A case in point: this HuffPost "article" from Ron Dicker has no reporting in it; he just quotes other outlets (one of which is famous for lifting the work of independents). Sure, he attributed more than most. But that doesn't mean you should be sharing his bullshit, rather than the original work.

Despite there being no evidence, some are reporting it as having been a Trump or White House-directed firing. That would not be as alarming as what sources say really happened: that the grossly unqualified partisan Trump appointed to run NARA took it upon himself to oust an honorable civil servant.

#clouds #storm #rainbow #prairie

Also, not for nothin', but I took that photo of Arnold with the camera at my eye, standing on the same floor he was, not on my tippy toes and not wearing any lifts; the angle is slightly downward. He is reportedly 6'2". I'm 5'11". 😐

Sure, the gossipy stuff elsewhere about the sword request, and Melania, and Trump's narcissism is candy. But I broke this story not because of that, but because of the extreme partisanship it demonstrates at NARA now, and the inappropriate power that private, political organizations have over it.

I was just reminded of when the Reagan Foundation invited Ted Kennedy to speak (maybe the only time the Reagan Library saw protestors). It also was maybe the only time anyone—as I did that night—could have met Ted, Nancy, Arnold, and Merv all at once. Also, notice Daggers Lady/Ecstatic Lady.

Who cares? In this climate what could it possibly matter? How could it conceivably affect anything? The Trump cult—including its performative electeds—will suddenly wake up and reject fascism because a NYT poll claims more respondents blame the GOP (by a statistically insignificant difference)?

I know things move fast and we all want to share news quickly. But I have a request: if you read an article that's an aggregation or rehash of original work from elsewhere, please take the extra four seconds to go to that article and share it instead of the rehash—which is often a major outlet 🧵

There are no more constraints on a president’s ability to use military force, and this president is using all that power to target civilians. All Americans should be extremely alarmed. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

#clouds #storm #rainbow #prairie

This story is getting a lot of traction with other media orgs, but I want pause to credit to the person who broke it with some ace reporting: @anthonyclark.bsky.social 🫡

#clouds #storm #antisolarpoint #sunset

It’s even crazier because the Virginia GOP has known about this guy’s Tumblr account for *months* — they found it during their own internal vetting research this April newrepublic.com/post/201304/...

(From at least 12 years ago) Hey, can we agree to burn down your house? No. How about we just burn down the second floor? No. Well, what if we just burn down your garage? No. Can we get together to talk about just which parts of your house we *may* burn down? No. YOU AREN'T COMPROMISING!!!

Outlets plagiarizing, ripping off, or not attributing independent writers is now so bad, if were to publish a *memoir* a CBS reporter would repost and make it about themself, NYT would copy/paste and maybe credit me in the last graf, TBD and Raw Story would aggregate both but not even mention me. 🧵

Also, CBS includes this glaring error: NARA does not in fact operate libraries for these three; not Obama—who isn't building one, and for whose records there will be no library anyone, including NARA, operates—nor for Trump or Biden, neither of whom has announced a solid site nor any concrete plans.

For the second time (the first being my Surgeon General scoop) The Daily Beast's Janna Brancolini, in her "reporting" a story that's little more than a rehashing others' work, gives first credit to CBS News, when I broke the story (more thoroughly) last night. www.thedailybeast.com/presidential...

Told you it was bonkers. lastcampaign.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

What really pisses me off about this article—other than the fact that I broke the story, more thoroughly, seven hours before @cbsnews.com published this—is that CBS calls a dedicated, career public servant heroically refusing to break the law and inappropriately losing his job as a result a "spat."

if you respect the law and the constitution, the trump administration has no use for you

Not much else is good right now, but despite being in a state that seems to believe that anything with high-fructose corn syrup is the most healthy, delicious food one can eat, I have—at the same time, remarkably—orzo, fresh spinach, and Fulvi*, and will have a nice lunch. *the best Pecorino Romano

#NotAScoop, CBS bsky.app/profile/jenn...

Yes, the clear outrage in the story is NARA firing a dedicated career civil servant for upholding the law. But don't sleep on the rest of it: Byron's still-unclear plan to give federal land to a private presidential library foundation, or allow it to build on that land—and keeping it a secret. 1/2

Bulging biceps didn't win World War II, either.

Bullies don't win fights; they win forfeits. Show up, and they fold.

For example: lastcampaign.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

FYI, @oah.org: Dr. Arrington is reportedly a member of OAH.

🙏 If CBS News or the NYT or any other outlet (but mostly CBS News, and more like when, not if—since it already plagiarized my April scoop on Trump's surgeon general nominee Janette Nesheiwat) runs a story on this that doesn't properly attribute it to me, please call them on it.

BREAKING: sources say NARA has forced out Dr. Todd Arrington, the federal director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, after he declined to allow the Trump administration to remove a sword from the library for a gift to King Charles lastcampaign.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

Historians, journalists, genealogists, researchers, museum visitors, take note: Jim Byron, the Nixon Foundation CEO who now runs NARA day to day, in May told the presidential library foundations they collectively are the agency's "most important external stakeholders." 👀 Story—about *much* more—TK.

First topic for the inaugural session of the new LSU Charlie Kirk Lectureship Series on free expression: "Should students who protest a near-all white presidential search committee by talking five minutes instead of three during the public comment period be given jail time or just a $5,000 fine?"

What you want in a career federal civil servant is someone who will uphold the law, regardless of who happens to be—temporarily—in office at the time, and regardless of whose egos get bruised when prevented from breaking the law. Those temp "leaders" should applaud, not fire, employees like that.

#WritingTip: if you're working on a complicated story that has many parts and requires several mini-explainers, don't try to write it linearly. Write each part, getting each one right, then move them around for the best narrative for your readers. (Am trying hard to follow that advice right now. 😮)

I mean, Fallon's been avoiding comedy for the last sixteen and a half years, so why not politics, too?

He's getting harder to follow by the day but I think he said he would be laying off federal employees (which does not happen during a shutdown; they're furloughed) and he said that they would be Democrats (which would be wildly illegal). Do I have that right?

This story I'm working on is... bonkers. For now, I'll just say that there are courageous federal employees out there who do their job and uphold their oath, which is to support and defend the Constitution, not any office or individual. And for that, they pay a price—one they should not have to.

If you've done in-person research at any of the following presidential libraries in the last 8 months, can you please follow me/contact me—soon—for a story I'm working on (can be off the record)? Hoover FDR Truman Eisenhower JFK LBJ Ford Carter And either way, can you please share this request? 🙏

Even more highly unusual is that the NARA, an independent agency, also sent this message to all staff. The CEO of the Nixon Foundation—who is inexplicably running NARA day to day even though he is grossly unqualified—sent it. It's an escalation of NARA's unprecedented politicization under Trump. 🧵

Yes, but it's just performative oratorical aggressiveness. Pete was surely the first to run out of the pugil stick engagement area, no? Got hit in the back more than anywhere else, yes? High-pitched yelps and such?

The applause, if you could even call it that, at the end of that unhinged, openly fascist rant could be described, at best, only as "perfunctory."

Cue the establishment apologists to say that because Democrats are "in the minority" they can't hold a press conference denouncing this open fascism and calling for immediate impeachment.

Note: if this Miami parking lot ends up being the site of an official Trump Library*, at 2.63 acres, it will be the smallest—by a factor of *3.4*—of all the federal presidential libraries. How fitting. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u... *Links to my article re: why he won't have one in replies below

That was Pete's first time being in a room full of men and women who collectively have served this country with greater distinction and honor than he has since the last time he was alone with a recruit just after they were inducted.

And this LT outperformed, outclassed, out-led, and outshined—and soon after this was taken, outranked—that drunk, abusive, disgraceful douche nozzle, serving the United States and servicemembers with more honor and self-sacrifice on any given day than that traitorous piece of shit ever did or could.

This could have been an email. A rambling, semiliterate, juvenile, incoherent, overcompensating, performative, embarrassing email.

Even Agnew was 80% lies, tops.

What does Nigel Tufnel call it when something isn't capable of being defended against attack or criticism? Unelevenable. (I'll show myself out.)

The only thing with which I disagree in David Cross's extraordinary and extraordinarily brave statement is "inarguable talent." Has he seen that list?