Don Lemon of prior CNN fame, did a deal with Elon Musk in January to stream “The Don Lemon Show” on Twitter X doing basically what he did on cable Teevee before getting canned last year.  Well, it’s the shortest run ever, as Lemon reports that he’s already been fired for asking questions of Musk during an interview on his first episode.  No explanation was given and Musk hasn’t said anything so far about what happened.

Musk describes himself as a “free speech absolutist”, but anyone paying attention knows that’s complete bullshit.  After taking over Twitter and working 24/7 to wreck it, he started allowing back thousands of new-Nazis, white supremacists, propagandists, and insurrectionists back on the platform turning it into one gigantic open sewer of lies, hate, threats, and all-around insanity.  He even allowed the Insurrectionist in Chief back on, but he’s too busy vomiting his own bile on Truth Social.

I’ve always found Don Lemon to be mildly annoying myself and never found him interesting so it’s not surprising to me that he’s having trouble finding a new broadcast home.  Having said that, though, a total series run of only a few hours has to be a new world record for rapid failure.  He announced on X that Musk, apparently pissed about the interview, abruptly fired Lemon today with no explanation.  Lemon announced it on X:

https://x.com/donlemon/status/1767948372999299549?s=20

Despite what he says, Musk is not actually a “free speech absolutist”.  Far from it.  Musk is all about free speech as long as he agrees with it.  He’s well known for banning reporters, social media posters who are negative about him, and others.  He even falsely labeled NPR as “state affiliated media” like it’s Pravda or something.

One can only hope that Twitter X continues to drain Musk’s wallet and relegated to the dustbin of digital history with past stars like Betamax and 8 track tapes.

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.

Mike Crapo is a US Senator from Idaho.  An actual US Senator.  And he tweeted THIS today:

Clearly, after the Twitterverse erupted, he deleted the tweet and issued a second one.  It’s still factually incorrect since Bradley’s body was actually recovered in 1943, but not identified until recently.

Today, Navy Fireman 2nd Class Carl Bradley returned to rest in Shelley. 80 years ago, he left to serve his country. He was killed in action aboard the USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, & his remains found earlier this year. May we remember his eternal sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/5Un8g8JpQV

— Senator Mike Crapo (@MikeCrapo) June 27, 2021

I’ve enjoyed this immensely on a Sunday afternoon.  LOL.

John Boehner has a book coming out, and he’s not holding back.  Here’s an excerpt he’s released, and it’s a must listen, especially to the end.  Trust me…

When @SpeakerBoehner was recording his audiobook I was told by sources that during these wine-soaked sessions he would deviate from the book’s text and insert random violent attacks on @tedcruz. Well, here’s some tape (listen to the end): pic.twitter.com/NFCQ2QFdTT

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) April 2, 2021

Smartmatic, the voting machine company dragged into the fake controversy over non-existent massive voter fraud, got a belly fully of the disinformation about them spewing from Fox Noise, OAN, and Newsmax.  Last week, counsel for the company delivered a 20 page cease and desist letter, demanding full retractions on the lies the networks have been running in a continuous loop.  Clearly the disinformation is egregious enough that Smartmatic got Fox counsel’s attention.  Lou Dobbs got the message and aired a segment on Friday evening that debunked a bunch the bullshit he’s been repeating that was started by Rudy and his merry band of soon-to-be-disbarred lawless lawyers.  It’s unclear if Smartmatic will be happy with that step, but they have clearly took the wind out of Fox’s sails.  It will be entertaining to see how OAN and Newsmax handle the actual threat of serious legal liability.

RBG has died.  Our worst case scenario is now reality.  Cue the GOP crying for an IMMEDIATE appointment to replace her, disregarding the “Biden Rule” repeated 1,000 times in 2016.