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- Fox News contributor Caitlyn Jenner giving a perfect Fox News explanation for the violent attack on Paul Pelosi
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As a brief respite from midterm elections news, we bring you…Elon Musk’s official takeover of Twitter. Is this news better? Absolutely not, but it is different.
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After months of back-and-forth that crept up to the edge of a full-blown trial, billionaire internet pest Elon Musk now officially owns social-media giant Twitter. The $44 billion deal closed late Thursday, and Musk began instituting sweeping changes immediately. The company filed regulatory documents today asking to remove its shares from the New York Stock Exchange. By taking the company private, Musk will be subject to less regulation, and will be able to exert more control over it than the outgoing top executives, who he immediately fired. Very dictator-chic move, Elon!
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This morning, Musk tweeted: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.” What exactly will that look like? I have some guesses, and none of them seem good! Musk’s vision of “free speech” and listening to “widely diverse viewpoints” usually means giving extremists like right-wing election-deniers and anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists veto power over content moderation. You think women shouldn’t be allowed to vote? Elon thinks you deserve a seat at the table. Naturally, Republican lawmakers who have vociferously criticized Twitter for not letting them or their constituents do hate speech or violence incitement are cheering today.
- Thus, changes to content moderation will be closely monitored, especially in Europe, where a new European Union law could subject the company to fines if it fails to address problems like hate speech and misinformation. Well strap in, E.U. regulators! You’ve got your work cut out for you. In the 24 hours before the deal was finalized on Thursday, thousands of new Twitter accounts were created and far-right accounts saw their followings surge. Huge coincidence! Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has raised alarm for many who rightfully believe that his stewardship will cause an immediate and sustained rise in hate speech on the newly “deregulated” platform as well as an increase in the number of dark-web criminal materials like child sexual-abuse images and videos circulating there if Musk guts the security team, as he allegedly plans to do.
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It’s unclear whether those asking, “Well, what’s the worst that could happen?” are prepared for the answer.
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Early this morning, a man wielding a hammer broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacked her 82 year-old husband Paul, who had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Forty-two year-old David Depape will be charged with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary, and several other felonies. When Depape entered the Pelosi home, he reportedly shouted “Where is Nancy?”, echoing January 6 insurrectionists, before attacking Paul, and reportedly told police at the scene that he had been “waiting for Nancy.” Depape appears to have been an active social media user, and posts by a user with his name across several sites include references to antisemitic conspiracy theories, misogyny, “satanic paedophilia,” censorship by tech companies, and other themes typically associated with the MAGA right, which will now regain its reach on Twitter.
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A little over a week ago, Musk tweeted (then deleted) a photo depicting himself, Trump, and Kanye West as the Three Musketeers, a few hours after he deleted a previous post in support of Kanye’s acquisition of the alt-right social media platform Parler, and even hinted at a possible future collaboration between Parler and Twitter. Musk did this after Kanye lost his Twitter account for going on multiple antisemitic tirades and, wouldn’t you know, Kanye’s account was reactivated today. The reinstatement of disgraced former president Donald Trump’s account, which Musk has already confirmed he will allow, isn’t far off. There’s no telling how many more David Depapes will be inflamed by a social media giant where hate speech is permissible.
Apart from the obvious issues with tech overlords turning every square inch of the internet into their personal, monopolistic fiefdoms, Elon Musk’s personal brand of “free speech” absolutism by its very nature puts people (both high-ranking politicians and marginalized groups alike) in genuine danger. Hopefully the threat of losing ad revenue (most likely the only thing that could motivate him) will be enough to prevent Musk’s Twitter from becoming a second Parler.
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What A Birthday!
It’s been 3 years since What A Day first emerged, screaming into our podcast feeds. To celebrate, Crooked Coffee is Buy One Get One FREE for this weekend only, WAD Squad only. Use code: WHATABIRTHDAY at checkout (add both bags to cart first*)
Hurry, because the party’s over on Sunday night 11:59pm PST.
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The United States Forest Service ignites thousands of planned fires on more than one-million acres of land each year in an effort to make forests more resilient and limit the potency of spontaneous blazes. As climate change has increased the size, frequency, and intensity of wildfires, the Forest Service set forth a plan this year to more aggressively thin forest stands with strategic logging programs and boost prescribed burns to remove forest fuel that can turn fires into massive, devastating wildfires. But on an October 19, a planned burn in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest jumped a containment line and scorched a portion of a nearby cattle ranch. After a confrontation with the National Forest Service’s “burn boss,” the ranch owners called the police, who arrested him and sent him to jail. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. A prescribed-burn operation in April accidentally ignited the largest wildfire in the history of the state of New Mexico, consuming hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of land. The latest mishap in this particular region of Oregon has only inflamed (I’m so sorry, I had to) tensions among locals, who have a decades-long combative relationship with federal land management. The arrest of the burn captain has also rattled federal workers who have long tried to balance frustrations of local community members with their own professional obligations. The Forest Service chief called the arrest “highly inappropriate under these circumstances,” and an agency spokesperson said the burn had been executed by the book.
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Nevada’s State Supreme Court has halted the hand-count of ballots in Nye County, NV, to prevent the early disclosure of election results.
Supermodel Gesele Bündchen and football legend/weird old guy in the locker room Tom Brady announced their divorce today. The state of Florida kills yet another marriage.
Rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis died today at age 87. He would have been as big as Elvis if everyone weren’t so UPTIGHT him about marrying his 13-year-old cousin! Sheesh, you guys!
A new study shows that over half of Republican Congressional nominees are using their personal fortunes to fund their campaigns.
A sheriff’s department outside of Santa Fe, NM, submitted its investigative findings to prosecutors yesterday in the death of a cinematographer shot and killed by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the film Rust last year.
Hawaii state officials are warning residents of the Big Island that Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, may erupt.
A 14-story, 164-unit oceanfront apartment complex in Miami was evacuated under an emergency “unsafe structure” notice today on the same street where a condominium collapse killed nearly 100 people last year. Wouldn’t it be wild if the state government did something to protect Floridians from greedy developers knowingly putting people in harm’s way? Crazy idea, I know.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has financed a $500,000 ad buy in Arizona targeting election deniers Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, the nominees for governor and secretary of state who preach the Big Lie. Thank you Liz, sincerely, but we’re still not supporting your 2024 presidential campaign.
The president of fossil fuel giant Exxon Mobil responded to President Biden’s criticism of the oil industry’s record profits and little taxation by insisting that the company is, in fact, “returning some of our profits directly to the American people” by raising its quarterly payout to…shareholders. Thank you, president of Exxon Mobil, for the funniest possible response.
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Ukrainian officials announced worsening blackouts in the country’s largest cities today following relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, prompting the mayor of Kyiv to warn that the capital's power grid is working in “emergency mode”. As winter quickly approaches, the damage to utilities will mean outages of four or more hours per day according to the state operator. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said power outages were affecting about four-million people across the country, with 30 percent of the country’s power stations destroyed just in the past few weeks. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin sought to dampen criticism of his chaos-inducing decision to call-up 300,000 reservists for battle by ordering his minister of defense to make sure all involved are properly trained before they ship out. Yeah, that’ll do it. Moscow is also encountering supply-chain issues within its military operation. Even where they retreat, Russian forces are destroying everything they can on the way out. Zelenskyy accused the Russians today of dismantling health-care facilities in Kherson and turning the whole city into a landscape “without civilization.”
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