John Rote

😍 SciFi, cycling, cooking, running. Competitive BBQer. Fmr Marketing CX @Atlassian @Bonobos @Katalon & CMO advisor. SF NYC Cape Town Memphis. Go Stanford!🌲

[John Rote @johnrote]

T-minus 30 days until load in for the World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest, our 10th year competing.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

The GOP is running against "Communists" while Trump is praising a communist dictator and taking over private companies.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

“IN THE YEARS BEFORE TRUMP, Republicans talked a lot about character. They denounced Bill Clinton…They warned that a party led by a scoundrel, and dedicated to defending that scoundrel, would come to resemble him.

Under Trump, they’ve proved it.”

https://t.co/lRZgrpnd9C

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Trump’s “act like a blustering jerk” doctrine has successfully persuaded most of the world to prefer China to the United States of America.

https://t.co/Cff9omxwxy

[Arnold Schwarzenegger @Schwarzenegger]

Nope! I always say there is no such thing as self-made. It’s a myth.

It took millions of people - from my parents to mentors to friends to competitors to fans and voters - to write my success story. I did not write it alone.

That’s the American Dream - not a lie about going it alone - but the truth that none of us do, and there is always someone with their hand out to lift us up.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Ronald Reagan: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman…But Anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American…This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America's greatness.”🇺🇸

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Raju: Did Trump win Georgia in 2020?

Georgia Republican Senate nominee Mike Collins: “Trump won that race. Yes.”

Disqualifying.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

We need to keep smart people in the country to build the future and build tomorrow’s businesses that employ millions of people

This is bad and misguided policy

[Ted Lieu @tedlieu]

Dear @WhiteHouse: Your new stupid Green Card policy will help competitors such as China and Russia. The U.S. will have a significant exodus of top researchers, scientists, and industry leaders in multiple fields, ranging from medicine to technology to advanced manufacturing.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.” 

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?

https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

This is staggering in both its corruption and the incentive it creates to do illegal things on Trump’s behalf knowing you can get both a pardon and a payout.

[Jessica Tarlov @JessicaTarlov]

The corruption in broad daylight is astounding. He’s not only going to pardon J6ers, he’s going to pay them with our money, too. And use American independence as the branding!

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Donald Trump pardoned over 70 allies and donors convicted in fraud cases, and wiped out over $1 billion in restitution, fines, and debts owed by those he pardoned.

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

⚡️ WATCH — JUST NOW — 99% white Tennessee House Republicans pass a racist 9-0 map stripping majority Black Memphis of congressional representation

[Steve Cohen @RepCohen]

This is insane.

The GOP's newly proposed TN Congressional maps would have people in Shelby County all the way to Williamson County—200+ miles apart—being "represented" by the same Congressman.

It's a blatant, corrupt power grab that would destroy the Black community's and our entire city's voice.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

You have got to be kidding me.

The State Department is putting Donald Trump’s scowling face on the U.S. passport.

His signature in gold. Superimposed over the Declaration of Independence, a document literally written to get away from this exact behavior.

No sitting president has ever done this. Coins, park passes, battleships, and now your passport. The man cannot find a surface he will not slap his name or face on.

This is not patriotism.

It is vanity.

[John Rote @johnrote]

@TheRewatchables @akdobbins Loved this episode. @akdobbins and @julietlitman must watch Rhys Ifans in Danny Deckchair. They will love it.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Wildfire season is weeks away.

The West is in record drought.

And the Trump administration just announced it is shutting down 57 of the 77 Forest Service research stations that tell us how bad it is going to get and what to do about it.

We already know how this ends.

When Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management out of Washington in his first term, 87 percent of the staff quit rather than relocate. The same thing is happening here. Scientists are not going to uproot their families and abandon university partnerships. They are going to leave.

And when they leave, decades of data, research, and institutional knowledge walk out the door with them.

The Forest Service oversees 193 million acres. It lost nearly 6,000 employees to DOGE cuts in just the first half of last year. Now it is gutting the research operation that tells land managers what is actually happening to those forests in real time.

California alone is losing six research facilities, right before fire season.

There is no version of this that makes the forests safer, the science stronger, or the taxpayer better off.

https://t.co/DPhckjiBYo

[Molly Morrison @mollyhannahm]

well this is extremely disappointing to see…..

LEAVE US ALONE!!!!!!! memphis has plenty to do and most importantly, a devoted fanbase that loves their team. so tired of this narrative

[Alex Tabarrok @ATabarrok]

WTF are we doing?

[John Rote @johnrote]

@jordan_ross_8F Openclaw