Twitter/Musk

Free speech!

That's already out of the headlines, we're back to Russia/Ukraine all the time.

Did you know there were anti-abortion protests over the weekend?

I only knew because of a very short article deep into the pages of the "Wall Street Journal" and a slightly longer piece in the "New York Times." I hope the participants feel good about themselves, because their efforts had no effect whatsoever. You see protests like that, organized, not spontaneous, were built for the last century, when we all watched network news, when we were all aware of the same news, not today.

So over the weekend there was a mass shooting in Buffalo. The big news, beyond the deaths, was that the shooter acted in the name of "replacement theory," something mentioned 400 times by Tucker Carlson in the past few years, never mind his Fox cronies and elected officials. This has been the story everywhere but on Fox and in the right wing news. Because if they don't talk about it, their audience is unaware of it. So all you lefties out there, testifying about our country going down the toilet, I hope it makes you feel good to complain, because you're not helping your cause a whit. Complaining ain't worth it, never mind protesting, action must take a different form.

First and foremost the Dems need a leader. One who can reach everybody. They no longer have that. Even Biden can't reach everybody. And he's been tarred as a loser, ineffective with bad ratings. Not that I can exactly see why. The Afghanistan withdrawal was destined to be ugly and inflation reigns all over the world. But the Let's Go Brandon campaign has the left on its heels. You cannot win when you only play defense, you've got to score some points. And the only elected official who made a run for the goal line in the wake of the Alito leak was Gavin Newsom, and this was for criticizing his brethren in D.C., the members of his party, for being asleep at the wheel.

The only person who can reach everybody is Elon Musk. And the base of his operations? Twitter!

Don't focus on Trump. I mean focus on Trump politically, but his words and efforts don't reach everybody, despite the constant debate about the effectiveness of his political endorsements in the straight media. You see Twitter is where the journalists live. And they take the temperature of the country there. And that is where Elon is king.

Twitter can never be ubiquitous, most people are never going to use Twitter. That's like trying to make calculus cool. They don't want the news, they don't want to look at the issues, they just want to know which side to be on, right or left, they're all team players, and then they want to go to TikTok or Instagram to flaunt their bodies or look at the lifestyles of friends and foes, for tips, or to feel inadequate. Did you see that TikTok exceeds the traffic of Facebook and Instagram combined? Asking the question...are the Chinese more powerful than Zuckerberg? I'll let you ponder that.

But in a world where money is the most powerful art form, the entire world is paying attention to Elon Musk's shenanigans on Twitter.

Come on, you don't think music runs the world, do you? Last year Robinhood was bigger than any band. It was cutting edge, and tuned for the twenty first century, i.e. it let its customers PARTICIPATE! As for this year, it's all about crypto. Will crypto die a sudden death? That's possible, everybody not in it wants it to, but my point here is the young and hip are all invested, paying attention, the Bored Apes are bigger than any musical act, any!

So Elon Musk has a few hit records. First, with his old band at PayPal, now with Tesla and SpaceX. This is his moment. He's hit critical mass. And the products are good, but really it's about his status as the world's richest man, or at least westerner. He made all that money! Used to be rock stars were rich, and lived an unfettered lifestyle, those days are through. Today a musician's goal is to sell out. To get those higher up the food chain to make a deal, for sponsorships, for manufacture of their perfume or clothing...it may be their face in the ads, but believe me, there's a whole host of usual suspects behind it, in distribution if nothing else.

So Elon's got all this money. And he thinks the rules don't apply to him. Breaks the SEC code and then makes noise he wants to undo the penalty deal he made. He's whipsawing the public consciousness, like the rock stars of the seventies, bouncing from side to side.

And then there's this Twitter deal.

It's just like a music publicity stunt of yore. Everybody on the inside knew the score, that it was untrue, or there was an explanation. Kind of like Van Halen saying no brown M&Ms. We all know today that was to make sure promoters read the rider, but back then it was seen as a story of excess, the power of the band. Or Frank Zappa taking a crap on stage, that didn't even happen but many people believed it did. And the financiers, playing the role of the record industry insiders of yesteryear, knew that Musk would never close the Twitter deal, FOR FINANCIAL REASONS! The public, although intrigued by money, still doesn't get it. Hell, why play on Robinhood , don't they know Wall Street is a rigged game?

But for a month we've watched the greatest show on earth, now that the circus is gone, now that musicians are sold out, Elon Musk's "purchase" of Twitter. What did it cost him? A billion dollars. That's the breakup fee. That's worth it to Musk, the publicity value, the mindshare alone. And if Tesla stock continued to go up, it'd be free! Now the stock has gone down, which Musk didn't foresee, no one has ever been able to predict the movement of the stock market accurately, after all it's legalized gambling, not necessarily reflective of the value of the underlying companies, and that's put a major crimp in his ability to buy Twitter. Because his Tesla stock is already pledged for other financial activities and...I could explain the entire story but people aren't interested, they want to watch the movie, they don't care how it was created.

So like any weasel, Musk realized he was in too deep and now he's going on about fake accounts, bots. Like there's any news here. We all know they're on Twitter, but how many there are does not really affect the economics, it's kind of a red herring. It's just an excuse, a sideshow, a distraction to get out of the deal.

So will he or won't he?

He won't. But the devil is in the details, which once again the public doesn't care about. You see Twitter may be able to force him to do the deal. Yes, it's happened. But I'm sure Musk would fight that in court. Too much is at stake.

So what we are seeing here is negotiation as entertainment. And it's much more interesting than the bloviations of those in the Spotify Top 50, boasting about lifestyles that don't even compete with those of Musk and his billionaire brethren. Musk has more baby mamas than most NBA players, never mind "musicians." He's got enough money to take care of everybody, he can do whatever he wants. And what will he do?

That's the story here. And it's dominating the news cycle. It's consistent. Neck and neck with the Russia/Ukraine war for our attention. And that's the reason Putin started this conflagration, for mindshare, to rally his troops, to deflect their attention from their lives at home.

And you think replacement theory has a chance to compete?

Absolutely not. Because everybody concerned about it has no idea how the media works in the twenty first century, only the perpetrators of this heinous concept do.

Truth doesn't matter anymore. Trump taught us that. It's all about reach! You've got to play and sustain. Hear Dems in D.C. going on about abortion today? No, that's yesterday's news, they took a vote last week and now it's in the hands of the voters. But if the roles were reversed, the Trump team would be going on about it each and every day. And it's a team. The rugged individual leads, and then everybody gets in line behind him or her. How come the Democrats don't know this? Nothing is hidden today, the strategies are in plain sight, the lessons are there to be learned.

The public certainly knows this. Which is why everybody is polishing their personal brand each and every day on social media. They're laying the groundwork for the future. The oldsters talk about too much time on the internet, the faux pas that will ruin the participants' careers as adults. Meanwhile, you can have a neck tattoo and get a job no problem. Things change, and if you don't change with them, or acknowledge the change...

We live in the era of the train-wreck. That's what it takes to get attention, to get above the fold, or the equivalent online, where most people consume their news, albeit second-hand, from the hoi polloi. And you've got to crash that train or that car every day, you've got to make news every day to be effective. The punter sits at home and marvels that Hollywood trashed a Ferrari. And if it's not a fake, Hollywood is laughing all the way to the bank, knowing that a couple of hundred thousand dollars is nothing when it helps secure a billion dollar gross.

So I'm sorry to tell you how the movie turns out, that Elon pulls the plug, but I'm just like the rest of the reviewers online these days. Read a review and you don't have to go to the movie. Then again, you know what is involved in Space Mountain and the rest of the world's famous roller coasters and you go on them anyway, because it's about the ride. Yes, the cheap thrill that is over fast. And what do you say when the train of cars pulls back into the station? LET'S DO THAT AGAIN! Musk knows the paradigm. The old school left wing politicians in D.C? They're still too scared to go on the ride to begin with.


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