Makin’ his lists,
and checking them twice,
already knows who’s naughty and nice
— Elon Claus is coming to town.
[Fox News] Tesla CEO Elon Musk has fired several top Twitter executives after officially taking control of the company Thursday evening.
A source with knowledge of the matter told FOX Business that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety were fired. Musk had accused the three of misleading him and investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Consequences. May God have mercy on their souls, because clearly Mr. Musk won’t.
Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde were shuttled from the building after being fired, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
Walked out the door, with their office stuff packed up and sent after them.
Musk previously said he had plans to cut Twitter's staffing from about 7,500 to around 2,000 employees, a nearly 75% decrease.
Twitter did not respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
Musk strolled into the company's San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to "Chief Twit," and tweeted "Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!"
Earlier Thursday, Musk said he was buying the platform to help humanity and that he didn't want it to become a "free-for-all hellscape."
"The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence," Musk wrote.
He continued: "There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society."
Delicious update from Breitbart courtesy of Cletle Shinese1880 added at 1:10 p.m. ET:
Following his takeover of Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly had Tesla engineers review Twitter’s software code and prevented Twitter engineers from making further changes.
Musk also reportedly had Tesla engineers enter the offices to review Twitter’s code and meet with product leaders at the company. Sources stated that the Tesla engineers were there to review the code and assess and explain to Musk the changes that they believe the company needs to make to be in line with his vision.
Twitter engineers were reportedly promptly locked out from making changes to the platform’s current codebase in an effort to ensure that nothing about the product changes before Musk’s acquisition deal is fully confirmed.
Sources say Musk plans to assume the role of CEO at Twitter but may eventually exit the role and appoint a new executive to the position. Sources also claim that Musk plans to remove Twitter’s permanent blacklisting of users as he does not believe in lifelong bans.
This would mean users that have previously been removed from the platform, such as former President Donald Trump, should be able to return to the site once again. It remains to be seen if formerly blacklisted users choose to return, and what other policies Musk plans to introduce.
The company’s general counsel, Sean Edgett, was also let ago according to sources.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[19 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
It's going to be amazing watching the Left completely flip from supporting Twitter's right to set their own terms of service to advocating for governmental control of Twitter due to spreading "dangerous disinformation" and "national security" reasons once @elonmusk takes over.
#4
^ Actually, Musk could do no better than apply something similar to Rantburg's spamcopping protocol. I envision something like a snappy graphic accompanied by a wet fart sound to cover up egregious tweets. That's all some "blue checks" would everget.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/28/2022 8:03 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Ha ha! All the money in the world won't build you a Rantburg!
This is a major shakeup in the Social Media industry. It promises to have the others adjusting / toning down their bias political and social formats in order to retain user keyboard time numbers.
META/FB already has had a Bear market trading on Oct. 27th dropping from 129.4 to 98.3 losing 24.+% in just 1 day.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2022 10:59 Comments ||
Top||
#9
^^^ that guy needs to be thrown out that window for the sole purpose of him wearing a man bun.
Posted by: Chris ||
10/28/2022 11:46 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Bless you all for being such a large part of what makes Rantburg so wonderful. If Mr. Musk manages to drag Twitter even a quarter so far in this direction, he’ll have done the world a vast service.
[NYPOST] A climate protestor glued his shaved head to the world-famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painting at a museum in The Hague Thursday, the latest in a series of stunts targeting iconic artworks.
A second activist glued his hand to the wall next to the painting and poured a can of tomato soup over his accomplice’s head, before going on a rant about climate change while being jeered by stunned onlookers.
Dutch master Johannes Vermeer’s 1665 canvas is protected by glass at the Mauritshuis museum and was not damaged, gallery staff said.
"The police were notified and three people have been arrested. The condition of the painting was inspected by our restorer. Fortunately, the glass-covered masterwork was not damaged," the museum said.
The bizarre act was captured on video that circulated on social media showing two men approaching the renowned oil painting, both wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Just Stop Oil."
The activist who glued his hand to the wall says in lightly accented English. "How do you feel when you see something beautiful and priceless being apparently destroyed before your very eyes? Do you feel outraged? Good."
"That is that same feeling when you see the planet being destroyed before our very eyes," he adds.
The stunt was met with cries of indignation from museum visitors, who yelled "shame on you" and "stupid" at the two provocateurs.
One of them noted that the painting was "protected by glass and is just fine...the future of our children is not protected."
The two men in the video were seen being led away by cops in additional footage.
Dutch police said in a statement they had arrested three Belgian men in their 40s for damage to public property and were conducting a forensic investigation. They were being questioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
while being jeered
beaten silly
by stunned onlookers.
#4
#2's suggestion could be considered "performance art."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/28/2022 8:05 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I learned the hard way,
to appreciate fine arts,
when I went to this gallery
with my angst and smarts.
A mural of purple, red and black
ended up performed on my arse.
#7
First step: Pull them off, sharpish. If they leave their skin behind, it is only a natural consequence of their choices.
Then bill them for the cost of clean up and repairs. If the thing is ruined, they get to pay to buy a replacement. If they can’t pay, put them to work in a chain gang at minimum wage picking up trash along the side of the road or something until it’s paid off.
#8
Trailing Wife, I'd say put a tarp under the guy and let him stay there a few days without food, water, or ... bathroom facilities. Then take photos and send them viral.
Warhol Smiles, or, On the Right Side (of Art History)
"Jeer, philistines, jeer!"
"But... we're cheering!"
Our Earth must be constantly... queering:
A man with a can...
Of tomato. His plan
Was to wear the Vermeer as an earring...
As she would wear him! [tear gas clearing]
#14
some people glued themselves to the floor in a Volkswagon facility in Germany. The staff, when closing time came, Turned out the lights and closed and locked the doors. This needs to happen more often.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/28/2022 20:43 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Then take photos and send them viral.
That, dear lotp, is why you were senior management, and I was not. You have a natural gift for effective communication.
[IsraelTimes] North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... has fired an "unspecified ballistic missile," the South’s military said on Friday, the latest in a blitz of launches by Pyongyang, as Seoul warns Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... may be close to conducting another nuclear test.
"North Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile towards the East Sea," Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
The JCS statement did not give further details.
With talks long-stalled, tensions on the peninsula are at their highest point in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last month declaring his country an "irreversible" nuclear power, effectively ending negotiations over his banned weapons programs.
On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said the North was poised to conduct another nuclear test, which would be its seventh.
"It appears they have already completed preparations for a seventh nuclear test," he told parliament Tuesday during a budget speech. "That Fat Fvck is gonna get us all killed!"
Seoul and Washington have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang could be close to testing an atomic bomb for the first time since 2017, after a flurry of ballistic missile launches.
Kim has made developing tactical nukes — smaller, battlefield-ready weapons — a priority, and Seoul recently warned the North could be preparing to conduct multiple consecutive nuclear tests as part of this drive.
Analysts say Pyongyang’s confidence that gridlock at the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... will protect it from further sanctions has emboldened it to continue its weapons testing.
At a recent UN Security Council meeting to discuss Pyongyang’s launch over Japan, North Korea’s longtime ally and economic benefactor China blamed Washington for provoking the spate of missile tests.
The Security Council has been divided on responding to Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions for months, with Russia and China on the sympathetic side and the rest of the council pushing for punishment.
China’s zero-Covid policy is notorious for coercion and control of its citizens. But what isn’t known, and should be shocking, is how the U.S. government let China impose similar inhumane practices on U.S. diplomats.
Congressional sources have shared with us internal memos, emails and cables delivered to State Department senior officials over the past two years. They describe China’s mistreatment of foreign-service officers and their families assigned to the U.S. Embassy and consulates in China. Frustrated by State’s failure to stop the abuse, whistleblowers turned to Congress.
Nearly every U.S. diplomat arriving in China since fall 2020 was at risk, though not everyone was treated the same. Congressional aides say State has privately admitted that some 30 individuals were imprisoned for weeks in locked rooms and often squalid conditions. (State tells us it was only 16.) These people and other arriving diplomats have also been subject to multiple and unnecessary medical tests; forced to undergo months of quarantine and family separation; and they are monitored and controlled by China’s online "health" app.
The U.S. evacuated some 1,300 diplomats and their families from China in early 2020 when Covid hit. Through that summer State refused to let authoritarian governments use Covid as an excuse to mistreat or monitor diplomats. A July 27, 2020 cable to its foreign missions explained that State would not allow travel to a country if a U.S. employee or family would be subject to testing by foreign officials or quarantined in a foreign-government-controlled facility. Diplomats could agree to 14 days of self-quarantine.
Yet China refused to budge on its demands, and in September 2020 State agreed to sign a "limited waiver of inviolability," essentially rolling over to China’s testing and quarantine regime for U.S. diplomats. The waiver let China impose 14 days of quarantine and require three tests (one before departure, one on arrival at the airport, and one on day 13 of quarantine). Diplomats testing positive had to stay in a "hospital" until recovered.
The whistleblower documents say China has since violated the agreement while the U.S. did little in response. In a 97-page memo sent Jan. 7, 2022 to the acting chief of the China mission, diplomats say that upon arrival they were assigned to quarantine in one of two China-selected hotels, which they suspect are "government-run." According to the document, adults and children older than 14 were required to remain alone in their room, and in one instance this caused a teenager mental-health problems. Americans were monitored and suspect the Chinese are collecting intelligence and DNA. Families say conditions in both hotels were "unhealthy," with moldy rooms that had "not been cleaned in months."
Chinese personnel administer testing, and diplomats suspect the country is altering results "to achieve an additional level of control" or as "a means of harassment," the January memo says. Numerous families who tested negative on arrival suddenly tested positive later in their quarantine. Until recently Chinese authorities transported those who tested positive not to a hospital, but to "fever clinics."
According to a whistleblower complaint, the fever clinics are small, dirty rooms (we’ve seen pictures)—some located in converted shipping containers. The doors are locked and the windows barred. Upon arrival, individuals were required to undergo nasal and throat swabs, to provide sputum, urine and stool samples, and to submit to EKGs and CT scans. Children were tested with adult-sized nasal swabs, causing nosebleeds. Many had to be forcibly restrained for repeated nose swabs, and parents report ongoing trauma.
The facilities provided no soap, toilet paper, towels, laundry service, or even potable water. Detainees had to beg for bottled water, or wait for outside care packages. There was no TV, and in some places no wifi. Food was minimal, and one family reported their children largely received soup for every meal. Detainees reported notable weight loss. Americans were entirely at the mercy of the Chinese to provide several negative Covid tests, which often didn’t come for weeks or months. The January memo relates the story of one family of five who had members in a fever clinic from July 24 to Sept. 25, 2021 and while there were cumulatively subject to 159 throat, nose and blood tests. Another family of four that summer spent 69 days in a fever clinic and quarantine.
Diplomats in quarantine say they were also denied urgent medical care. One family’s two-year old fell into a coffee table, resulting in a deep cut. Two hospitals refused to treat anyone in quarantine, and it took 12 hours to find a private clinic and get the wound stitched. Another diplomat alerted Embassy personnel to stomach pain while in quarantine and was advised to ride it out. He was diagnosed with appendicitis after his release.
Americans at all times are also required to use China’s official health app, which was sold as a contact-tracing tool but the government is using to track residents. A "green" health pass is required for movement and access to buildings.
A State Department cable in July 2022 to personnel in China acknowledges that diplomats are likely to see their codes go "red" while traveling, disrupting plans. The cable offered nothing more than guidance on how to "resolve" these situations. Whistleblowers say they’re concerned the Chinese are using the app to track their movements and employing changing definitions of close contacts to target diplomats for additional quarantine.
All of this, says the January memo, has caused numerous Americans to cut short their China assignments and discouraged newcomers—" resulting in reduced Mission capacity."
Diplomatic immunity is supposed to protect U.S. citizens, and the documents make clear that senior leaders at State were aware of the mistreatment. But the documents say State failed to fully inform or prepare incoming personnel for what to expect, failed to support those in quarantine or confinement, and failed to end the abuse.
Ambassador Nicholas Burns arrived in China in March, and a State Department official tells us: "This issue has been resolved. Since March, 609 U.S. officials and family members have arrived in [China], and none have been placed to a fever hospital. We evacuated three persons during post-travel quarantine to avoid the fever hospitals."
The official adds that in the same period no already resident U.S. official or family member has tested positive or been evacuated. Also, State now provides U.S. personnel an Embassy letter that spells out their diplomatic rights, including that Chinese officials may not prevent diplomats from returning to their residences, compel them into facilities or permit the separation of parents from children—which State says China has agreed to define as under 18 years of age.
This is good to hear, but it doesn’t address what happened before March. And it doesn’t explain why State this spring agreed to another "inviolability" waiver that allows Chinese contact tracing.
Senate Foreign Relations ranking Member Jim Risch raised these claims of abuse in an April letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He noted that China’s behavior "potentially violates the internationally recognized human rights of U.S. diplomats, and poses a serious national security risk."
All of this calls for an investigation on Capitol Hill with a goal of accountability up and down the chain of command. Managing relations with China is a strategic priority, but not at the expense of American diplomats.
Emails and diplomatic cables show how Beijing uses Covid to harass and monitor Americans.
#2
This is the treatment that *everyone* gets who enters China during Covid.
They're just outraged that they're being treated like commoners. This is the State Department, these people went to the Ivy League. How dare anyone suggest that they can spread disease just like everyone else!
#2
Losing big on AF-1; they knew the deal, no sympathy. They could have written in changes are going to cost.
And the late breaking MAX trial change coming is just about overdue.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Fox News] Tesla CEO Elon Musk has fired several top 
Following his takeover of Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly had Tesla engineers review Twitter’s software code and prevented Twitter engineers from making further changes.
A climate protestor glued his shaved head to the world-famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painting at a museum in The Hague Thursday, the latest in a series of stunts targeting iconic artworks.
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
