With so much in headlines these days it’s hard to pick a topic that’s seemingly unbelievable to write about. People really do dumb s***

When talks of Elon Musk buying started I’m not sure anyone thought it was gonna turn out the way it did. Although I do know for a fact quite a few predicted the series of events not long after the takeover – I spoke with them as we watched the descent unfold.

It was clear from the beginning the majority of Twitter’s users didn’t approve of the takeover. All of the executive staff was immediately fired. So who’s bright idea was it to sue Elon Musk forcing his hand to go ahead with the takeover?

Even Elon Musk thought the deal was a bad idea after he considered all of the details. Were the majority of shareholders people without Twitter accounts who never worked for the company nor had family that did? I know that’s how I ended up with Twitter stock – some analyst recommended it and I was knew so I tried a couple shares, lost a little money, looked at their financial statements, subsequently sold my shares and never looked back.

Now with all executives having been fired, Twitter stock removed from the market, over 50% of the workforce fired, laid off, or quit, Elon looking for an Executive dumb enough to take the job he got stuck with, advertisers pulling ads – you don’t have to be an analyst to make the calculations – revenue is dropping towards zero (and Twitter has never turned a profit to begin with), workforce is dropping towards zero, at this point the most likely outcome seems to be the death of Twitter.

I’ve said from the beginning- Elon is the richest man on earth, and there’s a reason for it, he’s a creative guy and typically pretty savvy when it comes to business deals; surely he’s got something up his sleeve, some magic trick to make Twitter what it’s never been before – profitable.

From the beginning he tried to hide his lack of confidence by saying he bought Twitter for “the good of humanity.” His plan was for a town hall place on the internet where people could debate different ideas in a safe space, with free speech… there’s so much wrong with that – it’s hard to believe he used Twitter far more than the average American before the takeover.

Twitter has always been a platform of anonymous trolls where celebrities can say what they feel and everyone can anonymously butcher them for it. To make Twitter a space to freely exchange ideas with balanced debate and no hate speech – you might as well do what Trump did and just start from scratch.

And from the beginning – sell verification for $8 because Twitter can’t rely on revenue from advertisers alone? Maybe it would work if the name you put on the account was the same as the name on the credit card, but there were for Elon Musks on Twitter within a week of implementation of the new policy. No magic tricks there.

And now, because of all of these fake “verified” accounts advertisers are pulling all their funding because they don’t want their brand placed next to anonymous hate speech (I would argue that if that’s what you wanted Twitter was never the best choice for your ad dollars.)

So the revenue is way down, you have to cut expenses, naturally you lay off half of the company – where else can you cut that much necessary cost? Ok, half the staff, how do you make up for that?…. – Ask the remaining staff to work overtime for less money to make changes you never wanted to make to begin with…. Hmmm, no magic trick here.

The longer this train wreck continues the more my confidence drops that Elon has some trick up his sleeve to make billions off of Twitter like he does off of everything he touches. And of course the more I wonder how it got here to begin with.

From the beginning – Elon didn’t want to buy Twitter, Twitter users didn’t approve a Musk takeover, all ranking executives were fired so it’s hard to imagine this was their plan all along – who’s plan was this?

Somebody somewhere wanted Twitter shut down and wanted Elon Musk to pay for it. It’s the only scenario I can think of that makes sense! Everyone predicted each step of decay as it happened, it’s been the only conceivable outcome from the beginning, but many of us gave Elon the benefit of the doubt because of his past experiences making billion dollar businesses – but those benefits, like Twitter severance packages, are running out.

I’m pretty sure Elon Musk would have done better to fight the ridiculous lawsuit and eat the legal fees. Twitter was losing $4 million daily before the start of the downward spiral, I’m pretty sure a good legal team would have cost a lot less. And the demise of Twitter seems to be playing out exactly as everyone expected – with shockingly little deviation. It’s not every day someone cries a gloom & doom Armageddon scenario and gets it right, but this Twitter takeover is by far the closest I’ve ever seen. I don’t think any reasonable court could force anyone into such a bad deal, and it least then he would have the excuse that the government made him do it.

But as it stands now, Elon has no one to blame but himself for the complete demolition of Twitter. Maybe that is the magic trick. No one but Elon Musk had the money to eat a $40 billion dollar loss and still be the worlds richest man. At the very least he purchased a very expensive domain name, a lot of assets as far as computers & servers & user data & apparently sinks.

Maybe that’s what the mysterious sink metaphor was the day Mr Musk took over – “look out America, watch Twitter spiral down the drain.” Elon took a platform funded by the traffic of trolls and used it to build his “X” app – “the everything app.” Could work. I don’t see many options left at this point, Twitter as we knew it is gone for good, which is fine with me, I never liked it – the anonymity to say things to someone you would never say to their face never seemed like a good concept for an app to me.

I guess I’m holding out a little longer to see what happens. At the very least it will be an entertaining show with a lot of headlines. And just maybe it will be another Elon success story – the genesis of X.

I doubt it, it seems pretty far out fantasy to me, but that’s what Elon does – he’s made a fortune turning fantasy to reality. Still waiting for that trick up the sleeve – but that’s what the best magicians do, make it as unbelievable as possible then do it right in front of everybody. For the sake of thousands of newly unemployed Americans, I’m routing for you Elon.

– Joseph Smith

Htxjoe@me.com

I make no effort to hide my political leanings, but with the announcement that Pelosi will no longer lead Democrats in the house, a new razor thin Republican majority, Trump announcing his next run for office of POTUS, Ron Desantis fearlessly and unapologetically questioning how to lead Republicans without making them look like a MAGA puppet regime – I long for simpler times.

I don’t think there’s many if any politicians I’ve disagreed with more over the last two decades than Nancy Pelosi, but studying her methods and listening to he rhetoric has given me a great deal of respect for the woman. Many on the right claim she hates America, and that’s what guides her political agenda, but that’s extremist talk. If you really watch her mannerisms and listen to what she says it’s obvious she truly believes her political agendas have always been in the best interest of the country.

Personally, it’s kind of hard for me to believe sometimes. The fundamentally different beliefs of the left and the right are so irreconcilable at times it’s hard to imagine intelligent people can believe both things. I won’t get into details, I’ll just reiterate that Nancy Pelosi believed so many things that for me it’s just not possible to have an IQ over 80, but anyone that’s listened to her speak, not the preplanned propaganda speeches but the impromptu replies to dissidents and improvised debates – it’s impossible to deny she’s smart as a whip (which could be her next job title) and her legal training served her well, thinking on her feet there’s not many that could keep up.

So much respect to Nancy Pelosi, I believe unchecked she would have driven this country into a cesspool resembling her district of San Francisco, but she was a worthy opponent, a patriot, a fierce representative for her constituents, and I believe deep down a genuinely good person.

I’m a little surprised Republicans picked another Californian to be the next speaker, I would have thought switching coasts and appointing a Floridian or Texan would have been a better move, but maybe keeping the torch in California is an attempt to pass an olive branch along with it. Obviously with such a slim majority in the house and Democrats still controlling the Senate and White House, either nothing will get done over the next two years (which I’m perfectly OK with – “The government that governs least governs best.” – Thomas Jefferson) or a majority of the most divided congress since before the civil war will have to learn bipartisanship.

I think like most Americans I’m still a little nervous about what the future holds. I think Trump did an outstanding job as president and left the country with the greatest economy the world has ever seen – by far. And two years of Biden has reversed four years of gains. But if Trump wins the nomination I just can’t see him winning a second term, and if Democrats pick Biden for a second term I believe it will be a devastating four years for America.

Pelosi is stepping down, I think Trump would do well to do the same and leave the future up to the next generation, but he’s already decided not to do that. It’s going to be an exciting political season in 2024 for sure, and what can we do but hope for the best (- and vote Republican!)?

Thank you Speaker Pelosi for 20 years of service, and thank you even more for stepping down. I just hope it doesn’t lead to the rise of a “woke” 10 gender America where voting Republican is considered hate speech and social media surpasses censorship standards of communist China.

Hurry up and finish counting the damn votes already, I think this is the slowest midterm vote count since the discovery of electricity, we’re ready to move on already. I’m nervous about our next steps but that’s what makes life exciting- stability can be so boring! So buckle up everyone, partisan bickering is a virtual certainty until boundaries are established, and like a roller coaster, a little uncertainty followed by a rapid decline and eventual recovery is so much more exciting than a smooth ride!

– Joseph Smith

Htxjoe@me.com

There’s far too much detail to go into for this story to cover everything, so forgive me for summarizing and not citing sources, the end result would be a 100 page study like ones presented to congress as research before they vote to do what they were gonna do anyways.

For my generation, American election denial began in 2000 – in Florida’s hotly contested recount of a recount of a recount in which results came out different every single time. Every time George W Bush won, every time by a smaller margin. Obviously with every recount Dems found a few more democratic votes and knew the algorithm well enough to understand that x = x + 10,000 meant that just a few more recounts would put Al Gore in the White House.

But much to their chagrin, Katherine Harris certified the results with Florida’s electoral votes going to George W, who immediately put together his transition team as Al Gore continued to fight election results. George W won re-election and spent 8 years in the White House with almost half the country BELIEVING he stole the election – deciding they would never let that happen again.

George W didn’t weaponize the justice department to find out why Democratic votes increased with each recount. When Obama won he didn’t look into any possibility of election fraud to go after George W for “stealing the election.” When Trump won he didn’t pursue any charges against outgoing administration officials such as political rival Hillary Clinton for knowingly allowing the slaughter of American ambassadors in Libya.

But after 6 years, Dems are still trying, as of yet unsuccessfully, to find criminal charges against Donald Trump. The official politically correct response to losing an election is move on and try again next time. Democrats successfully took back the White House and continue to search for something, to what? Prove to the people Trump is a crook? Majority of Americans already believe that and they haven’t even had to show evidence in court. In fact they tried and failed and people still agree with their assertions.

Go ahead, martyr Donald Trump and watch what happens. That’s what Putin did to his political rivals – we’re yet to see what the end result will be there. In Germany when Adolph Hitler lost his first election for Chancellor his opposition threw him in jail – where he dedicated the next years of his life to writing Mein Kampf which would go on to get him elected the next time he ran, and Germans were so fed up with politicians villianizing political opponents that when their guy won they willingly made him permanent chancellor of Germany – the Furor himself – democratically elected.

Keep pushing for the prosecution of your political opponents and I promise you won’t be happy with the results. Just like when you raise taxes on the rich so high that they all move away, or make guns so difficult for law abiding citizens to obtain that only criminals have weapons – well intentioned ideas with horrendous unintended consequences that can destroy a nation – even the most powerful nation on earth.

Politics is a dirty game, everyone knows it. It’s very difficult to win unless you’re already rich or powerful without getting your hands dirty – and good people get their hands dirty every day so that every day Americans don’t have to, it’s a part of the process. Start making good candidates afraid to run for office by digging into their personal lives and looking for unpaid speeding tickets from 30 years ago – or tweets from a couple of years ago that are nothing more than free speech – start villianizing people for free speech and the only people you’ll have left in politics are clever liars that never get caught. People not afraid to say one thing to get elected then do whatever they want when they’re in power with no fear of retribution because of engrained cronyism – our first dictator won’t be far behind.

Stop demonizing your political opposites. Stop censoring the truth. Stop prosecuting your dissidents or I promise you’ll face a surprising tsunami of opposition that grew so large in the dark, that by the time the sun rises there’ll be nothing you can do to stop the wave.

Hate Donald Trump if you want to, in fact, he wants you to. It’s the unabashed Trump hating that gives his followers the resolve that give his tweets such power.

But watch for unintended consequences.

– Joseph Smith

Htxjoe@me.com

When Tucker Carlson is the loudest voice for piece you know you have a problem. When did so many liberal Democrats become pro war?

Try speaking out against war in Russia on any social media platform you’ll see the same thing. The left and right have finally found consensus on something – and of course it would have to be something insane to bring both sides of the aisle together – bipartisan funding of authoritarian regimes in Ukraine to fight imaginary enemies in Russia.

Hillary Clinton flew to Russia to campaign for Putin’s opposition – THAT is foreign election interference. Conspiracy theories about Russian hackers interfering with poll results – well, what does Biden say about election deniers – they threaten democracy or something?

Bottom line Russia has taken no aggressive stance towards the United States. We need to stop sending billions of dollars of weapons for the sole purpose of killing young Russian men. We punish Russia with oil sanctions causing gas prices to rise, which hurts Americans, and Russia makes even more money than before selling energy to Germany and Iran.

Biden is senile. Russians threatening nuclear war is not mere saber rattling. Not once have the Russians ever bluffed military resolve. To think they wouldn’t use the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on the planet if they fear attack is shear lunacy.

This Veterans Day stop and think what it means to be an American veteran. We volunteer our lives to protect people that can’t protect themselves. We volunteer to protect the constitution of the United States of America. We do not enlist to determine land disputes between soviet states. To ask anyone to sacrifice their son, their father, their brother, their grandfather, their nephews – would be pure selfish war mongering.

Let’s protect our American veterans by not asking them to die in foreign wars that have nothing to do with American interest. If you wouldn’t pick up arms and do it yourself you have no right to ask anyone else to do it for you.

No war with Russia. No free weapons for Ukraine. No more dead boys – American or Russian, we all bleed the same.

– Joseph Smith

Htxjoe@me.com

Many were hoping for and / or were expecting a red wave from yesterdays election and that definitely does not appear to be the case – so what is the message from voters?

Only extreme liberals could be proud of the lefts accomplishments after two years of controlling the White House and both chambers of congress. But after events like January 6th Americans just aren’t ready to entrust making America better to Republicans.

Former President Trump warned rising star and re-elected Florida governor Ron DeSantis to stay in Florida, he (Trump) has a major announcement coming up in a couple of weeks.

I think DeSantis should be the one warning Trump to stay in Florida. I proudly declare America was much better off under the leadership of Donald Trump, BUT, politically incorrect is incorrect for a reason. If Trump wants to be relevant again on the national scene he needs to learn to apologize. While I appreciate clear speaking and letting people know your true mind, it’s not ok for any tax paying American to feel insulted by their President- and especially not to feel fear of their President.

Trump should be telling repeat Florida winner and rising national star governor DeSantis to step it up and show America what he’s made of, while at best hoping for a VP spot if he’s allowed to leave Mar-a-Lago to reenter national politics. I would love to see Trump back in the White House, but there’s just too many fellow Americans that aren’t ready for that yet. And that’s not what america needs right now.

America needs not necessarily a true centrist, but someone with a proven background of being able to work on both sides of the aisle. And Biden / Trump are not it.

Our country still has a lot of healing to do. Voters have spoken. They’re giving Republicans another chance to prove what they’re made of, but with a margin slim enough to take it right back should they decide in two years.

While not admittedly a fan of political correctness throughout my life, right now it’s the bitter pill we need to swallow- which is traditionally harder for Republicans because it’s always our job to do what’s right, even when it’s not popular – we can’t afford to be rude about it also.

Good night America, and maybe we’ll have something resembling a complete count tomorrow!

– Joseph Smith

Htxjoe@me.com