I had perhaps a slightly different reaction when I read this tweet: When I was a PhD student, my stipend was just $18,000 and my waived tuition was $55,000. Taxing someone who only receives $18,000 the same amount as someone who earns $73,000 in order to give billionaires a huge cut is the height of Republican insanity.https://t.co/zkTt5cQ7oG — Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) November 16, 2017 Where do I sign up to get an $18,000 stipend and a $55,000 waived tuition, and then a Masters degree at the end of it??

Today is one of those days when I’m not entirely sure if Russian propaganda on Twitter is worse than Republican and Democratic propaganda on Twitter. Al Franken has been accused of groping and kissing a woman in 2006, before he became a senator. “I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,” Leeann Tweeden says, including this photograph in her accusation. https://t.co/iLphI1wiLU pic.twitter.com/kLKSmLwu36 — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 16, 2017

I saw someone mention on Twitter that Texas starts allowing people to carry swords today: Open-carry swords and machetes in Texas start TODAY. See all of the new laws here: https://t.co/CzHL9YAKer pic.twitter.com/kWmakefRmn — ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) September 2, 2017 https://twitter.com/shishkababoo/status/930128631980085248 Typical dumb Americans. Psssst: It was already legal to carry a sword in a lot of states already. Check your local laws. You might be surprised. I’ve always thought it would be better for personal safety to open carry a small sword than a gun. :) Unfortunately I don’t have the personality to handle all the stares and police questions.

Today we learned of sexual misconduct allegations against Louis C. K. This was apparently not news to people in the industry. I made a cynical remark on Twitter but I feel like I should explain it a bit more. “The cynical viewpoint: So another celebrity career ruined aka. millionaire gets to retire early” One message we’re seeing from this year’s string of allegations against men in Hollywood is, “Women (and men) are stepping forward and telling their stories more and more.” That’s great.

So I’m watching Morning Joe, and they keep saying that the two things people said they cared about most in the election were Healthcare and Gun Control. One thing I specifically noticed on Northam’s web site related to gun control. When you look at the Issues menu, it lists Gun Safety somewhat prominently. The Gun Safety page is a laundry list of things Northam has done to make the NRA crazy. Voted against conceal-carry, voted for expanded background checks, supports mental health checks, supports banning assault rifles, the whole tamale.

I’m just going to paste some relevant tweets in here as I see them. I voted around 9:30 am this morning, for the record. Saw variations of this tweet a lot throughout the day, on all of my timelines: 🚨We are getting reports of calls to Virginia voters falsely saying that their polling place has changed. 🚨 If you receive a call: ✔️Confirm your polling place at https://t.co/3NmwdTvoHb ✔️ Report it to @ACLUVA at 804-644-8080#ElectionDay #vagov

I saw this tweet today, which got my attention: A federal judge just ordered US ISPs & search engines to censor Internet traffic. ACS gets everything in its suit against Sci-Hub. pic.twitter.com/YLMrzd85lN — Steve McLaughlin🌾💾 (@SteveMcLaugh) November 6, 2017 “Federal judge censoring the Internet” is quite a claim, and deserves a second look. So first thing’s first, we apply the Universal Internet Rule to this tweet, sort of a Reverse Scientific Method of Reading The Internet: We assume the tweeter is lying through their teeth because they are in the tank for some special interest or another, and try to prove otherwise. This must be done before retweeting, commenting, or even having a single thought one way or another about the issue.

I don’t have anything to say about this, just noting it for posterity. Up to 27 killed in mass shooting at Texas church https://t.co/EmySBP97Nu — Fox News (@FoxNews) November 5, 2017 Sources: TX church shooter now ID'd by authorities; white male in his 20s from outside San Antonio. w/ @PierreTABC @JackDate @AaronKatersky — Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) November 5, 2017 Everything that I’ve previously written about mass shootings applies here as well. It’s very easy to tell the, ahem, racial identity of a mass shooter by watching the tone of Left Twitter versus Right Twitter following a shooting. There is a period of hushed silence before the identify of the shooter is determined, then there is an explosion from one side or the other.

OMG ROFL Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again. — TwitterGov (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017 I mean, what can you even say about the sheer vastness of blatant incompetence shown by the Twitter organization here? It’s pretty funny, at least until you really think about the consequences.

People fight for their lives every day in some corners of the world, and kids on the Internet the last few days are like, “I’m putting my foot down for justice and taking a stand against racism! No more Papa John’s pizza!” I had literally no idea what fresh insanity had come over my Twitter feed. It turns out Papa John’s had a bad quarter and lost a bunch of money, and Mr. John blamed the down turn on the recent NFL protests.