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.

I’ve never been much of a Twitter user, primarily finding it occasionally useful to follow breaking stories.  When Elon took over the platform, though, I decided to follow him and others to see the effects on the platform itself as he consolidated power in the company.  My conclusions, as you can imagine, are not good.  First, just an observation, and it’s no secret – Twitter is already an open sewer of nonsense, misinformation, and dumbasses who don’t know how many hours are in a day, those who can’t do simple arithmetic, and those who have very low reading comprehension.

Then Elon took over, and it’s gotten worse.  A lot worse.  First, Musk is as impulsive and immature as a high school freshman complete with erratic behavior and childish judgment.  Add that to the fact that he has no guardrails to guide him, and being the richest man in the world there’s no one around him to keep him from acting out his worst tendencies.  After the takeover on Thursday, he fired the senior management team including those in charge of moderation of the platform, and has been hinting at massive layoffs of other employees.  He’s also on record of being opposed to blocking racists, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, anti-semites, and outright weirdos.  He’s more than hinted that he’ll let TFG and Kanye West back on the platform.  Use of the N-word on Twitter  is up over 500% since he took over.  Worse, he’s participating in misinformation himself retweeting, then later deleting an idiotic homophobic conspiracy theory that Paul Pelosi’s attacker was actually a male prostitute that Pelosi had brought to the house. His deleted retweet was directed at…wait for it…Hillary Clinton.  That’s right, the “Chief Twit” showed such poor judgment that he amplified this idiocy to his 112 MILLION followers.

Elon’s control of Twitter has a LOT more downside than upside for not only him financially, but for simple common decency.  Twitter is highly influential over global society and it’s critical that it gets it right between balancing free speech principles against threatening language and intentional disinformation.  He’s demonstrated that he has no qualifications to not just manage this issue, but even to recognize it exists.

I am not hopeful for any good coming from this takeover, and can only hope that twitter goes the way of MySpace and Lotus 123.

The U. S. House of Representatives has voted on bills to make lynching a federal hate crime over 200 times in the last 122 years. Today, for the only the second time, they’ve passed one. The first was passed in 2020, but didn’t pass the Senate.

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act passed almost unanimously. 422-3 was the final vote, with only three Republican senators – all white men from the south – voting nay.

Of course, one of the racist nincompoops calls himself a Texan. Chip Roy, former Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Cruz, stayed “true to form” and made sure that southern white men could have as many loopholes as possible to get away with any murder of a black person. By rope. Anywhere in the country.

In fact, Roy has been very clear that he is pro-lynching. “There’s old sayings in Texas about ‘find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree,’” Roy said. “You know, we take justice very seriously, and we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys. That’s what we believe.” He isn’t wrong. There are over 600 documented lynchings in Texas history, and those are just the ones we know about.

Please take some time to visit Lynching In Texas. Then, send the link to Chip Roy at chip.roy@mail.house.gov, reminding him he’s making $174,000 a year and needs to stop playing stupid games because Texas does not need any more stupid prizes. We’re full.

Roy, as a Texas lawmaker, knows that vigilante justice is against the law. Unless it’s done by a white person? I guess? Yay for vigilantes!

But wait! When a black man in Minneapolis was convicted of arson during a protest about the injustice of George Floyd’s death, Roy was really upset that the man wasn’t given the maximum sentence. Some people are saying that the man was just out seeking justice. Still, Roy objected. “This is a man that clearly has no respect for our laws,” he said. Well, now I’m confused. Does he care for justice or not?

As usual, Roy is full of bullpoop. Roy is a disgusting white supremacist and, as we say here at the salon, full of gleeful cruelty and dickishness.

The bill will advance to the Senate, where Republicans will once again do whatever they can to kill it.

Today marks 0 days that Texas Republicans have not made a fool of themselves.

Dr. Jeannie Stone recently resigned her position as Superintendent of Richardson ISD. Richardson, Texas is an urban school district just North of Dallas. Stone was voted 2019 Superintendent of the year, and for good reason. Richardson ISD a majority-minority school district, and 56.9% of its students are economically disadvantaged, yet Richardson ISD graduates 91% of its kids.

Dr. Stone first drew the attention of the angry crowd when she stepped up in 2018 and met with student activists who shared tales of racism and discrimination throughout their experience with Richardson ISD. In response, she released a video listing their demands and vowed to keep the list posted on her office door until these demands were met. This alerted some parents who oppose any discussion on race to begin actively opposing her ideas to protect her students of color and focus on providing them the best possible education.

Cue COVID-19. The nationwide trend of angry parents shouting ugly personal attacks at school boards and administrators did not overlook Richardson ISD. Karen Clardy, the RISD board President, abruptly resigned in September. Richardson ISD was one of the first Texas school districts to defy Governor Abbott’s prohibition of mask mandates.

While a majority of parents agreed with the mandate, a loud minority of parents (20%) began a campaign of threats and harassment that led to the resignation of Dr. Stone and Mrs. Clardy. The losers in this situation will be the students, long after the worst of the pandemic is over.

My children attend school in a neighboring district and we have had the same issues at our school board meetings. A student stood to testify that his grandmother had a pre-existing condition and he wanted to protect her from COVID-19. Anti-mask parents stood behind him and laughed, mocking the child for his compassion.

These anti-mask parents haven’t stopped there. Emboldened by their surging numbers and media attention, they’ve now gone after Critical Race Theory. Next, they’re demanding to ban books with any references to sexual activity or transgender individuals being presented in a positive light.

The saying goes “give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.” The 24/7 right-wing outrage media has expanded its local operation, folks, and Texas is in the thick of it. As an active, engaged, mom – I can tell you that very few people oppose masks, racially accurate curriculum, or support banning books. Those of us that desire reason over manufactured outrage have to start showing up in numbers that rival the angry crowd.

The Washington Post is reporting that Wisconsin Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is presiding over the murder trial of young gun nut Kyle Rittenhouse, who gunned down two protesters last summer, has ruled on how lawyers can refer to the dead.  Recall that Rittenhouse, who was a minor at the time, was illegally in possession of an AR-15, and had illegally crossed state lines to join a white supremacist group “guarding” private businesses in Kenosha Wisconsin.  He killed two protesters who had confronted him for carrying an assault weapon in public.

Schroeder’s ruling?  During the trial, lawyers can refer to the people Rittenhouse killed as “looters”, “rioters”, and “arsonists”, but not as “victims”, because “victims” is a “loaded term”.  We’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and we’re not coming back.