THE MUSK RAT RAMBLES

From Heather Cox Richardson, April 25:  “Twitter announced it had reached an agreement with billionaire Elon Musk to sell Twitter to him. If he gets over all the next hurdles to the deal, that widespread information hub will become a company owned by a single man. Reporter Matthew Gertz from Media Matters wrote that last Friday, 18 House Republicans led by Jim Jordan wrote to the Twitter board that had previously opposed the sale to Musk, browbeating them to consider the sale, which they interpret as a win for right-wing voices that have been banned from current Twitter for spreading lies.”

Will Musk decide to run for President as niominee of then Twitter Party?  How much vigilante violence can a social media outlet with nmillions of users promote? We shall find out.

BEING SHARP

Speaking of France, today marked the 230th anniversary of the first use of the Guillotine in the French Revolution. 1792. Right now I would say Putin is running neck-and-neck with Robespierre or Napoleon for bloody brutality.

MACRON DEFEATS LE PEN

Some of the spirit of the French Revolution lingers on. I know there are deep racist and xenophobic currents in France–sounds familiar. The nation had a violent imperial history up to their wars in Vietnam and Algeria. Many French people helped the Nazis while they were in control, but many more refused. DeGaulle would feel useful fighting in today’s Ukraine. Macron has once again turned back the proto-fascist movement headed for decades by the Le Pen family. France continues to prefer to keep any church out of political power, unlike Putin, the Ayatollah, Modi in India, and the far-right here in the U.S. During the French Revolution some priests, monks and nuns were executed. The Catholic Church and the French monarchy had long been mutually supportive patriarchies.

France abolished slavery in 1794 during the Revolution. Dictator Napoleon Bonaparte brought it back in 1802. The first non-slave nation Haiti, founded by former slaves, became a free nation starting in 1804. That rebellion had been fostered by Napoleon’s pro-slavery actions. Also, his impoverishing wars led Bonie to sell a bunch of wilderness to the U.S. under President Jefferson!

After the revolutions of 1848 across Europe, France abolished slavery for keeps. That was more than a decade before the U.S. had to fight a civil war to end slavery here.

The British Empire abolished slavery and freed those enslaved in 1834. Prior to that Ontario Province had already banned slavery there. Spain abolished slavery in 1820 across its extensive empire.

BIDEN AND I AGREE 100% ON ONE THING

A new book says Biden called Rupert Murdoch (click here) the most dangerous man on Earth right now. Amen. I have been saying that for years. Power, wealth, cynicism, propaganda with global reach, no responsibility, total corruption of First Amendment, beholden only to his own selfish, nihilistic impulses. He will never be thrown out of office, lose an election, suffer a coup, fight a war, serve a prison term, or even answer a subpoena. He is infinitely better off than Putin, or Bashar al-Assad. or any other inhumane creature you can name. Only time can triumph against him and his destructive ability.

He controls: Fox News, Fox Sports, the Fox Network, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, HarperCollins, in the UK (The Sun and The Times), in Australia (The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and The Australian). By 2000, Murdoch’s News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of over $5 billion.

Even Wikipedia admits: “Many of Murdoch’s papers and television channels have been accused of biased and misleading coverage to support his business interests and political allies, and some have credited his influence with major political developments in the UK, US, and Australia.” Click here for whole wiki run-down.

Here’s one example of how Rupert plays the power game, click here.