I did not cover it in the show because the story dropped overnight, but it looks like the Musk-Twitter deal is in trouble. The stated reason is Musk thinks Twitter has been faking their user numbers. Twitter admitted initially that 5% of their users were robots, but that always seemed like a lie. There are too many blue check journalists with high user counts and low traffic volume. The likes to replies is also out of order.
Years ago, a British research team estimated that Twitter controlled a bot army of about six hundred thousand Twitter accounts. They could use this swarm to boost favored users and rig the trending topics. Others have made similar claims about fake users and not just about Twitter. This video is from almost ten years ago and it walks through how Facebook fakes its own ad traffic.
There is an age old expression that says anything of value will be stolen or faked and that surely applies to internet traffic. In the old days, magazines and newspapers were subject to audits so they could not lie about their subscriber base and sales to prospective advertisers. The ratings book in radio was about protecting the advertisers from fraudulent claims about the listenership.
There has never been anything like this for social media companies or internet news sites, so fraud is rampant. The question is how rampant. Years ago, Ann Coulter tweeted out a post from this site. This was a test to see how much traffic actually would come from Twitter. A grand total of seven hundred clicks was the final result. Coulter supposedly has two million followers.
It is hard to know if what Musk is doing is legitimate or simply a way to wiggle out of what may be a bad deal. Everyone agrees he overpaid for the company and everyone agrees that the deal has only gotten worse. His claims about the user base could be a way to scuttle the deal entirely. Alternatively, he could be greenmailing Twitter into agreeing to much lower price for the company.
Regardless, it is certain that Twitter has been lying about their user base for a long time and the degree of overstatement is much higher than they have admitted. This is probably true of every site whose traffic is tied to revenue. The temptation to lie is simply too great and the morality of the people involved is too low. So much of Big Tech is a big fraud and it starts with fake traffic numbers.
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This Week’s Show
Contents
- Girl Power in Germany (Link)
- Multiculturalism in Sweden (Link)
- Finnish Madness (Link)
- Ukrainian Absurdity (Link)
- Abortion (Link)
- Cloud People (Link)
- Nice Black Lady (Link)
- Kicking Puppies (Link)
Direct Download, The iTunes, Google Play, iHeart Radio, RSS Feed
Full Show On Spreaker
Full Show On Odysee
The Wikipedia page on former Fox anchor Chris Wallace.
Under “Criticism”: Surely criticism about getting things wrong, or bias, i.e. doing his job badly. Nope.
“In 2013 Wallace laughed at a New York Post headline about Hillary Clinton which had been described as sexist.”
“In 2015 Wallace remarked that singer Kelly Clarkson “could stay off the deep dish pizza.”
“In 2009 Wallace appeared on Mike Gallagher’s radio show and remarked “one can only hope” when he was asked if vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin would be sitting on his lap during his interview with her.”
Anyway, as everyone knows, this stiff geek quit Fox for CCN+ to do a Larry King type show. The streaming network folded after about a month.
In a recent interview with NYT prior to CNN+ closing, when asked why he quit Fox he said: ““I wanted to get out of politics. Doing a Sunday show on the incremental change from week to week in the Build Back Better plan began to lose its attraction.”
In other words, he sees the tide turning against Democrats, and also he doesn’t want to spend the next 3 years apologizing Biden’s idiocy.
Fox won’t take him back because he dissed Fox in the NYT. I’m sure he’ll land somewhere. Probably a show on the regular CNN.
Per Faux News:
“White Supremacist” kills 10 using a “military style rifle” in attack on super market in Buffalo, NY. Most of the dead are POC of course.
Be ready.
The rifle will be a “Ghost Gun” to support the narrative so pudding cup head has something to mumble about for the next few months.
Supposedly he wrote a 180 page manifesto which among other things claimed that whitey was being replaced.
So just after the FBI could not name a single instance of the imaginary white terror, they just rustled one up for the next news cycle.
Its amazing how that happens right time. I am not sure whether I despise the gaslighting fuckers, or the stupid consumers of the narrative more.
Yeah Trumpton, the news just rustled some white guy out of bed and said “We need a good white supremacist story. Here’s a machine gun. Go kill blacks at the supermarket.”
What the hell are you talking about?
Who said anything about the news rustling anything up?
Perhaps you have been in a coma and missed all the previous just in time false flags and set up run by the US govt for the last 30 years?
notice how quickly the nig train station shooter dropped out of the news.
False flaggers are usually useless as hell however their one salient point is often questuoning the veracity of manifestos allegedly pre-written by shooters.
False flag? So 10 false blacks laying dead on the pavement?
Nice timing by the Feeb to do this two weeks before the US Memorial Day which is the unofficial start of summer here.
Frip, plenty of false flag operations have real casualties.
Typically the assumption is that this guy was what is colloquially called a wind up toy , conditioned . Think Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory or any kind of MK Ultra stuff from real life.
I have no idea but sooner or later people, typically younger aren’t going to be passive and a lot of lone wolf stuff would look just like this.
How convenient. Prepare for 24/7 coverage – we HAVE to do something about guns and evil White supremacists…
Lost in this is the Mega Chimpout at “The Bean”, in Grant Park, happening this evening.
Boo Boo dun got shot!
The new place for bangers to kick it is at the Bean.
Enter Chimpcongo at your own risk.
And let’s not forget about the Milwaukee shootout after the NBA playoff game. This is similar to the Sacramento shootout of a few weeks ago, also near an NBA arena but after a hip-hop concert, not an NBA game, No fatalities in Milwaukee as per Sailer’s Law of Mass Shooting.
It will go away quite quickly as it appears the shooter was inspired by our heroic allies in the Ukraine and sports a Back Sun and possibly other Azov related Nazi emblems.
They’ll just ignore the Ukraine part of his Supremecy.
Here’s hoping that Marie Antoinette moment and response arrives much sooner rather than later.
U.S. Ukraine aid package via Glenn “Talks like a Dancer” Greenwald: “To put this $54 billion amount in perspective, it is (a) larger than the average annual amount that the U.S. spent on its own war in Afghanistan ($46 billion), (b) close to the overall amount Russia spends on its entire military for the year ($69 billion), (c) close to 7% of the overall U.S. military budget, by far the largest in the world ($778 billion), and (d) certain to be far, far higher — easily into the hundreds of billions of dollars and likely the trillion dollar level — given that U.S. officials insist that this war will last not months but years, and that it will stand with Ukraine until the bitter end.”
Just finished listening, and I was horrified to learn Putin had a golden opportunity to liquidate the execrable has-been Bono under the pretext of war and passed on it. Damn you, Vlad.
On a serious note, your take down of the Ukraine business was excellent. It is yet another grift, albeit an incredibly stupid and dangerous one. The problem isn’t the grifters, who always will be with us, but the stupid and feminized Westerners who put up with this crap. It would take a lot to get those izombie pussies riled up enough to smash rifle butts into Regime members’ skulls, but a shortage of baby formula–that is being delivered to illegal aliens at the southern border–just might do the trick. On a closely related note, I saw where the FBI director has publicly broken with the Attorney General (expect some sexual or financial dirt on Garland to emerge soon). Christopher Wray is a standard Regime kleptocrat and dumb ass extraordinaire, but he can feel the wind changing directions and knows when to jump off the train, to mix metaphors. I had thought it would take another decade or two for the United States to break apart but have started to think it will happen sooner unless the idiots get us all nuked beforehand.
Prep harder, my friends.
Twitter wouldn’t need to lie if they weren’t banning so many people unreasonably. I was banned for questioning the official narrative on Ukraine and calling a German woman an idiot for her suggestion that own all of Europe by the summer.
I used to do a broad social media presence with the business then figured out it wasn’t worth the trouble. You have to have something out there, but in my case it was to service the local markets and the internet portion pertaining to sourcing and shipping. The people I want to sell to often find their own way to me.
Hard to say for sure, but Musk’s motives about the bots seem to be about exposing Twitter as a complete fraud.
Twitter knows if the come clean about their fake accounts, they’ll be sued for fraud by shareholders. If they conceal it from Musk, and he moves forward with the purchase, he’ll be able to sue the Board and anyone else involved into poverty and make back the money he lost.
I just have the feeling that he’s not trying to back out, but expose it. I could be wrong – the Regime has both the SEC and FTC working hard to find a way to stop him. Of course, NASA could suddenly decide not to use SpaceX.
So maybe he’s looking for an out. But I have a hard time believing he didn’t expect that going in. Musk is way too in bed with the government to not know how they work.
I lean towards the idea that he’s setting the company up to have to disclose that Twitter is a fraud.
Totally agreed. The FedGov links and financial fraud will be exposed and Twitter will be revealed as an essentially worthless money pit. The share prices are tanking for a reason larger than just Musk buying it out. I don’t think there will be much public outrage (could anything cause that now?) but it also will be revealed a psy-op run by the IC. That could matter in Europe–maybe.
It anyone owns shares in Facebook dump them now. It is next.
The real mindbender:
Even if Twitter user numbers are exposed as completely fraudulent, it won’t make a bit of difference.
It feels “truthy”, which is sufficient.
It’s purpose it to solidify and broadcast a consensus message amount elites (particularly in the media), and it works very, very well.
Classy act not mentioning AF. It’s not worth talking about, those little girls are really scraping their knees this week. RIP
Thnaks to the failure of ESG-based farming (whatever the hell that is) in Sri Lanka, the locals are rioting, beating cops, and have burnt down the homes of 38 politicians:
https://mobile.twitter.com/jeetsidhu_/status/1524814483415351296
Prep accordingly.
Larry Fink is a dead man walking. Mark it. And the Regime will put the bullet in him.
*figurative bullet, to be clear. Something from the Epstein files, perhaps.
For those following entertainment and advertising, the following is interesting:
Facebook, Google etc. are firing employees and cutting travel expenses etc. Looks like an advertiser major slowdown as cost cutting becomes mandatory in inflation and the end of “free” money.
Netflix told their woke employees to go elsewhere and stop complaining about Chapelle, and mandated more broadly appealing content. Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandros (the latter sadly personally*) are finding out the cost of Woke. Their stock options are tanking. As well as their net worth also tied up in the stock. Netflix got hit the hardest — even Disney has some stuff people will pay for.
*Sarandros had his mother in law Jacqueline Avant murdered inside her Beverly Hill Mansion despite a security guard during a home invasion. Turns out the help won’t die for the employer.
And … the CW basically canceled most of their shows. It turns out that in an inflationary environment, advertisers will no longer spend to reach the 300,000 interested in magical black lesbians (not kidding) defeat the patriarchy. Discovery is offering it up for sale, I suppose it has some value. If nothing else re-running old He-Haw reruns.
With isolated exceptions, haven’t watched cable TV or streaming video for many years. I suppose I’ll be forced to watch whatever’s on offer in my final months/years in the “care facility.” But I’ll be damned if I’ll watch that sewage when better uses for my time are available.
It doesn’t make me a Rhodes Scholar, but much of my leisure time is spent reading or at participating in internet forums such as this one, which in my opinion, intellectually are several rungs above the usual fare served by Twitter, Facebook, etc.
“Netflix told their woke employees to go elsewhere and stop complaining about Chapelle, and mandated more broadly appealing content.”
Too little, too late. Pushing glorified child porn and movies about pregnant men have taken their toll. I actually used to work for them and made quite a chunk of change when I sold my employee-purchased stock a few years ago, but I won’t have anything to do with them now.
Randy Weaver has passed. I was a young person when his wife and son were murdered for something they won’t even hold perps in NYC (or any city) for now.
Z: “When a country no longer has pride in itself, you end up with dipshit dingbats in charge of your country.” At 20:40
Dipshit dingbats. Instant classic.
Wait, no, I refute myself. The Zman is right, they really aren’t serious people, and I can prove it.
The Congressional emergency bill to codify Roe into law failed. Why?
Because the language in the bill used “birthing person” instead of “woman” or “mother”.
My notes for yesterday are titled:
$40 B for (the CIA)
To foment more chaos at home and abroad, of course. I think 10% for the politicians might be the smallest thing in that budget.
ps- Five Eyes is more accurate, so thanks, I’ll start using that.
Even Squad Member Cori Bush (she still voted for it) noted that most of the money would go to various CIA Contractor groups.
This is not really about Ukraine. Its more about buying the loyalty of the people aging out of the SEAL Teams, Delta, etc. that still want to be door kicker etc. Its their full employment scheme to keep them busy abroad not overturning the Regime here which given their makeup and training is not a remote possibility if they are not otherwise occupied. Newsweek a few years ago noted there were about 30,000 CIA contractors, basically ex SEALs etc. aging into their thirties and forties and no longer capable of jumping out of airplanes at 40,000 feet.
Old doesn’t mean useless. Several years ago, if I recall the news correctly, a married couple, elderly Americans, were vacationing in (I think) Panama. Some local made the mistake of trying to rob them. He was quickly killed by the old man, a WW II combat veteran. Such stories warm my heart. 🙂
Military and “contractor” ops exist whether I like it or not. Is there really any difference in practice? Whether they are a true soldier or a mercenary, the job is the same.
“Even Squad Member Cori Bush (she still voted for it)”
The parenthetical part is the best summary of the Left imaginable. Even though this will take food out of the mouths of her core constituency, black inner-city parasites, she went along because the only thing that matters to the Left is power.
The most infuriating thing about Arabs in Sweden is their complete lack of appreciation for natural beauty (along with science, culture, etc.). Imagine a transcendentally beautiful Swedish landscape, green mountains, blue skies, waterfalls, whatever; then add a dirty Muslim family squatting on the ground.
It’s not just they themselves spoil the scenery: like evangelical Christians, they are bred to despise “things of the world” like beauty, nice things, friendly animals, etc. It’s God/Allah and nothing else; all else is “sinful”, iniquity, self-will, etc. Unlike Catholics or Orthodox, they are utterly blind to natural beauty.
It’s like in the US when progs whine about how blacks aren’t interested in winter sports (eg. skiing) or camping, or how mean Tucker is for pointing out Hispanic littering. Nature conservation is a White thing.
“…like evangelical Christians, they are bred to despise “things of the world” like beauty,…”
Can you cite religious sources to support your statement? Perhaps you’d best refrain from stating what you know little about. The world and all in it are symbolic of God’s love and power. To put the world ahead of God is indeed sinful (a form of idolatry), but to admire it and preserve it is not, indeed it is a duty.
Well put Compsci. Do not confuse passages without context or some twisted sect as representative of the overall scope of the Bible. Let us not forget that paradise was a garden, and the task was to maintain it. And when seeking examples to preach, Jesus overwhelming produced stories that used natural imagery as symbolic and typically positive.
Iconoclast Protestant regions produced the best classical music composers because artistic types weren’t allowed to make great paintings, statues, architecture, etc. But all of that somehow overlaps with musical beauty.
While true, I view all these things as irrelevant. Because even if they loved beauty and nature and everything else, they hate and resent the Swedes. They don’t belong in Sweden. They cannot function in the Swedish society, not culturally, not economically.
Whether they like it or not, the reason Sweden is awesome and their country sucks is because their country is full of their people and Sweden is full of Swedes.
The Bible is absolutely about judging behavior, not people. The fact that these fools have let in a savage mob is proof the Bible was right. The loss of standards is evidence that the “judgmental” ways of the Bible is correct. I would reference that Jesus kicked the money lenders out of the temple, not invited them in..
Invite the Third World, get the Third World.
Huh. The baby formula shortage was deliberately created by the FDA three months ago. One can say the same about the fuel or fertilizer shortages.
(One could also say our supplies are being sold by the apparatchniks.)
Not serious, Zman?
Who says these people aren’t serious?
On that note, what really makes our age different is the Agencies. We’ve never had rule by Agencies before, because we had no Agencies or their bastard offshoots, the NGOs, before.
Woke up this morning to read in the WSJ that the Finns had lost their ever loving minds. Besides being unserious it looks as though the neo-cons really, really want a war. What de-escalates a conflict better than bringing in a new NATO member that shares an 800 mile border with Russia and unlike most of Europe, has a capable military. What our press also seems to be unaware of is nuclear war “gaming” has shifted on both sides from MAD doctrine to limited exchange. Perverse effect of a quantum improvement in targeting capacity in all three legs of the delivery triad plus development of “dial-a-yield” warheads. Suddenly it’s thinkable a again. All we’ve got is a bunch of “gas soaked monkeys playing with matches” who think WWIII is a really neat school play with some bitchin’ costumes.
From Clusterf**k Nation:
“(To make him) look like a Leader-of-Men? Dress him in the raiment of a Napoleonic hussar: gold-frogged tunic, epaulets, leopard-skin cape, knee-high boots, and plumed bear-skin shako? Nigga, please”
SamlAdams-
If the flight analysis being done by Monkeywerx on YouTube is correct it appears the US has been staging equipment and shifting troops to Europe for several weeks now.
If that is true, the US is going in, whether we like it or not.
June 24, 1812 – the Grande Armee invades Russia
June 22, 1941 – the Wehrmacht invades Russia
June ??, 2022 – the NATO Diverse Tranny Brigade invades Ukraine/Russia?
It is just a matter of which European capitol gets nuked first, then. It likely will be a non-nuclear one, perhaps Helsinki or Stockholm.
Pour encourager les autres, ne ç’est pas?
If this were to happen, at that point the Europeans will find out that the old saw about the Russians is true; namely, “Slow to saddle, but quick to ride”. Not an occasion for celebration, to be sure, but it sure would point the lesson about just how seriously the Russians feel them selves to be engaged in an existential struggle.
God forfend.
“Laura Wilson is a mother of three who lives in the sprawling suburbs of north Phoenix,”…….”Wilson, 61, is pro-choice, voted for Democratic President Joe Biden,…..”
What is a 61 year old mother of 3? This is not a suburban mom looking for diapers or struggling to feed her 3 tween something growing boys. This is a woman who hasn’t been fertile in at least 21 years, probably more like 25 years.
The really sad part is she might actually be a mother of 3 late 20 something children all living at home because they cannot find good jobs or a place to live in they can afford. In a story ostensibly about what are supposed to be short term economic conditions is actually a story about the deeper long term economic conditions that have created a generation of young people living with their parents into their late 20s and early 30s and beyond.
Yup, or most likely she’s the grandmother who adopted her grandkids because the parents are incarcerated, unsuitable, or otherwise lost custody. The state pays the grandparent-guardian a sizeable monthly for the kids, too.
This pattern is so common it’s becoming a standard in the lower class.
It’s not unique to the lower classes. In my extended family at least two different families housed children whose parents were unfit. In one case, grandparents assumed custody and raised the child from a very young age. We’re not talking working poor, either. In the latter case, the house was worth close to $1 million when family lived there until a few years ago. This, a 1950s era home in suburban Washington, D.C. I looked it up on Zillow and the house was razed and a starter mansion built in its place, now valued at $3 million.
(7 : God’s pH)
We all do the same
(we do it all the same):
We do what we can to become
what we’re supposed to be.
What are we?
A bittersweet degree.
Everything comes from God.
What reasons do I have to be grateful for some things, and displeased with another?
Radical Acceptance: no questions – no doubts.
A heroic freedom fighter to one, an imbecile in a clown custom to another – it doesn’t matter: humans are not meant to escape dualism’s confinement. Here’s a clue, though: everything is necessary, until it ceases to be.
“ears ago, Ann Coulter tweeted out a post from this site. ”
Ann Coulter, the staunch traditionalist, conservative valkyrie who nonetheless enjoys coalburning?
Mudsharks are beneath contempt, no matter what they may believe and otherwise do.
For my own sporadic you tube channel I wrote and performed my own theme. If I were a tad more polished I would offer my services. Surely there’s a fan out there who could whip you up some custom music.
You are completely right about the girl bosses wanting to join NATO for security. And also so they don’t have to make decisions anymore. They can just do what NATO tells them to do. Running a country is hard!!! Waaaaah!
Some 60ish basic white woman just drove past me in her mini Cooper and she has a Ukrainian flag pasted on the side of it. I really just cannot stand these people
What would get your car keyed faster?
A Russia flag, or a Trump flag?
(No fan of Trump, but that unhinged hatred of the Orange man borders on a mental disorder)
I miss the linked stories in the podcast. I hope Z-Man can bring them back, even if just some short segments. It’s nice to be able to read what Z-Man is reading and keep up with what he is talking about.
Okay, so much about Twitter is fake and thus a lie. I always figured that their sole purpose to exist was to serve as an agitprop for our Cloud People’s Deep State, and to spread their propaganda, while shutting off anyone with a legitimate beef about what this country has become.
Mr. Musk is a fraud as well, having a supposedly valuable company that produces a very few creaky electric cars full of Chinese cut-rate electronics that tend to wreck or catch on fire. He is obviously no Henry Ford or Walter Chrysler.
The question is why would one fraud attempt to buy out another fraud? Perhaps they’re on two sides of competing scamsters who are trying to screw the other over. They are all participants in our rotten and dying system. I figure Musk was going to prove all along, and had the loot, to force Twitter’s fakery at hand.
Someone somewhere is probably going to short sell Twitter stock, and it’s probably naked shorting as well. Someone stands to make a sh#t load of money with no investment other than their playboy Musk playing his part. All we need to know is who is doing the short selling, and who are Musk’s bankers?
Lots of people have doubted Twitters numbers forever, but by definition they’re Dirt people so who would believe them? The P.T.B needed someone with “credibility” and Musk fit the bill. It’s all just another scam where those at the top of the Cloud People pyramid eat each other alive. No news here!
Elon Musk backing out of the Twitter sale now would be an enormous disaster. Not only would the censorship return but probably escalate in retaliation. This evil regime already has a ministry of truth to bully the media into reporting their narrative and silencing their enemies as the republican party leadership does nothing about it. Elon backing out would also demoralize the other side and make it harder to oppose the left.
As always, the solution is secession. You aren’t voting your way out of this and there is no superman coming to save you. Any belief to the contrary is a cope. We aren’t on the verge of any kind of conservative social revolution, either. So you can forget that. Secularism continues increasing and the demographics continue changing. There’s no going back except at the community and state level. Either get to the cause of independence or embrace the decline. Sadly, most have chosen the latter or pretend it isn’t happening.
Everything about this deal was suspect from the beginning. People actually thought Twitter would be “reformed”, but everyone should know by now that it is all fake.
I figure that Twitter has outlived its usefulness to the Cloud People. They’re probably afraid of being regulated in their activities, and if everyone’s favorite punching bag was emasculated, that would take the heat off the others, and dissuade Congress from passing ” regulation”.
Nothing changes except it all leaves people scratching their heads instead of thinking. Of course, had people been more discerning in reality, we wouldn’t be on the very edge of imperial collapse, would we?
“Elon backing out would also demoralize the other side and make it harder to oppose the left.”
From this side of my magic screen, I couldn’t care two figs what people are saying on Snapface.
I am demoralized because Trump was overthrown without consequence and the January 6 protesters are rotting in prison.
Many of us are of a cynical bent here. 🙂 I too suspect “good cop, bad cop” as a possible motive. I wish the man well, but Musk is a man much of whose wealth came from various direct and indirect government subsidies. Too, one doesn’t become among the world’s richest men without influencing — and being heavily influenced — by powerful hidden forces.
Since the internet is THE place for hatching crackpot theories, here’s (perhaps) an original: Musk really is a white knight, ready to do battle with the Progressive Lunatics who have taken over much of the world. If he really intends to make Twitter more free, that is a direct threat to the authoritarian Left. They either let him be, or else attempts to stymie him (e.g. regulatory or other legal tactics) most likely force their actions out into the open, far more so than so far “informal” controls on content, like the recently created DHS “ministry of truth” group. [Here comes what maybe is my original contribution!] Isn’t possible that one faction of the Plutocracy is genuinely afraid that the Woke Crazies may bring the whole system crashing down, thus ending the gravy train for everyone? I’d say such fears would be well-founded, wouldn’t you?
Perhaps Musk is the vanguard of the start of a clash of the titans. All we ants can really do is hunker down and wait for the dust to settle.
I remember after 9/11 all the ridiculous hokey stuff our leaders did, from members of Congress singing God Bless America to that atrocious pop show for the masses. Still, outside of some oddness, our leaders still acted like adults with responsibilities. Even G.W. Bush, much as I despise him, gave the best presidential address I have ever heard after 9/11
People lapped it up then, and many in charge think that’s still the same country and they can pull the safe schmaltz for Ukraine. Yes, it’s effective in getting the usual suspects to put their Ukraine flags out, but we’re now dealing with a large population of hardened, cynical people who want nothing to do with it.
Right. When you’re 85 or whatever the average swamp rat’s age is, 25 years ago is more salient than what you ate for lunch.
And little’s changed in their bubble; The world on the other side of the cataracts still looks like Y2K, or morning in america.
But let’s be fair – let us remember David Bowie’s performance of “America” by Simon and Garfunkel and then “Heroes”: pretty darn good. Let us forget, however, “Freedom” by Paul McCartney: please deposit cringe vomit in nearest receptacle.
Bush knew good and goddamn well the Nose vaporized the towers.He fucking lied, they all lie are you seeing the pattern to the madness?
Yes. When you see all those TV commercials for maimed, disabled Iraq, Afghanistan vets needing houses, etc asking for private money and the Regime sends 60 billion off to Ukraine?
Hell no, we won’t go.
I know a guy from south Asia who made a simple website processing and displaying certain Twitter API data. He then paid some people over darknet to send him traffic and they set up a botnet to hammer random links on the site 24/7. He let it go for a few months, collecting traffic data via some free web service. That data was later used as proof of the website’s popularity. He sold the website for about a million USD, which he then used to get investor visa to the US.
I wonder what he is up to now…
I always kind of wondered if hackers ever had that “huh, why didn’t I think of that??” moment.
They ALL have to go back.
Another great podcast. Please allow me to riff on the salient points.
Yes, the dementia patient and feminist rulers of Europe are leading us into damnation and collapse, but what then? The lazy and stupid will whine and riot. Blue collar guys will form or join militias. The Cloud people will get antsy and order their Gulfstreams to begin warming up, and the fog of chaos will open the door for real remedy, not phony vote harder RINO head-faking. What to do if you want to be part of the solution?
Well, most LEOs will be quite busy with riots and gang violence. And the Stasi, like the country in general, is rife with fat and lazy, so they will lean hard toward entrapment and bagging the stupid because it makes them look good with little effort. Modeling strongly suggests that what will work best is the nobody that nobody sees coming. He/she does not paint a target on their back, but rather is the exact opposite. Bland nothingness in appearance and demeanor. Simple, secret, solo, and spontaneous.
Leverage the unknown and unexpected, and the Gulfstreams will fly with just a little bit of motivation. Far less harm and destruction. Smarter, not harder.
I haven’t been following it closely, but in a normal acquisition of this size there’d be a massive due diligence audit, usually by one of the big three accounting firms. All of the corporation’s books would be opened to the auditor and any kinds of fraud or cooked books would be brought to light. Does anyone know if that is going on?
I was wondering the same thing. This happens when you buy a mom and pop shop. It is simply too easy to hide things, even in a small company. In a big public corporation, I guarantee there is a lot of questionable stuff. I would assume this is happening with the Twitter deal.
“This happens when you buy a mom and pop shop. It is simply too easy to hide things, even in a small company.”
I can confirm. I work for a small internet startup, and we were recently acquired. I spent a month working on due diligence with the buyer’s outside accounting firm. Just one example of how far into the details they got: We never accrued for unused vacation time because we didn’t let it carryover to the following year. In 2020 we made an exception due to Covid, and let people carryover their balance for two months. This is just a non-cash book entry that would have been less than $10K, but they flagged it as an example of non-compliance with GAAP.
But then are the accounting firms themselves compromised? At this stage in our slow boil to civil war, there is no longer any such thing as an independent auditor.
Independent auditors are the “fact checkers” of the financial industry. And like all fact checkers they are all one-sided, corrupt and decide for who ever pays them.
Say it ain’t so! Surely accounting and rating firms are above reproach. Think of all the integrity they showed in the last great financial crash, in the early ’00s. 🤣
But yes, the ethical lapses are serious. If a system can be gamed, it will be. Who was it who said (ancient, since the quote is Latin): “Who watches the watchers?”
Is it possible that the big three accounting firms have an incestuous relationship with Twitter and therefore cannot be trusted? Again, as I point out frequently, we are talking about a unitary Power Structure here, and every component of it works in concert with every other. One can trust nothing about the Power Structure, let alone one aspect of it to report honestly about another.
Fundamentally agree with you re. a single Power Structure. However, elites within that structure still dick each other over. They go to court. And one side loses lots of money. Just saying, yes, single Power Structure, but to a degree the West is still a culture of laws, checks & balances, etc.
Individuals still compete, but the entities complement.
I’m certain this mornings announcement is coming from the diligence process. Users are fundamental to the business so am certain Musk has his own tech nerds diving ideep. They know where to look and often the more digital the company is the harder it is to hide things. What I’ve got to ask aground about is what sort of clawbacks are in the Reps & Warranties of public to private conversion (only experience public to public transactions). But normally there are clawbacks to the sellers for material violations.
The “news” today reports that the rumors of inflated user stat’s are indeed true. Seems Musk is finding a significant percentage of “bots” in those totals. That would affect the value of the company. I also suspect that some of these revelations coming out may also be towards some renegotiation on the price per share–since the stock (and all stocks) are down in the tumbling market. Investors may indeed go for a reduced offer from Musk, especially if he can dirty the imagine of Twitter some more wrt it as a thriving business.
Probably not if it is a private sale
Buyer and seller can do whatever they want since the SEC won’t be deeply involved on the back end
Similar I think to when you buy a property cash you can decide you don’t need the things the banks require, such as appraisals and inspections
Maybe you can, but that would be dumb. After the fact is a hell of a time to find out that the company you just bought is neck deep in tax fraud or half its revenues are fake, it has outstanding liens that exceed the value of the company, etc. I’ve been involved in some sales of private companies and there were audits every time.
Same. Audit contingencies are boilerplate in acquisition contracts.
Sad to hear about Finland.
At this point they could probably hook Mannerheim to a dynamo and more than fulfill their green energy plan.
“Women ruin everything” is applicable in so many scenarios.
True enough, but there’s another demographic to which that slight is even more applicable 😎 Women just fret about what’s left over.
Spectacular show, Z. Well done. And a wonderful description of the ridiculous fops and carnies – or unserious people too.
If we DO want to get serious… Gonzalo is here to indulge us. I highly recommend you take a look at this.
https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=253320
I think Putler will get his deal long before things get as bad as Gonzalo says…but you never know. Maybe this will be the boot in the ass that westerners need to get serious?
that guy is just talking out his ass. completely over wrought. he knows he won’t lose any audience when all these doomsday deadlines come and go, and things keep bumbling along. things *will* get worse of course, but not like this nostradamus is ranting about.
You have to remember he’s in the thick of it, Karl. There is some scarey chit going on in the ‘Kraine and he is in the middle of it.
I think he’s dead on with Vlad’s intentions. The Russians have shown uncharacteristically reserved and restrained responses to growing provocations from Washington.
Vlad is cagey enough to know that he could never take out the lead clowns of Glibohomo… but he could be most helpful in inducing Americans and Europeans to take out the trash themselves. A gas and food sanction against the west? Right at the end of fall? The timing would be spectacularly perfect, and it would truly be a Russian economic ‘shock and awe’ maneuver.
he’s just another grifter. like i said, i know there will be decline in the world, this year, and the next ‘x’ too. but not the exaggerated levels this guy is manufacturing. he’s like whiskey that way…
Gonzo’s predicted scenario may be the only thing that saves us from a future in vaxpass hell.
I take him seriously. The us is busy destroying the basis for the petrodollar.
That was done as soon as we seized Russia foreign reserves .
In essence its no longer possible to safely and easily trade with other nations and this means a lot of friction and sooner than later breaking down into trade blocks , protectionism and closed borders
The US land of people who’d rather burn it down than make it since they can’t get cheap labor will be hammered flat.
If you needed more evidence that our elections are fixed, see 2000 Mules.
As our elections are fixed,
As even if the GOP makes inroads they will still be led by the controlled opposition party led the double Macs McCarthy & McConnell
As soon the immigration invasion will mean it will no longer be necessary to cheat,
And as my finger is too tired to continue on listing reasons 4 – 100.
I will conclude. We are screwed.
We all saw the videos of the vote counting facilities where workers concealed fraud. There was fraud, no doubt.
However, Ramzpaul has a sympathetic but skeptical review of the movie at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVnYanPdIpQ
I want to believe that widespread and systematic fraud is the reason that Trump lost, but it may be that we are outnumbered and Trump failed to rally his white troops by delivering on almost none of his promises, the border being the most flagrant. Let’s move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem instead!
Also, https://deadline.com/2022/05/oan-admits-no-widespread-voter-fraud-by-election-workers-after-lawsuit-over-reporting-1235020781/
Sure. More people voted against Trump than voted for Obama or Reagan, you betcha!
He was that hated.
Trump was the most unpopular candidate ever.
Safe and effective…our elections are Safe And Effective!
The elections were safe and effective, but may require a booster or supplement if there are future break through cases.
The most honest election in our life time! In the history of elections – since the Athenians elected Pericles.
2000 Mules is helpful to those still in the dark. Anyone paying attention knows that most big American cities run crooked elections – dead people voting, patronage, prestidigitation. They never lose.
Regarding the written preface and this quote
“It is hard to know if what Musk is doing is legitimate or simply a way to wiggle out of what may be a bad deal. Everyone agrees he overpaid for the company and everyone agrees that the deal has only gotten worse. His claims about the user base could be a way to scuttle the deal entirely. Alternatively, he could be greenmailing Twitter into agreeing to much lower price for the company.”
As I do listen to, and am fond of that madman Steve Bannon, I did find it worthwhile and interesting what his take was on the deal. In a past life Bannon was a Hedge fund conman. In his podcasts over the past few weeks he was going on and on recommending, or even advising that Musk dump the original deal and come in lowball for just that reason you cited amongst others. In fact, Bannon said Musk likely had multiple contingencies on the deal and was in fact going to eventually buy the company for much less than offered as it does not make money and is underwritten by the feds. The feds own/fund the web infrastructure the platform runs on. Like all lib models, like NPR et al, it’s fack, it’s a money loser, and it is meant to terrorize the population while elevating the voice of the psychopaths.
It was a good way for Musk to sell a bunch of Tesla stock without raising an alarm.
I never miss a chance to remind people that Steve Bannon owns a chunk of “Seinfeld”.
I’m telling you, the good and the great think that they’re winning the Ukraine war. They believe that:
1. The Ukrainians are mounting serious counter-attacks in the north
2. The Russian military is running out of men and spare parts
3. The Russian economy will slowly grind to a halt without Western technology, parts and expert workers.
In their minds, this war is great. They will bleed the Russians dry – both physically and economically – for a year or two and then pick up the pieces when it collapses.
What’s amazing is that even if that was the case (and I have no idea), the West would still harm itself dramatically. Europe’s economy can’t handle such high energy prices. It will fall into serious recession, which will put huge pressure on their bond market due to all of the debt.
This could easily create either a banking crisis or a sovereign debt crisis or both in Europe. And that’s under the good case scenario for our rulers.
Madness.
I have brought this up in other contexts, but the truth is, our rulers do get high from their own supply. They live in the world of narrative structures. In the current narrative structure, al of the things you posted here are happening. Let’s not forget they had the same narrative during the Iraq debacle. They still think we should be occupying Iraq.
It’s because being completely wrong never impacts them – or, really, the economy. The neocons never lose their jobs. The surface-level experts keep getting speaking jobs and continue to work at think tanks or universities.
But this is one time where they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Russia isn’t Iraq or Iran or Venezuela. Russia can cause serious economic harm to Europe if it chooses. (Granted, it would hurt Russia tremendously as well.)
There’s also the issue of debt and inflation. The reason the West could do stupid stuff for 40 years is because we had falling interest rates and low inflation that entire time, allowing us to run up debts, both public and private. We’ve reached the end of the road on both of them.
Running up debt for stupid stuff – like needless wars – isn’t a free lunch anymore. You’ll have to pay for it, either by higher interest rates, which will hurt the economy and can’t be afforded by the govt anyway, or by inflation, which really pisses people off.
For God’s sake, govt debt to GDP is 125%. Two-year treasury rates have increased by 2.5 percentage points over the last year. The debt is mostly short duration. Around 30% will come due in the next two years – $9 trillion. Almost all of the debt will roll over in the next five years. That means that the cost to service the debt will grow from ~1% of GDP now to ~3% to 3.5% in a few years.
The govt will either borrow that, which along with Boomer costs, will push the deficit to nearly 10%, which will create a crisis or it will impose yield curve control with some inflation, which will cause a crisis.
Our rulers don’t have daddy’s credit card anymore. I don’t think that they understand this.
If you want a taste of what’s to come, look at Japan and the yen. Japan has imposed YCC but it’s hammering the yen. To keep the wolves at bay, Japan is selling its treasuries to buy yen to keep it from collapsing. Well, the US won’t have that option if we have to impose YCC to keep our govt solvent.
Our leaders have decided to take on a serious opponent just when we no longer have the ability to run up debt. You can’t be more stupid.
The thing that should frighten everyone is that Russia has been weirdly cautious in responding to Western economic sanctions so far. That is not guaranteed to last forever. Further, Russia has not respondeded to the military provocations from the West. The Ukrainian “refugees” who just murdered a man in Poland, who was trying to stop them from raping a Polish girl, should be a warning. These “accidents” can quickly become organized and well-armed terror attacks.
Things could get much worse in a hurry.
Russia has acted like the adult in the room. They know the US is trying to provoke them. But at some point, they’re going to get pissed.
US intel targeting their generals is stunningly stupid.
My guess is that Russia is still hoping to keep some semblance of economic relations with Europe after all of this is done. It may be wishful thinking, but it’s what they want.
Germany may talk a good game about moving away from Russian gas, but they’re not making any real moves yet to make that happen. (Until you hear the words “nuclear power,” Germany isn’t being serious.)
Russia knows that its relationship with the US is over, but it wants to keep the door open for Europe.
Basically, we’re all relying on Russia ignoring the childish behavior of our rulers and continuing to be the adult in the room.
Putin will never abandon ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine to face reprisals. The Russians aren’t going anywhere, but they may escalate should this stupid regime keep it up. That’s what should frighten you.
The only question is whether or not Putin has the nerve to take this to where it’s inevitably going first, before the other side puts him at too much of a disadvantage to win without enormous losses.
Russians are short on manpower. That’s the real reason they haven’t yet destroyed Ukraine’s army. They can bomb and degrade all they want, but they eventually need boots on the ground to take and hold territory. They are badly outnumbered (2/3 to 1) and face a determined opposition of relatively high IQ, homogeneous people supplied with modern weapons over a favorable terrain. This means Ukraine is able to place all their best troops directly opposite the Russians in the east and the south, preventing a quick encirclement.
That’s wholly unlike the American experience in the Middle East (Iraq). The Russians thought they could waltz in with high-tech and get their way in a month. Nope. Time to adjust.
Call up the reserves and double the number of troops in Ukraine; formally declare war on Ukraine; kill Zelensky and his government; open another front to collapse the Ukrainian army; use the rest to intimidate Finland and invade if necessary. Absent that, the Russians will foolishly let the West escalate — NATO membership, sanctions, weapons — until they have only one option …
Because the Potomac regime will not let Russia accomplish the original mission. Ukraine’s corrupt government will be told not to give up the Donbass, etc. They will continue attacking Russia permanently until Ukraine is destroyed and Russia will face a Vietnam-like situation which they cannot withdraw from lest ethnic Russians be massacred in Eastern Ukraine. The calculus here suggests the Ruskies need to dramatically escalate first before the other side gets too much of an advantage. I think it’s only a matter of time now.
Short of manpower? In their military? Doubt it. They have conscription, plus reserve forces for all that’s worth. The reason for the “slow war” is to avoid open conflict with NATO; specifically the US. Plus the so-called shock-and-awe surgical wars the US likes to fight are largely a American invention. The Russian military isn’t really reknown for its elegant finesse and precision; more the blunt and lots of sledgehammers approach. Given that, they’ve done some surprisingly efficient work at disassembling the Ukrainian forces.
The untold story of this war thus far is the boneheaded approach of Ukraine, which is following orders from American planners. They let the war settle into a situation where the Russians can pound Ukrainian positions without receiving much return fire. Not only should the American foreign policy shop be fumigated, but the military leadership should be sacked as well.
“Short of manpower? In their military? Doubt it. They have conscription, plus reserve forces for all that’s worth.”
They invaded with ~250k troops and face an opposition of around 600k armed with modern weapons in a country larger than Germany with unfavorable terrain that allows the enemy to hide their defenses, unlike the Iraqi desert. They don’t have enough troops to quickly end the war, and even if they take all the territory they want, the US will continue encouraging the Ukrainians to attack Russian positions forever.
The only way to avoid that is to outright destroy the entire Ukrainian armed forces, and they don’t have enough manpower for that unless they keep this up for months and years. Can they really or will this turn into their Afghanistan but with no way out because Eastern Ukrainian Russians will be slaughtered in reprisal attacks should they withdraw? Or will they eventually escalate as I suggested?
Also, those reserves are *not* in Ukraine at the moment, and that’s the point of the comment.
“The reason for the “slow war” is to avoid open conflict with NATO; specifically the US.”
I’m sorry, but that’s pure cope. They thought 250k would be enough, and they were wrong. If they had invaded with twice that number NATO still wouldn’t have done anything to directly oppose them, so that’s not a valid excuse. No good general thinks prolonging a war and risking high causalities by doing a half-a$$ed job is a viable strategy. Putin simply lacks the nerve to fully commit and foolishly thinks he can get a deal without suffering causalities.
“The Russian military isn’t really reknown for its elegant finesse and precision; more the blunt and lots of sledgehammers approach.”
They’ve spent years going the high-tech route under Putin. That’s why they’re now in a mess. They switched strategies after failing to take Kiev. Artillery was a backup because they thought precision weapons would get the job done as in Iraq, but this is a totally different proposition they never considered.
“Given that, they’ve done some surprisingly efficient work at disassembling the Ukrainian forces.”
This war should have been over last month. They can “disassemble” all they want, but the enemy is being infinitely resupplied while Finland joins NATO. That wouldn’t be happening if they had called up reserves and opened another front.
Instead, they went the attrition route, implying to the enemy that they are weak and emboldening them to help Ukraine, and they will pay the price as the enemy solidifies around them. Even if they prevail in Ukraine, it will be a Pyrrhic victory as Finland takes their place in NATO.
Russia screwed up big time by not committing to the bit. The only question is if hardliners in that country realize that and perhaps replace Putin with someone who’ll get the job done by escalating. That’s the real danger here. I think it could happen for reasons mentioned above.
“kill Zelensky and his government;”
Ukrainians may do it before Russians get their chance.
“Things could get much worse…”
Update: it has just been announced the Russians are cutting off Finland’s power tomorrow. Looks like we could now be in the escalation phase to WWIII.
Card Stock, are they cutting off power or just gas? Gas is not a big deal for them.
Russia could simply say Nyet to any trade with the West once they fix shipping to alternative markets.
This will cost them money and hurt the economy but it will destroy Germany and most of the EU.
To what Card Stock said Russia has done astoundingly well given they are outnumbered by a well trained (NATO standards) foe on its home soil,. who is equipped with the same weapons and with massive foreign material support . They messed up trying US style blitz warfare but once they got back to doctrine , they are hammering the Ukies hard
Its to the point we don’t hear anything and a great triumph is a single ambush at a bridge which to the Russians is annoying at most
No idea how Russian weapons would perform against the US (NATO is meaningless) but the hypersonic missiles seems to work quite well and we really don’t have a good defenses against them.
If we went hot, I’d guess we’ll try to take out those first because if we fail Russia can take out anyone involved in it water, power, food distribution and the private residences of the leadership class
If the worst happens and I think it will not, it will be the first way where both sides have precision guidance It may even be possible for Russia to get an edge on the US through jamming or ASAT attacks
We are not going to like it since we are used to fighting 3rd and 4th rate powers not people who can hit back and actually bomb our cities
Worse are resupply ability is low , we won’t be able to make much of what we need or import it
My big take away from this so far is America weapons are not the game changer we have been sold. Javelins work find on obsolete tanks and Toyota pickups, but not against modern tanks. The kamikaze drones have been a complete failure against the Russians. America has no where near the amount and quality of artillery pieces as Russia. That leaves American air power and I suspect one reason they have not been willing to commit modern air craft is they suspect they will be easily destroyed by Russian SAM’s. The S-400 is a scary counter to modern warplanes.
Like everything else in America, the Military Industrial Complex is a long running scam.
Our ruling class thinks just saying things makes it so…”yep, California is gonna have all electric vehicles by 2030. Gonna happen, no need to increase grid capacity or charging infrastructure. Governor Newsome said it, he has a haircut so it’s totes real.”
If we say Ukraine’s winning well then by gum they are.
Russia has far too many savvy engineers around to reverse engineer or find workable substitutes for all those allegedly fancy Western parts.
I’m not saying that they’re right. I’m just telling everyone that this is what they believe.
Thank you for today’s (written) topic: fraud, deception and all it cousins, legal or otherwise, that all commerce and salient here, media of all types. In the broadest sense, there is little difference between networks of bots and/or “troll farms” that post fake information on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media. Their goals may be as simple as what Z covers today, to fraudulently inflate apparent users, or to post spam, or to spread propaganda for whatever goal. Is such laundering of information any different than the editorial process in legacy media that digests information, shapes it to fit the desired point of view, perhaps embellishing when necessary, before extruding it in the steaming dump that is the daily newspaper, evening news, or latest update on the web site?
I’m not the only one of course, but one of my themes is the universal penchant to bend the truth, if not lie outright. Yesterday I got booed here for calling into doubt all the coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war. I often post about Covid-19, so I suppose the same charges could be leveled against my stuff. Regardless of the topic, I simply try to keep people aware that while the news MAY be important, it is critical to know (or at least make an educated guess) as to the motivations of who is reporting what. There may not ALWAYS be a hidden agenda, but that’s the way to bet, at least if one is paranoid.
Has Bohner ever enlarged on Putin?
Sounds unpleasant.
Not for the former, it isn’t
It’s never good to have an enlarged Bohner while Putin…
Dude, relisten to the first segment. A feminist named “bareback”. I’m not even gonna look it up and see for myself. That’s what it sounded like to me and I’m calling ignorance is bliss on that one.
Hahaha!
Zman, you wicked, wicked thing you
I had completely forgotten about him. Boehner, like Hastert, was everything wrong with the Republican Party in particular, and the two-party system in general.
And a piece of me thinks that this was the plan.
Me, too. Honestly, it’s gets old seeing the same shit over and over again, but going faster and faster each time.
Fake and gay is an apt, if flippant description of the US of A in this day and age. Flippant in that there’s a lot of real danger out there, unfortunately.
It brings to mind getting an injury at Disneyworld
How can I get hurt at a place that is all make believe?
But reality doesn’t go on hiatus when you enter the Magic Kingdom
This gentle giant and his parents’ lawyers agree.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/25/teen-was-freaking-out-on-orlando-ride-before-his-death-dad-says/
What’s the difference between the driver that screams, throws hands over face, and drives off the road when a car cuts them off …
AND
… the driver that calmly reacts to being cut off an makes it home with the pizza still hot?
My dad told me a story from before I was born. He and my mom were driving somewhere out west, when an oncoming car began suddenly to veer into their lane presaging a head on collision. He, seeing that if he tried to jog right – the conventional impulse – they would still be subject to a head on or a t-bone collision , instead quickly cut left onto the opposite shoulder, passing by the onrushing car on the passenger side, and then cut back right into his own lane. This was an instantaneously arrived at, correct decision that probably saved their lives.
He had been in training as a Naval airman near the end of WWII, and by all indications from this incident, and many other situations, his ability to discern the alternative, correct, course of action, that the Naval flyers who plucked him out of basic Marine training at Parris Island had identified a quick-thinking man well suited to the exigencies of combat.
I miss that old man, and my mother, too, every day. God rest their souls.
Jersey,
“Gentle giant” or not, your old man would NOT have been hurled off the ‘amusement’ ride.
Instead of bringing home a nice, $25.00 pie with no toppings, he passed his likely excellent genes on to you.
Quick! I just tossed a tennis ball at you.
Twitter is just an digital manufacturing consent farm. Who doubts the tentacles of all state evil are deeply inserted into it.
That is all it is and pretty much all the internet is, a deep state creation to nab people in the government’s web and/or use it to demoralize and confuse people
I guess they call it the “web” for a reason, because they are the spiders and we are the flies who get eaten
I’ve said it too many times: Libertarian explanations for corporate/institutional behavior are always wrong. Twitter doesn’t fake its numbers for economic reasons. Nobody there is trying to make money (except personally). Twitter shows you fake numbers to *show you fake numbers.*
YouTube famously falsifies its viewer counts—downward. Every day, “culled” streamers run flash polls to prove it. On a stream supposedly watched by a thousand, ten thousand viewer responses might come in in a few seconds. “The market” cannot explain, except as market-evading conspiracy (which the market supposedly punishes out of existence), why an *advertising company*—officially all but a tiny sliver of Google’s revenue comes from ad sales—would do this.
Any corporation big enough for the public to recognize its name is the government. Sometimes it’s very directly so; big tech just *is* Five Eyes intelligence & associates. Sometimes it’s more “emergently” so, as the company’s motivating force shifts from owner to shareholder representatives (who are on the boards of several supposedly competing companies, and who are often politicians) to “stakeholder” to…
Twitter is the manifestation of the old Lily Tomlin joke about ‘solving’ NYC’s problem of homeless nuts wandering around talking to themselves.
The punch line: “pair them up…”
Musk just realized he landed his plane and walked into a Jonestown cult. Like Leo Ryan with blood on his shirt from the crazies he is quickly trying to get back to the airstrip.
He wants to go back to trying to sell $70,000 electric cars in a quickly deteriorating economy.
Good luck Elon.
He probably got spooked by the government sending out their lawfare troops
I wonder if he was taken to a room full of cigarette smoking men in black suits and shown the film shot from the grassy knoll in Dallas.
I’m surely no expert, but in recent financial press some pundits “predicted” which means raised the possibility, that Musk would try and force down Twitter’s price. I was unaware the term for this is “greenmail,” but Z too has mentioned it today.
I don’t know what binding agreements Musk may have committed to yet, but plain old bargaining says the buyer usually finds every fault, real or imagined, in the goods he MIGHT buy, of course the goal being to talk the price down. And it often works. Even the Layabout has shaved a few bucks off a purchase a few times in his life, even though he is about as aggressive as a potted geranium 😀
Musk may be trying to get out of the deal. Or he may be masterfully knocking down the cost of acquisition.
you could make a reasonable case that Twitter and Facebook’s infrastructure is to a significant degree dedicated for the purpose of running bot networks to manage their own users in a Bentham panopticon and perhaps lots of other sites as well.
Musk maybe did not fancy paying so much for data centers whose job is to run a bot army.
For whom and who pays the bill is perhaps a different question.
The other puzzle of Twitter is they reportedly do not own their infrastructure. They are reportedly hosted on Amazon World Services. This is another hidden liability for a platform implementing speech reforms. Of course, the big issue how much of their revenue is from fraud. Once you open the door, it is easy to imagine their revenue stream collapsing. Why would anyone buy data that is probably fake?
I’ve wondered about this since the
Muskellunge announced he was buying Twitter. What if he never intended to buy it to turn a profit? He certainly wasn’t going to turn it into a bastion of free speech, regardless of the fantasies of CivNats and Grillers.
What if his intention was to destroy it from the outset?
That would actually make me believe that Musk is genuinely somewhat based.
The infrastructure looks confusing.
Their capex is something $700 million and they were supposed to be bringing online a new data center last year, yet supposedly have multiple leases with different providers.
Co-location for data processing and network transfer costs seems to suggest it is not as reported.
So who knows who really owns and funds these things or even where they are really hosted.
Maybe Musk found out he now has a load of server racks in the NSA Utah facility.
Twitter is a dog’s breakfast
Why throw good money after bad?
Unless he thinks he can use the platform to boost his political aspirations, but even for me he is starting to “over expose” himself. When I say even for me I mean as a person who is not a fan boy or a Musk hater and neutral wrt him. But I am seeing his strange looking face too much and wish he would just go away. May sound harsh, but I don’t want to have to look at him every day, and I don’t want him to me a major part of my life. I think he is best as a cult of personality type guy, a sort of nerd idol, which is what he has been and has served him well.
But out of my control
Trumpton (and others)-
Ever look into the story of In-Q-Tel, the CIA venture capital firm that was spun up in 1999 or so?
Amazon Cloud services contract for…which intel agency was it, again?
DoD?
This is entity structuring. Two divisions of the same company (or Company) selling each other services to muddy the books.
A recent analysis from Sundance at Conservative Treehouse was certainly moving toward that line of thought. If not an actual use of NSA assets, certainly a fairly direct pass through of traffic to the deep state. And really, how different is using Amazon Web Services from employing indubitably deep state servers?
Social media is an expression of Edward Bernays’ deepest aspirations for state propaganda; a direct pipeline to, and a feedback loop from, “citizens” from the controlling matrix, simultaneously influencing the already succeptible, while monitoring those disposed to “unhelpful” thoughts.
My MIC firm is now running its intranet, which contains all manner of proprietary and controlled information, on Microsoft’s Azure platform.
It is impossible to distinguish where one ends and the other begins.
“Musk maybe did not fancy paying so much for…”
It’s like that Stonetoss comic. Musk wanted to monetize Twat’s blah-blah and the collected piercelings there were, “Monetize?”
Jill Biden, Bono, Trudeau, Blinken, et al in Ukraine:
Reminiscent of the early days of the US Civil War and the First Battle of Bull Run where all the DC dandies went out to have a picnic and watch the excitement before it turned into a disaster for the North and a stampede with everyone fleeing.
The West is playing with fire, and everyone who’s anyone just wants to posture for instagram photos. As theZman says:
This will not end well.
I’ve always hoped that one day I’d get to see Ted Nugent knock Bono’s ever so Enlightened teeth down his ever so Tolerant throat.
well bono took a pretty nasty spill on a bicycle, so in a way he knocked his own teeth out. i laughed when i pictured him going over the handle bars and face planting in the road.
https://www.quellerfisher.com/blog/u2s-bono-suffers-major-injuries-in-central-park-bicycle-accident/
Was this on the street with no name?
And must have been on a bloody Sunday
Hehhehehe, yeah right? I remember feeling bad for the bike at the time. I tried looking up what the d-bag rides, but I get conflicting info.
Probably a Huffy.