Twitter Madness

 My goodness, it's been a long time.  I have been using Twitter for my rants.  Short and sweet.  Get's them off my mind.  However, on Jan. 30, 2022 I was permanently banned.  I was tweeting about the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and they claimed I was inciting violence.  This was really my second run-in with content moderation so I assumed there was a mistake.  I appealed the ban and assumed I would be reinstated.  But no.  Four subsequent efforts have all failed.  So I'm off.  

Let me explain: This is bigger than just losing my hobby.  There is no realistic appeal from these decisions.  I'm fortunate the it was just a hobby.  Can you imagine if you were dependent upon your access as part of your job.  This is the context.

I joined  twitter over 10 years ago.  I have sent and responded to thousands of tweets without complaint. I suddenly received a permanent suspension for a tweet i made.  I couldn’t imagine what was so bad. I assumed a mistake or misunderstanding.  I appealed but I then received a denial resulting in a PERMANENT suspension.  I still can’t believe it. This is the tweet. 

It was around the anniversary of the 1/6 attack and the discussion was about the threat to our democracy from the lies about the election and the people who attacked the Capitol.  I was pretending I was the former President tweeting Mike Pence on 1/6/21 over a year before the tweet.  I guess I should have used quotes or said satire or something.  I was definitely not responding to anyone named Mike or intentionally threatened anyone. I don't see how anyone would take this as a current threat to anyone or that it was inciting violence one year in the past.  Trump actually asked a SoS to find him votes to overturn his loss.  Trump actually implied a threat to Pence on Twitter while there was a mob attacking the Capitol chanting "Hang Mike Pence".  And all of this was a year in the past before I wrote this tweet.  I was responding in a thread to a Bill Kristol tweet, not to anyone named Mike.  

I thought explaining the context of the tweet would lift my suspension.  I would have deleted the tweet if they asked.  But no, this single tweet has permanently banned me from twitter.  I have asked for any explanation, but all I get it the same exact response. There is no discussion, there is no one to call, there is no one to complain to.  

I googled twitter suspension to see other's experience.  Unfortunately, the people complaining were about a person who apparently repeatedly called Covid a hoax and another person who was harassing a trans person on-line about not being a woman.  People I would rather not join forces with.  However, it got me thinking about larger issues of this content moderation.  Up to this, I thought it was to the good.  Hate speech, lies about Covid can get people killed.  But I've seen some really nasty language and what I would call threats directed at people on twitter just because they disagree politically and nothing apparently happens.  Others push the limits of the rules repeatedly before they are banned.  There doesn't appear to be any real appeal from such a permanent suspension.  If there is, I haven't found it.  It's as though there is a scarlet letter on my account and no one will read what I'm saying.  It's like an assembly line that just keeps punching button number 3 labeled "Denied violent threat".  

Before I switched almost completely to twitter, I would use this blog to empty some of the thoughts that kept me from sleeping or woke me at night.  Guess I'll have to come home again.  

  

Trump is threatening our very existence.

Taking on Trump

Its been a while since I've posted anything.  If I don't get somethings off my chest I'll burst.  The slings and arrows keep coming at a dizzying pace.  No one can keep up.  I think that's part of the strategy.  Just as in the campaign, he adds one outrage on top of another so no one outrage sticks and the cumulative effect of the outrages just exhausts most normal human beings.  Most of us just want to hide from the dizzying, terrible news coming at us minute by minute, daily from the WH.  I'm hoping that stronger minds and leaders than I are seeing this for what it is: warfare by chaos, disruption, denial, and sheer volume. I hope they are developing strategies to address this monstrosity of an administration and not just doing what I've been doing, reacting minute by minute.

While we need to resist almost everything this administration does and says, we really need to pick those big issues on which to fight.  I started a list in my mind, but it grows, again with slight after slight after insult. I'm sure others might have different big fights but we really need to consider the fights with the largest constituencies, support, and impact and chance of success.

1.  Saving Democracy itself.  If we don't fight on a number of fronts, the very democracy we claim to support and admire will be destroyed or at least seriously damaged. This man is undermining so many of the foundations on which the country was built and for which the Constitution has served. Our system of checks and balances is at risk.  Because the government. including SC, is in the hands of a single party and because that party seems to prize party over country, there are no checks on power and corruption in the WH. Lower courts and hopefully Circuit Courts have not yet been taken over, but extreme conservatives are on verge of a majority on SC. While the voting will not change from Scalia court, the next new justice, an idealogue will last long beyond. This assault on democracy should be the priority for fighting Trump.

2. Civil Rights and Voting Rights - without these, the government of and by the people will perish from the earth. The lies of the WH about voter fraud is already mobilizing even more voter suppression laws at state level; so called religious freedom EO and proposals are being considered that will legalize discrimination on basis of individual religious belief vs. the constitutional rights of millions and entangle the federal government in religious disputes of huge proportion; women's rights are being seriously questioned rather than furthered in our trajectory toward a more perfect union.

3. Corruption in Government and WH in particular. Never or at least not in a very long time, has someone so ethically challenged been elected President.  His conflicts of interest are legendary, the questionable basis of his election with foreign power actively seeking his election and succeeding, the oligarchs he seems determined to hand most of the levers of government to, need to be challenged at every opportunity.

4.  Immigration and refugees - topic that demonstrates our values and our exceptionalism are being attacked and restricted in the name of fear.  While millions die of disease, hundreds of  thousands die from preventable accidents, suicide, and homicides, we cower in face of terrorism that has resulted in less than 100 tragic deaths since 9/11.  The loss for the families and victims of terror is incalculable, but society's loss in relative to other tragic terms is not.  We must make every reasonable effort to protect society, but we must not destroy the society that has been built over 225 years in that pursuit.
We need to learn from past mistakes, not repeat them.

5. Environment and Climate Change - most scientists and world leaders agree that climate change is an existential threat to the very planet we inhabit.  So far the threat seems likely to reach a peak beyond our adult lifespan, but most have children and grandchildren that will face the threats head on.  We need to stop him from turning back the clock, even if we can't force him to move the cause forward. He also must not be allowed to sell, give away or decimate the resources that belong to the entire country, including those who did not vote for him.  The cost of recovery of these resources would be beyond astronomical once he is ousted from his perch. We must hold the line.

Other important issues, too numerous to list exist, but if we fight everything, we will win nothing.  While resistance to many of these is possible, fighting and turning them back is probably not.  We must pick our battles and our compatriots.  We all may not agree on everything but large groups of us agree on individual issues and we should band together on those issues while letting our petty disagreements on others slide.  And they are petty disagreements when compared to the existential threat of this man and the people who enable him.  Once this threat is vanquished, we can return to fighting over issues on which we disagree, but for now we must unite.

Please Tell Me We Have Been Punk'd

Donald Trump has been nominated to be President of the United States. Sixty percent of America believes he is unfit to hold that office. Yet some number of them will vote for him anyway because he is not Hillary Clinton.

The Right Wing has accomplished what it started out ot do more than 25 years ago. They have delegitimized the Clintons. Almost every mention of Hillary in this contest has mentioned that she is considered untrustworthy, now the most untrustworthy candidate ever in the race. She is derided by her opponents as “crooked” and the many people who don't particularly like her have accepted that as a given. None of this has been proven. Even dozens of investigations have proven no real wrongdoing. She is no more untrustworthy or crooked than most of the men we have elected over two centuries. We can go over the scandals and deceits of so many of them point by point, but it doesn't matter. The impression has been imprinted and after all this time, not likely to be changed. Unlike the teflon that seemed to cover different “liked” politicians, she has been slimed and each time, some of it did not wash off. Never mind that up to two years ago she was among the most admired women in the world. Never mind that even her Republican colleagues could compliment her and work with her in the Senate when they weren't considering her Presidential opposition. Never mind that she has served the country for more than two decades. She is an opportunist because she is also ambitious and wanted to do these jobs. That is the ultimate sin apparently in a politician, at least a female one. So many people, while they believe she is competent, temperamentally suited for the job she clearly wants, either will not vote for her or will vote in the most grudgingly fashion possible even when her opponent is Donald Trump.

Unlike almost every politician who has run for office, Trump has been given a free pass by a substantial minority of America to say almost anything. He has been given a pass as a bully, charlatan, fascist, deceitful human being. The proof of these insults is out there. Many of his supporters even admit most of these facts. He's declared bankruptcy multiple times. He's involved in so many lawsuits over his business dealings most of us have lost count. He bullies those he can, and disparages those he cannot. There is little disagreement about this. Yet he receives 40% of the country's support. The fact that Hillary cannot breach that 40% is blamed on her. She is the problem as far as 20-40% of the rest assume. Young women are interviewed and they repeat the Republican talking points against her. Many Bernie supporters are adamant they won't vote for her because they don't like her Wall Street connections, and she will work within the system we have given her to do the job. They ignore the 25 years of mostly progressive or left of center positions she has taken on the environment, education, women's rights, reproductive rights, health. As Secretary of State she was highly respected around the world and at home for her untiring efforts on behalf of the country. None of that counts in this election.

The world is a dangerous and unsettled place. The world as we knew it in post WWII America is changing. Our country is changing. Many men feel under siege, economically and culturally. FOX News has provided many of them with scapegoats: Muslims, African Americans, illegal immigrants, uppity women. Those scapegoats are being personified by Hillary, the Democrat. Her husband signed NAFTA which kicked off the sucking sound of millions of jobs leaving our cities and country behind. Never mind the GOP has been the party of free trade forever. The Clintons are the Democrats that made it happen.

In more normal political times, her position on issues such as NAFTA would be criticized. Her hawkishness on foreign policy would be attacked. Her ties to Wall Street would be raised. These are legitimate issues to be concerned with. In normal times, she would be weighed against an opponent who held similar views on those issues and compared to that opponent on the positive values she also possesses. But these are not normal political times. Those who don't want to vote for Hillary, for whatever reason, use these as the excuse. They exclaim in their high and mighty principles, they are through voting for the lesser of two EVILS. They will not vote, or they will vote for a third party who cannot win under our electoral system. And on November 9^th, they may wake up to a Trump Presidency just as UK woke up to BREXIT, and say we were mislead, we didn't understand. Many young people were outraged that the vote went against their future, but many of them didn't vote to remain. We may have the same result here. There are no do overs.

The fact is there are no perfect candidates. There are people who are more or less qualified. There are people who we agree with on some things, strongly disagree on others. There are people we like and people we find off putting. But there are two choices in this election. You can choose a very qualified, but flawed candidate who will make a reasonable President. That candidate will accomplish some things you support and some you do not. The Presidency may be very successful or not; but it will not result in a roll back of so many progressive accomplishments made over the last 50 years. The election of Trump and his VP will have the opposite effect. With a GOP Senate and House, the country we have in 4 years will not be the country we have today and hope to have tomorrow. It will establish a reactionary Supreme Court for decades to come. It will roll back protections of equality, any progress on inequality, and issue in an era of open bigotry and hate against those who aren't “America” . And all those angry, resentful, disadvantaged, put upon white people who voted for Trump knowing he was unfit but too angry to care will be as much losers of a Trump administration as the people who believe in the principles of the Democratic Party as written in the platform even though not practiced in large measure in our flawed political system. But instead of progressing by inches and feet we will roll back that progress and create an even more angry and aggrieved populace in an angry and aggrieved world full of weapons and people who are willing to use them.

No wonder I can't sleep.