Let’s mention the Toxic Bird Guy less

Replacing the bird with the Mastodon

This past month, social media platform users and just about everyone else who follows or uses media have witnessed a flurry of movement away from Twitter. So many people are folding their Twitter tents that the activity has been given various monikers, such as #TwitterMigration and #twexit. Messaging Matters is part of this migration, having moved over to the rapidly-growing Mastadon site @MessagingMatters@mstdn.social. The reason for numerous Twitter refugees, of course, is that upon Elon Musk‘s takeover of Twitter, he has systematically wrecked the place, and turned it into a right wing, conspiracy-embracing, Nazi-enabling propaganda network. Musk’s stated intentions of “free speech” have gone out the window, as folks who still post there (such as @joshuatopolsky@mastodon.online) are even reporting that “Twitter is now automatically marking links to mastodon as ‘sensitive’ (aka dangerous) and forcing users who get them to ‘appeal’ the claim.”

Twilight for Twitter, marveling at Mastodon

All eyes on the growing Mastodon platform

The fast-growing Mastodon platform

A month ago, we pondered “What should Democratic Twitter users do now that Elon Musk has taken over?” The three main choices seemed to be: Cut and Run, Stay and Fight, and Wait and See. We chose Wait and See. Well, we have waited and we have seen. What we’ve seen is that, in those few weeks, Musk has wrecked Twitter. Most troublesome is that Musk let banned Nazis and other extremists, including Donald Trump, back on the site. Some of these extremists reportedly have been banned for the past 10 years or so. At the same time, Musk got rid of thousands of Twitter content moderators who monitor hate speech, and is reportedly purging left-leaning accounts. Moreover, Musk himself posts one right wing, intolerant screed after another on his platform, even attacking alarmed advertisers who have paused their support of the site. The result is that, counter to Musk’s promises about a free exchange of ideas, Twitter is becoming another bubble of right wing hate and misinformation, similar to Parler and “Truth” Social. Therefore, Messaging Matters is checking out of Twitter.

So where did we end up? After setting up placeholder accounts at Tribel, Counter and Mastodon, we have joined millions of others on Mastodon. Our page can be found @MessagingMatters@mstdn.social. Thus far, the experience has been completely positive. Mastodon has surpassed eight million users, and is growing at the rate of 1.5 million new users per month. It is free of ads, and, better still, free of Nazis and other hate speech purveyors. The users have been polite, and even juvenile name-calling (of the type Musk keeps engaging in on Twitter) is noticeably absent.

Republicans may wish they never win a tiny House majority

Is it Taps for the GOP?

As of now, the Republican Party can be fairly described as having failed miserably in the 2022 midterm elections. Considering that the party in power almost always loses many seats in Congress in the first midterms two years into a new president’s term, and given the headwinds of COVID, Russia‘s war against Ukraine, and the resulting high inflation in the U.S. and around the world, the Democrats wildly exceeded expectations of a sweeping Republican “Red Wave” this time. Specifically, the Democratic Party has retained control of the U.S. Senate with at least 50 votes (Vice President Kamala Harris can provide the 51st vote for the Democrats in case of a 50-50 tie), and it may even gain a Senate seat in the upcoming Georgia runoff election on December 6.

Additionally, Democrats have increased their number of state Governorships held, gained seats and majorities in state legislatures, defeated the Republican candidates for Secretary of State who deny the results of the 2020 presidential election (and who would have been in a position in charge of elections in their state to meddle in the 2024 elections), and, where abortion rights were on the ballot, voted to protect such rights. One only need to look at the current Republican Party meltdown, including piling on Donald Trump, to judge the political consequences of the midterms.

Nevertheless, the results of the midterm elections in the U.S. House of Representatives are still unknown. According to the Associated Press, Republicans have won 217 seats, Democrats have won 209, and the outcomes for the remaining 9 seats are still being tabulated. The magic number to gain majority control in the 435-member House is 218. Thus, a number of pundits and news media organizations are projecting that Republicans will win the narrowest of majorities, by approximately one to five seats. If that occurs, Republicans may wish it never happened. Here’s why:

Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition is the latest attempt to stop progress

Where Twitter may be headed

Sometimes it takes a history professor to put things in perspective. In a mind-blowing Twitter thread last weekend, Professor Walter D. Greason of Macalester College in St. Paul, MN did just that. Specifically, Greason described the conservatives’ efforts to destroy liberal/progressive advances that have been boosted by the internet and social media, which he calls “convergence.” Gleason names Elon Musk‘s takeover of Twitter as the latest attempt to stop such progress, i.e., Republican “counter-convergence.” After the jump is Greason’s fascinating Twitter thread. If you have Twitter, you can click on “read the full conversation on Twitter” at the bottom of his first tweet. If not, we have included key tweets from the thread:

What should Democratic Twitter users do now that Elon Musk has taken over?

Two things that are back on Twitter

After a months-long effort, Elon Musk finally took over ownership and control of the Twitter social networking platform last week. Now, many Democratic Twitter users are concerned about what Musk will do with the influential platform. That is because Musk is not only the world’s richest person, he has also become a full-blown MAGA Republican. In May, Musk announced that he was switching from voting Democratic to Republican, because, according to him, Democrats “have become the party of division & hate.” He also refers to Democratic and progressive values as “the woke mind virus.”

True to his conservative political colors, Musk has already taken some initial steps to turn Twitter into more of a right wing hate fest, including firing the executive in charge of Twitter’s content moderation policy, and reportedly planning to allow Donald Trump and Kanye (Ye) West back on the platform to spew their divisive lies. Not surprisingly, on the first day that Musk took over, there was a reported flood of racist tweets, including Nazi memes and a massive increase in use of the N-word, on the platform. Thus, the obvious question becomes: what should Democratic and other good Twitter users do in response?

In Ukraine, these three little letters mean a lot

Ukraine support rally

While reading this article from the World Bank regarding emerging markets, this sentence caused a major pause:

The invasion of the Ukraine has triggered an initial appreciation of the U.S. dollar against EM currencies ….

The Ukraine”? Haven’t we read and heard repeatedly that we shouldn’t use “the” because that feeds into the Soviet-era position that Ukraine is Russia’s territory, not its own nation? Hopefully the inclusion of “the” in the article was an oversight, and indeed there is a mention of “the war in Ukraine” earlier in the article. But often, articles from large organizations pass through more than one writer or editor, so it’s not clear that everyone at the World Bank is on the same page.

This is something to keep an eye on, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine involves not just military weapons, but weapons of words and propaganda as well.

Photo by Robert T Bell, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/DCaHhz

Anatomy of a Republican conspiracy theory

The Republicans’ positive plan

Nearly everyone knows that inflation is a problem, and that there are various proposals to solve it. However, some Republicans this year have been spouting a conspiracy theory: that the U.S. Federal Reserve is waiting until after the November 2022 midterm elections to raise interest rates, in order to help President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. While this is just the latest in a long line of right wing conspiracy theories about the Fed, this particularly silly theory can be easily debunked a few steps:

–The current Federal Reserve Board Chairman is Republican Jerome Powell, who was appointed by Donald Trump. This fact alone should be enough to destroy the conspiracy theory. Moreover, of the seven Governors on the Fed’s board, three are Republican, which is normal during a Democratic administration. And in addition to Powell, these other Republicans were also appointed by Donald Trump. Given that the Fed Board’s votes to raise interest rates this year typically have been unanimous, one would have to believe the truly ludicrous theory that these Trump appointees are voting to help Biden and the Democrats.

–As indicated above, the Fed has been raising interest rates all year long. The Federal Funds Benchmark rate, which started at .25 percent early this year is now 3-3.25 percent, enough to sharply raise mortgage, auto loan and other rates. So if the plan was to delay rate increases until after the election, the Fed has failed miserably.

Elitist Dr. Oz is the new Mitt Romney

Latest attack on Dr. Oz

In the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Willard Mitt Romney inadvertently and repeatedly identified himself as Mr. Elitist/Moneybags/1%, and his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, quickly took advantage of the theme. The Obama campaign thus followed our Messaging Maxim #4: Feed the Narrative. Indeed, Romney fed this narrative himself, for example, by talking about his dressage horse Rafalca, revealing that his family travels by car with their dog strapped to the roof, and his infamous “WaWa’s” moment, where, getting the name wrong, Romney claimed to buy “hoagies” at gas station convenience stores. Needless to say, President Obama defeated Romney in a landslide.

Now, 10 years later, TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz is committing many of these same elitist reveals as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Here is a handy chart showing how Dr. Oz is the new Mitt Romney:

Democratic Congressional candidate flips the script on Republican opponent

A most unusual TV campaign ad is airing in Florida, by Democratic State Senator and Congressional candidate Annette Taddeo. Here is the ad (which can also be accessed at the previous link):

Taddeo’s ad, which attacks her Republican opponent María Salazar, the incumbent Representative in Florida’s 27th Congressional District in the Miami area, is unusual in a number of ways, and may be quite effective as a result:

John Fetterman’s casual Senate campaign

PA Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, left, in typical attire

Recently, we posted about how New Jersey Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz‘s U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania is imploding, and how his Democratic opponent, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, is taking brilliant advantage of every Oz blunder. Some of the highlights of Dr. Oz’s out-of-touch (and out-of-state) elitism we covered include his 10 houses and his hapless “crudité” video, where Oz tried to cosplay as a Man of the People, and failed hilariously.

What makes Fetterman so appealing in contrast to Dr. Oz is his authenticity as an actual Regular Guy, who wears hoodies and gym shorts on the campaign trail, lives across the street from a steel mill instead of in State House where he and his family are entitled to live, and is a lifelong Pennsylvanian. Fetterman served as the Mayor of his town, Braddock (a predominantly black town outside of Pittsburgh), and even has its zip code tattooed on his forearm.

The other thing that distinguishes Fetterman as an Average Joe is his use of language, which is decidedly not like that of a politician. In particular, Fetterman’s language is casual to the point of occasional profanity.