a flailing war with Iran, continued Russian aggression against Ukraine, a need to deter China in the IndoPacific - and Trump just chose a guy for Director of National Intelligence with zero experience and a vendetta against Trump's political foes. What could go wrong???

[New York Post @nypost]

A one-armed woman has gone mega-viral after she quickly refuted a cop’s claim that she was driving with a phone in her “right hand.”

[Ryan Scott @MotionKingOR]

@miatopdx @CathyYoung63 @mattyglesias I have it as my phone alarm, so . . .

[Ryan Scott @MotionKingOR]

@miatopdx @CathyYoung63 @mattyglesias I listened to a couple of the Harry Limes last year. So much fun!

[Jared Ryan Sears @JaredRyanSears]

Economy then vs now:

GDP growth:
2024 2.8%
2026 1.6%

Inflation:
2024 2.9%
2026 3.8%

Wages:
2024 rising faster than inflation
2026 rising slower than inflation

Unemployment rate:
2024 4%
2026 4.3%

Jobs added per month:
2024 >120,000
2026 76,000

Jobs vs Unemployed:
2024 7.6 million job openings vs 6.9 million unemployed
2026 6.8 million job openings vs 7.2 million unemployed

National Debt
2024 $35.5 trillion
2026 $39 trillion

Deficit
2024 $1.8 trillion
2026 CBO projection $2 trillion

Uninsured Americans:
2024 27 million
2026 CBO projection 30 million

Gas prices per gallon:
December 2024 ~$3.00
Today $4.43