BC POLITICS
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

1/ Today, @nbcnews published my latest feature on the falsehoods and conspiracy theories that have defined Donald Trump's presidency.

It's the culmination of many years of reporting, so I thought I'd take you on a little trip through fact check history...

 2/ But first, please read the story! https://t.co/Tn8XRi7VAG
3/ I started this work as a campaign reporter — watching the now-president come down the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 — and realizing that this beat would be different, that this candidate was different, and he was frequently not telling the truth.
4/ I chased Trump and other candidates all around the country for 18 months. By the time we reached the fall of the general election, the falsehoods were coming fast and furious
5/ I'd cut my teeth as a young reporter fact checking other reporters' stories at major magazines for $.

And it had been several years since, but I couldn't really shake the instinct to print all the speeches and debates and take my trusty red and black pens to them.
6/ So, backstory: I was taught to fact check by striking through each accurate word (each letter with names) with the black pen, noting primary sources, and flagging and correcting falsehoods with red pens.

Old fashioned, maybe, but it worked.

So, I started printing speeches.
7/ And I launched a blog, fact checking both Trump and Clinton for the final 100 days of the 2016 general election. We called it Tall Tales from The Trail.

(And while this thread is about fact checking Trump, you can Google my stories: I fact check *everybody*)
8/ And away we went blogging! I remember vividly holing up in a hotel on my sister's 30th birthday after everyone had gone to bed, listening to some campaign ad and filing a short dispatch around midnight.

That was just the start.
9/ After Trump's inauguration, it became clear to me that fact checking was going to be important. He was making false claims about everything from his crowd size to tax reform.

The president had access to the best information in the world, but false claims were driving policy.
10/ Conspiracy theories — which could quickly be catapulted into the mainstream by the president — kept coming: Obama bugged Trump Tower, millions of illegal votes cost Trump the 2016 popular vote
11/ I started reporting a lot on voting rights, which is a very good example of false claims can grow legs. Voter fraud is quite rare in the US, yet the fear of it has driven restrictive voting laws for decades. Many of those laws have the real effect of making it harder to vote.
12/ By 2018, fact checking was becoming my full-blown beat, with fundamental questions like this one that needed reporting https://t.co/szOtRwq2Am
13/ I started investigating some of the central claims of Trump's politics. Like the idea that undocumented immigrants are ripping off America.

https://t.co/fOLRvbXGim
14/ (People still find that story on Google two years later, because people do want to see the receipts.)
15/ For years, Trump falsely claimed he was building a brand new border wall when he was really replacing older sections of wall (the kind of thing Obama had done too). In 2019, he finally started building new sections of border wall. Due was given!
https://t.co/Eds3Dc0lIX
16/ Mexico did not ever pay for the border wall, though.
17/ Trump constantly misled about his trade war, so I constantly called smart economists to ask questions about trade and tariffs. Crash course in international trade? Yup, that's my job. https://t.co/KVAIf4B2Is
18/ In 2019, Trump seized on a really big conspiracy theory: that Ukraine had framed Russia for the meddling. There's absolutely no evidence of this.

His own Russia expert, Fiona Hill, said it was a "politically driven" falsehood that played into Russian interests.
19/ "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary, and that Ukraine — not Russia —attacked us in 2016," Hill said.
20/ Sometimes the fact checks weren't so big and impeachment-triggering.

Windmills cause cancer. (They don't.)

Americans are flushing their toilets 10, 15 times. (DM me if you're doing this, I have questions)

The moon is a part of Mars. (Def not.)

https://t.co/SMdQH5pHOd
21/ Then the pandemic hit, and fact checking started consuming my every waking hour.

(This is a good time to say follow my editor, the other half of this operation: @etjohnstone!)
22/ “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows,” Trump said Feb 28, when there were no known deaths.
23/ “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away,” Trump said on March 10, when there were just over a thousand known infections and 30 deaths.
24/ He likened it to the flu (it is much more severe), he said he inherited empty national stockpiles (he didn't), he said things were getting better when they weren't, he said testing was to blame for rising numbers.
25/ He said hydroxychloroquine might work (unproven at the time, it's since been disproven) and that it might be a prophylactic; he said he was taking the drug, too.

A run on the drug made it hard for people with rheumatic diseases like Lupus to fill their prescriptions.
26/ He said bleach injections might work (hard no), and he questioned the efficacy of masks (masks work.)
27/ And of course, while this work drove the indefatigable @lizjohnstone and I prematurely gray, don't forget it was also an election year!

We fact checked many debates these last two years. I spent basically every weekend before each fact checking everything that might be said.
28/ We wrote briefing books longer than novels to prepare, we did not sleep very much. A bajillion thanks are due to the beat reporters I tapped with wonky fact checks in the days before.
29/ I wrote for months about mail voting, while Trump claimed it was vulnerable to fraud and foreign interference (there are numerous safeguards to prevent this kind of thing.)
30/ But when Election Day stretched into a week, and Trump claimed victory while ballots were still being counted, we were there and ready.

Time stamp 4:39 am: https://t.co/2mBFyEDLqQ
31/ My husband woke up the next day before I went to bed that night. I have never been so tired.
32/ Today's feature has dozens and dozens of links, to so many more stories than I've mentioned here. I hope you'll read it.

(reposting last three tweets to fix the thread break)
33/ We won't know for awhile what the longterm effects of the president's mendacity will be — on the country and on the presidency as an institution — though
@BeschlossDC offered some wise thoughts in the story https://t.co/Tn8XRi7VAG
34/ But, I can tell you: no matter where we go from here, I'll be there with my black and red pens.

See you all in 2021. ✏️❗️

More from Politics

Edwin Hayward
Edwin Hayward
@uk_domain_names
Handy guide for Dominic Raab and other Brexiteers, and for anyone keen to replace our EU trade with trade with the rest of the world on WTO terms...


You can't magic away the vast distances involved. Clue: we fly in only 1/192th of our trade compared to the amount that arrives via sea


But even if you invented a teleporter tomorrow, WTO terms are so bad, so stacked against us, that a no-deal Brexit will be a total economic disaster


And while the Brexiteers fantasise, real jobs are being lost, investments are drying up, companies are moving assets to the EU27 or redomiciling. All already happened and happening right now, not in some mythical


Of course, there are many, many myths that Brexiteers perpetuate that are total fiction. You've seen a couple of them already. The thread below busts a whole lot
POLITICS
Patrick Byrne
Patrick Byrne
@PatrickByrne
READ AND RETWEET AS THOUGH THE LIFE OF YOUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT. WHICH IT DOES. Citizens, I am going to add to the picture with more information. I am not going to let this pass while keeping information to myself. I am going to walk you through 2 narratives.

A printing shop in Michigan prints ballots for Delaware County, Pennsylvania and as Lancashire County, Pennsylvania (this is normal). But along with the ballots it prints on contract and delivers to those counties, it prints some ballots that get diverted to Bethpage, New York.

There, a boiler room of folks fill in "Biden" (often without even voting downballot). The ballots (which are forensically legitimate, given that they come from the same print shop as the good ballots, ) then get trucked into Pennsylvania and mailed. Hundreds of thousands.

We have all of that documented. Texts, statements, affidavits, everything.

We also know that this same ballot printing company (and other firms in the same family) also print for Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia.
POLITICS , LEGAL
Advertisement
katya adler
katya adler
@BBCkatyaadler
Again, at such a key moment in UK and at such high political levels, evidence of deep misunderstanding of EU: The PM is under pressure in some quarters to delay #Brexit vote to allow her first to “improve” deal in Brussels BUT EU is determined not to budge at this stage

2) All EU leaders watching tomorrow’s vote. Of course they want to avoid a no deal #Brexit BUT they feel the deal - so painfully negotiated between EU and UK - is too fresh to re-open. Clarifications, yes but fundamental renegotiations, no.

3) The EU’s international reputation as a tough deal-maker is at stake here too. If Brussels now suddenly “gives in” to U.K. on EU red lines (eg backstop) then that would weaken the EU’s reputation in future trade negotiations with other non EU countries

4) Also on backstop the EU is unlikely to cave in to favour a relationship with a leaving member state (UK) against the explicit wishes and ignoring the deep concerns of a continuing member: Ireland.

5) Both the EU and the PM signed up to a guarantee to protect the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. If either the U.K. or EU can leave the backstop unilaterally then this clearly is no longer a guarantee.
POLITICS
Mangy Jay
Mangy Jay
@magi_jay
I don't think that "Democrats were cowards and couldn't stand up to McConnell" is the correct framing. Dems clearly made a political calculation. Plenty to potentially criticize about that calculation, but it was informed by factors unrelated to generalized "fear of republicans"

What we largely know now:
-There would never have been enough GOP votes to convict
-GOP had the power to hold up *all* Senate business & that means COVID relief (Dems would have been blamed for this hold up)
-Witnesses were uncooperative & would have had to have been subpoenaed

So I think the correct framing is that Democrats made a political calculation that the benefit of adding witnesses (who would not change the outcome) was not worth the political & moral cost of holding up COVID relief, as well as important confirmations. . . .

This calculation can be criticized on its own merits, but it's categorically different than just being scared of McConnell & the GOP.

For my own part, I think an error Democrats made w/r/t witnesses was not calling cooperative police officers who had been attacked that day. Just a few personal narratives from the police would have deeply embarrassed the GOP. That's a missed opportunity, in my view.
POLITICS
Timothy Anderson
Timothy Anderson
@AndersonBooz
1/ A Short Thread About Civility and Calling Politicians Liars.

Nice people are sometimes uncomfortable that I call some politicians "liar". And I don't apologize for it.

But I don't call every politician "liar". Only the ones who deliberately tell provable lies and do so

2/ repeatedly. A lie is different from an accidental misstatement. For example, when @michaelaglasgo lied about her church's carbon tax, it could have been a genuine mistake. But she doubled down by telling other lies. And has since been caught in more.

#cdnpoli #abpoli #ableg

3/ When @KayceeMaduYEG is caught lying, he doesn't do the right thing. He just plows ahead. As if lying doesn't matter.

So which is more uncivil: calling out people who lie a lot OR being in a position of public trust and lying to people in the first place?

4/ I think it's important that once a politician is found to lie repeatedly, like @jkenney , we never forget that anything they say could be a lie. We need to always weigh it. Look for lies of omission.

Civil discourse cannot survive if politicians lie all the time. It can't.

5/ So as rude as it might be, when members of @UCPCaucus tell lies, we should be calling them "liar" every time. As long as they think they're getting away with it, they won't stop. So shame them.

If the politician is a lawyer, report their behaviour to the Law Society.
POLITICS

You May Also Like

Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Many readers have asked me "why do so many pulp covers feature women in ripped red blouses standing in swamps while a man fights off an unusual animal attack?"

The answer is artist Will Hulsey...


Will Hulsey was the undisputed king of the animal attack pulp cover. You name it, he'd paint it attacking you in a pool of stagnant water.


Very little is known about Will Hulsey, but he worked on a number of men's pulp magazines in the 1950s and early 1960s including Man's Life, True Men, Guilty, Trapped and Peril.


Their audience was ex-GIs: during WWII the US Council of Books in Wartime had given away over 122 million books to American servicemen to read; this led to a post-war surge in paperback and magazine sales amongst these newly enthusiastic readers.


As a result the 1950s saw a raft of men's pulp magazines being published to tap into this market - almost 200 different titles!
CULTURE
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
NARHARI AND BHAGWAN PANDURANG/VITTHAL

Once a goldsmith by the name of Narhari lived in Pandharpur. He excelled in his craft. He had vowed not to look at Pandurang or visit his mandir ever, as he was a Shiva Bhakt.
One day, a wealthy merchant visited him.


He wanted a gold girdle studded with precious gems, to be made for Prabhu Vitthal. Narhari refused to make it as it was for Vitthal.
After many requests, he agreed to make the girdle but asked the merchant to bring the measurement from the mandir as he himself would not go there


The measurement was given n he made the girdle. When the girdle was put on Vitthal, it was loose. Narhari had to shorten it. Now the girdle became tight. So Narhari was forced to take measurement on his own. He had to go to the mandir but went blindfolded to avoid seeing Vitthal


In the Mandir, when blindfolded Narhari touched Vitthal, he felt as if he was touching Shiva with matted hair, the moon, snake in His neck and Trishul in His hand. Ecstatic with joy, he removed the blindfold to see Shiva but he found the murti of Vitthal with Rukmini there.


He realised the truth that there was no difference between Vitthal and Shiva. Narhari at once fell at the feet of Panduranga. He then took the measurement of the waist of Vitthal and this time the ornament fit the Murti perfectly.

Narayan Hari🙏🏻
ALL
Advertisement
meilong
meilong
@meilong15
一个北大毕业的殡葬工自述武汉封城期间的经历，凄惨。这应该才是武汉的真实情景，跟很多人的叙述是吻合的。


https://t.co/QYTO1SYedG
WUHAN FUNERAL WORKERS REPORT
Invest Like the Best
Invest Like the Best
@InvestLikeBest
In 1937, a trucker got frustrated waiting for his cargo to be unloaded. He later sold his company for $1.1 billion.

Here’s the story of how Malcom McLean made a billion dollars and which startup could be following in his footsteps. (Inspired by our episode with @laurabehrenswu)


In the early 1950s, the shipping industry was a dying business.

New York’s docks were handling half as much domestic cargo in the early 1950s as they had been in the depressed 1930s.

In thirty years, no one had invested significant money in coastal shipping.

Why?

As McLean found out, loading ships was difficult and slow.

A truck or train would deliver items to the port. Each item was unloaded separately, recorded, and carried to storage.

When a ship was ready, each item was taken from storage, counted again, and hauled on-board.


The cost of this labor was significant. As one expert at the time explained:

“A four-thousand-mile voyage for a shipment might consume 50 percent of its costs in covering just the two ten-mile movements through two ports.”


Yet, despite the industry’s issues, it felt little pressure to change.

Foreigners were barred from operating domestically. Cartels ran international routes. And gov. subsidies eased the pain of labor costs.

Reshaping the industry needed an outsider.

Enter Malcolm McLean.
HISTORY
Paul M Domenick\U0001f43a
Paul M Domenick🐺...
@PaulMDomenick
10 Signs of Social Intelligence 🧠

1-Smile
2-Good posture
3-Strong eye contact
4-Fluid hand gestures
5-Let’s others talk more
6-Listens & relates
7-Comfortable Touching people
8-Walk with a swagger
9-Speaks at slower pace
10-Keeps calm under criticism

[ QUICK THREAD ]


1-Smile

How do you feel when you see someone that looks angry?

It’s a downer

No one will want to interact with you if you look pissed all of the time, it’s just negative energy

Plus, smiling is a sign of confidence and boosts others moods


2-Good posture

Don’t walk Into any social setting looking like the hunchback

It’s weak and makes you look low energy

Plus, you’re displaying low status with weak posture

Stand up straight with your chin up & chest out like a god

Walk like you’re proud of yourself


3- Strong eye contact

Ever shake someone’s hand & their eyes are either looking down or darting?

It’s weak & you probably won’t trust them

Or in conversation?

Eye contact while talking means you’re listening and paying *Attention*

Strong eye contact displays confidence


4-Fluid hand gestures

Use your hands to talk & express your points

Don’t stand there like a robot

Using the hands can make what you’re talking about exciting

It can also be used to emphasize

Exciting = positive emotion

Remember, making people FEEL is what’s important
LIFE