Joe Pitts

Hopelessly hopeful. Building @PostSecCommish & @1912Institute. Fmr @AEI, @AZChamber, @ASU_GOP. Words at @thedispatch, @NRO.

[Cameron Wiese @camwiese]

The Illinois, an unbuilt mile-high skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

...maybe we should start building epic things again?

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@RonaldReagan @CardinalDolan Incredible news!

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@lost_nomad__ Ironically the “democratization” of architecture - at least concept images - might lead to better taste in architecture! (One can hope)

[The Mind Scourge @TheMindScourge]

This is another phase of political entrepreneurship

When the campaign isn’t the thing that gets to the goal - elected office - but rather a springboard to another status altogether: full time political influencer or politician without an office

Paris Hilton pioneered this. She was famous for being famous. Now you can be a politician without being elected with the virtue of not having to deal with all the formal constraints in office

Trump also showed the way here. Biden spent his entire term in the White House subtweeting Trump. In a way it was like Trump was still president. His influence was on everything Biden did, because it was possible he could always return in 2024 (which of course, he did)

The same is true of Pratt. Just as the most prominent politicians now are also social media main characters - AOC, Lurie, Mamdani - you can have the equivalent *moral* status as an elected politician by getting big on social media, where the currency is attention, attention is status, and you can deal on an equivalent footing with a mayor or senator or president

The old media ecosystem enabled this to a limited extent. The lead anchor of News at 6 or whatever was an important guy. But he was constrained by being part of a larger institution. He didn’t just represent himself, he represented CNN or CBS. So that limited the upside for them

The new political influencers don’t have this impediment. They aren’t formally employed by anyone. They represent only themselves, and the skies the limit

Pratt can spend the next 4 years or however long he wants saying whatever he wants, going wherever he wants, talking to whoever he wants, annoying any and everyone, and in general acting like a Mayor without having to occupy the office. He’ll force the politicians to come to him

This will become an increasingly common type

[Justin Shubow @JustinShubow]

The U.S. government just unveiled the majestic Greco-Deco design for the new federal courthouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The building is at once monumental and welcoming, classical and original. The iris capitals are an inspired touch, drawing on Tennessee’s natural beauty and weaving it into the stone of a federal building.

The Chattanooga courthouse is precisely the kind of building that President Trump’s Executive Order on federal architecture—“Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again”—was designed to produce.

When the courthouse is completed, it will stand as the living proof that the Order represents wise and humane public policy—something all Americans, regardless of political party, can and should support. Beautiful public buildings are not a partisan matter; they belong to everyone.

[Robert Pondiscio @rpondiscio]

Knowledge-rich education doesn't merely challenge educational progressivism. It collides with some of the deepest commitments of American life:

Individualism.
Local control.
Personalization.
Choice.
Distrust of authority.

That's why it remains more admired than adopted.

https://t.co/yenGAxnhJP

[Leah Libresco Sargeant @LeahLibresco]

Honestly, this is scarier than the "reading for pleasure" graphs.

https://t.co/FckVvcTJ21

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

250 years ago, America declared independence. A year earlier, the Spanish founded Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón—a fort that would become Tucson, AZ.

​Join the @1912Institute for a panel discussion on America's founding & AZ's role in the Union: https://t.co/LUUqR8IFCz

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

Update: Fujimori now leads by 561 votes... out of ~18,060,000 million ballots cast.

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

Absolutely remarkable.

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@sadgirlyboss Reminds me of John McCain's bit after he lost in 2008: "Since I've lost, I've slept like a baby. I wake up every 15 minutes and cry."

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@BenShindel maybe displaying prediction market odds is most helpful in close races and in jurisdictions that are slow to count (California, for example)

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@BenShindel Yeah... I tend to think all of these prediction markets are terrible for society but the one point they do have in their favor is that, when done well, they actually are remarkably predictive and aggregate disparate data like no polling model could (or currently does).

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@YashiPhougat Chills

[1912 Institute @1912Institute]

Join us on Thursday, June 26th:

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

250 years ago, America declared independence. A year earlier, the Spanish founded Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón—a fort that would become Tucson, AZ.

​Join the @1912Institute for a panel discussion on America's founding & AZ's role in the Union: https://t.co/LUUqR8IFCz

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

Absolutely remarkable.

[Leah Libresco Sargeant @LeahLibresco]

"...and if the social and cultural inheritance carried by native-born Americans disappeared tomorrow, you couldn’t easily recreate the creedal culture from its first principles alone."

https://t.co/fovTDq7lqs

[Jim Geraghty @jimgeraghty]

Early in the film "Top Gun: Maverick," the titular hero is confronted by a rear admiral who tells him that the era of manned combat aircraft is coming to an end.

Maverick confidently replies, “Maybe so, sir. But not today.” And we in the audience smile because we like Maverick, and we like fighter pilots. But the rear admiral in that scene is correct.

Unmanned aircraft, seacraft, and ground drones are reaching the point where they can do everything human beings do, without risk to life and limb, and without the possibility of flag-draped caskets. It doesn’t matter whether anyone likes or dislikes this development; it’s happening either way.

[Joe Pitts @JoePitts]

@wmataGM @wmata