@Messagist

Observations from far outside the ropes. Fan of context & the small print. Read the &$#@*% story!!!

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@AnnaSpiegs @carlquintanilla @cuneytdil Helluva *scoop*. Congrats! 😒

[Steve Rattner @SteveRattner]

The number of financial side deals the Trump family is running is so shocking it can sometimes be hard to track.

According to @Reuters, their crypto ventures alone have delivered $2.3 billion to Trump & co. while creating a similar-sized loss for investors.

[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:

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@RobertLusetich @jarodhitchcock Oak Hill

[Jason Kint @jason_kint]

here is the full report. I highly recommend it’s worth the time and the share for sure. 2/2 https://t.co/J0AXH9DDqQ

[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

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.

The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got on the phone to close it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick worked it from the inside, sending letters, leaning on the Kazakh president, lining up as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing.

Within weeks of those negotiations, investors tied to a firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump took a 20% stake in an entity connected to the very same Kazakhstan project their father was negotiating. Around that same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm run by Lutnick’s own sons, raised $210 million for a partner in the deal and pocketed the fees.

The fathers set the policy. The sons cashed in.

Six days after the Trump sons and their partners moved their money, Lutnick signed the final deal.

The reporting found one or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies working with the government on critical mining deals.

The total federal funding flowing toward those companies tops $8.9 billion.

This is your tax money.

It is supposed to secure our supply chains and protect our troops, not pad the portfolios of the President’s children and the Commerce Secretary’s children.

This is the most corrupt administration in American history. It is not close.

We must keep digging, and keep asking the questions they do not want asked. Republicans in Congress are unwilling to lift a finger. Mike Johnson is running a protection racket.

Either we will end the corruption, or the corruption will be the end of us.

https://t.co/yFOl7zvOhC

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

It turns out you cannot artificially manufacture cultural relevance forever.

The far-right pipeline of industry plants is hitting a wall, proving that no amount of financial backing, algorithmic manipulation, or bot-farm views can save talentless, dishonest, and fake political content creators.

The strategy was lifted straight from Russia and the European far right. The anti-democracy libertarian tech bros who supported MAGA realized that winning elections required full narrative control. They did not just buy up traditional media and hijack the algorithms, they also created and boosted the people making the content.

This whole ecosystem is completely fake. They built a network of paid influencers, using a mix of established names and pure industry plants who were engineered for fame. Characters like Lex Fridman and Nick Shirley were aggressively pushed to the top by powerful people like Elon Musk.

Even people within their own circles are blowing the whistle. Ashley St. Clair recently exposed the reality of these right-wing influencer networks, revealing how creators are given explicit marching orders and told exactly what to post behind the scenes.

The desperation peaked with the Tenet Media scandal, where right-wing darlings like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson were exposed for taking dirty blood money from Russia to parrot pro-Putin and anti-Ukraine talking points to American voters. They are literal traitors.

But the grift has an expiration date. These far-right plants got massive before and after Trump's election, but they are having an incredibly hard time maintaining the illusion today.

Go look at their actual cultural impact. They have become totally irrelevant, and nobody talks about them anymore. They are entirely dependent on bot farms to make them look popular, but real people have completely moved on

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@BenColeyGolf @adrianjones1975 @flushingitgolf Niemann was *merely* t-92 after first round of last year’s PGA … so it IS the greatest Top 10 ever at a major!

* by Joaquin Niemann 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@rscottcornwell @eighteenholes18 @chambleebrandel Nonsense. It’s simply societal/generational “normalization” of casual swearing … like it or not & well beyond golf

Never once heard my parents (Arnie/Jack’s generation) drop an f-bomb

Not sure there’s been a day in last 40 years I haven’t (along w/ nearly everyone I know) 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

Trump's family crypto business is expected to soon be allowed to operate like a bank — a decision, made by the Trump administration, that would give U.S. companies a new route to steer money to the president.

"For the first time in history, a president is leaning on a bank regulator to give his private enterprise the implicit backing of the federal government." https://t.co/Kq7ToFVZgi

[Moe Davis (U.S. Air Force, Retired) @ColMoeDavis]

This is Trump donor and Mar-a-Lago neighbor John Cafaro who got the no-bid contract to install a water purification system for the reflecting pool. He has 2 prior convictions, one for bribing a member of Congress and another for an illegal loan that violated campaign finance laws.

[Boston Smalls @smalls2672]

Bahahaha omg man. WE ARE SO COOKED.

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@jburk_ @evangconard @NoLayingUp Your *point* is based on something that didn’t happen!

Even without penalty he LOST to world #1 …

… by 4 shots

… despite playing in MUCH easier conditions! 🤷🏻‍♂️

* he lost to the 3 guys in group right in front of him (in similar conditions) by 9, 10 & 12 shots!

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@KVanValkenburg @ESPNCaddie @fried_egg_golf We NEED a podcast where you debate this topic with your Gary Player impersonation!

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@Zigmanfreud @IndyScott485 @usopengolf @USGA So … precisely what Bodenhamer said?

“Normal” (and steady) winds today … unlike the 30+ mph gusts yesterday until late afternoon or forecast for early part of Saturday?

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@desmondatlantic @LouStagner Or … simply a new policy this year!

https://t.co/iTqztZnJNe

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@MattVincenziPGA @willhaskett @gfienberg17 The actual “logical” reaction is to disregard past (non) rulings …

… given the new majors code of conduct policy implemented this year

https://t.co/iTqztZnJNe

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@BenColeyGolf I definitely don’t blame this tweet for the fog delay

* jk, of course I do 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Messagist @GolfOutsider]

@benduchek @ChrisCillizza @HunterBiden Well, we have to get our utterly superficial political *analysis* somewhere! 😉