Maka Johnson

Like politics and debates among reasonable people. Dislike stupidity.

[dank @cptdankkk]

Jaylen Brown says he used the NBA Players Association instead of hiring an agent for the NBA Draft because they're paid to help players

“When I entered the draft, I didn't have an agent. I'm probably the highest picked selected ever that didn't enter with an agent. When I was evaluating, I went through the whole process and sat with a bunch of people, and what they was offering I ain't really need. It was kind of already slotted, so I leaned on the union a lot more”

“A lot of the agents came and was like, ‘Yeah, we'll move you to L.A. We'll get you a trainer, put some money in your pocket,’ and I was like, ‘For what? Do I gotta give the money back?’ They was like, ‘Nah, but standard agent fee is 4%.’ I'm starting to do the math, and a house, car, and all that, whatever he was offering, is a lot less than what 4% would have been”

“Long story short, the math wasn't mathing for me. I ended up being the third pick. I think because I came in like that, a lot of people, I think it was the agents, they tried to slander my name a little bit, put it in the media that he's too this, he's too that. Ended up backfiring. It all worked out in the end”

“With the union, we pay dues. All the players in the NBA pay dues. We all pay like $10,000 out of our salary that goes to hiring lawyers, hiring staff, CEO, everything that you need to lead a company that works for us. So all of that is our resources that we all pay for, that we agree to. Once I learned that, I just started using it”

“I'm talking about you can get private investigations done. They give referrals for financial advisors. All type of stuff. Foundation wise, health insurance, whatever you need. They have a liaison that's paid to make sure that you get it done. So I put it on their desk like, ‘I need you to get this done.’ And they do because that's their job”

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

So not only did an ICE agent shoot an unarmed man in the back of a van and lie about it, they’ve detained three eyewitnesses and are pressuring them to self-deport so they don’t testify. This is horrifying shit.

[Charles M. Blow @CharlesMBlow]

There’s something missing about these new recruits just sworn in to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Can you help me out?

[FactPost @factpostnews]

A diarrhea-causing parasite has now infected over 1,000 Americans, spreading across 29 states.

Last year, RFK Jr and Elon Musk dissolved the CDC office responsible for preventing parasitic infections.

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

"Communism is a system of government in which the ruling party controls major investment decisions while hoarding wealth for itself and suppressing all opposition.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump professes to dislike it."

- @jonathanchait

https://t.co/goiH5kM5ZX

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

RFK’s anti-vaxx group sued the American Academy of Paediatrics.

Their lead plaintiff was a mother who claimed she found her 18-month-old twins dead in their bed. She said it was vaccines.

Now she’s been charged with murder. Police say she suffocated them.

Think about how stupid anti-vaxxers are. They thought that vaccines killed two twins at the exact same time. What a remarkable coincidence!

The anti-vaxxers are not backing down, and still claim that vaccines killed the twins. They’re now saying that vaccines caused the suffocation!

This is part of a larger pattern, of anti-vaxxers blaming vaccines for cases that are actually child abuse.

These people are the worst, and should be driven from polite society. Instead, their most famous spokesman is head of HHS.

[rigatoni mad max @bespinderella]

white people could not last a single week -- maybe even not a day -- living in a society where people casually talk about them like this and everyone else ignores it or outright supports it. only black people are expected to tolerate this for generations on end.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Jennings: Gas prices are lower today than when he took office.

Phillip: No it’s not.

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

AI costs more than the people it replaced, per Forbes.

[Daniel Mayakovski @DaniMayakovski]

"Hace calor para llevar esa chaqueta, para".

En EEUU, un joven negro grabó como un policía racista le persiguió y le arrestó simplemente por llevar una chaqueta, lo cual para los supremacistas blancos le hace "sospechoso".

Así es la "tierra de la libertad" del Ku Klux Klan.

[Steve Rattner @SteveRattner]

The emoluments clause is supposed to prevent the President from receiving foreign bribes.

That hasn’t stopped Trump’s family from receiving about $13 billion in “investments” from foreign governments, especially in the Middle East.

My @Morning_Joe Chart

[Texas Observer @TexasObserver]

Reminder:
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https://t.co/0gerdlsnVi

[Secular Talk ([email protected]) @KyleKulinski]

Trump is on an historic crime spree and he’s pardoned virtually every white collar fraudster in America yet eyeliner boy has the nerve to say this

[John Jackson @hissgoescobra]

This seems like a problem. Perhaps Hegseth's inability to run a small nonprofit prior to confirmation was a harbinger of things to come. Maybe Senate Republicans should have paid attention. Guess who will suffer? Rank and file, on the ground soldiers.

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

BREAKING: Deadly bacteria found in major US city's water system traced to Mark Zuckerberg's $800 million, $META, data center, per TechRadar

[Dr. Karen @KarMcR]

Facts matter, @JDVance.

For those like you who are so eager to demean and slander Black women by portraying them as the face of fraud, here’s one fact you can’t ignore: the architect of the $250 million Minnesota Feeding Our Future fraud scheme was Aimee Bock, a white woman.

The brothers barred from serving as corporate officers and directors because of fraud are white men. Their father, a white man convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money scheme, has since pardoned dozens of other white men convicted of fraud.

Fraud has no race. Criminality has no gender.

If accountability is the standard, apply it consistently. If race only matters when it’s used as a dog whistle to paint Black people as uniquely criminal, despite facts that undermine that narrative—then it was never about justice. It has always been about perpetuating racial division.

#DoBetter

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum vowed to respond to ICE’s killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo with “legal measures” that would “go beyond” complaining to international bodies or releasing a diplomatic statement. https://t.co/rUnEFLgwj4

[Evil MoPac @EvilMopacATX]

If it had been Talarico caught voting illegally, the prevailing narrative would have been that the election is over for him

The reverse should also be true for Paxton

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

JD Vance displays a photo of a Black woman and says, "I want to be clear that the woman in the back did nothing wrong. But look at this woman in the front with the smug look and the Louis Vuitton bag!"