Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Bark louder, little dog.

Republicans in disarray!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This fight is for everything.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Let’s finish the job.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Social Media Open Thread: Minor Technical (Twitter) Bleg

Social Media Open Thread: Minor Technical (Twitter) Bleg

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This post is in: , , ,

I’m not actually a registered Twitter user, because there’s only so many hours, but obviously I reuse it quite a lot. (I’m given to understand embeds count when their advertising rates are set, so fair use, IMO.)

Up until the beginning of last week, I read my favorite tweet threads on what I suspect was an obsolete ‘desktop’ version, which gave me the default-out choice of ‘Include media’ and ‘Include previous (threaded) tweet’ when I hit the Embed button. I’ve been switched, without consent, to a much more sprawling version that doesn’t seem to include these important-to-me functions… which means I can’t clip down embeds to avoid big blocks of extraneous data, random gifs, or repetition of the same ‘foundation’ tweet in multiple-tweet threads.

So, question for you media tech experts: Is there a way I can switch back to my preferred (desktop?) version? If not (I’m guessing), is there a secret hidden setting where Jack Dorsey’s minions have hidden the ‘Include media’ and ‘Include previous tweet’ editing tools? (I haven’t been able to find one, but their help functions are notoriously un-helpful.)

(I suspect the answer is no, but hope springs eternal… )

(In a better world, the funds would be used to pay down the national debt.)

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    Yeah, suddenly my Twitter thinks I need everything in larger type. If there’s a downward carat at the top right corner of the tweet, click on that to get “Embed tweet.”

  2. 2.

    debbie

    Also, goddamn NPR. Day #2 of unlistenable garbage about the Great Democratic Disaster looming over us all. I just sent an email to On Point, a joint production with WBUR:

    I have been a daily NPR listener for more than 25 years. Every day, just about all day long; I even listen on headphones from work.

    This means I listen to On Point every day. The last two days of this program have been abominable and have just about convinced me to stop listening. Meghna’s breathless, energy-filled giggly remarks about the pending doom of the Democratic Party — after only TWO PRIMARIES! — has been horrendous and almost enough to send my headphones flying across the room.

    What has happened to On Point’s even-handed reporting in even-handed voices?

    You are unlistenable. At least pretend not to be shilling for Trump and his overlords.

    I thought WBUR would be better than this.

  10. 10.

    Juice Box

    @debbie: My long-time hobby has been studying languages. You can’t believe how fortunate this is. I like to listen to the news, so I can listen to it from around the world. I just change the channel any time I hear the “T” word. Sadly, he pops up in just about every news show sooner or later. However, Wilmer makes far fewer appearances.

    The European countries even have reporters following the primaries. The last Italian reporter I saw reporting from New Hampshire looked uncomfortably cold.

  12. 12.

    joel hanes

    “feckless” is a perfect word to describe many of our political actors, and their decisions.

    I think it’s here being libeled.

  15. 15.

    Aunt Kathy

    I don’t know if this will solve the twitter problem, but Firefox has a “good twitter” add-on that forces your browser to use old twitter. I couldn’t live without it.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    After you select “Embed tweet,” click “Set customization options.”

    Below the question “Would you like to limit context in this tweet?” click “Hide conversation.” That will get rid of everything except the particular tweet you are embedding. (But, of course, readers can see the context if they click on the embed to go to Twitter.)

    If you are wanting to get rid of graphics inside the chosen tweet, I’d have to do some cipherin’ on that.

  20. 20.

    Jay

    Among four broad categories of domestic terrorism that the FBI confronts, Wray said, is “abortion violent extremism.”

    But Wray wasn’t only talking about the pro-life extremism that murders abortion providers in their churches, he hastened to add, but “people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic.”

    https://mockpaperscissors.com/2020/02/11/baby-both-sides-dont/

  21. 21.

    chris

    @Anne Laurie– Yeah, Twitter changed it’s public face and as a reader but not a user it kinda sucks. Maybe try signing up with a throwaway account and see if that makes a difference?
    Speaking of twitter, David Frum sucks! But this thread is fun and made me want to weep at the same time.

    Somebody tweeted at me a list of the Obama administration's scandals. I know well that politicians are not angels, so I clicked the link to see what I'd forgotten. A trip down memory lane … pic.twitter.com/UYk3ipAHPi— David Frum (@davidfrum) February 12, 2020

  22. 22.

    Jay

    I remember basically every conservative either losing their mind or pretending to lose their mind because Bill Clinton was briefly on a plane with the Attorney General.— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 12, 2020

  23. 23.

    jl

    @Jay:  Sounds like Wray didn’t plan out the code language well enough he needed to report honestly about what his agency is doing. Anyone not completely corrupted by Trumpsterism has to be careful not to rouse the Trumpsters.

    So, what Wray said sounds incoherent and the terminology is weird, and he had to backtrack.

    I’m just guessing.

  24. 24.

    JaySinWA

    @Jay: The pro-choice cement milkshakes are coming any day now.

    The Fascist/Antifa equivalence is moving on out to any conflict that can be skewed politically.

  25. 25.

    jl

    @Jay: Well assuming that the Clinton plane episode did hide wrongdoing (though no evidence of that), it meant that he had to go deliver a message in person.

    With the extremely corrupt Barr, he just needs to get wind of his boss’ tantrums and he scurries off, quick like a bunny,  to do the deed. No real paper trail or footprints remain to uncover.

  28. 28.

    JaySinWA

    @jl:Burns down the house. Often with people inside.

    I believe it was more common to suffocate the inhabitants when it the flame went out, at least before adding a distinctive odor became common. /pedant.

    But the real answer is that Gaslight’ng drives people nuts. Sort of like fluorescent bulbs. /random-non-sequitur-rumor

  29. 29.

    Jay

    @jl:

    @JaySinWA:

    it’s Trumpistan, so 1/4 of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Task Force is going to spend all it’s time, money and manpower, hunting down the deadly Pro-Choice Cartels.

    Being It’s Trumpistan, the FBI and disBarr’s DOJ, I am sure they will find enough fake cases to please the Evangelicals and ruin some more good peoples names, lives and finances.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @chris:

    I love their shock and horror at the revelation that Obama referred to his ex-girlfriend using a pseudonym in his autobiography, and probably also changed some identifying details about her to protect her privacy. Shock! HORROR! ?

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    A Twitter tax on trendy turns of phrase is easily avoided by anyone with a wide enough vocabulary or a thesaurus. What Twitter should do is fine people for ungrammatical and incoherent tweets. It would see explosive revenue growth fueled by Trump, his crime family, and his base.

  34. 34.

    Patricia Kayden

    Strikes me we should stop asking GOP lawmakers what they *think* of Trump’s moves, only what they will *do* – or believe they should do – in response. As the “he will learn a lesson” comments showed, votes are all that matter.— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 12, 2020

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    Does anyone else here have Steve Benen in an RSS feed?  My feed for Benen stopped updating on Monday and I’m wondering if anyone else has an issue.

    I tried to poke around the MaddowBlog and did a quick search for RSS, but that site makes me crazy so I admit I didn’t spend a lot of time looking

    edit: I searched for the following feeds and came up empty:  rachel maddow, steve benen, maddowblog.

    If anyone uses RSS and wants to test the feed that has worked for years, but stopped working late monday, and can let me know if it works for you:

    http://www.msnbc.com/feeds/rss/byline/steve-benen

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    I had to turn my notifications off.  I replied to a tweet and then got retweeted and liked about a thousand times.  I thought my poor phone would overheat. I’m going back to just lurking and liking.

  50. 50.

    trnc

    If I ran twitter, I would introduce the concept of premium words. You have to pay money to use the premium words.

    $1,000,000 to use Trump, since it’s obviously the best and most premium word.

  53. 53.

    Patricia Kayden

    if newspaper editorial pages aren't going to demand Trump resign for dismantling the DOJ and turning Barr into his consigliere, they're never gonna get the nerve to call for Trump's ouster. reminder: 100+ newspapers demanded Bill Clinton resign for lying about an affair— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 13, 2020

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I have to take issue with Boehlert here. Trump didn’t turn Bill Barr into his consigliere. Barr sought the US Attorney-General job intending to use its powers to serve Trump as consigliere.

  59. 59.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    If anyone uses RSS and wants to test the feed that has worked for years, but stopped working late monday, and can let me know if it works for you: 

    Damn, I hadn’t noticed it had stopped working, but yeah, the last thing I got was on Monday. That’s also when the new format debuted, so I’m betting whoever they got to do that was clueless about rss. ?

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Fair bet more than 100 newspapers have folded since then.

    Since the Clinton presidency?

    I think you are severely underestimating the death spiral of the newspaper industry.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @Redshift: Maybe someone here will have a login to comment on the Benen blog and can let them know.  Or maybe tweet.  I do neither, so it can’t be me!

    I had no idea that they rolled out a new format, so thanks for that information!

  64. 64.

    Kent

    @Brachiator: A lot of them don’t fold per se.  They get bought up by big chains, stripped of their assets, all the local reporting staff get let go, and then they continue to live on basically publishing recycled wire service copy along with Dear Abby and the baseball standing and comics for the oldsters, and mostly get used as wrapper for the local grocery store and big box store ads.

    That’s what has happened to a ton of local papers around here.  They still exist “on paper” but mostly just come in the mail on Weds as wrapper for the grocery ads.

  66. 66.

    Kent

    @Jay:In a stunning development, former Justice Department inspector general @mrbromwich has called on insiders to report political manipulation. I just had a long talk with Bromwich. It’s hair-raising stuff. He sees an “existential threat.” Our interview: t.co/SY15NynwsS— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 12, 2020

    Why are there not already House Judiciary Committee and Oversight Committee investigative hearings happening on this.  This is what makes me fucking crazy about the Democratic Party.  The Republicans would already be on their third set of hearings and would be screaming into every TV microphone they could find.  24/7.   They know how to do this shit.  And all the members of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee have been through this stuff endless times when in the minority.

    Are they all like Susan Collins and they think that Trump will just behave if they look the other way?

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kent:

    The Republicans would already be on their third set of hearings and would be screaming into every TV microphone they could find.  24/7.   They know how to do this shit.

    and their voters respond to their screaming

    Bernie Sanders just spent probably five minutes with the adoring Chris Hayes. Did he mention it ? Genuine question, I couldn’t watch. I gather the great cause in BernieWorld today is beating down the NV Culinary union for opposing BernieCare.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    From an immigration lawyer:

    Chad Mizelle has been a lawyer for just 6 years, one more than me.

    I wouldn’t trust myself, or any other attorney with that amount of experience, to make binding legal decisions for an agency which affects the lives of millions.

    He’s now Acting DHS General Counsel. https://t.co/hQcX1E0e55

    — Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) February 12, 2020

    In the thread it is noted that Mizelle is an ally of Stephen Miller.

    Also in the thread is another interesting tweet with a link to a (slightly old) story about how Trump’s executive branch is being staffed:

    More Koch Right Wing Network sycophants being installed. That’s why they chose Trump … he had no resources to fill positions, ability or desire to govern. Mutually beneficial relationship … they govern while he tweets, watches Fox, grifts and plays golf. https://t.co/MTRXNkMonx

    — Helen’s left ✍️ 5calls.org (@Cruellaisdevine) February 12, 2020

  73. 73.

    Manxome Bromide

    @Kent:

    Why are there not already House Judiciary Committee and Oversight Committee investigative hearings happening on this. This is what makes me fucking crazy about the Democratic Party. The Republicans would already be on their third set of hearings and would be screaming into every TV microphone they could find. 24/7.

    This happened yesterday. It hasn’t even been 24 yet, so doing anything 24/7 is not really in the cards. Schumer and Nadler have already announced their outrage and their intention to get to the bottom of it.

    We are hamstrung, of course, because they’re presumably going to actually, you know, attempt to get to the bottom of things, and not just come up with excuses to hurt their political enemies. Those are much easier to hand and can be stockpiled in advance.

  76. 76.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Manxome Bromide: What bugs me about Nadler is that they’ve confirmed they’re having Barr testify about this… in 6 weeks.

    No. Get him in front of the house NOW. Next week at the latest. If he wants to whine about not being given enough time, Democrats can tell him that maybe he shouldn’t be blatantly politicizing the DOJ.

  79. 79.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I’m old enough to remember when Bill Clinton bumped into Loretta Lynch at an Arizona airport and the corporate media went nuclear 24/7 until Lynch recused herself.

    Today, Dump obstructing justice, we get a meh by the very important people.

  80. 80.

    rikyrah

    The Culinary Union healthcare plan has no premiums or deductibles and covers dental, vision and prescriptions, so replacing it with whatever government thing Joe Manchin will allow probably freaks them out a little.— DSA Pinkerton Caucus (@agraybee) February 12, 2020

  84. 84.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: Ugh, Mehgna the Interrupter. I want to like her, but after the 10th “I’m sorry to interrupt” just when a panelist or caller is making a point, I want to slap her and yell “Shut up, we don’t want to hear you!”  I usually listen to 1A at that time,  but sometimes I grit my teeth and listen to “On Point” because they have a guest or a topic I’m interested in.

  86. 86.

    Mai naem mobile

    @debbie: you don’t have to listen to.NPR.. Download the tune in radio app in your phone whatever and listen to other stuff. They have a free version and the ads are no worse than NPRs sponsor ads. I was a pretty big NPR listener – I even pledge to my local station because of stuff like This American Life , Moth Story and local stuff etc. but I find myself listening less and less to the news coverage.

  87. 87.

    Mai naem mobile

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I am old enough to remember when Janet Reno had to appoint a Republican prosecutor for Whitewater and that wasn’t good enough because the first guy came back with nothing and they insisted on siccing Ken Starr on Bill Clinton.

  88. 88.

    Sab

    @Yutsano: Didn’t Bush stuff the NPR Board with his people, who are now running things at the natioanl level?

    My Cleveland OH station is still really good at the local level, but it is having fundraising problems because locals are so annoyed with the national shows ( Morning Edition, All Things Considered and whatever that  thing they run in the afternoon.)

    My Kent station is doing better financially. It’s a more rural audience. They don’t mind the national programming. Also the station intersperses NPR with a lot of PRI, and music on the weekends.

  90. 90.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @debbie: 
    eh, I realized something was off with NPR when I was listening to in my car at lunch one day some woman comes on breathless talking about how great it was mothers were teaching their daughters how to masturbate. All I could think was “and this is after listing for years women ridiculing men for masturbation?” But both sides are at fault, eh?

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