steven monacelli

It's that time of year

Small menus create hard men Hard men create big menus Big menus create weak men Weak men create small menus

We're about to get started on an interview with Texas Observer reporter @stevanzetti.bsky.social about the trans pamphlet hoax last week. bsky.app/profile/kate...

"The scheme is complicated and buried inside a Russian nesting doll, as all great right-wing schemes are... If you want to get up to speed, read this Texas Observer story written by sometime D Magazine contributor Steven Monacelli." www.dmagazine.com/micropost/th...

The race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico remains nail-bitingly close, and the GOP and their surrogates are trying everything to take down Talarico. New today, @stevanzetti.bsky.social investigates attempts at an "October Surprise," including the anti-transgender mailers flooding into Texas.

Paxton and his allies are challenging that old truism about how fast a lie travels around the world -- by trotting out some of the slowest-footed misinformation I've seen in politics. www.texasobserver.org/ken-paxton-j... from @stevanzetti.bsky.social

Great Texas Observer coverage here

For @texasobserver.org, I dug into the ginned up “October surprises” in the Senate race in Texas. Most notably, the bogus transgender mailers, which trace back to a printing shop whose owners are major Republican donors with ties to Texas megadonors. www.texasobserver.org/ken-paxton-j...

I joined the information war on the side of information

Is it normal for an anonymous Wyoming LLC that sent mass mailers impersonating a transgender advocacy group to hire the lawyer who defended TX Attorney General Ken Paxton from impeachment in response to a court filing seeking to depose people who could unmask the LLC's owners

Texas Transgender Student Union, the anonymously registered LLC in Wyoming that sent the bogus mailers, has retained Ken Paxton's impeachment attorney, Chris Hilton, to represent them in a court cased filed by Transgender Education Network of Texas, the group that TTSU impersonated in the mailers.

Thread 🧵: the fraudulent transgender mailers have a connection back to Dallas, Texas, where a local Republican megadonor used a similar playbook years ago when he funded a fake BLM group to send letters to wealthy white parents that were designed to discredit the BLM movement.

Thread 🧵: the fraudulent transgender mailers have a connection back to Dallas, Texas, where a local Republican megadonor used a similar playbook years ago when he funded a fake BLM group to send letters to wealthy white parents that were designed to discredit the BLM movement.

The optimal state of society is when everyone has their own personal drone swarm

Let's go girls

I would be a one issue voter for a candidate that wants to use public funds to bring back cafeterias that provide adults affordable meals and free ones to children and the elderly

NEW: Elon Musk gave his super PAC $76 million in just two weeks of October, and more than half of its new candidate spending went to one race: the Texas Senate fight against James Talarico. He’s now given more than $445 million this cycle, far more than he spent electing Trump.

NEW: “In Texas, we fight fraud head-on,” Ken Paxton said last year. Yet records show his trust gave $600K to a convicted fraudster’s new company in 2020, which later wired the trust tens of thousands of dollars before and during his 2023 impeachment. with @texastribune.org

A new Michael McDonald type figure could really bring the country together

My 1st for @thelever.bsky.social examines Big Oil donations to TX Railroad Commission candidate Bo French from 7/1 to 9/24—well after French's open racism had become well reported on by myself and others. In other words, here's the Big Oil donors who are funding French despite of his naked extremism

Soon...

Can confirm, Sarah Stogner told me the other day that she intends to send subpoenas to individuals and groups associated with the fraudulent transgender mailers www.texastribune.org/2026/10/22/t...

NEW: Citing my reporting, TX State Rep. Jessica Gonzalez sent a letter to colleagues in the state legislature regarding the fraudulent letters purporting to represent a transgender advocacy group sent to voters, calling for legislators to pass a new law to prevent such activity.

*clears voice and takes the microphone*: ROCK AND ROLL MCDONALDS

UPDATE: Sid Miller went on MSNOW today to say that he did not vote for Governor Greg Abbott, who he blasted for taking money from data centers. I am struggling to find the words to describe how wild this all is.

📣 Just over one week left to apply!

I wish I could bottle the feeling I get when I guess someone's nonpublic email address and the message does not bounce back

Fighting intrusive thoughts about "Postmaster Post Malone" after all this quick learning about the details of postal mail tracking

It's liberating to be entirely honest with people who are emotionally stunted and prone to gaslighting because you don't even have to say anything mean to them to absolutely devastate their feelings

That's right www.texastribune.org/2026/10/20/t...