More than a few friends periodically ask me, “Why do you keep posting on Twitter?  Isn't it crazy there?"  I always answer that, yes, Twitter is incredibly crazy – indeed, ever since Elon Musk took over and opened the door wide with a welcome mat for racists, anti-Semites, fascists and lunatic conspiratorialists, it’s become even crazier and nastier.  But I stay because…Anatevka’s our home.  Wait, sorry, wrong musical.  I stay because the election is too important not to put on a protective helmet and respond to lies, lies, more lies, disinformation and hate.
 
All that holds true, though I’m not sure that TwiXter hasn’t morphed into something else that might not be worth – well, I won’t say “the time,” but – as much time.  What it’s become is whack-a-mole.
 
The lies, disinformation and crazy theories have become so pervasive that there’s no way to respond to even an angel’s breath of them.  The one you do respond to is only one of probably hundreds or thousands saying the same thing.  And that one may have two or three lunatic screeds within it to refute – an even bigger challenge for responding since TwiXtter only allows 288 characters in a tweet.  (You can, of course, respond with more than one tweet, but there’s no guarantee each will be seen by the people following the initial discussion, and so they only react to the one they see.)  Further, a rational response of reality to a conspiratorialist will generally be dismissed simply for the fact that you made it.  Disagreement with a conspiracy theory is often “proof enough” that you’re compromised or an agent of the devil or whatever.
 
That’s why I often don’t even try to debate, since arguing with facts and reality don’t matter.  So, instead I have written a default reply that I just copy-paste in.  It reads –
 
“This below is from someone who supports a man convicted of 34 felonies, found liable for rape, guilty of business fraud, says he wants to be a dictator, wants to rewrite some of the Constitution, echoes HITLER’s words, says he wants to build internment camps & has early dementia.”

And yes, that’s just under the 288 character limit.  I made sure of it.
 
Thank goodness, too, that God created the “Block” button.  It’s made life so much better.  Alas, it’s not a panacea.
 
Another main reason I participate on TwiXter, though, isn’t just to debate disinformation and hate from “the other side” – but to shore up support of those who agree with me or maybe need talking down from the ledge.
 
Unfortunately, the lunacy has now begun to permeate though the edges of one's own side, as well.  And that, perhaps more than the hate and racism, is what is making it almost not worth spending as much time in the morass.  When your “friends” are driving you nuts, and arguing with you if you don't support them in everything and are telling you off, that’s when you think maybe you should make sure you always know where the nearest exit is.
 
The great thing about the Democratic Party is that it’s, as the expression goes, “a big tent.”  Filled with many views.  The hurdle the Democratic Party has to deal with is that it’s a big tent – filled with many views.  The party has long been known for eating its young.  As humorist Will Rogers famously said back in the 1930s, almost 100 years ago, “I’m not a member of any organized political party.  I’m a Democrat.”
 
And I’m okay with that.  The different views are what give Democrats their vibrancy and strength.  But in recent days, starting months ago, the “What I heard is's …” have grown louder – never mind almost no one on TwiXter is in any position to “hear” anything from a direct, informed source, but are just passing along a rumor based on a rumor.  And the fear of “what if Trump wins…” has begun to color views, to the point that disagreement is less tolerated.  And surface-level conspiracies have begun to creep in.  (Rational, but unsupportable ones, not "JFK is coming back to life.")  A “We should boycott...” attitude also now permeates over anything you don’t like, for many.  “That reporter is really a Trumper” because the reporter asks hard questions to a Democrat is something that has begun to crop up all over, as well.
 
Just yesterday, I saw a few more cries for MSNBC to drop Jen Psaki.  Apparently she’s been more critical of President Biden than many people think is appropriate, since she worked for him.  I replied to one by saying, “Personally, I admire any reporter seriously trying to be objective and honest even against their friends, whether I agree with their opinion or not. It’s their job.”
 
Just yesterday, too, TwiXter was bombarded with Democrats red-hot outraged at Adam Schiff for calling on President Biden to leave the race.  While I certainly understand people being upset, I can make a great case for him staying in the race or leaving.  What I don’t like much is when politicians make the case publicly for dropping out, since they have direct access to the real power brokers that the rest of the public doesn’t have.  But being upset at Schiff’s decision (or supporting it) is one thing.  It’s another to see the tsunami of questions on social media about if he’s been bought off, is his campaign in trouble, is he out of money, “I heard on the street that…” (yes, someone actually said that) and how, oh my God, this is trouble for California.  I left as many  replies as I could saying that -- “Steve Garvey outraised Adam Schiff this last quarter by $1 million.  Overall, however, Schiff has outraised Garvey by almost $30 million.  He has $3 million more cash on hand than Garvey.  And a poll just showed that Rep. Schiff was leading former first-baseman Garvey by 25 points!  No, Adam Schiff is not in trouble or bought off.”  But there are only so many times you can keep posting that.
 
Just yesterday, again -- and yes, this is all just yesterday -- perhaps my favorite exchange of the day came from someone trying to drag me into an argument because she disagreed with something I wrote and, in doing so, made a claim of fact that, in fact, had no basis as “fact.”  So, how do I respond?, I wondered.  I checked her bio, laughed, and wrote back – “I see in your bio that you have disdain for the left and antipathy for the right. Fair enough, but that's not an arena I care to participate in, so someone else is going to have to jump in and debate with you.  Not me.”
 
And that’s why God also created the “Mute” button.

And none of these "yesterday" tales were were from the other side of the aisle.
 
So – we’ll see.  I’ll continue posting on TwiXter to provide links to my articles here.  And I’ll continue posting thoughts about news stories.  And I’ll let my eyes drift over other posts to see if there’s anything I strongly agree with and want to lend support – or anything (especially from a MAGOP official) that’s a blatant, egregious lie or disinformation that I want to refute.  Or…who knows?, perhaps continue replying to a range of topics (being careful not to get dragged into whack-a-mole) – as long as I follow what may possibly be a new rule:  don’t read replies.  Or at the very least, debate them.
 
There’s still too much of importance with the election to depart TwiXter,  But I never much cared for playing whack-a-mole in a game box, so I can’t see any reason to start playing it online.

HBO has changed its policy of releasing the Main Story video from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Mondays, the day after the broadcast.  Now, they are releasing it on the Thursdays following.  So, if you didn't see the show this past Sunday, here 'tis.

The Main Story was on Internet scams, specifically a scam that goes by the notable name of "Pig Butchering."  (No, this has nothing to do with animals, but the victims of the scam.)  The story is extremely interesting, and often very funny.  (And Oliver is more self-effacing in his ridicule of himself than usual.)  But it does take a darker turn when diving deeper into the scam.

​One of the most hilarious, if insane issues that is maniacally triggering the extreme right – both the base and GOP officials – is Taylor Swift going to Kansas City Chiefs football games and cheering for her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, who is a tight end on the team.  This has ratcheted up even more now that the Chiefs will be playing in the Super Bowl.
 
This is all leading somewhere, so bear with me, even if you think you’ve heard it all.  Something new just cropped up, and it’s pretty lunatic.
 
Not that everything so far isn’t hugely lunatic already.  Starting with getting so deeply upset over a young woman cheering for her boyfriend at a football game.  Actually, you would think that a white, blonde woman cheering for her sports hero boyfriend would be something at the heart of today’s Republican Party. But not with Taylor Swift.  And Travis Kelce.
 
Travis Kelce is trigger enough for Republicans, since he’s done ads about getting COVID booster shots, which only to today’s GOP is considered something worth outrage.
 
But Taylor Swift?  She’s making their heads explode.  That’s because she endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, has endorsed Democrats and – and troubling of all for Republicans – is registering voters at her concerts and online.  Just one Instagram post with link last October got 35,000 new registrants that day.  But that’s nothing compared to 2018 when her Instagram post then got 102,000 new voters to register within two days.
 
By the way, her posts don’t say who to vote for or even party to register with, just to register.  In fairness, she did once say about Trump, “We will vote you out,” and her followers do tend to be younger and more liberal.  But still – it’s just been a request to register.  Nothing more.
 
What’s been so hilarious (and truly crazy) is the level of conspiracy and outrage she has evoked among the extreme right.  One tweet that transcended "deranged" explained in detail how it was a plot with agents of with Satan who were working to get President Biden re-elected.  (Apparently, this person believes that Taylor Swift is more powerful than God.) 

There was a conspiracy-laced comment from Jesse Watters of Fox who referred to Taylor Swift as a 'psyops."  (Conspiracies about Taylor Swift became a really big deal on the extreme-right when she was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.)  Several tweets from people now explain that this is all a conspiracy with the NFL to get the Kansas City Chiefs to win the Super Bowl.
 
Indeed, one of those came from outer space, suggesting Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are nothing more than an artificially-created couple designed solely to announce their endorsement of President Biden right before the election.
 
Oh, I should note that that crazy one came from Vivek Ramaswamy!  Really.  Honest.

​Of course, nothing cries "artificially culturally propped-up" like the woefully unqualified Vivek Ramaswamy's "presidential campaign." But then, pretty much all his pronouncements have been "wild speculation," so why should we expect him to stop now? Though it’s nice that he considers a Taylor Swift endorsement "major."  And the least-kept secret of the presential campaign.​
​

(Just to be clear, as the cookies say, this is from 2020.)
​
​But my favorite reaction has been from a fellow named Nick Adams, who says that he wrote a book which was endorsed by Trump, and who goes by the handle “Alpha Male.”  He wrote –
 
“By being on the team that won the AFC Championship, Travis Kelce will received [sic] a bonus check of around $70,000.
 
“For those wondering why Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce: are things beginning to make sense now?”
 
It’s hard to describe how much that theory transcends hilarity.  Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is the first concert tour ever (man or woman) to gross over a billion dollars. Further, the concert movie of the tour recently became the highest-grossing concert film of all-time, making an additional $261 million. But...but…but a "bonus check" of -- $70,000!  That her man will get. A check which doesn’t even go to her, and which when they started dating she could only hope he might win two playoff games to receive (games for which the team was the underdog in both) – that’s why Taylor Swift started dating Travis Kelce.  “Alpha Male,” indeed.
 
(Fun fact:  Taylor Swift gave $100,000 bonuses each to 50 truck drivers on her tour.  And also gave bonuses to dancers, musicians, technicians, caterers and other crew members on the tour.  But Travis Kelce got a $70,000 bonus and might pay for dinner or buy her a nice pendant!!)
 
And none of delusion yet is the point here.  I’ll get to it in a quick moment.
 
It’s all really quite nuts.  On several levels.  One is that, while, yes, she's supports Democrats and is registering voters -- though of any party -- all she is doing right now that is driving them crazy is...cheering for her boyfriend at a football game.  And if she's on camera cheering, that's the network's doing.  Just like they periodically put the camera on San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy's parents throughout the game yesterday.  And it's all the more bizarrely deranged when you realize that these attempts to counteract Taylor Swift (for cheering for her boyfriend) are so doomed to failure that the phrase “doomed to failure” doesn’t even come close to explaining how doomed to failure they are.  Consider --
 
Taylor Swift has 272 million followers on Instagram!  Not all in the U.S., of course, but – well, that’s a lot.  And she has 95 million followers on Elon Musk’s TwiXter.  All of them people who really, really, really love Taylor Swift.  A whole lot.
 
Which brings us to the point here.
 
And the point isn’t Taylor Swift, that was important background.  The point is Elon Musk. 
 
The Elon Musk who cries out that at the core of his being is Free Speech.  For all…except that journalists who criticize him, they get their accounts blocked.  And except for people in his company who do things he doesn’t like, they get sued. 
 
That Elon Musk.  The guy who told all users of Twitter (before weirdly changing the name to “X”) to vote for all Republican candidates.  And followed the request of the Turkey dictatorship to block information before the country had an election.  And has backed requests of other despots.  And retweeted and called “true” a deeply virulent and profoundly untrue anti-Semitic tweet.  And has made number deeply anti-Semitic comments, like saying that Jewish financier and Democratic donor George Soros “hates humanity.”
 
And the Elon Musk who told all advertisers that if they didn’t like him, after posting a particularly anti-Semitic comment, they could “Go f*ck yourselves.”
 
That Elon Musk.  Mr. Free Speech.
 
It turns out that many people on TwiXter found that Taylor Swift had been blocked from the accounts.  But even more than that, it turns out that everyone on TwiXter has been blocked from just searching for Taylor Swift!
 
I found this hard to believe.  But it was easy to check out.  So, I did a search for Taylor Swift.  And this is the result that I got --
​

What I especially love is that it not only says, "Something went wrong" with zero results, but that it adds, “Don’t fret -- it’s not your fault.”
 
I had to laugh at that.  Because -- oh, believe me, I know it was not my fault.  In fact, I have a good idea whose fault it is.
 
It certainly could have been a temporary, totally innocent accident.  But I checked six hours later, and it turns out there was nothing temporary yet about it.  The issue was still there.  Nor, given Musk's endorsement of all Republicans and support of despots and dripping arrogance that he can do anything and if you don't like it, you can to f*ck yourself, was there any reason to believe it was an accident or innocent, even if it was.  Because in the end, that it took as long as it did, amid all the blistering attention on the problem, whatever its cause, innocent or otherwise, to finally "fix" what was most surely a simple, quick fix is the most glaring Musk-related indictment of all -- not just of who he is, but how he's gutted his tech department.

The thing is, of course, with 95 million followers on TwiXter, I think there's a really good chance that her fans would be able to find Taylor Swift.
 
No matter how much Mr. Free Speech wants to tell you to go f*ck yourself.

Sorry, some of you might hate me for this.  But you’ll hate me more if I didn’t pass this along.
 
L.A. Times TV critic Robert Lloyd wrote an article on 30 international streaming series – and unfortunately, about 80% of them sound great.  (Being flexible, maybe closer to 100% -- really.)  And at least worth checking it.  The only reason I might be off the hook with you is that it’s almost Summer, school’s out, and you’ll have more time to binge.  But you still might disappear from society, and go into Ultimate Binge Mode on overload

He notes that the series he includes "offer an inside, not a tourist, view, and so take you places tourists don’t go. This isn’t a 'best' list — Borgen is not on it — just a collection of things I like, shows I found fun, funny, surprising, enlightening, exciting or beautiful, or that opened a window onto a new world."
 
I won’t list ones that sound most interesting, but a few are noteworthy.  There’s one from Spain on Amazon Prime, A Private Affair that’s a fun-sounding mystery about the sister of the police commissioner that actually has the great Jean Reno in a supporting role as a sort of "reluctant Watson".  And another from Spain, I Don’t Like to Drive, on Max that he says might be his favorite.  And as for favorites, he includes one of my own absolutely-favorite series, Extraordinary Attorney Woo from South Korea (which if you haven't seen it is a total, charming joy, a big hit on Netflix, though for some it might take two or three episodes to get sucked in. It's about a young woman on the functioning autism spectrum who is hired at a high-end law firm, and the stories eventually go in several unexpected directions) -- and another good-sounding legal one also from South Korea, One Dollar Lawyer on Hulu.  

And there are 26 more series on the list…
 
Sorry.
 
I'm not a binger, so this list scares me it's so good.  It might get even me to start at least mini-bingeing, because otherwise I’ll never get through a third of this plus all the other series and movies already on my list.

You can find the article here.

[UPDATE:  I've been told that the article is behind a pay wall.  Sorry about that.  I don't want to copy/paste the whole article here, but I'll try to post some of the most intriguing titles Ack, Sorry about that.  I don't want to copy/paste the whole article here, but I'll try to post some of the most intriguing titles and what streaming services have them in an upcoming piece.  But -- I believe you can get five free articles a month if you download the free Los Angeles Times mobile app.  So, if you want to read the full article, and don't have the app, just download it for your mobile phone and perhaps you can browse to the article that way.  Though this article was for a special section and might not be available without a subscription.] 
​
And just for the heck of it, this is the trailer for Extraordinary Attorney Woo.  It's enjoyable and shows the series' charm, though perhaps over-emphasizes the whimsy a bit and doesn't even begin to come close to doing the program justice -- not touching on some of the fascinating law cases, its serious conflicts, or any of the show's twists.  But it gives a somewhat reasonable sense of things and you do get to see the tremendous lead actress, Park Eun Bin.

Earlier in the year, I recommended the series to a friend I was sure would love it.  He watched the first episode, but said it wasn't for him and stopped.  I tried to explain that, much as I liked it from the start, I didn't love it at first either, but kept watching, and I was sure he would be bowled over, as well.  But no, he'd seen enough.  I decided not to push, even though I knew he'd love it.  So be it, that's life.  Three months passed.  Last week, I got an email from him.  For some reason, he thought he'd give it another try.  And became hooked.  He said he adored it, couldn't imagine why he'd stopped, and was bingeing and already up to episode five.  And then two days later, he wrote back to say he was up to #10.  He was going to hold off, though, because he loved it so much he wanted to have more to look forward to later.
​

On May 12, Elon Musk said that Linda Yaccarino would take his place as CEO of Twitter.  From her background, it didn’t seem to many that this change would be all that substantial, to which the reality remained that Musk still owned the company and would remain chief technology officer.
 
It turned out that only a few hours after making that announcement – and in fairness, he was likely still the CEO – Twitter announced that it is “taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey,” though the blocked content would still be available in the rest of the world.

It’s worth noting that this announcement came in the midst of a very tight election in Turkey that required a run-off only two weeks later on May 28 between the country’s fascist dictator Recep Tyyip Erdogan and opposition leader Kemal Killicdaroglu.
 
Given that the Turkish government controls much of the country’s media, it seems likely that Turkey made this request, most likely in the form of a threat.  And it seems probable that they did this, not only because Erdogan is a fascist dictator, but because Turkey saw that India had made a similar threat to Twitter before its election, and Twitter gave in to them.
 
This stands out all the more since Musk is such a supposed vocal “free speech” advocate on all things, including allowing misinformation about COVID and letting hate speech proliferate on the social media platform.  Although he did suspend an individual who posted public information about the location of Musk’s private jet, and suspended several journalists who merely wrote stories about it.  And he’s fired Tesla employees for posting negative material Tesla that Musk didn’t like.  So, his track record on “free speech” all the time seems a bit sketchy at best.
 
When the story about blocking tweets in Turkey broke, liberal journalist Matt Yglesias the next day “the Turkish government asked Twitter to censor its opponents right before an election and @elonmusk complied.”
 
Musk tweeted a reply: “Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias? The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?”

Yes, that was the choice. And Musk chose to enable a fascist dictator so he could silence his opposition and help him retain power. As opposed to choosing free speech. Which Musk proclaim to supposedly support in absolute. It was his choice. And he chose fascism.  So be it – but he should no longer pretend to support free speech in absolute.
 
The additional problem is that when you cave to a fascist dictator, then other such authoritarians see that they can’t make the same demands and help themselves hold onto power.  And if you refuse the threat, the dictator has to make the decision whether to follow through and risk the outrage in his country at losing access to the world’s most popular social media platform and possible uprising against his power – or decide to back down.

None of this really comes as a huge shock if one pays even the slightest attention to Musk’s action, including him recommending that everyone vote a straight Republican ticket in the Mid-terms -- a perfectly acceptable personal opinion, though a deeply weird and troubling one for the owner of a social media platform who had been attacking the company before he bought it for what he claimed were its political biases – in that case, supposedly for liberals.

Coming on the heels of Musk’s anti-Semitic comments about George Soros wanting to “erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity” it’s been a horrible few weeks for Elon Musk.  But then, in fairness, it’s been a horrible year for Musk.  Though in fairness, he’s brought it all on himself.
​
Ever since Musk bought Twitter, users have left the platform in droves -- and worse, so have advertisers.  At the moment, there is value in me staying there, to promote this site. And also to respond to far-right misinformation, especially in an election year coming up.  (Besides which, while I know there are advertisers, I've never seen a paid corporate ad on Twitter the way I use it.  So, they're not getting a bang from their buck from me...) But I'm nearing to the point where the line is crossed.  It's worth my time, but I'm giving less of it.  Ignoring as much of the increase in smarminess and hate as I can, and being far-quicker to block it.

Of course Elon Musk doesn't care.  He said as much just the other day, not caring what other people think about what he says and does.  Which when you come down to it seems an incredibly poor way for the owner of a social media platform to operate.  

And which might explain why people and advertisers have left it in droves.  And does explain why he's brought this on himself.