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Musk welcomes Trump distraction… Elon Musk ended the 22-month suspension of Donald Trump from Twitter based on the results of a poll of Twitter users.
C’mon. That’s pretty rich coming from a guy who railed against the huge number of spam accounts on Twitter as he tried to weasel out of his $44B agreement to acquire the social media platform.
Elon may have been right.
Musk on Nov. 22 decided to postpone the relaunch of Twitter Blue because his crackerjack engineering team still doesn’t have a handle on ridding the platform of impersonators.
He had planned to unveil a secure Twitter Blue on Nov. 29 after the disastrous rollout earlier this month.
Elon’s $8 verified blue check mark drew scores of imposters.
A fake Eli Lilly account announced free insulin, while a phony George W. Bush account “missed killing Iraqis.”
Though Twitter is besieged by impersonators, fake and parody accounts, Musk is welcoming Trump back to the platform based on the results of a very dubious poll.
The people have spoken, Musk said of the poll.
He’s just blowing smoke. Musk is clueless about who or what voted for Trump.
He’s letting the former president back on the platform to spread misinformation, lies, conspiracy theories and political attacks because he wants the MAGA crowd on Twitter.
Trump’s next to last tweet on Jan. 8, 2021:
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!
Blowhard Trump provides a welcome distraction for Elon from his 24/7 job of trying to right a sinking ship.
Department of Bad Timing. Politico Live has postponed its inaugural Crypto Summit that was slated for Washington’s Long View Gallery on Dec. 1.
The move follows the implosion of FTX Group and the rumblings of its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried that sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency ranks.
FTX’s lawyer told the bankruptcy court on Nov. 22 that “a substantial amount” of its assets are missing and may have been stolen.
“FTX was in the control of inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals and some or all of them were compromised individuals,” said James Bromley, who was brought in by the company’s new management.
Politico promised presentations frrm the leading voices driving the crypto policy debate, networking opportunities with influencers, virtual platforms and appetizers and drinks at a reception following the Summit. It sounded swell.
Crypto Summit 2022 is morphing into a yet unscheduled Crypto Summit 2023.
The New York Times hedges bets… The paper ran a massive front page Nov. 20 story that covered three full pages inside the about the spread of legal gambling across the US in the aftermath of the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that declared the federal ban on gaming was unconstitutional.
Americans placed an average $8B a month on legal sports bets vs. less than $1B per month three years ago.
The Times warned that the rapid rise of online sports betting has radically changed how millions of people consume sports and enabled them to legally engage in potentially addictive behavior from the comfort of their living rooms.
On page 34, the Times ran its weekly pro football column outlining the day’s games and providing the points spread of each contest.
Columnist David Hill, who handicaps the games, warned prospective bettors about the extreme weather conditions, which could increase the number of turnovers.
“So the best bet when facing a game where the weather is predicted to involve ‘thundersnow’ might be to not bet at all,” he wrote.
Hill is not exactly a guru. Prior to the Nov. 21 line-up, his record is 76-71-3
The Times also helps readers interested in getting in on the betting action via a handy primer about “how betting lines” work.
It looks like the paper is doing its part in getting people hooked on sports betting.
Anti-Woke Bank Takes a Nap… GloriFi, the Texas-based digital bank, profiled by the Wall Street Journal as an institution that touted what it called pro-American values such as capitalism, family, law enforcement and the freedom to celebrate your love of God and family without the fear of cancellation, is kaput.
It announced on Nov. 21 that its leadership has “come to the heartbreaking conclusion that we need to begin winding down the company’s operations.”
GloriFi blamed a series of startup mistakes, reputation attacks, a declining economy and multiple negative media stories for its shutdown.
The bank contrasted itself to the money center giants like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup that are all-in on environmental, social and governance principles.
GloriFi founder Toby Neugebauer believed Americans yearned for a bank that embraced conservative values.
He targeted customers who played football at “Friday Night Lights” and felt disrespected by the big banks.
GloriFi billed itself as a “marketplace for the movement” and urged people to put their money where their values are.
Its advertising railed against corporate elites telling you what to think, woke companies that are denigrating this great country, big government, big news and everything that challenges your freedom.
The anti-woke bank thought it had a potential market of 100M people but Glorifi is now GloriDied.