Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Not all heroes wear capes.

T R E 4 5 O N

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republicans don’t trust women.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The revolution will be supervised.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Good News, Sorta

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Good News, Sorta

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…[M]any Twitter users and employees raised concerns that the new pay-for-play badges could cause confusion ahead of Tuesday’s elections because users could easily create verified accounts — say, posing as President Biden or as lawmakers or news outlets and publishing false information about voting results — which could potentially sow discord. In an internal Slack channel on Saturday, one Twitter employee asked why the social network was “making such a risky change before elections, which has the potential of causing election interference.”

A manager working on the verification badge project responded on Sunday that “we’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to Nov. 9, after the election.”

Twitter, whose communications team has been almost entirely laid off, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nov. 9 is the day immediately following Tuesday’s election, and many races may still be undecided as votes are tallied…

(But there’s also persistent rumors that the new verification process launch isn’t going well at all, so delaying further highly public changes might be self-protective as well.)


No doubt there are plenty of ex-employees (for instance, H1B holders) who will return… assuming Somebody is willing to increase the incentives for doing so…

Looking forward to seeing how the big-name advertisers treat *this* news, come Monday:

On Twitter, the ‘main character of the day’ is the unfortunate tweeter whose dumb / bad / hilarious tweet(s) earn them general opprobrium on the site… until the next ‘main character’ emerges…

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    John Revolta

    So I’ve been asking myself the old question: If Musk was purposely trying to tank the company, while trying maybe to maintain a plausible deniability- what would he be doing different?

  2. 2.

    Stuart Frasier

    While I’m waiting for the next big shoe to drop in the crypto dumpster fire, the Twitter saga is giving me my daily dose of schadenfreude.

  3. 3.

    brantl

    Twitter is currently trying to vandalize the plane while flying it into a mountain. Jebus, that’s a world-class sentence in  14 words.

  4. 4.

    Suzanne

    I joined Mastodon last night. I have had a Twitter account for years, but have posted fewer than ten times, I estimate. I enjoyed following certain accounts, though, especially during the shut-in years. I don’t expect that I’ll be much more active on Mastodon. To inaugurate my account, I posted a picture of a tree.

  5. 5.

    mrmoshpotato

    Good grief, Elon Musk is a slapdick.

    Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.

    Oh shut up, you whiny ass titty bitchass!

  7. 7.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    The worse this goes the more he’s going to try and make up the difference via war profiteering. That concerns me. I don’t like the guy and I’ve never been big on Twitter, but I can’t get excited about him failing. I don’t want him succeeding either. My preference is that Twitter miraculously fails to fall apart until after Ukraine kicks Russia to the curb.

  8. 8.

    Suzanne

    @mrmoshpotato: It’s amazing how quickly one’s opinion of Elon Musk became a sign of toxic masculinity. Like, if I was single, and some dude told me that he admired Elon Musk, I’d be like, “Check, please” and GTFOutta there.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    At this point, the lettuce that outlasted Truss’s prime ministership looks to be a better bet for competence in leadership. Similar to baseball’s WAR (Wins Above Replacement), I propose Management Above Lettuce (MAL) as a measure of competence in corporate leadership.  Musk has a negative MAL.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: It’s impressive, isn’t it? I mean, he’s been a world-class asshole for years (example: the episode several years back about those kids in Thailand trapped in a cave) but now it’s just absolutely impossible to ignore or overlook the sheer pervasiveness and scale of his assholishness.

  13. 13.

    sdhays

    @John Revolta: The only reason to not think that he’s purposely trying to tank the company is because that would make tens of billions of his own dollars disappear, and rich people hate that, even if the can’t actually tell the difference (and they can’t).

    He’s just very stupid, smarter only than the extremely stupid people who went in on the deal with him.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    @dmsilev: It’s totally staggering.

    I really don’t understand rich people. Like, if you have enough money to live out the rest of your life in luxury
.why fuck that up by being so flagrant?

  16. 16.

    sdhays

    @Jackie: I would have preferred Elmu, myself. But I guess the visual of “tech titan master genius” Elon Musk as a simple red puppet was just too enticing.

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    Spawn the Youngest just responded to my admonition to walk rather than run in the house by prancing around the dining room, knees up high like a dressage horse.

    Children can be such tools.

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    @Jackie: Unfortunately, the Tickle Me Musk dolls weren’t selling well and there were all those ‘harassment’ and ‘assault’ charges, so a rebranding was needed.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Suzanne:

    It’s amazing how quickly one’s opinion of Elon Musk became a sign of toxic masculinity. Like, if I was single, and some dude told me that he admired Elon Musk, I’d be like, “Check, please” and GTFOutta there. 

    He’s always been a born-rich a-hole.

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Suzanne:

    Spawn the Youngest just responded to my admonition to walk rather than run in the house by prancing around the dining room, knees up high like a dressage horse. 

    Children can be such tools.

    The kiddo has discovered Monty Python. 😁

  29. 29.

    jnfr

    I actually love Twitter, and find it useful both as a person and as an organizer. I think it’s an important global communication channel, and when Musk kills it off as he likely will that will be a great loss.

    I’ve also been online since 1993 and I know we built all this shit from scratch in that time. So I know if we have to we can do it again.

  30. 30.

    SpaceUnit

    Musk is like a rhinestone cowboy in a Wild West show who twirls his pistols around in the air for seven minutes and then shoots himself in the dick.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    I look forward to football next weekend when all of these stupid political ads will have gone bye bye.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

     

     

    @sdhays: As someone pointed out yesterday, Musk won’t just lose his own money but other people’s as well. He’d likely be better off in the long run if it was just his. And a lot of Tesla’s inflated stock price is held up by Musk’s prestige, I think, and that’s where the greater risk is for him.

  36. 36.

    Jinchi

    @sdhays: It’s amazing to see a man spend so much effort looking for ways to pay $0 in taxes, then turn around and set billions of dollars on fire.

  37. 37.

    jackmac

    What in the ever-loving f**k is going on in my bright blue Illinois?

    President Biden was here campaigning on Friday and Saturday. Vice President Harris is here today and the sadly-diminished but still important reporting voice of the Chicago Tribune says the visits “underscored the belief that races across the ballot have tightened ahead of Tuesday’s election.” With so many other close and critical races elsewhere, neither has any business being here. Even President Obama was here recently (he came to vote, but also do some campaigning). ‹‹There should be a blue blowout across the board and state constitutional office from governor on down and legislative dominance appear to be safe. But GOP successes in a couple of Supreme Court races could give Republicans a majority on the court and threaten progressive agendas. Worse, are at least three Dem-held congressional seats (Sean Casten, Lauren Underwood and an open Dem seat in northwest Illinois) in jeopardy?

    Can someone please talk me off the ledge. Thanks.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @jnfr:

    People like you who find value in Twitter always made it tempting for me. I never found a way to make it work for me though.

  40. 40.

    John Revolta

    @sdhays: Well yeah- but I’m thinking that he’s already resigned to taking a bath and that perhaps if he tanks it sooner rather than later, it could be not as bad somehow. Taxwise, or something. And just put the fucking thing behind him as quick as possible.

  41. 41.

    Starfish

    These were real people’s jobs. We had a small local Twitter office and the estimate is that 87 out of 200 people here lost their jobs.

    WSJ is saying that there is going to be a big Facebook layoff this coming week as well.

  45. 45.

    Ken

    @Suzanne: That’s why I was disappointed with this announcement of a delay in the plan. I have been enjoying the number of Elon fanboys who have assured the world that each business decision was part of a genius master plan, and then had to walk it back* when Elon reversed course. Outright cancellation of the blue payment scheme would have given me more amusement.

    * Though it’s not so much walking back, as a full “we have always been at war with Eastasia” denial that reality had ever been different.

  48. 48.

    Starfish

    @Baud: I know at least two people in town who got laid off. I think they had been there for five or more years, which is a long time in tech career time.

    Tech career time seems to involve bouncing every couple of years to learn the new stuff.

  52. 52.

    Dangerman

    @Suzanne: Well, I think it’s safe to say Elon doesn’t believe in safe sex. I think he’s nearly to a baseball team, football team here we come.

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Zuckerberg and Musk set tens of billions of dollars on fire.  Here’s why that’s bad news for Joe Biden.

    [/DougJBalloon]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    jackmac

    @John Revolta: ​
    Thanks John Revolta. I did see the post. That is encouraging from a macro perspective. I just hope that trend plays out in places like Illinois where there might be some complacency. Like everywhere else, Republicans here have gotten awful and shouldn’t be anywhere near governing. Sorry, feeling some pre-election nerves and pondering worst-case scenarios. And the Bears lost today. On the plus side, my local Democratic headquarters was bustling and it is sunny and a lovely 61 degrees. Great weather for leaf-raking.

  55. 55.

    mrmoshpotato

    What an assclown.

    Dr. Oz keeps trying to act like a Pennsylvanian and screwing up. He refers to this Sunday’s Steelers game even though there isn’t a Steelers game this Sunday. https://t.co/CpxKzVDOHG— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) November 6, 2022

    Beware: Dump’s disgusting face inside.

  56. 56.

    Redshift

    But there’s also persistent rumors that the new verification process launch isn’t going well at all, so delaying further highly public changes might be self-protective as well.

    Yeah, it’s hard to imagine anything less likely to happen than “we’re going to roll out a new feature from announcement to production in about a week while having massive layoffs.”

    Claiming they’re going to have it done one day later is hilarious.

  57. 57.

    Starfish

    @Baud: Indeed. Something said that 1% of the funds for Elon buying Twitter came from some crypto thing.

    People in crypto losing their money fits my just-world hypothesis.

  59. 59.

    Redshift

    @MazeDancer:

    Anne Laurie, as a cartoon fan, ICYMI, George Booth died at 96.

    Aww, he was always one of my favorites.

    I’m reminded of one of his cartoons that seems particularly relevant, and I kind of wish wasn’t “timeless.” The husband is laughing over his newspaper, and his worried wife is telling her friend “he’s always enjoyed his morning paper, but it’s only recently he’s developed that graveyard laugh…”

  62. 62.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sdhays: ​

    even if the can’t actually tell the difference (and they can’t).

    Musk couldn’t afford to pay for Twitter by himself. His gigantic wealth is almost all assets like Tesla stock that could come crashing down at any moment. He legitimately could beggar himself if Twitter collapses, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer man.

    @Ken: ​

    * Though it’s not so much walking back, as a full “we have always been at war with Eastasia” denial that reality had ever been different.

    Jebus Christmas, Musk fanboys are bizarre. I’m used to Conservative Whispering, and the psychology that makes their reality denial work. Musk fanboys are a step beyond. Everything he does is part of some new brilliant plan. When Twitter sued Musk to force him to go through with the contract, they were convinced this was All According To Plan and Musk would force Twitter to reveal the real bot numbers, destroy Twitter financially, and be able to waltz away having gotten everything he wanted and spent nothing. Currently they think the $8 verification plan is obvious good business and that anyone who complains is admitting to [Admit Character Flaw Here].

  64. 64.

    Suzanne

    @Frankensteinbeck: It’s bonkers.

    What they’re really invested in is the success of mediocre white men with rich parents. I can’t imagine why.

    I would sign to end the sarcasm, but oh boy, I’m not done. There’s a lot more sarcasm to come on this subject!

  66. 66.

    dnfree

    @jackmac: I knew someone by a nickname similar to your nym at the Northern Star. I was a minor member of the copy desk maybe 1963-1965.

  68. 68.

    jackmac

    @WaterGirl: You are absolutely correct. I guess I needed to rant a bit. Seeing my local Dem HQ in action earlier today was encouraging. There was a lot of phone outreach and I was able to pick up a cool bi-lingual Lauren Underwood sign featuring Day of the Dead imagery.

  71. 71.

    Anne Laurie

    @MazeDancer: George Booth’s cranky bull terriers were my spirit animals since I was barefly capable of reading captions (which the bull terriers mostly didn’t need, anyways).

    Reminded that, originally, ‘only the good die young’ meant ‘some people leave us too soon, no matter how old they are chronologically’…

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Suzanne:

    What they’re really invested in is the success of mediocre white men with rich parents.

    I think his main appeal is to men (especially young and white) who see themselves as smarter than everyone around them.  It’s Galtian.  Musk acts like they do, including the style of assholery.  He created* some things they think are cool and would require genius to build.  He’s extremely rich.  He validated them, makes them think they are naturally superior and it just hasn’t paid off yet.

    It’s the mental gymnastics they go through as he fails again and again and again that boggles me.  They’re not content with “This one fact suits my prejudices, I can stop thinking now.”  They have to come up with explanations.

    *bought and claimed he created

  73. 73.

    Miki

    Apropos of everything:

    Poem by Guante (Kyle Tran Myhre) at iwillvote.com

    Voting as a Fire Extinguisher

    When the haunted house catches fire: a moment of indecision.

    The house was, after all, built on blood, and bad intentions.

    Everyone who enters the house feels that overwhelming dread, the evil that perhaps only fire can purge.

    It’s tempting to just let it burn.

    And then I remember: there are children inside.

     

     

  79. 79.

    marklar

    @trollhattan: Herschel then broke into the Jonathan Richmond song….
    “Martian time, time, timeWell, it’s Martian rhyme timeWe got a Martian rhyme for Martian, Martian timeAnd the Martians got notebooks in their little handWell, they’re strangers in this landMartian time it’s Martian, Martian time”

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Suzanne:

    It’s called toxic humanity.

    If they can’t have everything, no one else should have anything. And it’s justified by some accounting of something something of value to someone.

    We used to call it toxic masculinity – which of course still exists but now there are women in on the scam, maybe not as loudly in on it but in on it. Think Boebert or MTG. So from here on out I’m calling it toxic humanity.

  83. 83.

    trnc

    [M]any Twitter users and employees raised concerns that the new pay-for-play badges could cause confusion ahead of Tuesday’s elections because users could easily create verified accounts — say, posing as President Biden or as lawmakers or news outlets and publishing false information about voting results

    In what universe can a “verified account” be easily created by literally anybody? JFC.

  84. 84.

    George

    @Suzanne: I am way late to the game with this comment, but it is not a matter of not understanding rich people.  It is a matter of not understanding malignant/vindictive narcissists and psychopaths.  Musk definitely is the former and likely is the latter.

  85. 85.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Redshift: I remember that one!  Of course I spent many hours of my childhood reading and re-reading my parents’ coffee table book of his cartoons.

  86. 86.

    Jinchi

    @trnc: ​  In what universe can a “verified account” be easily created by literally anybody? JFC.

    Musk has actually called this “verified paid” in an interview. Once you realize that, it all makes sense, in a stupid way.

    He keeps the “blue check” symbol, but completely changes it’s meaning. It just verifies to the world that you’ve paid him $8 this month. It has nothing to do with you actually being the person you pretend to be. This is why you can lose your verification, despite being the same person you were yesterday.​

  87. 87.

    Ken

    @Jinchi: Yeah, the only thing that’s verified is that they were able to charge $8 to a credit card number. They’re probably not even checking the name on the card matches any of the twitter account data.

    Speaking of which, would anyone here trust Twitter with their credit card number?

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