BrewJohnson

Founder of Loan Labs.

Former founder & CEO @PeerStreet, a marketplace for investing in real estate backed loans that ended tragically.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯 @japan_nobunaga]

In 1944, thousands of Japanese on Saipan hid in caves, sure the Americans would torture them if they came out. Many families chose the cliffs instead.

An 18-year-old American Marine from East Los Angeles walked up to those caves at night, alone, and called to them in Japanese.

His name was Guy Gabaldon. He was a Mexican American kid who had grown up partly in the home of a Japanese American family, the Nakanos. That is where he picked up his Japanese. When the war came, the Nakanos were sent to internment camps. Their twin sons, Lane and Lyle, joined the U.S. Army anyway and served in the 442nd.

Fifty years later, he still said it plainly: "These were Americans."

On Saipan, Gabaldon was a scout with the 2nd Marine Regiment. Right after landing, he slipped off on his own and came back with prisoners. His commanding officer, Capt. John Schwabe, threatened him with a court-martial for leaving his post.

The next night, he came back with about fifty.

After that, they let him go out alone.

He crawled to the cave mouths in the dark and promised the people inside water, medical care, and that nobody would hurt them. Night after night, ten or twenty at a time, they followed him out.

On July 8, by his own account, about 800 came out in a single day. Schwabe remembered that day too. It was the day they tagged him the Pied Piper of Saipan.

Not everyone listened. At the cliffs, he begged a mother not to kill her child. He watched her throw the baby and jump. He was still talking about it fifty years later.

His Navy Cross citation says that on Saipan and Tinian he brought in "well over one thousand enemy civilians and troops."

Schwabe recommended him for the Medal of Honor. He received the Silver Star. Sixteen years later, after Hollywood made a movie about him, the Navy upgraded it to the Navy Cross.

He died in 2006 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

I am Japanese. Those caves were full of my people, frightened, starving, and certain that the Americans were monsters.

An American teenager walked toward them in the dark and offered them water.

On this Veterans Day, Japan should know his name.

[Paul D. Thacker @thackerpd]

I spoke w/ 2 people who told me they met @calleymeans the day before he resigned and said he was furious the White House did not approve the definition for ultra-processed food.

This definition merely informs consumers. Most people don't understand how OMB's Russ Vought has hindered MAHA policies.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@howardlindzon valid point

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@MebFaber @SanctSimplicita hahahaha.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@MebFaber He seems nice.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@_CallMeMacy yes, mam!

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@davidmarcus @Jason @profgalloway @karaswisher So despicable.

[Blake Scholl 🛫 @bscholl]

Sad to say @profgalloway is an investor in Boom. I don't mind disagreements but calling for an execution of a non-criminal (worse, an actual hero!) is a step too far.

Working to arrange a buy-out of his shares.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@tomkrcha Come to Manhattan Beach. Let's hang.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

A lot of people have asked what we’re building at Loan Labs. Here it is in 93 seconds.
Mortgages still take ~45 days and ~$12k to produce because everyone works from a different copy of the loan file. We’re building one shared loan record, with AI that chases what’s missing.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@niapatel__ thanks Niyati!

[immad @immad]

Something feels a bit iffy about California prop 38.

Doing a popular vote proposed by a 3 person non-profit that gives said non profit $4.2B from the public!

I hope Gary is great and knows how to spend $4.2B well because it’s done.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@moseskagan I use this open-sourced version that lives on your machine and doesn't share your data: https://t.co/K4gXD4fxuo

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@poteto @bot hey
@bot
read this whole quoted thread and suggest ideas for how you can help me with my work and my life

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

As my mom @emomj (the biggest Dodger fan I know) pointed out, Miguel Rojas has already announced his retirement, so I will revise my last statement... the @dodgers should keep him the organization for life. Get him a coaching gig in the minors and let him grow into the Latino Tommy Lasorda.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

As a life long @dodger fan, i hope they never trade Miggy. What a special guy.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

As a life long @dodger fan, i hope they never trade Miggy. What a special guy.

[The Undercurrent @NotTheirScript]

Meet Miguel Rojas.

He studied all 100 citizenship questions. He wanted no special treatment because he’s a professional baseball player. And when he passed, he said he was prouder of that perfect score than his World Series home run.

What stood out to me most was his gratitude. He talked about America opening its doors to him 21 years ago and said he’s never taken that opportunity for granted.

Preparation. Respect for the process. Gratitude for the country that gave you an opportunity. Wanting to contribute and be judged by your character, not your status.

[The Undercurrent @NotTheirScript]

Meet Miguel Rojas.

He studied all 100 citizenship questions. He wanted no special treatment because he’s a professional baseball player. And when he passed, he said he was prouder of that perfect score than his World Series home run.

What stood out to me most was his gratitude. He talked about America opening its doors to him 21 years ago and said he’s never taken that opportunity for granted.

Preparation. Respect for the process. Gratitude for the country that gave you an opportunity. Wanting to contribute and be judged by your character, not your status.

[BrewJohnson @brewjohnson]

@iamrags @NotTheirScript I hope my Dodgers never trade this guy. he’s the best.

[KanekoaTheGreat @KanekoaTheGreat]

NEW: RFK Jr. says Medicare spending on wound care patches exploded from $200 million in 2019 to $14 billion last year: "It's all stolen."

Bad actors billed Medicare billions by slapping the most expensive skin grafts on elderly and dying patients who didn't need them.

"The doctors who prescribed them would get 6% of the sales cost. And so, they were incentivized to prescribe more expensive products. In Europe, they spend 35 cents a cubic inch. We were spending $135, and that went up to $2,000 a cubic inch."

"So 2019, we were paying $200 million. Last year we spent 14 billion. All stolen. It's all stolen. And we were on track to spend 23 billion this year."

"We put an end to it, and we now have driven that cost down to somewhere around a billion dollars."

In one Arizona case, the owners of two wound care companies pleaded guilty to more than $1.2 billion in fraudulent claims. Medicare paid over $1 million per patient for grafts slapped on elderly patients who didn't need them, many of them dying in hospice.

In June, DOJ charged 11 more defendants over more than $2 billion in allograft claims, including a company accused of issuing sham invoices to inflate what Medicare paid.

It feels like every week I learn a new way people were ripping off taxpayers for billions.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Incredible work @jgebbia and team

Amazing design and agent experience in a US govt product is mind blowing 🤯