The 24 Seven: The Jungle
It looks wild and new, but the old rules apply
Programming: Catch me at 4:45p ET on The Julie Mason Show on SiriusXM 124, lots to catch up on as Washington returns to work. The 24sight livestream returns tomorrow at 4p ET.
New episode of The Ground Game Pod coming tomorrow with the
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1. The Forgotten Man
William McKinley, the 25th president, often lost in modern discussions of the presidency, has been getting a lot of renewed attention from Trump and the current Republican Party.
Much of the focus, driven by Trump himself, has been on the imposition of tariffs and a return to protectionist policies after a century which saw the U.S. become a global super power.
But McKinley was also described by historians as an American “imperialist”, fighting Spain to free Cuba then taking as colonies, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines after trouncing Spain in the Spanish American War of 1898.
Which may help explain the recent floats from Trump to attempt to take Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. (On Tuesday, Trump said he may send U.S. troops to Panama.)
2. Community Notes
Facebook honcho and Big Tech leader Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that he would be ending independent fact-checking of content on his many platforms.
Facebook played pivotal roles in both the 2016 and 2020 elections both as a font of Russian disinformation and later being accused of suppressing conservatives. The platform was less influential in 2024, but Zuckerberg’s WhatsApp emerged as a campaign powerhouse, particularly for reaching hispanic voters.
(Have you read Kara Swisher’s “Burn Book”? You should, she’s been covering these folks for decades, and it is as revelatory as text messages submitted under oath in a high-profile criminal investigation. And just as juicy.)
Veteran conservative talker Erick Erickson's Show Notes writes at his Substack that Zuckerberg’s move is the latest indication of corporate America following the audience and national trends. And the continued bloodbath at the Jeff Bezos-owned
For what it’s worth, I don’t use Facebook very often, and have rarely used it for news and information. I started clocking out of there years ago, concurrent with the rampant death threats I received as a reporter working in this era. I haven’t gone back very often because the website is as gunked up as trying to read a Forbes article with no ad-blocker.
I’m not entirely sure this is a guarantee Facebook falls further into irrelevance. Crowd-sourced fact-checking and community engagement has been a rare bright spot on the internet: Reddit, where anonymous users self-select what is correct and suppress the BS.
But Zuckerberg’s decision hints at a much deeper, systemic problem.
The digital universe has a credibility problem. Why? Because of a lack of quality controls. Something that Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and others discovered which professional journalists have known for years is that checking information and publishing accurate and interesting content takes time and money. It’s much easier to publish weird conspiracy theory crap, but that’s also a short-term strategy which leads to what we have now, a massive trust deficit and audiences seeking new outlets.
3. Jimmy Carter
The 39th president will be remembered today at a service in the Capitol Rotunda later this afternoon, and will then lie in state for a public viewing.
Coverage available through C-SPAN here.
In case you missed my interview with author Jon Ward, who wrote the definitive account of Carter’s 1980 primary battle with Ted Kennedy, give it a listen here (Ep. 14 of The Ground Game Pod.) We talked extensively about how Carter was underestimated throughout his career and the role of faith in shaping his life.
4. The next White House
Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth, who has been the subject of some wild reports on his treatment of women, is tentatively slated to begin his confirmation hearings a week from now, along with a slew of other nominations battles for the incoming Trump White House.
POLITICO Playbook reports that attorney general nominee Pam Bondi is tentatively scheduled for a Tuesday hearing, and other top picks including Brooke Rollins, picked for agriculture secretary, could go later in the week.
Axios scooped this afternoon that Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, is forcing a delay on starting the hearing for former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is nominated for Director of National Intelligence, because the committee has not yet received her background vetting materials.
Amid the swirl of news since the New Year, Trump’s nominees haven’t been getting as much coverage. (It’s almost easy to forget that well before the House Ethics Committee released its investigation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican had been Trump’s initial — if short-lived — pick to run the Justice Department.)
But that could change next week.
5. Court Issues
The next president is still scheduled for criminal sentencing in his New York campaign fraud case Friday (with no jail time), after a New York appellate judge shot down Trump’s latest attempt to block the sentencing, 24sight friend Adam Klasfeld reports.
Jack Smith, who led the criminal cases against Trump alleging voter fraud in his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss and purloining classified information, could release his findings in the January 6th case Friday, as well, The Associated Press reports.
Trump, as well as top deputy Kash Patel and others, have promised criminal prosecutions of their political opponents. The sitting president, for another two weeks, pardoned his son on any activities dating back 10 years. And the Biden White House has pondered pre-emptive pardons for the named targets.
Trump sued and won a settlement from Disney and ABC news for $15 million and has filed a defamation suit against The Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer for a poll which showed Vice President Kamala Harris winning the state. Trump himself is still on the hook in the defamation finding in the E. Jean Carroll case which sat at the center of the ABC defamation suit.
The former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was found in contempt of court in a $148 million defamation case after refusing to provide documents to the court regarding his assets after he was found liable of defaming two Georgia election workers.
And the current mayor of New York, Eric Adams, is running for re-election while facing federal bribery charges.
6. Writing Music
The Meat Puppets’ “Backwater” radio on Spotify - good mix of alternative and grunge.
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Don’t trust the press! Trust Trump! Alice in Wonderland with a triple dose of LSD.