More news bits

The hellscape will get worse

Elon Musk has to close the deal to buy Twitter by Friday, i.e., tomorrow. That's pretty soon. He publicly stated he would lay lots of Twitter employees off, get rid of content moderation, re-open Trump's account and more or less, let free speech run free, wild and butt naked. Axios writes:

Elon Musk: Twitter won't become a "free-for-all hellscape"

Elon Musk said in a note Thursday that Twitter must be "warm and welcoming to all" and not a "free-for-all hellscape" in order for it to reach its full potential.

Why it matters: In an overture to advertisers, Musk seemed to walk back the idea of total free speech on Twitter and promoted it as a digital town square with some limitations.

What he's saying: Musk wrote in a tweeted note to advertisers that Twitter should be "a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence."

"Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!"

Here comes the a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences. Public discourse and civility are going to get even uglier than they are now. The chart below shows how to prepare for the barbaric hell that Musk is going to unleash on all of us. If you don't already have a scimitar, Wall Mart has them on sale in anticipation of the worsening hellscape to come soon.

The Republican plan for the economy

Various sources are reporting that once the GOP takes control of congress after the upcoming elections, they will push hard for (i) geting rid of as much of the federal government as they can, e.g., the IRS, EPA and Dept. of Education, (ii) tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses, gutting domestic spending for social security, Medicare and etc., and (iii) total attacks on all future elections, especially ones that republicans do not win. Republicans have already filed dozens of lawsuits attacking all aspects of the upcoming election in various states. This is just the beginning of an endless radical right Republican Christofascist and capitalist war against elections.  

In essence, the autocrat-theocrat GOP is once again pushing hard for horse and sparrow economics, with wealth gushing up to the elites (the horses) and the masses (the sparrows) desperately looking for scraps ejected from the elites.

Election update

The Guardian writes:

‘A madness has taken hold’ ahead of US midterms: 

local election officials fear for safety

In two rural California counties, voters are showing increasing hostility and aggression toward election workers

In California, officials in small, rural and underresourced counties such as Shasta say they are encountering hostility and aggressive bullying from residents who believe there is widespread voter fraud – many are inundating local elections offices with public records requests as part of a relentless quest to try to prove their claims.  

Residents in Shasta county have tried to intimidate election workers while acting as observers, crowding around Allen during a tense election night confrontation in June, and visiting voters’ homes while claiming to be a part of an “official taskforce”. In north-eastern California’s Nevada county, the registrar-elect had to take out a restraining order against residents who harassed her and pushed their way into her office, assaulting a staffer, she said.

Our democracy is slipping quietly under relentless waves of autocratic Republican Party demagoguery, dark free speech, rage, hate and lies. The American experiment is probably going to end in a corrupt autocratic-Christian theocratic failure.