The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Douglas Caddy]

 

ttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/western-artillery-surging-into-ukraine-will-reshape-war-with-russia/ar-AAWM6L5?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=7386dee6e87e4cfab005ae2b5835565c

[Douglas Caddy]

 

Putin 'to undergo cancer operation and hand power to hardline ex-spy chief', says 'Kremlin insider' in shock claim (the-sun.com)

[Benjamin Cole]

Some ding-dongs are saying Twitter is for "straight white men."  

Of course, successful Asian males are now de facto straight white men. 

I will tell you how warped everything is: Before online social media, there was an argument, with some merit, that free speech was for those who owned newspapers and TV-radio stations. 

Now, anyone can set up a twitter or youtube account. The elite vise-grip on media is broken.

So now, elites  say twitter is for straight white men and must be controlled. Can you make this stuff up? 

[Matt Allison]

I have no doubt that Putin believes if the internet had arrived just 5 or so years sooner, his precious Soviet Union could have remained intact. So instead he's now slaughtering tens of thousands trying to re-constitute it.

 

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

9 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

You’re the one using terms like “third world.” How righteous you must feel?! You’re more Trumpian than you even know. You only seem to care about wars concerning ‘white people’. It suggests a racial bias. The truth is that you’re mixed up and confused. 

Matt, Chris is playing the "liberal cancel culture card" on you. In world progressive circles it's not fashionable any longer to use the term "Third world" to depict the poorest countries because some of those countries, say in Latin America and SE Asia  that are upwardly mobile resent still being put in those categories now.

It's all rather PC and silly, what do you call the most dirt poor of countries? I guess it would be "underdeveloped nations".

It is kind of drab, but you have to please Chris.

******

Hey we might have a cat fight between 2 of the Republican women populist icons. Apparently Marjorie Taylor Green and Laureen Boebert were almost about to go at it inside the House Republican Freedom Caucus.

"Their confrontation grew so heated that at least one onlooker feared the Greene-Boebert back-and-forth might escalate beyond the verbal cage match had another board member not stepped in to de-escalate, according to a GOP lawmaker who was granted anonymity to describe what happened."

Maybe a few years from now, when their political thing is over, people will sell out arenas to watch them mud wrestle!

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/29/house-republican-freedom-caucus-challenges-00023071

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, Matt Allison said:

I have no doubt that Putin believes if the internet had arrived just 5 or so years sooner, his precious Soviet Union could have remained intact. So instead he's now slaughtering tens of thousands trying to re-constitute it.

 

 

Matt--

I have the opposite point of view.  Whenever all media can be controlled, then you have conditions for an authoritarian state. 

Right now, in the US, you have groups pushing for control over social media, a new and relatively uncontrolled form of communication. 

BTW,  Tik-Tok which operates under CCP oversight, is flooded with pro-Russia lies. The missile that struck the Kyiv train station was Ukrainian, as proven by registration numbers on the hull, according to some TikTok posters. That is the version of "truth" you get with government control of media. 

Do you trust a government with censorship? What are the lessons of the JFKA, the Vietnam War, Iran-Contra, the Iraqistan Wars, and Watergate?

Yes, some people will run offensive and perfidious content on social media. Happily, we do not have to look at it.  A small price to pay for liberty.

Those who seek security before liberty end up with neither.

 

[W. Niederhut]

Hmmmm.... Now Ben is, apparently, concerned about state-controlled media?   🤥

 

 

[Douglas Caddy]

New York Times article today questions financial soundness of Musk's purchase. It ends by stating Musk can still back out but would have to pay a penalty of $1 billion.

"Mr. Musk is departing from the traditional private equity playbook by putting up far more of his own money than is usual in such a deal, about three quarters of the price. But he’s also following more standard practice for what Wall Street calls a leveraged buyout, borrowing $13 billion that would be transferred onto Twitter’s books.

"In other words, his plan for Twitter includes both more cash than the typical buyout and more debt than Twitter may be able to handle, given its patchy profitability."

 

[Richard Price]

3 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

"Mr. Musk is departing from the traditional private equity playbook by putting up far more of his own money than is usual in such a deal, about three quarters of the price.

Douglas, I don't know much about Musk, but from what little I have read, I think he is a snake oil salesman and con man.  The huge amount of money he throws around is nowadays that which he is being paid by our government (our money).  He is basically fleecing the US citizens while ignoring all the laws, regulations and "norms" that most businesses follow (at least half heartedly).  I wouldn't be surprised if he started turning orange soon.

[Douglas Caddy]

A friend of mine who routinely testifies as an expert witness on financial matters at trials says that the figures in the deal are staggering and Musk may well decide to back and pay the $1 billion penalty for doing so.

[Benjamin Cole]

Re Elon's takeover of Twitter....

We think of the word "xenophobic" usually to mean dislike or fear of foreign nationals. 

But of course, the word really means dislike or fear of the strange, foreign or alien. 

I wonder if inside Twitter HQ, why is there such a visceral reaction against Elon, not based on his expressed political or social views?

Indeed, much of the reaction against Elon appears based on his ID as a "straight white male."

In  a city such as San Francisco, what fraction of the Twitter workforce or management is "straight while males"? 

Then, many organizations are always suspicious of "outsiders," a type of company xenophobia. 

In any event, Twitter management has no credibility. These are the guys who banned conversations about the Wuhan lab leak. 

 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Indeed, much of the reaction against Elon appears based on his ID as a "straight white male."

People were fine with Twitter when they believed the hierarchy were a bunch of wokey IT blokes, changing the world for the good, they had no thoughts about how big tech was and is working with government (data sharing and more). 
When a guy is espousing some traditional ideas like free speech takes over, what happens to be everything they have been taught to hate in woke academia or MSM, they are outraged. 
 

Looking deeper, if you are trying to break a dominant Western culture or Judaeo Christian values, what you’d do is demonise every aspect of that culture, teach in schools and further education that it was a bad culture, and advocate a switch to something new. IMHO that’s what we are seeing here. 
So, the “white male patriarchy” really translates as “western civilisation.” If you want a malleable society, one that is neutral, you must take away their past, their traditions and anything they are proud of. Take away their archetypes. The benefit to government is that you have a population that is very easy to control, that only has government and lives in the present. 
 

All very Orwellian. 
 

PS Like others here; I worry Musk might be the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Its a lot of money to spend on something not very profitable. But, if it becomes his propaganda platform, it may well he worth it. Or perhaps he has a very clear idea on how to make it very profitable. We’ll see. but, I like free speech. It’s a good thing. 

[W. Niederhut]

Geez... Ben's latest obsession is with the Wuhan lab leak theory and the persecution of long-suffering "straight white men" in 'Murica.

Not as unhealthy as brooding about Tucker Carlson's testicle tanning shtick, but reminiscent of his deflective "patriot purge" narrative about January 6th.

The real issue with Musk, of course, has to do with our feeble corporate measures to mitigate toxic disinformation in the age of Trump and Ivermectin use to treat COVID, etc.

Apparently, Tennessee has just enacted a law permitting their residents to de-worm themselves without a prescription.  MAGA!  😗

[Steve Thomas]

Made in Chyna

The tires on Russian tanks and heavy military vehicles are bursting and leaving the vehicles stuck in the mud.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10772127/Cheap-Chinese-tyres-bought-corrupt-officials-blame-Russias-stalled-advance.html"Russian generals are notoriously corrupt. Russia has a defense budget of around £60billion a year, but much of that budget is siphoned off at various levels,' an intelligence source told the New Zealand Times."

"'The impact of this is that the Russians are forced to buy cheap tires to fit on expensive armored vehicles, and they just don’t work.'

China's version of the tire is the Yellow Sea YS20, of significantly poorer quality, according to self-described 'tyre expert' and University of Chicargo academic Karl Muth.

A set of 50 Michelin XZL tyres retails on Alibaba at approximately $36,000, whereas 50 sets of the Chinese equivalent retails at around $208."

Steve Thomas

[Matt Allison]

On 5/1/2022 at 5:28 AM, Benjamin Cole said:

The missile that struck the Kyiv train station was Ukrainian