It is really not great timing for Nov 8th, but apparently you-know-who has started charging $8 for verification. That means that on Nov 8th you simply can’t trust the blue tick anymore. All it will verify is that the tweeter behind any tweet had $8.
It is also a really cool on-ramp for any bad actors to fork out $8,000 for a bot swarm.
Meanwhile there is also this observation …
And this …
Why is Elon is such trouble now and desperate for $8?
Much of what is happening was set in motion awhile back last May. Each year there is an event called NewFronts where Twitter and many others sell advertising for the following year. Right now Twitter should have about 15% of their 2023 revenue in the bag, but they don’t, they have nothing.
What happened?
Elon happened.
Advertisers had questions at that event and Twitter had none. Their presentation imploded and so they got no Ad revenue for 2023. Twitter then took the pottery barn approach with Elon – you broke it, so you now buy it.
The lack of advertising is not, as he claims, some conspiracy by activist groups. Instead it is his own utter incompetence in pissing off the advertisers, employees, and also everybody using Twitter. His “solution” is to now fire half of the staff and also break the verification system by rendering it meaningless. What is going on will become a master class in how to not run a business and/or perhaps a class on how to take $44 billion and then proceed to set fire to it.
Moving on, since we are are dwelling on the number 8, then yes, you all know what is happening next Tuesday. I don’t need to spin it. You know what to do on Nov 8. If you are reading this then I don’t need to persuade you (hopefully), oh and bring a friend or two.
I will add one thought. Pay no attention to the polls, they are fundamentally broken. There really is a blue wave of very pissed off younger voters rolling up their selves and getting ready to vote a very decisive dark shade of blue. It is not just Roevember, it is also the utter lunacy, literally, of the alternative.
Tim Kaine expresses it rather well …
Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s dive in.
Enjoy.
Christian Nationalism
Everett Piper declares that “there is no longer any such thing as a ‘Christian Democrat’: “No matter what your political stripes, if you have an ounce of honesty left in your soul, you have to admit that today’s Democratic Party is no longer a party that any thoughtful Christian, whether they be Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, evangelical or mainline Protestant, can support.”
- The vast majority of Democrats who are Christians consider Everett to be a master bullshitter. They also seriously doubt that Everett actually grasps what the words “thoughtful” and “honesty” mean.
David Lane warns that if Christians “stay home on election day, then those in active rebellion against God will get the chance to elect their representatives, who will create and pass legislation representing their values, and so pass into law their system of beliefs.”
- Mr Lane thinks that God demands that you vote Republican.
- The literally millions of Democrats who are devoted Christians are indeed in “rebellion” … against Mr Lane’s right-wing autocratic blend of political beliefs and rather extreme religious fanaticism.
- As an Evangelical, Mr Lane considers Catholics to be “Good Christians” when they vote for the stuff he wants, but then later dismisses them as heretics because they don’t believe what he believes. Literally Schrodinger’s Christians in that they are both “Christian” and yet also “not Christian” at the exact same moment in time.
Kristina Karamo, the Republican secretary of state candidate in Michigan, says that her election “is really a battle of good vs evil” but “it’s very difficult for many Americans to understand that because we live in a secular society” and so “it just sounds like crazy talk.”
- I do actually agree with her. She says that what she is saying “just sounds like crazy talk.” … yes, it does indeed.
- She also says her election “is really a battle of good vs evil” … indeed it is. I do however suspect that she does not fully appreciate that she is playing on team evil.
- Ms Karamo Translater: “Society just can’t process it because they’re not listening to the voices inside my head”
Jerry Newcombe declares that “if Christians show up in great numbers, we can overcome the potential for cheating because the Christian conservative voting bloc is huge.”
- When in fact his “huge” vote turns out to be a tiny, you know that his next card will be the “stolen election” lie.
Eddie Hyatt explains why “American Christians have a moral obligation to vote in this election”: “It is both foolish and immoral for Christians to leave it to the secularists, socialists, and Marxists to choose those who will govern this nation. Such leaders would most surely oppose our Christian mission and message.”
- He is not wrong to suggest that their mission to impose their beliefs on everybody by force will indeed be opposed.
- He is wrong to think that he stands on the high moral ground… homophobia, misogyny, superstition, anti-science, lies, etc…
Terri Copeland Pearsons closed out her Wednesday night church service by leading the congregation in an impassioned prayer for the midterm elections: “Darkness, you can’t have our people, you can’t have our nation, you can’t have our election.”
- She is spot on, we can’t let the darkness prevail, the enlightenment needs to prevail … that’s why we all need to vote Democrat
- She is a Copeland so you know that the symbol she deeply worships is not the Cross but the Dollar sign.The private jets don’t just roll up, you need to be top of the grifting game to get those.
Laura Loomer declares that “the world will be a much better place when I’m no longer banned [from Twitter]. My Twitter was one of the most entertaining and politically informative accounts in the history of Twitter, along with the protests that ensued in the months shortly after the ban. Let’s be honest. The people have been robbed for the last 4 years.”
- “most entertaining and politically informative accounts in the history of twitter” … it was indeed “entertaining” and also “informative”, but not in a positive sense.
- The “politically informative” data that she spewed motivated Twitter to ban her, so she responded by handcuffing herself to Twitter’s headquarters in New York and threw away the key. Everybody, including the police simply rolled their eyes, cordoned her off, and left her there. Once it got cold and dark she was soon pleading for somebody to come with a bolt cutter to cut the handcuffs. You would think she would have been a tad wiser after that, but apparently not.
If I don’t like the result then it was “Stolen”
Ali Alexander, organizer of the so-called “Stop the Steal” effort, really couldn’t make it any more clear: “Any election I don’t like is stolen. … If I don’t like it, it’s stolen. If I like it, it’s not stolen. If you win, it’s stolen.”
- Well hey, here he is saying the quiet part out loud again.
- Biden did indeed “steal” the 2020 election. The “trick” he used was that he very deviously persuaded most people to vote for him.
Political Shenanigans
Herschel Walker (R): “Why don’t [Obama] go back to wherever he’s from?“
- I also would love to go to Hawaii
“Pro-Life!!”
Christian hate-preacher Joe Jones said in a sermon that “abortion doctors should be put to death” and that the “government should take them and slice them up.“
- Just like Jesus would … right?
- Clearly the Inquisition was a bit of a wet dream for this guy.
Bo Hines, running for House in NC, “wants victims of rape and incest to be allowed to get an abortion on a case-by-case basis through a community-level review process outside the jurisdiction of the federal government.“
- Best quip on this that I’ve seen comes from Nick Fish: “Nothing says “preserving individual liberty” like requiring you to appeal to random members of your community in order to access medical care.”
- So now it has become a deeply personal and very private decision between a woman, her Doctor, local politicians … and now also a community-level review board consisting of totally unqualified random and most probably utterly clueless neighbours. In other words, Homeowners Associations on steroids. (Yes, the correct response is indeed FFS).
How does an anti-abortion religious-right activist Ralph Reed justify supporting Herschel Walker despite multiple women alleging that Walker paid for them to obtain abortions? By dismissing the allegations as “a complete lie.”
- He is indeed truly and deeply embracing Republican “values” by looking you in the eye and lying. This of course is exactly what Republican Jesus wants you to do.
Playing the Nazi card
Vincent James thinks that the Holocaust was overall “a net positive for Jewish people.”
- He is making it rather clear that the vote is basically “Democrat vs Nazi”
MAGA Pastor Mark Burns says that what is happening to Kanye West in the wake of his latest antisemitic comments is “true, real Nazism in America” and “a form of racism”: “They are ostracizing him. That’s what real Nazism is.”
- Freedom of Speech has never been freedom from the consequences of deploying hate speech.
- Advertisers are making a business decision that Kanye is not great for their Brand. The new twist here is that apparently it is something that the Nazi’s famously did … I guess I missed that day in history class.
- Reminder: Mark Burns was the guy confronted by CNN live on camera about all his biographical claims being fake, and promptly storms out of his own church in a huff. Then later admitted that he had indeed lied.
Far-right streamer and Jan. 6 insurrectionist Tim Gionet (aka Baked Alaska) has been on a journey over the last few days. It started with Gionet crying tears of joy, but when his new account got suspended, he now knows “what it’s like to go thru the holocaust.”
- Having their social media accounts suspended was indeed the truly lowest of low points for all the victims of the holocaust.
Truly Bizarre
It’s obvious that if anybody can teach men what true masculinity looks like, it’s Charlie Kirk: “Our men’s summit is out in the woods, no phones, we deprive you of calories, of sleep, we break you, and we teach you something, and then you learn how to become a man.”
- “we deprive you of calories, of sleep, we break you” … That’s exactly what extremist religious cults do
- His manual for manhood appears to be “Lord of the Flies”
Milo Yiannopoulos wants a nation in which “a King and a Pope … together declare what is true and what is real.”
- I foolishly thought that we had settled this argument back in 1776 … apparently not.
David Brody gave Sherri Tenpenny an opportunity to prove that she’s not a right-wing anti-vax conspiracy theorist and she did so by claiming that COVID-19 vaccines were designed to “connect us up to the internet of things.”
- Scoring an own goal really is business as usual for her.
The False Profit$
Failed self-appointed “prophet” Kent Christmas announces that God is going to station angels in every voting precinct: “I make a commitment to you, says the Lord, that I will not let the evil steal your midterm elections.”
- You really do need to have the reasoning ability of a 4 year old to buy into the mythology being promoted by this Father Christmas.
- When they once again play the “stolen election” card, and they will, we can now suggest that they need to go talk to an angel about it
Last month, Christian evangelist Mario Murillo announced he was rescheduling his tour AFTER praising “God’s perfect timing.” Now, he’s celebrating a “divine promotion” from an arena to… a tent.
- Good marketing is being able to spin a disastrous outcome as a something wonderful. Clearly his Arena booking fell through, but he still needs to grift so a tent will do.
Christian “prophet” Nathan French says he “felt the presence of a governmental anointing” after Donald Trump fist-bumped him.
- He simply felt something oily and sticky and decided it was an “anointing”. Personally I think it was just ketchup.
Shane Vaughn rages against those who dare to stand against “Trump and the Trump harvest.”
- Shane has very clearly invited his Lord and Saviour, Trump, into his heart and now wants you to do the same.
The demise of a CRT Tip line
Virginia Gov Youngkin set up a tip line to get CRT tips. Volume of credible tips received was “ZERO”.
The entire basis of Youngkin’s campaign turns out to have been a complete lie, it was something that wasn’t happening at all.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you …actually no, I’m not.
Political Stance of the Week
This however is also truly excellent …
Interesting Articles
- Casey Tolan, Curt Devine, Daniel A. Medina, and Majlie de Puy Kamp @ CNN: Alleged Paul Pelosi attacker posted multiple conspiracy theories.
- Alex Kaplan @ Media Matters: A QAnon supporter is leading an effort to harass people at ballot drop boxes — and using QAnon influencers to help her.
- AJ McDougall @ The Daily Beast: Georgia Voter Featured in Dinesh D’Souza’s Nutty Election-Denial Doc Is Furious.
- Heidi Przybyla @ Politico: ‘Raise the challenge’: Eastman exhorts poll watchers to build a record.
- Ron Kampeas @ Jewish Telegraphic Agency: A Texas candidate wants you to know he’s the ‘only Christian’ running. His opponent is Jewish.
- Tess Owen @ Vice News: Paul Pelosi Attacker Wanted to Break Nancy’s Kneecaps, Police Say.
- Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley @ Rolling Stone: Trump Plans to Challenge the 2022 Elections — Starting in Philly.
- David Corn @ Mother Jones: GOP Secretary of State Candidates Scheduled to Appear with a White Nationalist and Conspiracy Theorists.
- Jeremy Schwartz and Jessica Priest @ ProPublica: Churches Are Breaking the Law by Endorsing in Elections, Experts Say. The IRS Looks the Other Way.
- Ellen Ioanes @ Vox: “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theories are coming for swing state ballot boxes.
- John Fea @ Current: Evangelical leaders, including Mark Driscoll, anoint Kari Lake with oil.
- Roger Sollenberger @ The Daily Beast: PA Guv Candidate Doug Mastriano’s Secret Meme Page Is a Far-Right Rats’ Nest.
- David Gilbert @ Vice News: GOP Candidate Said Elites Drink Blood, Sell ‘Baby Body Parts’ After Abortion.
- Creede Newton @ Hatewatch: Liberty Counsel Used Documents From Gab, ADF for Its Anti-COVID Vaccine Campaign.
- John Knefel and Spencer Silva @ Media Matters: Steve Bannon leads baseless right-wing media claims that Brazil’s election was rigged.
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Supreme Court tells Lindsey Graham what he didn’t want to hear.
- David Badash @ The New Civil Rights Movement: ‘I’m a Warrior for God’: An Angered Herschel Walker Lashes Out at Obama – ‘Go Back to Wherever He’s From’.
- Will Sommer @ The Daily Beast: The New Obsession Among Anti-Abortion Activists.
- Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein and Nicholas Wu @ Politico: Trump lawyers saw Justice Thomas as ‘only chance’ to stop 2020 election certification.
- Adam Klasfeld @ Law & Crime: ‘You Must Use the Insurrection Act’: Oath Keepers Trial Witness Says Stewart Rhodes Asked Him to Tell Trump to Seize Power by Force.
- Andrew Lapin @ Jewish Telegraphic Agency: An evangelical GOP House candidate in Texas wrote a novel about Anne Frank finding Jesus.
Statistic of the week
Is anybody actually surprised by this revelation …