June 06, 2023
“He can and will” beat Trump: Jack Dorsey backs anti-vaxx RFK Jr. for president
-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Twitter had one hell of a Monday. The struggling Social Media platform was hit from every direction by a confluence of news stories bringing internal problems under harsh light. Former CEO Jack Dorsey and then-CEO Elon Musk enflamed political tempers by spotlighting anti-vaccine misinformation spreader and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr ., with Dorsey endorsing him on Sunday and Musk hosting a live Twitter Spaces event Monday afternoon. Finally, the site-wide uproar culminated with the early appointment of Linda Yaccarino to the role of Twitter's chief executive — and with Elon Musk becoming, like Dorsey, another ex-Twitter CEO. Related Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that COVID-19 restrictions eradicated the middle class What happened? Twitter's advertising revenue was found to have plummeted by more than half under the reign of Elon Musk, according to the company's own reports, with similarly dismal projections ahead; a group of Stanford researchers found unchecked child Sexual Abuse material on the site; and four U.S. senators announced that Twitter is now the subject of significant legal scrutiny over potential privacy violations. Here's how it all went down. It started out with a tweet In a June 4 tweet, ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey backed Kennedy's 2024 run. Dorsey tweeted out a Fox News video in which Kennedy argues he can beat former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 general race, commenting: "He can and will." The endorsement was just the latest in a series of Dorsey's tweets criticizing the Democratic Party and stirring a hive of fierce pushback from party members on the platform. Among the more ire-stoking moments: Dorsey's assertion that Democratic National Committee leaders "seem to be more irrelevant by the day." Days earlier, Dorsey drew rebuke from some Twitter users when he described Democratic events as "Democrat primaries" — a swap largely considered an epithet by Democrats. His remarks came in response to a video of President Joe Biden who, in a recent speaking engagement, stumbled over a sandbag left on stage . "Open the Democrat primaries and debates. This isn't fair to anyone," Dorsey said. The furor seemed to peak when Dorsey complimented Twitter CEO Elon Musk's decision to invite Kennedy to a Twitter Spaces event, held Monday afternoon. Related Meatball in the machine: Ron DeSantis learns a tough lesson about depending on Elon Musk's Twitter Dorsey's latest venture, Twitter alternative Bluesky, gained steam in its race against Twitter last week when the new platform surpassed 100,000 new users, with app downloads surging 600% . The success of the microblogging upstart, along with the continued downward spiral of Twitter amid rising technological problems, even has Facebook parent company Meta mulling a microblogging launch of its own. Despite his Bluesky wins, as of April, Dorsey still held a $1 billion stake in Twitter — a stake large enough that he could financially pummel Twitter and Musk if he cashed it out. That stake is becoming riskier by the day, though. Musk out, Yaccarino in: Twitter takes a beating With threats mounting against the company from both government officials and advertising companies, Musk vacated his CEO role suddenly on Monday. A new report from Twitter said that the company's critically needed advertising revenue had plummeted 59% through April under Musk, compared to the prior year. And Twitter expects to see year-over ad sales down by about 56% in each week moving ahead. Musk's replacement, ​​ new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino , is known for her connections to the advertising industry. She stepped into the role Monday, earlier than expected. At the root of Twitter's advertising woes, the company report cited the platform's growing inability to regulate the worst parts of the site — hate speech, drug and gambling spam, and unchecked pornography. The content has increased significantly under Musk's reign, largely attributed to Musk's sweeping layoffs of Twitter Safety Teams. Related Twitter algorithm recommends searches for animal torture videos after moderation cut: report On Monday, though, the worst of those safety concerns emerged when the Stanford Internet Observatory released a damning report , finding Twitter allowed dozens of images of child sexual abuse to circulate on Twitter in recent months. Researchers pointed to a lack of basic safety enforcement, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, and said the problem appeared to have been resolved in May. In his Twitter Spaces talk with Kennedy on Monday, Musk insisted the problem was a Free Speech issue. "Half of our advertising disappeared overnight because we're insisting on free speech," he said, as reported by NBC News' Ben Collins . "They're literally trying to drive Twitter bankrupt." The Journal said Twitter suspended about 404,000 accounts that created or engaged with child sexual exploitation material just in the month of January — a 112% increase since November. From March to May, Stanford researchers still detected more than 40 previously-flagged images of child sexual abuse on Twitter. About those Safety Teams The sudden layoffs and departures at Twitter also drew the eyes of four U.S. senators who, in a Sunday letter to both Musk and Yaccarino, are now questioning Twitter's privacy practices under Musk's former tenure. The lawmakers wrote that the hasty launch of new Twitter products amid rapid staff loss has raised doubts over whether Twitter has met its legal obligations under two consent orders signed with the Federal Trade Commission in 2022 and 2011. "Mr. Musk's behavior reveals an apparent indifference towards Twitter's longstanding legal obligations, which did not disappear when Mr. Musk took over the company," the lawmakers wrote in a letter obtained by CNN . "Regardless of his personal wealth, Mr. Musk is not exempt from the law, and neither is the company he purchased." The letter's four signatories are Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden and Mazie Hirono, of Oregon and HAWAII respectively. In a Monday tweet, Warren said wants answers. The senators are calling on Musk and Yaccarino to answer a series of questions about how the staff shake-ups will impact Twitter's FTC compliance. It wouldn't be the first time Twitter's caught heat for potentially violating FTC consent orders. In late April, experts warned Twitter that the site's new policy of adding blue Verified check-marks to high-profile users without their consent could amount to fraud. "False endorsements violate FTC rules, legally exposing Musk," said Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy and communications for the media advocacy group Free Press. Read more about Big Tech's role in politics Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s anti-vax nonprofit removed from Facebook and Instagram "Paging the FTC": Experts warn Musk's misleading celebrity Twitter blue checks are violation Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is a disaster. How much longer will the platform hold? By Rae Hodge Rae Hodge is a science reporter for Salon. Her data-driven, investigative coverage spans more than a decade, including prior roles with CNET, the AP, NPR, the BBC and others. She can be found on Mastodon at @raehodge@newsie.social. MORE FROM Rae Hodge Related Topics ------------------------------------------ elections Elon Musk Jack Dorsey Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Social Media Technology Twitter Related Articles Advertisement:
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'Trump tax': MSNBC host Chris Hayes shows how Trump winning would increase costs
Mar 28, 2024
How much would former President Donald Trump's proposed 10 percent tariff plan actually cost the average American household?The wave of tariffs Trump enacted when he was last president caused chaos, but there are many complexities that muddy this somewhat. However, MSNBC's Chris Hayes took an educated and simple guess at just how badly the country would be hit in the pocketbook under Trump's second-term plans."We don't know exactly how much everything would cost," said Hayes, but "just add 10 percent on the back of the napkin. Here's the cost of living under the Trump Tax."ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills"Start with groceries," he said. "A dozen eggs cost about $3. Once you apply the Trump Tax, that is up to $3.30, with the U.S. importing over 4 million eggs a year, but cost consumers over $1.2 million. If you like oranges, they currently go for about $1.53 per pound. With the Trump Tax, that would be $1.68 per pound, which would cost American consumers almost $71 million for the nearly half a billion pounds of the import. Bananas. We don't really grow them in the U.S., do we? They average about $.63 per pound and going up to $.69 per pound with the Trump Tax, thanks to the U.S. importing more than 10 million pounds per year, that could cost Americans at $609 million and that's a $609 million tax on American consumers. Then there's tomatoes. They go for about $2.13 per pound. Apply the 10 percent Trump Tax. They would be $2.34 per pound, potentially costing Americans $3.5 million thanks to the 6.8 million pounds we import per year. If you are spending $1,200 on groceries, add another $120 to the bill. That's more than the peak of inflation in 2022, which topped off at 9 percent. This is 10 percent."Groceries are just the start, he continued."How about the refrigerator?" said Hayes. "You need to keep the groceries fresh. The average cost of a new fridge is about $1,300. With the Trump Tax, that could go up to $1,430, costing Americans $1.95 billion for the 15 million refrigerators that we import. Again, $1.95 billion of new taxes. What about the car that you need to drive to the grocery store? On average, a new car costs about $48,808 today. With Trump Tax, it costs $53,684, with Americans potentially taking a $66.3 billion hit across the board on the 13 million cars we import. That's not including the 50 percent tariff which would make it another $25,000. Even the smartphone in your pocket cost on average about $940 right now. With Trump Tax, it can go up to $1,034, with Americans potentially paying an extra $13.2 billion for the nearly 141 million smartphones that we import per year.""Everyone hates when you have to pay more for things," he added. "Inflation is one of the biggest liabilities for a sitting president. Yet here is Donald Trump, in the Year of our Lord 2024, running against President Biden, promising to make things more expensive for every American."Watch the video below or click here. Chris Hayes breaks down "Trump Tax" www.youtube.com
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Trump-endorsed candidate says Beyoncé is teaching women 'how to be hyper-sexual'
Mar 28, 2024
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson had yet another group of extremist comments unveiled — this time about legendary singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.According to The Root, "During a series of rants spanning multiple years, Robinson —who is Black —insulted Beyoncé’s singing abilities, called her a 'skank,' and said she was teaching 'young women how to be hyper-sexual w----s.'"For example, in 2017, Robinson posted to Facebook, “Person; Beyoncé is a role model!” Me; “The only person that butt shakin’, devil worshipping, skank is a role model to is people who want a fast track to Hell.” This is on top of previous reporting that he referred to her music as sounding like "Satanic chants."ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal billsThese revelations come at a moment when Beyoncé herself has found herself at the center of some national controversy, having written a country music inspired album known as Cowboy Carter, and some country radio stations refusing to play singles off of it because of her race.Robinson, who is challenging Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein for the governorship of North Carolina, has been put under the spotlight for a number of bizarre and offensive comments throughout the years.Among other things, he has referred to school shooting survivors as "prosti-tots," pushed QAnon and "lizard people" conspiracy theories, questioned the Holocaust, and suggested American politics was better in the era when women couldn't vote.
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Politic
'Some prosecutor should be looking into' Trump's latest legal defense scam: expert
Mar 28, 2024
Former President Donald Trump's sprawling network of ostensibly independent political groups raising money for him, much of it in service of paying legal expenses, seems to walk right up to the line of breaking the law, former prosecutor Kristy Greenberg told MSNBC's Alex Wagner — and may in fact cross it."Kristy, how is this legal?" asked Wagner. "How can he keep saying this one thing and doing another?""Well, I think the big question here will be looking behind all of this as to who is coordinating it," said Greenberg. "If Donald Trump is coordinating between his campaign and these PACs that are supposed to be third parties and independent — the Save America PAC is independent, even though he directs it, independent third-party — if there is sufficient coordination, you could prove that, then maybe you would have something to say these expenditures are not purely personal, these are really campaign contributions. And therefore they should be subject to the limits of $5,000 that campaign contributions are subject to."ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal billsWhat it looks like, Greenberg went on, is that Trump and his allies are "just trying to do an end-run around these various regulations, and it seems so transparent.""[Special counsel] Jack Smith ... had served some subpoenas in connection with that nonexistent, as it turns out, election defense fund," Greenberg said. "He served some subpoenas and then he withdrew them and it was unclear why, because that seemed like such a clear-cut fraud. I questioned why that happened. Perhaps it was optics. Perhaps he thought like he had such strong cases, the January 6 case and the national security case, that he didn't want to seem as though he was trying to drain Trump of the ability to legally defend against those cases. Hard to say. But I questioned it at that time because that seemed like such a clear wire fraud case that it seemed like it should be looked into, but maybe they just had limited resources and didn't like the optics of it.""But I agree with you, this raises a lot of questions," she added. "Someone, somewhere, even if not the special counsel's office, because they are pretty busy — some prosecutors should be looking into this."Watch the video below or at the link. Kristy Greenberg on the legality of Trump's PACs www.youtube.com
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