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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Let me file that under fuck it.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

The revolution will be supervised.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

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

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Second rate reporter says what?

“But what about the lurkers?”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Good News, Sorta

by Anne Laurie|  November 6, 20223:41 pm| 88 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Tech News & Issues, Schadenfreude

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NEWS: Twitter will halt handing out blue verification badges until AFTER the Tues US Midterm elections, per people familiar

w/ @kateconger @RMac18 https://t.co/4L1EctMTIn

— rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac) November 6, 2022

…[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.)

I had heard that Ross Perot's company was famous for trying to build the plane while flying it, metaphorically speaking. Twitter is currently trying to vandalize the plane while flying it into a mountain.

— Jort-Michel Connard ?? (@torriangray) November 5, 2022


day 1: take over company

day 2: fire everyone whose job is to point out when ideas are bad

day 3-6: put out as many bad ideas as possible, like a bad idea machine gun

day 7: oh no where did the money go https://t.co/QdMt1aYBOh

— Rob DenBleyker (checkmark) (@RobDenBleyker) November 4, 2022

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…

Multiple sources and Twitter Blind chats now saying that the company has begun to reach out to some people it laid off yesterday asking them to come back. Whoops! ??

— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 6, 2022

Let me be the first to preemptively congratulate Jeff Bezos for regaining his position as the world's richest man.

— Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) November 5, 2022

Now that Elon Musk has shown me how entertaining it is to watch a crazy rich asshole who can't affect my life in any way, I finally understand what white male journalists love about Trump.

— Millard Fillmore's porcelain zither (@agraybee) November 5, 2022

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

"we will make our product unusable unless you pay us money" https://t.co/9B8EdxyQj8

— atticus goldfinch (@AtticusGF) November 5, 2022

hey advertisers: we'll do shitty recommendations for your products for users that don't pay us money. for those that do, we won't show them as many of your ads.

sound appealing?

— atticus goldfinch (@AtticusGF) November 5, 2022

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…

congratulations to twitter for launching an innovative anti-harassment feature: a permanent, global main character

— tanb leltang (@revhowardarson) November 6, 2022

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Previous Post: « Sunday Mishmash (Open Thread)
Next Post: While We’re At It, Another Social Media Open Thread: What Is Mastodon And How Does It Work? »

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    John Revolta

    November 6, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 3:52 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 3:55 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 3:56 pm

    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!

  6. 6.

    Another Scott

    November 6, 2022 at 3:56 pm

    Elmo’s themesong?? Mayor of Simpleton (3:41)

    Except that Elmo doesn’t love us. :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  7. 7.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    November 6, 2022 at 3:57 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 3:59 pm

    @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.

  9. 9.

    Frank Wilhoit

    November 6, 2022 at 3:59 pm

    @brantl: He’s not flying it into a mountain.  He’s flying it into a cornfield.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    November 6, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:03 pm

    @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.

  12. 12.

    Jackie

    November 6, 2022 at 4:05 pm

    @Another Scott: How did our adorable Sesame Street Elmo’s name get hi-jacked to mock an asshole?😢

  13. 13.

    sdhays

    November 6, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    @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.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 6, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    @Jackie: Sesame Street’s Elmo is awful as well.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    November 6, 2022 at 4:08 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:09 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    @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.

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    November 6, 2022 at 4:13 pm

    At this rate Jack will be buying the place back for pennies on the dollar.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 6, 2022 at 4:13 pm

    @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.

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    November 6, 2022 at 4:14 pm

    @Suzanne: Challenge him to do it backwards.

  22. 22.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 6, 2022 at 4:14 pm

    @Frank Wilhoit: He’s flying up his own ass.

  23. 23.

    Doug R

    November 6, 2022 at 4:14 pm

    I suspect the suspension of the pay to play verification scheme is that Valerie Bertinelli had paid to be “verified” as Elon Musk.

    I see she’s gone back to being herself (sigh)

    https://twitter.com/Wolfiesmom/status/1589311917365284864

    (edit)

    I see Kathy Griffin has taken up the hammer:

    https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status/1589324650374639616

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    November 6, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    @Suzanne: Kids!

  25. 25.

    Jackie

    November 6, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: My young granddaughters beg to differ!

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 6, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Sesame Street’s Elmo is awful as well. 

    LOL!

  27. 27.

    MazeDancer

    November 6, 2022 at 4:17 pm

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

    Classic.

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 6, 2022 at 4:18 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:24 pm

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

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    November 6, 2022 at 4:24 pm

     

     

    @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.

  33. 33.

    ian

    November 6, 2022 at 4:24 pm

    @Jackie: I refer you to this lovely image created by the wonderful Driftglass.  It may or may not answer your question.

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 6, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    @MazeDancer: Haha

  35. 35.

    Dangerman

    November 6, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    @Doug R: Valerie Bertinelli retweeting as Elon Musk?

    That wasn’t hard

    these are mean tweets

    /van halen

  36. 36.

    Jinchi

    November 6, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    @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.

  39. 39.

    MazeDancer

    November 6, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    That cartoon first appeared n The New Yorker in 1976. Gonna be funny til the end of time

  40. 40.

    John Revolta

    November 6, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    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.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    November 6, 2022 at 4:36 pm

    @Starfish:

    Every company we dislike hires real people to do real work.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 6, 2022 at 4:36 pm

    @jackmac: Bastards want a horse race.  I haven’t looked at any polls.  I just voted blue.

  44. 44.

    Starfish

    November 6, 2022 at 4:36 pm

    @Baud: I made a Green Balloons list, so people from here could more easily find each other.

  45. 45.

    Ken

    November 6, 2022 at 4:37 pm

    @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.

  46. 46.

    SpaceUnit

    November 6, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    @jackmac:

    Our MSM is waging psyche warfare on behalf of their beloved GOP, hoping to suppress Democratic turnout.  Ignore.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    November 6, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    The more things change….

    :)

  48. 48.

    Starfish

    November 6, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    @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.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    November 6, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    Funny https://i.redd.it/wfnbm8k8key91.png

  50. 50.

    John Revolta

    November 6, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    @jackmac: Check this out (from Anne Laurie’s earlier post):

    Link

  51. 51.

    Baud

    November 6, 2022 at 4:41 pm

    @Starfish:

    Online advertising is down, but Facebook and Twitter are especially in trouble because of bone headed moves made by their owners.

  52. 52.

    Dangerman

    November 6, 2022 at 4:43 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:43 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:48 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:53 pm

    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

    November 6, 2022 at 4:53 pm

    @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.

  58. 58.

    dnfree

    November 6, 2022 at 4:57 pm

    @jackmac: Does Tri Swine Omega mean anything to you?

  59. 59.

    Redshift

    November 6, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    @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…”

  60. 60.

    Miss Bianca

    November 6, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    @SpaceUnit: LOL!!

  61. 61.

    jackmac

    November 6, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    @dnfree: Yes it does — at least as it applies to Northern Illinois University. But it slightly predates me.

  62. 62.

    Frankensteinbeck

    November 6, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    @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].

  63. 63.

    MazeDancer

    November 6, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    @Redshift: Mr. Booth was always good at pinpointing the eternal.

  64. 64.

    Suzanne

    November 6, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    @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!

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    November 6, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @jackmac: I had the same worries myself when I learned at the end of last week that they were coming to Illinois.  But worrying won’t help, we just have to keep going.

  66. 66.

    dnfree

    November 6, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    @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.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    November 6, 2022 at 5:13 pm

    @Baud: I can’t tell what’s real and what’s snark anymore.

  68. 68.

    jackmac

    November 6, 2022 at 5:17 pm

    @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.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    November 6, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    That is snark.

  70. 70.

    jackmac

    November 6, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    @dnfree: I was but a youngster in that era and navigating third grade (in 1963).

  71. 71.

    Anne Laurie

    November 6, 2022 at 5:25 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 5:28 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 5:39 pm

    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.

     

     

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    November 6, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, those guys think Musk is a hero from an Ayn Rand novel. But he’s really more like a hero from an Ayn Rando novel.

  75. 75.

    MazeDancer

    November 6, 2022 at 5:45 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    Just read his wife of 64 years died 6 days ago.

    Here’s the cover of The New Yorker, Nov 4, 1985. One of your spirit pups feeling spirted.

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    November 6, 2022 at 5:56 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Oh, I agree. Definitely appeals to the resentful white dude cohort.

  77. 77.

    dnfree

    November 6, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    @jackmac: Thanks for answering!  Might have been a relative?  I’m glad to meet someone else from NIU on Balloon-Juice.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    November 6, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    WTAF. It’s Herschel time–leaning into Martians.

    https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1589376446333845506?cxt=HHwWhIDQoaDdzI4sAAAA

  79. 79.

    marklar

    November 6, 2022 at 6:45 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 6:57 pm

    @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.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    November 6, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    @Ruckus: But those two have no humanity.

  82. 82.

    jnfr

    November 6, 2022 at 7:13 pm

    @Baud:

    I can really understand that. It takes some effort to make it worthwhile.

  83. 83.

    trnc

    November 6, 2022 at 7:51 pm

    [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

    November 6, 2022 at 8:42 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 8:44 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 8:50 pm

    @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

    November 6, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    @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?

  88. 88.

    satby

    November 6, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    @Baud: Really? so much value!

    Even more!

    More value!

    Three links max, or we could do this for hours.

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