I've written speeches. I know exactly how a line gets engineered to make you feel something and commit to nothing.
Now I take them apart for a living.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social@theonlyhonest.bsky.social
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialThe people who tell you politics is too complicated to follow are usually the ones benefiting from you not following it.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialMy whole pitch: I'll show you the document, tell you what I think, and mark clearly which is which.
Apparently that's a niche.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social26 days.
If you read one thing before you vote, make it the money. It's public, it's free through the election, and it explains almost everything.
www.burntheplaybook.news/upgrade?off...
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialThere is a version of political commentary that respects your intelligence.
It's just less profitable, so almost nobody makes it.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialI get asked to go on TV and say something confident about a race nobody can predict.
Here I get to say "here's the filing, you decide." I like it better.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialThe thing that actually radicalizes people isn't a speech.
It's a receipt.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialI'm a lawyer, so I read the filing before I have the opinion.
Turns out that's an unusual order of operations in this business.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social38 days. Free Insider through Election Day, no card.
The money in these races is public and almost nobody reads it. I read it every Friday.
www.burntheplaybook.news/upgrade?off...
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialEvery campaign I've worked on had a moment where somebody said "the voters won't understand this."
They always understood it. They just were never told.
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@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialPeople ask why I left the safe version of this career.
Because the safe version required me to pretend I hadn't seen the filings.
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@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialI've sat in the rooms where they decide what you're allowed to hear about.
That's exactly why I write this.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialThe worst advice in politics: "don't punch down, don't punch up, don't punch."
I've never taken it.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social49 days out. I took the paywall off BTP Insider.
Every Friday I open the FEC filings and read them out loud. You should be able to see the money before you vote on it.
No card:
www.burntheplaybook.news/upgrade
@theonlyhonest.bsky.social$45,000. That's what a private prison company put behind the woman who would become Florida's top law enforcement officer. Asked about it on a debate stage, she said the question "insinuates" she'd ever decide anything based on who pays her. This is how you buy a cop.
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialTwenty years in Democratic politics taught me one thing worth repeating:
The consultants are wrong more often than they're right, and they never pay for it.
That's what this newsletter is about.
www.burntheplaybook.news
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialWhich is bigger, Africa or Greenland? Africa, 14 times over. The classroom map is from 1569. Friday the UN voted 164-1 to fix it. The one no vote was ours.
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialTrump's mail-ballot order: blocked in June, July, and again Friday. DHS ran 67M voters through a citizenship database and flagged naturalized citizens. 51 million mail ballots go out next month. Check your registration.
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialThat isn't ambition. Ambition is earned. That's a man who has never been told no. Part 4 of 4. All four are up now, start at Part 1. www.burntheplaybook.news/p/the-confi...
@theonlyhonest.bsky.socialI've worked on presidential campaigns and I'll tell you the ugliest secret in this business:
Most of it is people getting paid to say nothing, loudly.
I started Burn the Playbook to do the opposite.
www.burntheplaybook.news