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.

At long last, the fake gold plated billionaire facade is falling down around TFG’s ears.  Longstanding watchers have known that he’s always been full of hot air, not money, and had it not been for Fred Trump’s fortune and Russian money, TFG would have fallen by the wayside years ago.  Because they are well known, I won’t list all of his failures, but he’s lost banks and investors billions over the years, has been a pariah in New York for 40 years and only pulled himself from the brink with a successful “reality” television show and selling real estate to Russian oligarchs.

He used the presidency of the US as a cash cow, raking in millions at his hotel in a US government owned building in DC , overcharging government agencies for hotel charges, and making millions from foreign countries who laundered money through his resorts and buildings.  All of that, though, didn’t actually build any long term wealth for TFG because he really only owns a fraction of his properties with investors and massive debt.  Because of his terrible reputation and disastrous presidency, even his licensing deals have dried up.  Even with all that foreign money, his resorts lose millions every year and the musical chairs game is coming to an end.  He now owes massive financial penalties for sexual assault, massive financial fraud, and defamation that he’s still committing, and the tab is now well over half a billion dollars.  He’s admitted in official court papers that he doesn’t have the money to pay.

So, TFG is for sale. The purchase price is only reachable by the billionaire class consisting of guys like Musk, Bezos, and a handful of others, and on Sunday he met with Musk in Palm Beach.  Even after his $44 billion fiasco with Twitter, Musk is still estimated to be worth over $200 billion, and Bezos is more.  I’m not convinced that Musk is buying because much of his fortune is in SpaceX and Tesla stock, but there’s also this other little detail that SpaceX is significantly dependent on the US government for a good chunk of its revenue even though they don’t disclose the amounts.  So, if Musk purchases TFG and he loses the election, he would be hundreds of millions in the hole and have a pissed off Biden to deal with.  I don’t believe Bezos is a buyer.  It’s just not his style.  So, what if a Russian oligarch purchases him?  There’s not a lot we can do, especially since the Thomas Trump SCOTUS has pretty much unwound any meaningful campaign finance laws.  As well, it’s unclear if there are any state or federal requirements for Trump to disclose where he got the money to pay off his debts except for IRS regulations and if he’s president, that doesn’t mean anything.

So picture this – there’s a really good chance that we could have a president that has been bought and paid for by an oligarch who will remain unidentified; the DOJ will quickly drop all federal charges against him.  That leaves the NY hush money case and the Georgia RICO case which Fani Willis has almost singlehandedly fucked up for all of us with her love life. On the same day of his inauguration, he’ll immediately begin disassembling the US government as we know it through Project 2025 and re-forming it for his own benefit which includes consolidating power to the Oval Office and turning the DOJ into a weapon to prosecute political enemies like Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, and may others.

How’s that picture look?  So, sleep well tonight, dear readers, as the rest of 2024 could be the end of the US as we know it if Americans don’t get off their ass and take responsibility for themselves.

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.

In a Truth Social post this week, TFG signaled to the public that reality has set in at Mar a Lago.  Not only is there now a special prosecutor hot on his trail, his announcement a few weeks ago that he’s running for president again went over like a fart in church.  These facts emphasize that not only is his ability to take back the White House is in serious jeopardy, his chances of even being nominated are greatly diminished.  Only his rabid supporters are still behind him, and Republicans in Congress are desperately trying to help him get elected to extract pardons for themselves for their participation in the insurrection before and after January 6th.  All of this is as obvious as pink ballet slippers on a bull rider.

At this point, TFG’s only chance of avoiding criminal prosecution for any number of crimes is to actually be the occupant of the Oval Office.  Since the chance of him winning in 2024 are very slim to nada, reality has set in; this is why he’s gone full Daniel Ortega, calling for “…the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” repeating his lies about non-existent massive fraud in 2020.  Knowing that he can’t win in 2024, he’s doubled down on negating the lawful outcome of Biden’s win and calling for  “installing” himself as president by suspending the Constitution and all federal election law.  Left with little else, he’s Fat Elvis, playing his hits from 2020 for his decrepit fan base trying to stay relevant and keeping the spotlight on himself.  He’s even taken an assist from Elon Musk who is leading the field for first prize in Worst Investment of 2022 after his purchase, and subsequent trashing, of Twitter.  Musk has threatened the release of the “Twitter Files” which reveal supposed “free speech suppression” by former management by refusing to allow conspiracy theories about “Hunter’s laptop” during the 2020 election on the platform.  Hard to tell what Musk is trying to do besides setting a world record for destroying $44 billion of wealth in the shortest amount of time.

TFGland is in full frenzy about now with every resident frantically trying to stay out of jail.  Like all other radical movements, this one will soon collapse.  The sooner the better.

We all saw it (or at least heard about it) when Elon Musk posted an easily manipulated poll asking if TFG should be reinstated at Twitter.  Recall that Musk, just a week ago, announced that any decisions about reinstating any toxic user would be deferred until he convened a “content moderation council” of outside experts.  Well, like almost everything Musk announces, that didn’t come true, and after Musk got a very split decision (52/48) to his poll, including votes from who knows how many bots he regularly criticized before buying the platform, he ordered that TFG be reinstated using the Latin term, Vox Populi, Vox Dei, translated “Voice of the People, Voice of God.”  With the dramatic flare of a Caesar granting a pardon, Musk unleashed TFG back on normal people.  Jesus H. Christ.

This morning, Quinta Jurecic of The Atlantic published a piece about the stupidity of Musk’s decision and it is a must read.  The operative quote that says it all:

“You are reading this, and I am writing it, because a very rich man who desperately wants people to pay attention to him posted an easily rigged poll on the website he’d just bought for $44 billion. The answers to many of the questions I have just posed will depend on the fancies of another rich man who desperately wants people to pay attention to him. There’s an indignity to having one’s attention jerked around this way.  Demanding that people simply ignore these bumbling titans is too simplistic: Their flailing has a tendency to wreck the world that the rest of us live in.”

Amen.  One can only hope that the media has learned something from the last train wreck of a presidency, but my confidence is at a low ebb.

UPDATED:

TFG is back.  One of Elon’s first moves upon taking over Twitter yesterday (after stupidly carrying a bathroom sink into Twitter’s offices and firing the entire senior management team) was to restore TFG’s twitter account, effective as early as Monday.  He did it after announcing a new “content moderation council”, adding that no changes would be made until the council convenes.  So much for that strategy.  In classic style, TFG is already gloating through a surrogate.

It’s OFFICIAL! @realDonaldTrump Twitter Handle will be restored back onto the platform as EARLY as next Week – Monday 31st October 2022!! #DonaldTrump #Trump #MAGA #TruthSocial #TrumpTwitter #ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/qVh3sqZaO9

— DONALD TRUMP VS JOE BIDEN DEBATE 2024 𝕏 (@altnavigation) October 28, 2022

After the announcement, Musk backtracked, saying that “no decisions will be made until the council convenes”.  Right. I can predict how THAT will turn out.

To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022

General Motors has already suspended all advertising on Twitter in response to Musk’s takeover.
Apparently, Musk’s “free speech” ideology extends to defamation, insurrection, and getting people killed.  So the shitstorm begins.

UPDATE:

Twitter is now being flooded by MAGAt trolls, spewing the same racist hate and misinformation they were before the insurrection on January 6, 2021.  One watchdog has reported that racist tweets are up 500% since Musk took control of Twitter.

Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter. Several posts on 4chan encourage users to amplify derogatory slurs.

For example, over the last 12 hours, the use of the n-word has increased nearly 500% from the previous average. pic.twitter.com/mEqziaWuMF

— Network Contagion Research Institute (@ncri_io) October 28, 2022

Welcome to the cowardly new world aided by the world’s richest man.  When’s he going to Mars?