I would like to suggest that we all send a get well card/wish to the Pelosi family. Maybe thousands of cards, emails, etc would help the family know how many people support them.
Flossie, I read Speaker Pelosi's tweet about how much it meant to her and her family to receive the thousands of messages of support and appreciation, which inspired me to send her a card. Yes!
Thank you, Flossie, for proposing this gesture of care that we might extend to the Pelosi family. Even if only as a small expression of compassion during an unimaginable time. And it may calm the deep disturbance we feel inside, individually and collectively. Somehow.
I keep reciting your mantra ---- we will win - eventually. But I can not shake my feeling of dread. Except for Jennifer Rubin - (and only another handful - minus thumb!) - I despair of the Mainstream Press. Twitter does not surprise in its depravity - the mainstream media simply disgusts me. The assault on the Pelosi family is truly horrifying and overwhelmingly disturbing. The thunderous silence of Republicans appalls. I pray that we have a sleeping giant of voters that will support the Dems and are not featuring in the polls - which I do my best to ignore. As you point out, Biden's and the Dem's incredible accomplishments barely feature in the news. No wonder so many American voters are so ignorant. And yesterday, Ezra Klein's by line 'Do the Dems deserve to win?' Not a word asking the question of the Republicans. It's sickening
Journalists were once taught that "balanced" news was right, but those classes did not say that Stalin (I can't mention Hitler) should have gotten 50-50 treatment. "News" is supposed to convey reality; how about using the word "lying" when appropriate?
I am pinning this comment to the top. Ezra Klein's essay about whether Democrats deserve to be reelected is written as if January 6th did not happen and as if Trump is not a twice-impeached, coup-plotting hate monger who seeks to overthrow democracy. Klein quibbles about legislative priorities and vaccine roll-outs--both important, but both meaningless if MAGA extremists succeed in overturning the Constitution. What alternate universe is Ezra Klein living in? It must be a nice fantasy-world where there are two responsible political parties and the challenge facing journalists is deciding which is doing the best job in rolling out legislation that benefits the American people.
I haven't read the essay, but I can read the hate, conspiracy, and fear-mongering supported by the Republican Party largely by their silence. Even a man like Romney who has an ethical silence does nothing to put a stop to the wild conspiracy and hate speech by people like Majorie Taylor Green and Jim Jordan.
On a positive note, I did spend a Saturday afternoon with my neighbor discussing our midterm ballot. It was really delightful to have a thoughtful discussion about real issues for a change. The endless hyperbole is tiresome and counterproductive. There is something truly refreshing about rational discourse.
I am horrified by what happened to Paul Pelosi, but not surprised. What is it going to take to make Americans realize that one of our political parties has turned into a domestic terrorist group: the death of one of our sitting politicians? I can't believe I'm seeing this behavior by humans. But then, Trump has released monsters. They have no compassion, no soul, and are not human.
As for Twitter, I've been carefully picking the people I follow so I can have a good experience when I go there. Since Mush became owner, I'm spending most of my time blocking trolls, bots, and disgusting people. Many of the people I follow are determined to stay until after the mid-terms. But after that I think they (and I) are going to leave the hellscape which Mush has created. Going where, I don't know.
FINALLY YOU WILL ADMIT THAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. This has been a growing worry on my part for 4 years now. They have migrated to the dark side without out right saying it. It is all fear based to buy eyeballs and therefore advertisers. Sages have told us that the real evil is "princes and principalities" this means Money Money Money. We cannot give up.
I respectfully suggest that there is sufficient evidence to consider sites such as Twitter to be irredeemable. Without an "adult in the room," and it's highly unlikely that there will consensus on the nature of the regulation, the animals without conscience or self-restraint will continue to smear their feces on the walls, because that's what they live for. The reprobates take over the asylum, now featuring Elon Musk playing the role of The Joker, and the rest of us are left to live with the stench of the graffiti. It's an insufferable burden on civil discourse, and must stop.
I disagree with you about Twitter. We need to ruin it and him, before he uses it to absolutely destroy any decency we have left. He must have been abused on the playground as a child, and he is now getting his payback. That is his intent.
I have perhaps made ten Twitter posts in my life because of what I saw Trump do on the platform. I feel like it's junior high all over again with overgrown and aging adolescents running amok. There were a couple of promising Republicans on my ballot for the midterms, but I decided not to vote for them because of what I see daily in the Republican Party. Monsters and madness. Baseless and soulless. My response was to handwrite a note of thanks and appreciation to both Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Nancy Pelosi has remained civil throughout all this madness and I am more than ashamed of my fellow citizens and the press who continue to promote lies and conspiracy theories to the detriment of us all.
I believe on most days I am a reasonable counter-weight as a pessimist-with-a-smidgen-of-hope to Robert's optimism tempered by courageous willingness to look at as many ugly details of reality as it takes.
Today is different. I have read this article and read it again and again. I have had my eye on the mainstream media and its increasingly shameless tilt to the right for a long time. It has always made me uneasy.
The NYTimes is the worst because its reporters and writers are the best. They are highly skilled at presenting a credible and utterly false balance between their political loyalties and their self-congratulatory declarations of neutrality. I have opened the links that Robert included to both the NYTimes and WaPo (whose particular means of accomplishing much the same effect with their misleading headlines).
I have made my best effort to follow the coverage on the violence in Speaker Pelosi's home in a variety of other publications.
In other words, I have tried hard to do my homework, pushing for my own wait-and-see neutrality. I haven't succeeded.
I somehow feel I should apologize for saying it, and I pray passionately that I am wrong. But I think what I'm looking at is a press thoroughly compromised by and in thrall to an authoritarian minority.
I don't see the subtle forays into a possible capitulation. I saw those a year ago. I don't think we're almost there. I think we have arrived. The press is a powerful estate. They give us the facts we have and they tell us what we think about them.
Robert Hubbell, I am passing to you on this. Climb on your end of this see-saw and bring us back to level so we can climb down safely and eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Robert, you wrote: "There may come a time when being associated with Musk and Twitter is untenable. That time has not yet arrived."
That time has arrived for me. When I learned that Musk had purchased Twitter, I deleted my account. I am hopeful that some enterprising tech person will create a new, responsible and highly competitive alternative. If Twitter is left to the trolls and lunatics, it will easier to monitor them. Just my two cents.
That is not an unreasonable decision. I understand where you are coming from. But do we want a leading social media platform that is only white nationalists and hate mongers?
How should people who use Twitter legitimately react to Musk’s takeover and his immediate abuse of the platform? For the moment, I hope that responsible commentators will remain on Twitter and continue to provide fair, factual, and important commentary. Although I do not actively post on Twitter, I respect many who do. We cannot abandon Twitter to extremists and conspiracy-theory mongers who seek to undermine our democracy. There may come a time when being associated with Musk and Twitter is untenable. That time has not yet arrived. So, if you use Twitter responsibly, I hope you will continue to add balance and reason to Musk’s hellscape.
I don’t understand your thinking and hope you’ll either take the time to offer a better defense - or (hopefully) change your mind. I see other readers also are not thinking of “abandoning Twitter to extremists etc”. Please, don’t you all be the last rats of the ship!
One of the most important ways we have as citizens of our country (and the world) is to try to influence companies (who have outsize power, along with the billionaires who own them) on every aspect of our lives. We do that by our patronage and dollars. We often support actions like avoiding companies (who for instance say they won’t fund election deniers, but then do), boycott oil companies (for environmental negligence), or even states (for policies that are outside our society’s norms). Why is Twitter exempt?
Twitter didn’t exist 16 years ago and we managed to live (maybe with less fear of imploding as a country than now?). Social media companies come – and they can go. There are alternatives (see WaPo article below). Already, advertisers are pulling from Twitter, users are leaving. Not sure of course if that will last but it should be a trend that continues and gathers momentum.
As one of your other readers commented on (and I’ve added a link to a NYTimes article that speaks further to the economic gamble that Twitter represents for Musk), Twitter may well be on the way out anyway, because its a money losing proposition.
Let’s hope folks’ unbridled enthusiasm for Musk’s genius is mis-placed this time. The downsides of who he is and what he supports, the destabilizing havoc he creates, should convince people to get off now, find alternatives – urge others who use (including public entities, politicians etc) to do the same. There will be a transition time for sure, but the hole will be filled by others – hopefully more responsible than Musk.
Musk dramatically overpaid to acquire Twitter by any reasonable valuation metrics. Twitter is an unprofitable and shrinking business. Musk's plans and early steps following closing of the acquisition are unlikely to turn it around. Advertisers are fleeing the forum and for good reason. Most advertisers do not imagine a troll farm as their target market space. Musk owes over $1 billion annually in interest payments alone to the lenders who supported his acquisition. It is clear that to support that Musk will need to increase revenues dramatically and to do so he will need the pick the pockets of the trolls who populate Twitter. His announced plans to charge a monthly "troll fee" (my own characterization of Blue Twitter "verification") shows where he expects to find some of that revenue. His management style of threatening employees with layoffs to "inspire" their productivity shows he has similar disdain for both his employees and his customers.
He might well be simply sitting in front of a $44 billion burning dumpster fire and pouring gasoline on it.
I would like to suggest that we all send a get well card/wish to the Pelosi family. Maybe thousands of cards, emails, etc would help the family know how many people support them.
From her site:
Washington, DC Office
1236 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
phone: (202) 225-4965
hours: M-F 9-5:30pm
US Capitol Building
San Francisco District Office
90 7th Street
Suite 2-800
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: (415) 556-4862
hours: M-F 9-5:30pm
Flossie, I read Speaker Pelosi's tweet about how much it meant to her and her family to receive the thousands of messages of support and appreciation, which inspired me to send her a card. Yes!
Thank you, Flossie, for proposing this gesture of care that we might extend to the Pelosi family. Even if only as a small expression of compassion during an unimaginable time. And it may calm the deep disturbance we feel inside, individually and collectively. Somehow.
Pinning to the top.
I keep reciting your mantra ---- we will win - eventually. But I can not shake my feeling of dread. Except for Jennifer Rubin - (and only another handful - minus thumb!) - I despair of the Mainstream Press. Twitter does not surprise in its depravity - the mainstream media simply disgusts me. The assault on the Pelosi family is truly horrifying and overwhelmingly disturbing. The thunderous silence of Republicans appalls. I pray that we have a sleeping giant of voters that will support the Dems and are not featuring in the polls - which I do my best to ignore. As you point out, Biden's and the Dem's incredible accomplishments barely feature in the news. No wonder so many American voters are so ignorant. And yesterday, Ezra Klein's by line 'Do the Dems deserve to win?' Not a word asking the question of the Republicans. It's sickening
Indeed, Republicans silence disgusting.
Journalists were once taught that "balanced" news was right, but those classes did not say that Stalin (I can't mention Hitler) should have gotten 50-50 treatment. "News" is supposed to convey reality; how about using the word "lying" when appropriate?
Hear hear-- using the word “lying” would of course be approoriate, correct Journalism.
The Democrats fundraising email bots do use “lies” “lied” “lying.”
It’s all about the conservative right wing corporation that bought and are buying up the airwaves.
Robert B. Hubbell, your community is the only safe truthful (social media) community I know.
Also, Heather Cox Richardson and many Democratic grassroots organizations.
I am pinning this comment to the top. Ezra Klein's essay about whether Democrats deserve to be reelected is written as if January 6th did not happen and as if Trump is not a twice-impeached, coup-plotting hate monger who seeks to overthrow democracy. Klein quibbles about legislative priorities and vaccine roll-outs--both important, but both meaningless if MAGA extremists succeed in overturning the Constitution. What alternate universe is Ezra Klein living in? It must be a nice fantasy-world where there are two responsible political parties and the challenge facing journalists is deciding which is doing the best job in rolling out legislation that benefits the American people.
I haven't read the essay, but I can read the hate, conspiracy, and fear-mongering supported by the Republican Party largely by their silence. Even a man like Romney who has an ethical silence does nothing to put a stop to the wild conspiracy and hate speech by people like Majorie Taylor Green and Jim Jordan.
On a positive note, I did spend a Saturday afternoon with my neighbor discussing our midterm ballot. It was really delightful to have a thoughtful discussion about real issues for a change. The endless hyperbole is tiresome and counterproductive. There is something truly refreshing about rational discourse.
PostScript
Also, Jessica Craven, Chop Wood, Carry Water today is setting up a community chat room for paid subscribers, expanding the Truth community post-Musk.
I am horrified by what happened to Paul Pelosi, but not surprised. What is it going to take to make Americans realize that one of our political parties has turned into a domestic terrorist group: the death of one of our sitting politicians? I can't believe I'm seeing this behavior by humans. But then, Trump has released monsters. They have no compassion, no soul, and are not human.
As for Twitter, I've been carefully picking the people I follow so I can have a good experience when I go there. Since Mush became owner, I'm spending most of my time blocking trolls, bots, and disgusting people. Many of the people I follow are determined to stay until after the mid-terms. But after that I think they (and I) are going to leave the hellscape which Mush has created. Going where, I don't know.
FINALLY YOU WILL ADMIT THAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. This has been a growing worry on my part for 4 years now. They have migrated to the dark side without out right saying it. It is all fear based to buy eyeballs and therefore advertisers. Sages have told us that the real evil is "princes and principalities" this means Money Money Money. We cannot give up.
I respectfully suggest that there is sufficient evidence to consider sites such as Twitter to be irredeemable. Without an "adult in the room," and it's highly unlikely that there will consensus on the nature of the regulation, the animals without conscience or self-restraint will continue to smear their feces on the walls, because that's what they live for. The reprobates take over the asylum, now featuring Elon Musk playing the role of The Joker, and the rest of us are left to live with the stench of the graffiti. It's an insufferable burden on civil discourse, and must stop.
Why isn’t Obama campaigning for Val Demings in Florida?
Alice E, Wondered the same -- why no Obama supporting Val Demings in Florida.
Val Demings is a terrific public servant compared to her opponent.
Perhaps it is time once again to encourage companies to not advertise on Twitter.
DEFUND THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA!
I disagree with you about Twitter. We need to ruin it and him, before he uses it to absolutely destroy any decency we have left. He must have been abused on the playground as a child, and he is now getting his payback. That is his intent.
I have perhaps made ten Twitter posts in my life because of what I saw Trump do on the platform. I feel like it's junior high all over again with overgrown and aging adolescents running amok. There were a couple of promising Republicans on my ballot for the midterms, but I decided not to vote for them because of what I see daily in the Republican Party. Monsters and madness. Baseless and soulless. My response was to handwrite a note of thanks and appreciation to both Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Nancy Pelosi has remained civil throughout all this madness and I am more than ashamed of my fellow citizens and the press who continue to promote lies and conspiracy theories to the detriment of us all.
I believe on most days I am a reasonable counter-weight as a pessimist-with-a-smidgen-of-hope to Robert's optimism tempered by courageous willingness to look at as many ugly details of reality as it takes.
Today is different. I have read this article and read it again and again. I have had my eye on the mainstream media and its increasingly shameless tilt to the right for a long time. It has always made me uneasy.
The NYTimes is the worst because its reporters and writers are the best. They are highly skilled at presenting a credible and utterly false balance between their political loyalties and their self-congratulatory declarations of neutrality. I have opened the links that Robert included to both the NYTimes and WaPo (whose particular means of accomplishing much the same effect with their misleading headlines).
I have made my best effort to follow the coverage on the violence in Speaker Pelosi's home in a variety of other publications.
In other words, I have tried hard to do my homework, pushing for my own wait-and-see neutrality. I haven't succeeded.
I somehow feel I should apologize for saying it, and I pray passionately that I am wrong. But I think what I'm looking at is a press thoroughly compromised by and in thrall to an authoritarian minority.
I don't see the subtle forays into a possible capitulation. I saw those a year ago. I don't think we're almost there. I think we have arrived. The press is a powerful estate. They give us the facts we have and they tell us what we think about them.
Robert Hubbell, I am passing to you on this. Climb on your end of this see-saw and bring us back to level so we can climb down safely and eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Robert, you wrote: "There may come a time when being associated with Musk and Twitter is untenable. That time has not yet arrived."
That time has arrived for me. When I learned that Musk had purchased Twitter, I deleted my account. I am hopeful that some enterprising tech person will create a new, responsible and highly competitive alternative. If Twitter is left to the trolls and lunatics, it will easier to monitor them. Just my two cents.
That is not an unreasonable decision. I understand where you are coming from. But do we want a leading social media platform that is only white nationalists and hate mongers?
It's time to move on past marveling at the awfulness of the media and talk about how the financial
interests of owners control what we read and hear.
Re: your comment:
How should people who use Twitter legitimately react to Musk’s takeover and his immediate abuse of the platform? For the moment, I hope that responsible commentators will remain on Twitter and continue to provide fair, factual, and important commentary. Although I do not actively post on Twitter, I respect many who do. We cannot abandon Twitter to extremists and conspiracy-theory mongers who seek to undermine our democracy. There may come a time when being associated with Musk and Twitter is untenable. That time has not yet arrived. So, if you use Twitter responsibly, I hope you will continue to add balance and reason to Musk’s hellscape.
I don’t understand your thinking and hope you’ll either take the time to offer a better defense - or (hopefully) change your mind. I see other readers also are not thinking of “abandoning Twitter to extremists etc”. Please, don’t you all be the last rats of the ship!
One of the most important ways we have as citizens of our country (and the world) is to try to influence companies (who have outsize power, along with the billionaires who own them) on every aspect of our lives. We do that by our patronage and dollars. We often support actions like avoiding companies (who for instance say they won’t fund election deniers, but then do), boycott oil companies (for environmental negligence), or even states (for policies that are outside our society’s norms). Why is Twitter exempt?
Twitter didn’t exist 16 years ago and we managed to live (maybe with less fear of imploding as a country than now?). Social media companies come – and they can go. There are alternatives (see WaPo article below). Already, advertisers are pulling from Twitter, users are leaving. Not sure of course if that will last but it should be a trend that continues and gathers momentum.
As one of your other readers commented on (and I’ve added a link to a NYTimes article that speaks further to the economic gamble that Twitter represents for Musk), Twitter may well be on the way out anyway, because its a money losing proposition.
Let’s hope folks’ unbridled enthusiasm for Musk’s genius is mis-placed this time. The downsides of who he is and what he supports, the destabilizing havoc he creates, should convince people to get off now, find alternatives – urge others who use (including public entities, politicians etc) to do the same. There will be a transition time for sure, but the hole will be filled by others – hopefully more responsible than Musk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/29/twitter-alternatives/
from Hubbell commenter, Bruce Carpenter:
Musk dramatically overpaid to acquire Twitter by any reasonable valuation metrics. Twitter is an unprofitable and shrinking business. Musk's plans and early steps following closing of the acquisition are unlikely to turn it around. Advertisers are fleeing the forum and for good reason. Most advertisers do not imagine a troll farm as their target market space. Musk owes over $1 billion annually in interest payments alone to the lenders who supported his acquisition. It is clear that to support that Musk will need to increase revenues dramatically and to do so he will need the pick the pockets of the trolls who populate Twitter. His announced plans to charge a monthly "troll fee" (my own characterization of Blue Twitter "verification") shows where he expects to find some of that revenue. His management style of threatening employees with layoffs to "inspire" their productivity shows he has similar disdain for both his employees and his customers.
He might well be simply sitting in front of a $44 billion burning dumpster fire and pouring gasoline on it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/technology/elon-musk-twitter-debt.html
Thank you, Robert for this call out on Musk and Mainstream Media. "If it bleeds it leads." is media headlines. The
attack on Mr. Pelosi was ditched for the
higher Halloween Crush in S. Korea and
the tragedy in India. As for Musk, he's
a pot stirrer with billions at his fingertips.
That's no reason to be afraid of him or
his take over of Twitter. I agree with
Robert, if you're a reasonable, fact, truthful voice on that platform, keep up
your work there. Don't let him silence
you. Musk is a self-important bully.
As for the Mainstream Media, they all
have email addresses you can contact
them at to send feedback. Speak up!
Let them know how you feel. Persist!