11/30/23

Good morning! It’s Thursday, November 30th.

National Computer Security Day.

A great day to remind you that not all of your passwords can be “Kimisgreat2023”… some can be, but you can’t have every password be the same because if someone guesses correctly on a low-level security site, they’re going to try that same combo on sites like, say, a bank account.

So, get yourself a password manager. Thanks.

And now, the news.

Twitter’s Advertiser Problem

-via CNBC

Let’s start with this premise – it’s a slow news day. Which is why I’m starting with… at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, Elon Musk told advertisers threatening to leave Twitter over his antisemitic to uh… go F themselves.

“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f---yourself. Don’t advertise. The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail.”

He did say he tried to apologize but like… apologies include apologies. They don’t often include “go F yourself.”

Also, threatening to pull advertising because the head of the company is an antisemitic isn’t blackmail, it’s just, you know – the literal bare minimum.

And say what you want dude, but looking back at the entire timeline of Twitter under your leadership, it for sure won’t be the advertisers that will be blamed for the company going down. Probably blame will fall to the guy who, among other things, hyper-focused on a letter so hard that he renamed the company but fumbled to renaming so hard that no one uses it because it’s dumb.

AZ GOP Facing Charges

-via NPR

Two Republican supervisors of Arizona's Cochise County are facing criminal charges for refusing to meet the deadline for certifying the 2022 midterm results. Casually risking both democracy and the votes of more than 47,000 people.

Just another day in the small government party of the Republicans.

Who needs a democracy? (We do. We need it. We need to keep it which means, unfortunately, we’re going to have to fight like we haven’t had to do in modern times.)

George Santos Upcoming Vote

-via CNN

Speaker Johnson says they have not, and will not, whip votes when it comes to the upcoming vote in the House that’ll decide whether George Santos gets to stick around. Smart not to publicly whip votes here because the Speaker doesn’t have the power and then House Republicans don’t have the unity for them to come to any real consensus.

Still, Mikey does have his reservations over Santos being kicked out. Namely he’s concerned it sets a precedent.

Be wary of people who are more concerned that having consequences for actions would set a precedent, but don’t think having someone like Santos being able to stay in the House, even after that ethics committee report, sets a precedent.

Sounds like the vote is expected to happen Friday.

Let McCarthy Be McCarthy

-via The Hill

At that same book summit that Elon Musk told advertisers to go F themselves, Kev McCarthy told a NY Times reporter that he doesn’t like to criticize Trump on TV because “I know it drives him crazy.”

And I say this because… we bully the bullies. And I just think it’s funny. Again, it’s a slow news day and I just truly can’t imagine a more embarrassing thing that this.

Kelly Clarkson Starts Christmas Season

-via NBC News

And finally, Kelly Clarkson lit the Rockefeller Christmas tree last night.

As of this recording, it hasn’t happened yet. But I can’t imagine it’ll be anything other than magical, and so that’s what we’ll call it here. Magical.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m sorry. I tried. (“I’m sorry, period, I tried, period.” Not “I’m sorry that I tried”)

I’m proud of people who have different passwords for different things. Internet safety is a real thing.

But more than that, because you’re more interesting than a randomly generated password… I’m proud of you.