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House Republicans Demand Twitter's Board Preserve All Records About Elon Musk's Bid To Buy the Company (cnbc.com) 288

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
A group of 18 House Republicans is asking Twitter's board to preserve all records related to Elon Musk's offer to buy the company, setting up a potential congressional probe should the party win back the majority this fall. CNBC: In letters shared exclusively with CNBC, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked Twitter Board Chairman Bret Taylor and other members of the board to preserve any messages from official or personal accounts, including through encryption software, that relate to Twitter's consideration of Musk's offer.

"As Congress continues to examine Big Tech and how to best protect Americans' free speech rights, this letter serves as a formal request that you preserve all records and materials relating to Musk's offer to purchase Twitter, including Twitter's consideration and response to this offer, and Twitter's evaluation of its shareholder interests with respect to Musk's offer," said the letter, led by Ranking Member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

"You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that is or may be potentially responsive to this congressional inquiry," the letter continued. The request signals that should Republicans take back the majority in the House in the 2022 midterm elections, they may launch an investigation into Twitter, especially if the company declines to take the offer from Musk.
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House Republicans Demand Twitter's Board Preserve All Records About Elon Musk's Bid To Buy the Company More

House Republicans Demand Twitter's Board Preserve All Records About Elon Musk's Bid To Buy the Company

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  • Is this legally binding? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by godrik ( 1287354 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:08AM (#62468574)

    I would think that Congress has the power to make this kind of request. But I would think that it would need to come from a committee or to come from the whole chamber.
    Does any house member has the power of making such a request that has legal backing?

    • No, because they don't have a majority but they are giving fair notice of their January intentions and this would be on top of SarBox retention anyway, so they can expect rough treatment if they resist.

      But by then the communications about the NY Post ban will be public record so it may hardly matter.

      • so they can expect rough treatment if they resist

        Twitter is going to get that no matter what. There's not a win. Best Twitter can do is to indicate that they follow every law on record keeping and if the Government wants more enhanced record keeping. . . . . . . . . . . They should pass a law that fucking says so.

        It's "shut the fuck up Friday", let's not forget that working with the government in an investigation is never a benefit.

    • Re:Is this legally binding? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mmell ( 832646 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:14AM (#62468608)
      I'm pretty sure that neither the House of Representative, nor the Senate, nor the entire Congress has this authority. This is an executive demand, not a legislative one. Unless Congress somehow passes a law granting themselves this authority (and overrides the inevitable presidential veto), this will remain a function of the Executive branch of government. As I mentioned elsewhere, that'd be the Department of Justice.

      • Just like the Jan 6 committee, they have no authority to investigate right?

        • Bit of both. Congress can give itself the ability to investigate but they cannot charge or prosecute outside of their own fellow congresspeople, they will have to give their evidence to the DOJ to make that call and actually carry it out.

          • Re:Is this legally binding? (Score:5, Informative)

            by LostMyAccount ( 5587552 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @11:30AM (#62468884)

            William MacCracken was detained (albeit in the Willard Hotel..) by the Senate Sergeant At Arms for 10 days after destroying evidence related to a Congressional subpoena.

            Congress actually has very broad subpoena powers which are not subject to judicial review. I don't know how far they could get if they decided to get heavily invested in the business of enforcing contempt of Congress, to include things like arrest and detention, but it would be kind of interesting if it happened. I suspect the risks of political backlash from the public and partisan retaliation is the most likely reasons they haven't.

            That being said, it would definitely be popcorn time if it happened, especially to a CEO or some other unlikable figure.

            • Re:Is this legally binding? (Score:4, Interesting)

              by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @11:52AM (#62468946)

              Yeah it's definitely hazy but as I understand it (IANAL) their power to say imprison extends from their subpoena power and what takes place in relation to that. Like if you perjure in front of Congress they can detain you but if you do it in another setting Congress can't do jack.

              I know a number of Trump people defied Congressional subpoenas and didn't really see any consequences but like you said was it they legally couldnt or they didn't want the backlash of enforcing it?

              A lot of this isn't really encoded clearly either, much of it built on norms and lot's of it is written but never tested so if they did decide to move forward it would probably end up going to the courts and that takes years, Don McGahn being a very apt example. Popcorn time to be sure if they decide to start pushing the limits.

            • William MacCracken was detained (albeit in the Willard Hotel..) by the Senate Sergeant At Arms for 10 days after destroying evidence related to a Congressional subpoena.

              Any relation to the Cracken Trump's people wanted to unleash after the election? :-)

              [And where *is* that beast anyway?]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mmell ( 832646 )
          That's an irrelevant question. Everyone knows the January 6 Capital insurrectionists should've been machine gunned down on the spot as traitors and criminals, and their total assets seized and liquidated to pay for the damage they did.

    • Utterly irrelevant. (Score:5, Informative)

      by splutty ( 43475 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:37AM (#62468698)

      On take over bids, tender bids, hostile takeovers, etc, etc, it's *already* legally mandatory to keep all records.

      This is just grand standing and pretending to care.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by Joce640k ( 829181 )

        They don't care, they're just signalling "outrage".

          This is the platform that banned their boss and now it's being bought by a democrat is all.

        • > bought by a democrat

          If Musk is still (or ever was) registered as a democrat, he's one in name only. Just look at his antics of late, starting with the COVID denialism and relocation of Tesla to Texas*.

          * (Well... his desire and efforts to pack it all up and move Tesla to Texas anyway. He's had a lot of the Deer Creek people refuse to relocate and... surprise... it turned out that it'd be ridiculously expensive to pack up NUMI, ship all the equipment, reassemble the production lines, hire and train rep

          • Re:Utterly irrelevant. (Score:4, Interesting)

            by torkus ( 1133985 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @01:12PM (#62469258)

            "Politically, Musk has described himself as "half Democrat, half Republican" and "I'm somewhere in the middle, socially liberal and fiscally conservative."[3] In 2018, he stated that he was "not a conservative. I'm registered independent [and] politically moderate."

            Musk is mainly a get-out-of-my-way-ative in my mind

    • If not legally binding, it is probably going to be a good idea to heed the request.
      It is basically saying to Twitter, "We are probably going to bring up a congressional inquiry about this. So you better keep your records, and make sure you do this by all the rules, as we will try to dig up any dirt to make your lives miserable"

      • We are probably going to bring up a congressional inquiry about this. So you better keep your records, and make sure you do this by all the rules, as we will try to dig up any dirt to make your lives miserable

        Congress is already going to make their lives miserable. There's not a stopping that. But Twitter can do whatever they want to do with their records in accordance with Sox regulation. Outside of that Twitter has every right to tell Congress to pound sand. If they want more record keeping, they should. . . . . . . . Pass a law requiring that.

        There's no part of this that makes it a good idea to listen to this. Because even doing so grants Congress the ability to say "well you did it there, why would you

    • This is culture war ammo-gathering, worst-case scenario the request itself has already gained them a little.

    • Putting aside how I actually feel about the politics, companies and individuals involved this direction is contrary to actual free speech. Given that they are declaring the purpose to "to best protect Americans' free speech rights" I feel they are either woefully uninformed about those rights or deliberately being wrong. The free speech rights that they claim to be protecting aren't about private companies providing services to private individuals. They are about protecting private individuals and compan

  • Republi-who? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TFlan91 ( 2615727 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:08AM (#62468576)

    Bunch of hypocrites... "Government doesn't belong in business, except when I want something!"

    • Don't worry - these Republicans just send angry letters - they never do anything anyway.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        They fucked up the FCC pretty badly last time. If Trump had had another term I imagine Section 230 would have been gone by now.

        • I'd like to think that since all the "repeal 230" fervor seems to have died down to vague threats instead of that very specific one that some smarter people told them that repealing 230 would probably be a disaster without something similar taking its place.

          Of course coming up with that "something else" is hard work so I have not seen it yet.

      • they never do anything anyway.

        they love to interfere in people's life in the bedroom however

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Trying to pretend that 1st Amendment rights apply to private companies seems to be their thing these days.

      It's interesting that none of the right wing social media sites have managed to gain traction, and that Musk is willing to spend over $40 billion to buy Twitter instead of setting up his own social network.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Truth is that if Twitter had the censorship policies conservatives claim it has, it'd be extremely unattractive as an acquisition for Musk, because it would have already been destroyed by the same network affects that prevented Parler et al from getting any traction. Musk, indeed, would probably, at this point, not even be on Twitter.

          Maybe it's more a thing of "if we can't have it, no one can." If Republicans can't have their functional social network that adequately platforms their goals for authoritarianism, then they want to deprive everyone else of having their social network that adequately platforms their goals for democracy and freedom of the press.

        • Re:Republi-who? (Score:5, Informative)

          by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @11:56AM (#62468962)

          The truly ridiculous thing is that, right up until their attempted coup d'etat last year, the republicans were openly favored by twitter, with Jack Dorsey citing a "policy" that it was "in the public interest" to let the right spew their bile unchecked.

          Someone even tested that experimentally: A liberal activist started reposting, verbatim, the tweets of the former orangutan-in-chief. One account was shut down for being abusive in violation of Twitters ToS. The other was allowed to continue posting unabated until after the 1/6 coup attempt. Care to guess which was which?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

      Just like the My Body My Choice chants about vaccines.

      The government can’t tell me what to do!

      Oh so you’re cool with abortion then? How about me smoking pot? Wait I thought you didn’t like the government telling you what to do

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mmell ( 832646 )
        What's that old bit? "Your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose." Anti-vaccine extremists don't understand the idea that we all may be required to do things against our will for the "greater good" (that last in quotes because it's a pretty vague objective).

        Pot? Hey, long as I don't have to smell it, smoke whatever you want. If I can smell it, you'd better have enough to share with the whole class.

        Abortion? Never had one, never will. Got no skin in the game. With that said, the Right

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by smooth wombat ( 796938 )
          With that said, the Right to Life crowd have never managed to show me how a woman choosing to have an abortion impacts my rights in any way. Their assertion that they're acting to save the life of the unborn doesn't work with me, as I don't share their definition of when (sentient) life begins.

          Exactly, because their view is a religious view and under the Constitution has no bearing whatsoever. They are free to not have abortions based on their religion (many do anyway but let's not call out them as hyp

    • Bunch of hypocrites... "Government doesn't belong in business, except when I want something!"

      They did the same thing to Disney. Republicans didn't have a single problem with the company until it bit into a free peach.

  • I don't believe the US House of Representatives have the authority to issue a judicial hold on records. That sounds like a job for DOJ.

    • Hillary Clinton approves of this message.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mmell ( 832646 )

        Hillary Clinton approves of this message.

        I hope so. She never attempted a coup against the US Government. Donald Trump can't make such a claim, can he?

        • What would you call the Russia-Collusion narrative and the Steele Dossier?

          But she did destroy evidence of a crime that was under congressional subpoena, but I guess that crime is cool with you, because it was Hillary committing it.

          As for the accusation of a coup, you are on pretty shaky legal ground there, since he had nothing to do with any coup attempt, but you already knew that, you just wanted to do a "whatabout" that had nothing to do with the original comment.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by kunwon1 ( 795332 )
            The Russia collusion 'narrative' as you refer to it- the rest of us just call it Russian collusion. Thanks to Mueller, we know for a fact that the trump campaign colluded with Russia. Anyone who says otherwise is disconnected from reality.

            • I'll just leave this here so you can read the legal analysis where Mueller's report said literally the opposite of what you just said.

              https://www.americanbar.org/ne... [americanbar.org]

              Mueller's report said there was no evidence found for the collusion narrative, and now Durham has been tracking that narrative back to Hillary's campaign, through their lawyer. But yeah, sure keep believing the disinformation Hillary used to tar Trump with, and attempt a coup to a duly elected President of the United States.

              This is all still

          • The Russia collusion narrative? You mean when Putin helped his lapdog get elected by spreading misinformation and the people who fell for it are still rabidly defending the easily disprovable "facts" that they're still being fed?

            Yeah, that's a pretty serious issue that's destroying this country, but we should clearly concentrate more on her emails than his call logs.

            • The Russia collusion narrative?

              Yeah, that one, the one that didn't happen and was a plant of the Hillary Campaign through their lawyer. Since there was no collusion, Durham has been finding all the people that fed into that lie, and has been slowly indicting them. The narrative that the Mueller report completely debunked. Good to see you still like to listen to all that propaganda that was used to try to overthrow a duly elected president of the United States in an attempted coup by the DNC, and Hillary.

              I still don't have any understa

  • You're in Congress, you have the tools to enact the change you want. Write up a "Social Media Free Speech" bill and use it as a talking point for the midterms and when you (likely) take control in November pass it and make Biden sign it or veto it. If this is nearly as important and popular an issue as they have been making it out to be it's time to put your values on the table in actual, actionable terms. This is just empty posturing otherwise.

  • Do as we say, not as we do (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:14AM (#62468602)

    "You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that is or may be potentially responsive to this congressional inquiry,"

    This is coming from the party who's most recent president regularly flushed documents down the toilet or kept them in Mar-A-Lago rather than allow them to be archived.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      Twitter isn't Donald J. Trump. They have an IT department that already knows how long to preserve what logs and records. They have a legal department that'll tell them there's nothing to worry about here, as Congress doesn't have the authority to issue a judicial hold on data. Twitter will keep everything they're supposed to keep (I hope), Twitter will dispose of everything they should as soon as they should (I hope).

      Holy crap, I've just made the case that Twitter is more trustworthy than Donald J. Trum

  • Next thing you know, they'll be calling hearings to grill Twitter execs about the content on their platform, clearly chilling free speech! They're out of control!

  • The world has gone mad (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mononymous ( 6156676 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:35AM (#62468688)

    I'm frequently amazed at how seriously people take Twitter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      You think anybody's gonna ignore that much money in one place? I hate the thing (Twitter), and I've been considering buying stock in it - and it's the first time my instinct for profit has been in diametric opposition to my personal ethics. So far, the only reason I haven't bought any Twitter stock is because I'm not sure if this will be a dip or the beginning of the death spiral.

    • I'm frequently amazed at how seriously people take Twitter.

      If you're actually amazed and not just engaging in hyperbole, I have to conclude that you're an idiot.

      However it got there, Twitter has become the nation's de facto public square. It's not where everyone talks, but it's where all of the powerful people talk. Politicians, prominent businesspeople, journalists, pundits... pretty much all of the people that shape public opinion are not only on Twitter, Twitter is their primary public forum. Facebook is there, too, but it's distinctly lower-tier.

      Consider Tr

  • Is Musk an Extreme Leftist or Extreme Rightist (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:40AM (#62468712)

    Musk is a wildcard, especially in this highly partisan culture that cropped up. The idea that someone has radical leftist and radical right views, and are not in conflict seems odd to many, as they have been ingrained to follow the party line.

    Being that everyone talks about how great free speech is, however in practice they will work hard to restrict the speech of those who disagree with them. The Right is just as bad as the Left with this. With Cancel Culture, Political Boycotts, Book Banning, Setting up their own service to choose what is posted and what is blocked...
    Musk is a wildcard, if he controls twitter, and his recent tweets about the 10% of the extremists on both sides, being the problem, I expect for the politicians and especially the Right as they currently have a higher rate of elected extremist then the currently more moderate left (This does indeed swap back and forth over they generations) I expect they are a bit worried with Musk not giving a clear path for them to post their views, as they will be afraid they will be censored over the more moderate left. However, the left is probably not happy with Musk as well, as he sometimes shares views that are counter to their politics as well, and would be worried that Twitter can become a more major misinformation spreading tool.

    • Re:Is Musk an Extreme Leftist or Extreme Rightist (Score:5, Interesting)

      by memory_register ( 6248354 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:49AM (#62468742)
      Perhaps Musk is neither? You're thinking of a x-axis single line, going from far left to far right. Musk is on the y-axis, asking questions that don't fit neatly into a one-dimensional analysis.

      Which makes sense, as most Americans are not easy to fit into neat little boxes. For instance, I'm a fairly devout Catholic midwesterner. So:
      Death penalty: no. Oh, I must be a Democrat.
      State power over federal power: yes. Oh, I must be a Republican.
      Social safety net: yes. Oh, I must be a Democrat.
      Abortion: no. Oh, I must be a Republican.

      People like me love Musk because he exposes a simple truth: most people are polarized group thinkers, and we appreciate someone exploding the categories publicly and explicitly.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by J-1000 ( 869558 )

        we appreciate someone exploding the categories publicly and explicitly

        I wish I had mod points today, because I think you make a good point.

        With Musk, above all I find one thing particularly fascinating: the broadening of his appeal from a *political* standpoint. A few years ago he got very little respect from right wing groups. He was the face of green energy, a punching bag for people propping up the fossil fuel status quo. There's still some of that left today, from people saying that electric cars and renewable energy are ridiculous because [fill in the blank]. When Trump

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by endus ( 698588 )

      Right now Musk is an extreme Rightist because he is rich and businessing.

      Someone who doesn't strictly align their opinions with a party line? Unpossible.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mmell ( 832646 )
        s/an extreme Rightist/extreme

        I remember when I was considered an extreme conservative - I felt firmly that our government shouldn't spend money it didn't have. I knew in my heart that the National Debt should never have been permitted and must be eliminated as quickly as possible. And . . . no, I didn't especially care much about fairness, equality, or human rights if they interfered with business - certainly not if fixing a problem was going to cost us money.

        By comparison to today's batch of "conservat

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by endus ( 698588 )

          100% agree. The Republican party platform is literally "whatever the opposite of the democrats is" because that's how politicians win elections now.

          Fiscal responsibility? Respect for the constitution? Restraint on law enforcement? These have gone right out the window. The truth is, they went out the window a long time ago but the republicans were more on par with how the democrats operate now - a faint sheen of their supposed values to cover up their naked pandering to campaign donors. For the republi

    • Re:Is Musk an Extreme Leftist or Extreme Rightist (Score:5, Interesting)

      by splutty ( 43475 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @11:01AM (#62468796)

      Musk isn't an extreme anything. He's a relatively normal person with opinions that aren't influenced by one particular 'side' or 'party' with a very very big hammer.

      And he likes poking at things and people.

      • Well being the Richest Person in the world, does make him Extremely Rich!

        Also with extreme wealth, it does distant him from the us normies.
        In previous jobs, I would work with the Companies CEO and other super highly paid individuals. They weren't monsters or jerks, they were actually rather nice, however they don't quite get how those in the middle class live, I had one CEO telling me that I should upgrade my (rather nice) Toyota to a Mercedes, I explained it wasn't quite in my budget, and he was like oh th

    • Re:Is Musk an Extreme Leftist or Extreme Rightist (Score:5, Insightful)

      by notsouseful ( 6407080 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @11:21AM (#62468848)

      Being that everyone talks about how great free speech is, however in practice they will work hard to restrict the speech of those who disagree with them. The Right is just as bad as the Left with this. With Cancel Culture, Political Boycotts, Book Banning, Setting up their own service to choose what is posted and what is blocked...

      I really don't understand your equivalence here. How is the "Left" "working hard to restrict the speech of those who disagree with them"? The "Stop the Steal" crap that was going is nothing but fraud, libel and slander. It's not actionable because they use it on such a general basis, ie the Republicans say "The Democrats rigged the election!" instead of "Paul Blake rigged the election!", however they have run into some trouble by naming Smartmatic and Dominion directly. Otherwise, they have no evidence of this election rigging by Democrats (I would say there is plenty of evidence that TFG's administration rigged the election in collusion with several state governments...), but say they do. Those are clearly misrepresentations of facts, intended to influence people to action, and it's not simply individuals speaking but people speaking from positions of power, as the holders of those positions.

      I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to support fraud, libel and slander as free speech [wikipedia.org]. Fuck that. Party of "law and order"? Try party of "false witness".

  • Twitter is a publicly traded company. Of course they are going to retain all of those records. Any way this falls out, someone is going to sue Twitter (because this is America and suing is what we do) and all of those documents are going to be discoverable. Destroying those documents now would be a big legal no-no.

  • Twitter is one of the politician's best friends when it comes to keep people focused on their superficial opinions on wedge issues. I can see why this concerns congress greatly. You don't want society rolling back towards thoughtful opinions and reasoned debate.

  • Elon Musk doesn't care about free speech (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @10:52AM (#62468768)
    more than once he's hired private detectives to dig up dirt on journalists who are critical of him. And we all know the story about that guy from the Philipeans who made Musk look foolish for suggesting a dumb idea and who's life was destroyed by Musk.

    Musk cares about Musk. Nothing and nobody else. House Republicans are the same. And like Musk they talk a good game about free speech but they're the first to call for "cancellations" when Disney poo-pooed their Don't Say Gay law.

    One wonders then what's actually going on here. My guess is they just want some dirt on Musk they can leverage. We're entering a phase of Kleptocracy similar to what China and Russia have, where the gov't and mega corporations are vying for power with us caught in the crossfire.

    Now would be a real good time to put a stop to that by increasing access to voting rights so that we can prevent the consolidation of power...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by crow ( 16139 )

      Republicans believe that Twitter censors them and spreads liberal views more readily than their own. Musk has some sympathy from them because he criticized COVID restrictions and complained about Netflix wokeness.

      I think they may be making incorrect assumptions on both points.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quall ( 1441799 )

      They never cancelled anyone. Disney said that they are going to push and back specific politicians who support their agendas. Well, Disney has special rights that allow them to self-govern themselves as if they were a territory. So, Florida removed that status and they are now subject to Florida laws and taxes. If Disney is going to fund and influence Florida politicians, then why shouldn't they be a part of Florida's governing politics? Do you have any reasonable answer? Do you think it's if Russia funds

      • I mean in the parlance of reddit, ESH (everybody sucks here).

        Disney are a self governing territory because what the actual fuck how the hell did that happen what the fuck, America. The republicans are then using political force to punish a company which doesn't toe the party line. This is a colossal abuse of power and should be massively condemned. Especially as it's clear that the Republicans mean "free to say Republican things" when they say "free speech" and it appears that they will use the force of law

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • because they were being forced to pay for the infrastructure around Disney. The reason to take away the self governing status is that it's not useful to Disney anymore (they already own the gov't) and they're tired of paying for roads, police and fire departments.

          You didn't think a mega corporation was going to lose anything, did you? I mean, you will note there's been zero talk of them ceasing donations to Republican politicians...

          That said, I do think they're playing with fire. They're helping dem
      • you used to split those hairs? Was it like, one of those glass knifes from Snow Crash?

    • And we all know the story about that guy from the Philipeans who made Musk look foolish for suggesting a dumb idea and who's life was destroyed by Musk.

      No, I've never heard of that story. Unless Musk has a hit squad, it seems the worse he's done is to call a cave rescue diver a "pedo guy" [bbc.com], for which he was promptly sued:

      Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom after the jury reached its decision, Mr Musk said: "My faith in humanity is restored."

  • What about corporate freedoms? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Targon ( 17348 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @11:01AM (#62468800)
    Why does it seem that Republicans are always talking about freedom for this or that, unless they don't like it? Oh, can't regulate industries, they should regulate themselves, right? If they are against regulation of so many different things, then they shouldn't be getting involved here. It's like them being against abortion, right up until a politician gets a staffer pregnant, then abortion is the first thing they will want to see happen.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      If someone slips on a banana peel and falls, that's comedy. If it turns out they broke their leg, that's tragedy.

      An imperfect comparison, but vaguely applicable, I think. Righties like to laugh at Lefties when they stupidly try to control government and big business, but it sure makes Righties cry when they find out they can't, either!.

      At least, there is symmetry. More crying than laughing, but still symmetry.

    • Feel better now?

      Sometimes I too feel that passing a hefty strawman to start the day really helps me think positively about myself and the people around me.

      It's just so damned refreshing!

  • If Twitter doesn't want Musk to buy them, they should move really quickly to fight scam bots and to add an edit button. That way Musk gets the two features he most wants, and Twitter's board doesn't lose control. They could even offer Musk a position as Chief New Feature Engineer.

  • The problem for comedians. (Score:3)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Friday April 22, 2022 @02:29PM (#62469540)

    The problem with the US government right now is they've effectively become their own lampooners. You can't make the situation more ridiculous than reality. Look at how laughs were generated about the former president. SNL was funny not because they exaggerated him - they were funny because they were so clearly accurate. Jon Stewart got cheap laughs about McConnell looking like a turtle because there was no way to make his actions more ridiculous for the humour.

    . Now this isn't specifically a republican problem - it's across the board. You can't make these politicians any more self-centred, hypocritical, short-sighted, bigoted, myopic, or more incapable of introspection than they actually are. There's no room left for quality humour - all that remains is low hanging fruit, and petty attacks.

    The degree varies, of course. Biden idles in the middle somewhere, while Cruz absolutely buries the needle.

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