Janell Longa

50ish, long term temp, finally got a job;

[Janell Longa @jlonga1]

@NickKristof @brianstelter "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

― Lyndon B. Johnson

[Olivier Knox @OKnox]

whoever made the decision to spread World Cup teams around the US deserves a raise. It's like a variation on embedding journalists with troops in Iraq.

[Thomas Kennedy @tomaskenn]

Surveillance cameras placed outside of FIFA offices ahead of a press conference today where advocates will be calling out discriminatory immigration policies affecting players, staff and fans, including an award winning referee from Somalia who was turned away at Miami Airport.

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Screwworm, Ebola, measles and other problems are piling up as Trumps degrades the basic functions of the American government.

https://t.co/W1JgeQLKMR

[WPTV @WPTV]

Palm Beach County bracing for largest department budget cuts in history due to potential property tax cuts https://t.co/BPD2T830vT

[Katie Bergh @Katie_Bergh]

Here's just one example of a family with two young kids who lost their SNAP benefits — or as Secretary Rollins would apparently describe it, "chose not to reapply."

https://t.co/wZlsoFKBFx

[Michael T. Lester @MichaelTLester]

My post on Sazan Island went viral yesterday because the verifiable facts are shocking.

Here's what I left out: Sazan is just one piece of a much bigger operation.

Jared Kushner started Affinity Partners in July 2021. One day after leaving the White House.

Within weeks, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund wired him $2 billion. Senior Saudi officials objected. Mohammed bin Salman overruled them.

By the end of 2024, Affinity was managing $4.8 billion, almost entirely from foreign governments. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE. Today that number is $6.16 billion. 99% from foreign nationals.

The fee structure, disclosed to the Senate Finance Committee under investigation: Kushner charges the Saudis 1.25% annually on $2 billion in committed capital. Other investors pay closer to 2%. The Senate's own investigators called this "unusually high" for a firm with Kushner's experience level, or more correctly, complete lack of experience. As of mid-2024, Affinity had generated zero return on investment and had not distributed a penny of earnings back to any client.

He's charging governments tens of millions a year to have their money sit in a bank account.

In late 2024, Senator Wyden referred Kushner to the Department of Justice for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The same law that put Paul Manafort in prison.

Now Kushner is back in government. Trump's "Special Envoy for Peace." Negotiating with Iran. Negotiating with Russia. Negotiating ceasefire terms in Gaza. On behalf of the United States. Not chosen by Americans. No experience running an investment firm. No training or experience in international relations. His sole credential is that he married the president's daughter. All while managing $6 billion from the governments he is negotiating with.

Before Trump's second term started, Kushner publicly promised he would not raise additional capital while serving. The New York Times then reported he was actively soliciting $5 billion more from foreign governments. His lawyers confirmed the conversations. They said he "does not intend" to take it.

He said the same thing before he took it the first time.

The Senate Finance Committee and the House Oversight Committee are both demanding answers. They've asked for every communication between Kushner and foreign governments. They've asked Affinity to preserve all documents. Any destruction of records, they said in writing, will be treated as obstruction.

Now look at the ownership chart below. It was produced as part of a corporate investigation published June 3rd titled "Exporting the Abraham Accords: The Hidden Network Converging on Albania's Shoreline." My follower @SlavicWoman777 flagged it in my replies.

Five unnamed Albanian shareholders. 24% combined stake. Structured deliberately just below the 25% threshold that would require public disclosure under Dutch law.

That is someone trying to hide who is behind the money.

This is what corruption looks like when it's wearing a suit and has a law firm on retainer.

What do you call it when your government's negotiator is on the payroll of the governments he's negotiating with?

[Haley Britzky @halbritz]

“An annual event put on by members of Congress to honor fallen servicewomen was canceled this year after the Navy, Air Force and Space Force bowed out, citing Pentagon and White House policies on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.”

[VoteVets @votevets]

BREAKING: In a stunning moment, Republicans just BLOCKED Sen. Richard Blumenthal's attempt to get Veterans their retirement pay WITHOUT cutting disability benefits. Republicans will write blank checks to the military, then penny pinch when it's time to support our Vets.

[Zack 🏳️‍🌈 @DreamyZackRacin]

Ten years ago on June 12, 2016: the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

As a queer 16 yr old at the time, it was the first time I really felt the weight of my identity.

The 49 names of the lives lost that night will ride with me this week at Pocono. 🏳️‍🌈

[Janell Longa @jlonga1]

@SenBillCassidy It’s already too late. The time to solve this was 40 years ago.

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

The Trump administration has claimed referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan was denied admission to the U.S. due to “association with suspected members of terror organisations.”

The referee was one of 52 match officials chosen by FIFA for the World Cup. He reported to Miami last weekend to join a training camp with his peers in Florida ahead of the tournament.

Artan told the New York Times on Tuesday that he “had the right papers” and “the right visa” before traveling to the United States and he also had accreditation as a match official by FIFA.

The issue, therefore, appears to have emerged upon attempting to enter at the border. He said that border officials interviewed him at Miami International Airport during a process of over 11 hours, before being detained in a holding cell and then sent back to Istanbul, Turkey, where he began his journey.

After The Athletic contacted the White House for comment on the matter, a senior administration official said: “Upon further inspection by CBP, derogatory information, including association with suspected members of terror organizations, was discovered making the traveler ineligible for admission to the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

“The traveler was refused admission and given immigration forms that provide the section of law used to complete an expedited removal under 8235 of the INA. President Trump’s administration will not allow any security threat to enter our country — full stop.”

More from @AdamCrafton_

🔗 https://t.co/JaWW84xDee

[Katie Bergh @Katie_Bergh]

Unbelievably, Secretary Rollins just claimed that "no one has been kicked off SNAP."

Under H.R. 1, low-income people are losing food assistance at the fastest rate in decades — even as the economy hasn't improved & grocery prices are rising.
https://t.co/HUPBlPSUTa

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

My dad was a crane operator, earned union wages, putting in the time, and felt pretty good about himself.

He wasn’t Jeff Bezos, but his kids were going to do better than him.

That was the deal in the US and he believed in it.

When you feel that way, you’re basically agnostic to immigration.

But when you’re in decline, when the affordability crisis has you missing mortgage payments, skipping the dentist, watching your kids fall behind where you were at their age, the immigrants become the threat.

Not because they actually are, but because fear needs somewhere to land.

That’s not racism. That’s economics.

Fix the economics and you fix a lot of the rest.

[David Corn @DavidCornDC]

A nugget buried in the big NYT piece on how the Trump White House had an internal freak-out over the Epstein case....If Bondi didn't use DOJ email, what did she use? I recall a time when the right (and the NYT) went ballistic over a Cabinet official's use of non-gov't email.

[Thomas Kennedy @tomaskenn]

Advocates in Miami have warned FIFA and the host committee for a year now that inaction would have consequences in light of discriminatory immigration practices. We are now seeing award winning referees, players, fans, etc, being turned away despite having valid travel documents.

[Suzie rizzio @Suzierizzo1]

This Administration has removed the achievements of the Air Force’s first female Thunderbird pilot Retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski. The removal of these articles have sparked criticism because her place in Air Force history is not a Political slogan it’s well documented.

[Dilan Esper @dilanesper]

A reminder that the USAID shutdown was a gross violation of the Constitution, and was permitted by the Supreme Court on the shadow docket for no valid reason at all (literally almost no serious scholars think POTUS can shut down a program funded by Congress).

[Joyce Carol Oates @JoyceCarolOates]

able-bodied persons had better wake up to the (inevitable) fact that if they/we live long enough, we will be disabled; & if we live longer, we will be severely disabled. this MAGA/GOP war against "disabled" persons is actually terrifying.
you may think that you are 100% healthy but, face it, you are one bloodwork or CAT-scan away from un-healthy. one hour in your life can alter it forever.

have some sympathy for the disabled & what this administration is threatening before it is too late.

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

BREAKING: We're suing the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service over their plan to give away 715 acres of a public wildlife refuge to billionaire corporation Space X.

Americans shouldn't be sacrificing their public lands to subsidize a company owned by the richest man in the world.

[Brian Stelter @brianstelter]

Top CNN journalists vowed to uphold founder Ted Turner's legacy at a Warner Bros. Discovery event honoring the maverick businessman in Atlanta today. Here's my full report: https://t.co/zgxltnrtDe