Elon Musk is demonstrating live online how to make small fortune owning a social media company – start with a HUGE one.  Making the rookie mistake of believing you can cut your way to success, Musk has wrought havoc at Twitter since acquiring it, firing half of the staff, making unreasonable demands of remaining employees, and slashing costs, even the ones that keep the platform running.  In addition to these mistakes, he’s run off billions of advertising dollars with TFG-like behavior and erratic decision making.  His full on MAGA management style and allowing white supremacists and hate merchants back on the platform has driven millions of normal people away.  Add that to banning any journalist who dares publicly criticize him, Twitter has become the North Korean photonegative of the the company he spent $44 billion to buy.

His most recent accomplishments are stopping paying the rent in some offices, closing data centers, and even firing janitorial staff, forcing employees to bring their own toilet paper to work.  He’s demanding that employees sleep at the office, and continues to run the company by online polls where millions of bots infest his platform, obviously voting in favor of his worst ideas, like allowing TFG back on.

Like others, I kept thinking that Musk is some kind of evil genius with a long-term plan to remake Twitter into a new payment platform.  It’s become apparent that this was either a pipe dream or a myth – he’s now facing a serious turnaround situation with no apparent skills to actually lead a turnaround.  Add his sociopathic behavior to this situation and he’s only making matters worse, not better.  To fund all this, he’s been dumping his Tesla stock which has contributed to its price plummeting 70% in 2022.  To be fair, blue chip and tech stocks have been pounded this year, but Musk’s goofy behavior and selling has greatly displeased investors.

All this is to say that behavior of companies’ senior management matters and the being wealthy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart.  This multi-billion dollar soap opera is far from over, and it remains to be seen if Musk is going to be one of the surviving members of the cast.

Week one of this presidency ended as it began – by scaring the sh*t out of the entire planet (sorry, Momma).  A week ago Friday, the worst, most unqualified candidate in history became the worst, most unqualified president in history.  My most uttered phrase this week?  Holy Jesus.  And I uttered that phrase over and over at each terrifying revelation.

As a case in point, at this very moment, the tabs on my browser summarize the reasons that normal people around the world are filled with fear and dread: US News’ Temperament Tantrum; NPR’s How Does [Cheeto Jesus’s] Immigration Freeze Square with His Business Interests?; [TwitterFinger] Shuffles NSC; and China Military Official Says war with US…’Becoming Practical Reality’.  

Ruth Marcus’ opinion piece in the Washington Post this morning though, sums up this erratic week that we all experienced – alarming.  Cheeto Jesus seems to be intentionally trying scare the world, and it’s working.  China is resigned to a war with the US.  For the first time in our history, we have official US government policy of institutional religious discrimination.  Muslims are banned, Christians are given priority.  Oh, and conveniently, the ban applies only to Muslim majority countries where Twitterfinger has no business interests.  The others?  Not so much.

Of the legion of alarming decisions, though, the one reshuffling the National Security Counsel is the most disturbing.  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Director of National Intelligence were removed and Steve Bannon, propagandist and alt-right racist was made a permanent member of the council.  Think about it – the most experienced voices of the military and national intelligence are now excluded from the highest level discussions of security and intelligence.  This decision boggles the mind and will have disastrous consequences.  The, uh…urp, president has zero foreign policy or defense experience (with the possible exception of his pee-pee parties with prostitutes in Moscow).  His direct reports are either warmongering nuts or self serving billionaires.  The senior diplomatic staff at the State Department has walked.  There are no ambassadors sitting in any of our embassies.  The Director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, is a hayseed teabagger from Kansas whose most important issues in his career have been destroying the healthcare system and denying women the right to control their own bodies.  The Secretary of Defense publicly disagrees with CJ on several issues, including torture.  Essentially, he is walling himself off from those with experience or decent judgement.

Cheeto Jesus talks in the word salad of a 5th grade playground bully.  Add that oddity to his intentionally provocative behavior and isolation and you have a volatile combination.  The risks of him touching off a major international crisis increases everyday.  He’ll finally poke someone in the eye, like China, and they’ll respond with a tactical weapon or shoot down an airliner.  I’m afraid that’s what it’s going to take before the Congress finally acts and removes this lunatic before he starts WWIII.