Is The Twitterpocalypse Nigh?
Plus: The GOP releases the moral idiocy
Our word of the week is ārecrudescenceā (17th century): the return of something unpleasant after a period of relief. (Hat/tip @susie-dent.)
Happy Friday.
So, what was your best memory of Twitter?
Tens of thousands of users began saying āgood-byeā last night as the site appeared to teeter toward destruction. Thousands of workers fired, mass resignations, ultimatums, lock-outs. And millions asked the nagging question: wouldnāt it have been easier for Elon Musk to have just taken the $44 billion out back and set it on fire?
As the day dawns, the site still seems to be functioning, which suggests that reports of Twitterās demise may have been premature. But the death/crash watch continues as Muskās Fiasco for the Ages plays out.
Death is in the air on Twitter.
On the platform Thursday evening, where #RIPTwitter was the top trend worldwide, users wrote what they feared might be their last posts, offering apprehensive goodbyes and listing the other (more stable) social media platforms where they can still be found.
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Via the Verge: āHundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Muskās āextremely hardcoreā Twitter.ā
Multiple ācriticalā teams inside Twitter have now either completely or near-completely resigned, said other employees who requested anonymity to speak without Muskās permission. That includes Twitterās traffic and front end teams that route engineering requests to the correct backend services. The team that maintains Twitterās core system libraries that every engineer at the company uses is also gone. āYou cannot run Twitter without this team,ā a departing employee said.
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āEvery mistake in code and operations is now deadlyā said a former engineer who departed the company this week. Those left āare going to be overwhelmed, overworked, and because of that more likely to make mistakes.ā
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Musk himself seemed to toggle back and forth between sheer panic and theyāll never take me alive in the bunker bravado. Via the NYT:
Mr. Musk and his advisers held meetings with some Twitter workers whom they deemed ācriticalā to stop them from leavingā¦ He sent out confusing messages about the companyās remote work policy, appearing to soften his stance on not allowing people to work from home before warning their managersā¦.
All the while, two people said, resignations started to roll in. By the deadline, 5 p.m. Eastern time, hundreds of Twitter employees appeared to have decided to depart with three months of severance pay, the people said. Twitter later announced via email that it would close āour office buildingsā and disable employee badge access until Monday.
Amidst the chaos, Musk tweeted:
Haha, I guess.
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While some celebrated the Twitterpocalypse, there also were farewells and tributes, like this from the Sykes household:
To be sure, there were also a few voices of caution. Our friend Tom Nichols pointed out that actually destroying Twitterā¦ wouldnāt make any sense, even for an megalomaniacal billionaire.
But this was my favorite tweet:
ā¦ which actually describes me perfectly. Except for the sex part.
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Meanwhileā¦.stories you should keep watching:
The Democratic changing of the guard: āHoyer, Clyburn to step out of leadership roles, clearing way for Jeffries.ā Politico: describes the āseismic shiftā:
The decision paves the way for the Houseās biggest leadership shakeup in either party since the Republican revolution of 1994. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the current caucus chair, will seek the role of minority leader for the next Congress after months of steadily building support across the caucus.
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Right on cue: āHouse Republicans vow to investigate Biden and his familyās business dealings.ā And unleashed this moral idiocy:
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Least surprising story of the day: āDefeated Republican candidate Kari Lake refuses to concede in Arizona governorās race.ā
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Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, the knives are really out.
MADISON - Republicans in the state Assembly have exiled one of their own members who campaigned against Speaker Robin Vos and promoted false claims about the 2020 election.
GOP caucus members voted to bar Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who leads the Assembly elections committee, from meeting with them in private, citing a loss of trust, according to a letter first obtained by Wispolitics.com to Brandtjen from Assembly Caucus chairman Rep. Rob Summerfield dated Nov. 11.
"Yesterday, at our caucus, the members voted to no longer allow you to participate in closed caucus. The continual issues from the past have led our caucus to lose trust in you. For this reason, this vote was taken," Summerfield wrote.
Wait, thereās moreā¦ A local conservative website is asking: āWhy did Trumpās PAC, MyPillowās Mike Lindell, and state Rep. Janel Brandtjen suddenly give thousands of dollars to a northern Wisconsin GOP county party that is deeply involved with [the bid to oust the GOP Assembly Speaker]?ā
President Donald Trumpās Save America PAC and MyPillowās Mike Lindell suddenly gave an obscure northern Wisconsin Republican county party a combined $9,000 in August 2022, and, a short time later, that county partyās chairman told election decertification and Trump-endorsed write-in candidate Adam Steen that he was looking for another county party to āwashā money for Save America to help Steen take out powerful GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.
The comments about washing money came in a conversation recorded this September between Steen and Langlade County GOP Chairman Terry Brand. Recordings, which you can listen to throughout this article, show that Brand and his vice chair are deeply involved in Steenās determined efforts to oust Vos, the powerful GOP Assembly Speaker based in southeastern Wisconsin who earned Trumpās ire after refusing to decertify the 2020 election.
In an attempt to get Steen elected to Vosās seat, which narrowly failed, Trump called Vos a Democrat from a stage in Waukesha County this August, even though Vos has a 93% conservative āexcellenceā ranking as a state legislator by the national CPAC organization in 2021 and 92% over his entire career.
Quick Hits
1. Falwellās Downfall: The Pool Boyās Story
You really want to read this review by Calum Best:
Billy Corbenās new documentary, God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty, presents the pool attendant Grandaās account of his mĆ©nage Ć trois with Falwell and Falwellās wife, Becki, both of whom have rejected his version of the events. The main outline of the narrative will be familiar to anyone who followed the Falwell saga as it unfolded, but new footage and materials deepen the picture while making the Falwellsā denials even harder to believe. Granda himself is a likable and winning narrator of the scandal, frank and unforced in his interviews. Having been a supporting player in earlier versions of the story that centered on the prominent evangelical couple, Grandaās comments add nuance to the story and emphasize the significant power differential between himself and the Falwells. It is impossible, for example, to forget his youth: Granda was only 20 years old when he met them. What 20-year-old in Grandaās situation would have known what they were getting themselves into? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the couple knew just what they were doing when they invited him into their complicated lives.
2. Lies, Losing, and Low Energy: Trump Runs Again
3. In 2024, Will Republicans Run on Abortion or Run Away From It?
Will Saletan in todayās Bulwark:
In surveys of the midterm electorate, Iāve found lots of evidence that Dobbs triggered a backlash against Republicans. But I canāt find evidence that the DeSantis 15-week position is relatively safe. Among Republican governors who ran for re-election in 2022, surveys show no apparent relationship between the time frame of a stateās abortion restrictions and the magnitude of the backlash.
Cheap Shots
Dinesh keeps digging.
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Welcome to the GOP House.
I was very angered with the by-and-large Republican boycott of Speaker Pelosi's announcement that she won't seek a leadership position going forward.
On any given day, if you want to skip a floor speech by any one of 435 Representatives, feel free. But this was an historic moment, not only in our nation, but in the very institution these Republicans have been elected to serve in. They disgraced the House, the People's House, by their shameful, immature actions.
Does anyone need more proof that their pivot from trump is nothing more than a desire to win more elections, and NOT a repudiation of trumpism, with all of its polarization, grievance, victimhood and disrespect for the norms that have carried our nation forward for over 240 years?
If Democrats walk out of the chamber the moment Speaker Pelosi hands the gavel to the new speaker (McCarthy maybe?), how loudly would they cry "Sore Losers"? Why is it that the GOP can act in any disgraceful manner with impunity, and the Democrats are fully expected to be the adults in the room? Democrats stood and wildly applauded upon Rep. Scalise's return to the House. Democrats everywhere have shown gratitude and respect for several Republicans over the years, including, but not limited to Sen. John McCain, Gen. Colin Powell, and most recently Rep. Liz Cheney.
Speaker Pelosi has made history. She has masterfully led the House Majority at pivotal moments in our history, with resolve, strength, toughness, and a political savvy seen in few others. She did not deserve the lies, the jokes, and the laughter from Republicans (elected, electorate, and candidates) when her husband was brutally attacked. And she did not deserve the dishonorable slap in the face by House Republicans yesterday. She took every sling and arrow the GOP continually threw at her with considerable wit, grace and dignity, something their party is sorely lacking in.
This episode has instilled a certainty in me about 2 things:
1. The GOP may in fact nominate someone other than trump, but they have NOT and will NOT reject trumpism or their roles in allowing it to grow, fester and destroy our country.
2. I couldn't be more proud to be a Democrat at this point in our nation's history. God bless Speaker Pelosi and her family, and I thank her for her honorable service to our party, and our nation.
The reason republicans play so poorly among women isn't just because of the godawful Dobbs decision and its effect on women's rights. It's because of the permission structure among republicans that allows flesh-crawling creeps like D'Souza to make repugnant jokes about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband without consequence. It's same structure that allows equally flesh-crawling creeps like MGT to make ludicrous comparisons to immigration and the obscene attack by Russia on Ukraine.
The reason that Elon Musk's twitter is failing is precisely the same reason that Trump's MAGA party is failing - they've absolutely disgusted normal, decent people. They've also made normal, decent people worry about their safety: their personal safety and the safety of the country.