Voting Is A Superpower

Retired

[FIRE @TheFIREorg]

President Trump said he’ll sue @amprog over this report that found the National Guard’s presence in several American cities hasn’t reduced violent crime.

The president — and any of us — can disagree with the report, but the answer is to refute findings with data, not lawsuits.

Alarmingly, Trump threatened to add some of the center’s donors to the lawsuit. Threatening non-profit donors sends a chilling message: Fund an organization that criticizes me, and you’ll be sued too.

That’s wholly incompatible with a free society.

[Tom Malinowski @Malinowski]

I helped pass this law in 2020. It's purpose is to prevent drug traffickers, Russian & Chinese kleptocrats, and other international criminals from setting up anonymously owned companies to hide their money in the US. Trump's Treasury Dept. is doing this to help criminals. 1/

[Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw]

"The enduring threat to shipments from the world’s energy hub points to a major strategic setback from the war launched in February."

"Persian Gulf energy producers are concluding that Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz will become permanent."

https://t.co/j7aoamGjyJ

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

Trump appeared to be golfing alongside surface-to-air missile defense systems over the weekend in Bedminster

[Steve Rattner @SteveRattner]

While George Soros is the biggest single donor, all the other top 10 megadonors are funding the GOP.

This number includes many invested heavily in tech and crypto.

My @Morning_Joe Chart

[Barbara Starr @bstarrreports]

Just heard @davidaxelrod and @ScottJenningsKY on AF1 story. Crucial: if the threat was so serious President could not be on AF1 WHY did AF conduct the mission? Iran thought he was on the flight. Wasn’t everyone else on board still at risk? why did AF think this was a legal order—why was it safe for everyone else to be on board?

[Laura Rozen @lrozen]

“A Turkish official confirmed to MEE that US officials had sought additional landing permits for the C-32 as part of the plan and pushed for last-minute changes, leaving Ankara with the impression that something was amiss.”

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

Any time you hear a politician advocating for freezing or cutting property taxes, it should be understood as a way to enhance the economic position of boomers while reduce the opportunities for young, aspiring homeowners.

[Scott Gottlieb, MD 🇺🇸 @ScottGottliebMD]

🧵More vaccines do not mean more distinct antigens. The childhood vaccine schedule contained 3,217 antigenic components in 1960 and 3,041 by the 1980s. Today, owing to better formulations, it's about 165 antigens across the current pediatric schedule 1/2
https://t.co/xc06FHWrtb

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

Flew to Afghan. w/different president on AF1. An insurgent missile struck Bagram runway before landing. Weather was bad so planned Marine 1 trip to Kabul scrubbed. We were w/president the whole time. Our safety wasn’t treated any differently from his. We were never decoys.

[Prakash @8teAPi]

Incredible. Jensen is completing the circle.

- Bankers don’t like GPUs as collateral because the depreciation is unpredictable
- It’s unpredictable because a new GPU can obsolete an old one
- Jensen knows his own roadmap
- so he’s offering depreciation insurance to the banks
- the depreciation insurance (up to 25%) helps the banks get marginal deals over the line

Speculation
- Nvidia will also advise the banks on “reference designs” for datacenters that will make them fungible
- Having them be fungible means that the debt can repackaged into Asset Backed Securities, Collateralized Loan Obligations and Collateralized Debt Obligation (ABS, CLOs and CDOs from 2008 haha)
- This allows tranching to get investment grade ratings on the debt so that it can be resold to pension funds and insurance firms
- It also allows the banks to trade idiosyncratic project specific credit risk for sector wide credit risk

So Jensen is trying to get his customers the same cost of financing as real estate rather than venture equity.

This is going to move the data center game out of the VCs and into the big leagues.

[OSINTdefender @sentdefender]

Reports of unidentified drones over Diego Garcia are raising new questions about the vulnerability of one of the U.S. military’s most strategically important—and remote—installations.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence confirmed it was aware of the reported sightings but provided no details. U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) likewise declined to discuss the incident or force-protection measures. The reports originated with an unofficial Air Force social media account, which claimed drones had been spotted near the base’s fuel farm and that a 0700–1900 curfew had been imposed. TWZ says it has not independently verified those claims.

The timing is significant. Diego Garcia was already considered a priority target for Iran, with F-16s deployed to the island in February specifically for protection against one way attack drones and cruise missiles. Iran subsequently launched two ballistic missiles at the installation during Operation Epic Fury, though neither hit the base.

The reported drone sightings highlight a different threat: long range or sea launched drones that could reach isolated bases far from conventional launch points. Diego Garcia sits roughly 1,000 miles from Sri Lanka and has virtually no civilian population that could plausibly account for recreational drone activity.

In the past, Diego Garcia has been a temporary home for strategic U.S. bombers and has been used to reload U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke calss guided missile destroyer vertical launch system (VLS) cells with munitions like the SM-6 and Tomahawk.

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

<Whispers> Maybe Democrats could take a break from fighting with each other and instead focus on Republicans circling the wagons around yet another abuser in their ranks.

[CRFB.org @BudgetHawks]

🚨NEW: CBO Estimates $1.8 Trillion Deficit for First 10 Months of FY 2026

The United States borrowed $1.8 trillion in the first ten months of FY 2026, including $431 billion in July, according to the latest Monthly Budget Review from the @USCBO.

The following is a statement from CRFB President @MayaMacGuineas ⤵️

[Bill Gertz @BillGertz]

Pentagon chief policymaker Bridge Colby trumpets the new "realism" toward China that ends past "peacocking and moralizing speeches" critical of Beijing's communist regime. The new denial defense of China comes with renewed engagement and a quiet, respectful, businesslike approach, he said in a speech. This is not Reagan's Cold War Peace Through Strength https://t.co/JHVPP3drz0

[Laura Rozen @lrozen]

Per State dept spox:
•     We welcome the return of Robert Gilman to the United States. […]
•     Mr. Gilman’s release was not part of an exchange, and no other concessions were provided.
•     The Russian government released Mr. Gilman on humanitarian grounds.
•     This as a welcome step that we hope leads to the release of Americans unjustly held in Russia, such as wrongful detainee Stephen Hubbard.

[Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) @chigrl]

Dude you know those pesky securitization rules that went in place after the 2008 financial meltdown?

Well, the SEC just exempted datacenter debt from key securitization rules

The SEC said a major subset of data-center securitizations don’t need to have disclosures and investor protections that similar deals require. That includes risk retention, a requirement that companies issuing asset-backed securities retain some of the debt to better align their interests with investors. (Bloomberg)

[Jason Kint @jason_kint]

Yea, the trial is very much on. 9th circuit rejected appeal today. Meta trying to block testimony of one key whistleblower. Remember, these issues were massive enough they were on the cover of WSJ and 60 Minutes five years ago. Reputation/financial risk for Instagram is massive.

[Brad Polumbo @brad_polumbo]

So everyone is sharing an out-of-context incorrect analysis of data to suggest that 82% of pregnant women who received the COVID vaccine had a miscarriage and therefore wildly claim it was "like an abortion shot."

That is absolutely not true. And, of course, if this had actually happened, it would've been apparent and would've shown up in the massive, global data analysis that has been done and never found any increase in miscarriage rates associated with COVID vaccines in pregnancy.

Meanwhile, the whole statistical misinterpretation everyone is sharing is based on an incorrect denominator, and the actual number, when calculated correctly, is 12%, which is the same as the typical 1st-trimester miscarriage rate in a pregnant population.

But millions of people are just falling for and sharing insane misinformation, and countless understandably heartbroken mothers who experienced miscarriages are now accusing doctors of murdering their babies.

We are so cooked.

[Harris Meyer @Meyer_HM]

Trump hung up on a ProPublica reporter after being asked whether his Florida mortgages were similar to those of others he had accused of fraud.
Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal
https://t.co/PutqQkBbxJ