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Tim Evanson

@timinthecle.bsky.social

190 followers 71 following 2.8K posts

Writer, political scientist, historian, photographer. My treeing Walker coonhound is Ellie Mae. I live in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I'm from Montana.

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Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 15h

October 11, 1987 - The Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights occurs in Washington, D.C.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is fully unveiled in public for the first time.

#gayhistory #LGBTQHistory

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 15h

"The Innocents"

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 15h

Gratuitously violent and misogynistic.

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

First Brands tried to get new lending in September 2025 to pay off some of its most high-interest debt, and tried to renegotiate other debt.

No one wanted to do that.

BELLY UP!!!

fini!

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

Because the private credit market is completely unregulated, none of the creditors knew the money was pledged to everyone else.

First Brands began running into trouble last year. The #TrumpTariffs completely upended its business model. Costs soared, consumers stopped spending.

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

First Brands told its private creditors and bank that it had X amount of money coming in every month from big corporate buyers like General Motors, Ford, Auto Zone, and the like. It pledged this money to pay off the loans.

The problem was, it pledged the same revenue to EVERYONE.

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

About half its financing came as "private credit", loans from billionaires and others.

Jefferies, the New York investment bank, and BlackRock, the New York investment management company, put billionaires and private funds in contact with First Brands.

The loans came pouring in.

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

In 2024, it acquired Lumileds (and its Narva subsidiary, makers of lamps, bulbs, and lighting accessories).

It didn't pay in cash.

It issued some $6 billion of junk-bond debt. That's not unusual. It got $500 million in loans from the Swiss bank, UBS. No big deal.

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

Hopkins made FloTool funnels and drain pans; Lumax grease guns, pumps, oilers, and filter wrenches; Bell seat covers; Victor and MonkeyGrip tire repair and roadside emergency products; BrakeBuddy towing products; Blazer lights and bulbs; and SubZero ice removal tools).

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

Another spending spree came in 2023, as it gobbled up Horizon Global Corp (Reese, Bulldog, Tenkonsha, Draw-Tite, and Westfalia towing products), Cardone Industries (brakes, rack and pinion, drive shafts, throttles, and power steering components), Bendix (brakes), and Hopkins Manufacturing.

more....

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

Rechristened as First Brands Group in 2020, it acquired Pylon Manufacturing (manufacturer of wipers marketed under the Michelin, BF Goodrich, and Pylon brands) in 2022.

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

In 2020, it added Trico (wipers, and trongarm, gas lifts and supports), Anco (wipers), Brake Parts (and Raybestos, brakes and brake parts), Champion Laboratories (Luberfiner [oil and gas filters], Champion [wipers], Petroclear [fuel filters], and Champ Filters), and Centric Parts (StopTech brakes).

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

Crowne purchased Carter Fuel Systems (water and fuel pumps) and Parthenon Metal Works (tubing and tubular fabrications) in 2015.

In 2019, it acquired Airtex/ASC (fuel and water pumps), Fram (oil and filters), and Autolite (spark plugs).

more...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 21h

First Brands was founded in 2013 by Malaysian-born businessman Patrick James. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, it was originally called Crowne Group.

Shady financing collapsed after #TrumpTariffs.

more....

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/b...

Billions of Dollars ‘Vanished’: Low-Profile Bankruptcy Rings Alarms on Wall Street

www.nytimes.com

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 23h

"The Trump Bump" is like acne.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A Great Year for US Stocks? Not Compared to Rest of the World

Check a ranking of the best-performing equity indexes this year and the US doesn’t crack the Top 10. You won’t find it in the Top 25, either. Double that, and the S&P 500 is still absent.

www.bloomberg.com

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 23h

www.iar-gwu.org/print-archiv...

An Analysis of Qatari Connections to Illicit Terror Financing and the Resulting Foreign Policy Implications — THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS REVIEW

Abstract Studying Qatar’s relationship with illicit financing of terror, this paper seeks to understand the complicated relationship between Qatar’s counterterrorism efforts and the resultingimplica...

www.iar-gwu.org

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 23h

#DonaldTrump #Qatar #Idaho

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 23h

In addition to the funding provided by the Qatari government, at least 59 Qatari nationals provide hundreds of millions of dollars a year to terrorists and terror organizations.

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 23h

Nothing says "America First" like allowing the nation that gave billions to al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, al-Shabaab, the Taliban, Ahrar al-Sham, Libyan Dawn, and the Nusrah Front a base on American soil.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/p...

US announces it will allow Qatar to build an Air Force facility in Idaho | CNN Politics

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the US will allow Qatar to build an Air Force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, which will host Qatari F-15 fighter jets and...

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 23h

In addition to official government support, at least 59 Qatari nationals provide hundreds of millions of dollar to terrorists and terror organizations.

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 1d

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 1d

The War in Portland

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 1d

Donald Trump is planning an massive Arc de Triomphe-style gate at the front of Arlington National Cemetery to celebrate his "military victories".

It will be THREE TIMES the size of the Lincoln Memorial.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Is Trump plotting an Arc de Triomphe-style building in DC?

According to a scale model, the grand building will be bigger than the Lincoln Memorial, which it will face on the other side of the Potomac

www.independent.co.uk

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 1d

Souls on the Banks of the Acheron
by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl
1898, oil on canvas

You want creepy? Look at the two dead children sitting by their mother's knee. (She's in the diaphanous light blue.)

Tim Evanson @timinthecle.bsky.social · 2d

Let's pray to God that he never has to send nuclear codes to Pete Kegseth...