San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Trump protests Twitter, but they belong together
After three blissful years, the media match made in heaven is on the rocks.
Twitter, the president’s favorite platform, has decided that truth is more important than Donald Trump’s tweets. Or at least as important, anyway.
So it “factchecks” his inaccurate conspiracy theory tweet about California’s plan to send mail ballots to all registered voters. Then it slaps a “glorifying violence” tuttut on a Trump tweet during the unrest over the police killing of George Floyd, in which the president threatened, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Trump, predictably, reacted furiously — does he ever react any other way? — saying after the factcheck tag was added, “Republicans feel that Social
Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”
He said this on Twitter, of course. Whom to side with here? Trump’s tweets range from silly to ignorant. But it’s still freedom of speech.
Twitter’s entire commercial value is based on drawing attention by any means necessary. The more outrageous the content, the more attention it draws. It’s hard to feel sorry for Twitter now.
You might say Twitter and Trump are made for each other: dumb and
dumber.
Told you so: No sooner do I write that Joe Biden should avoid all interviews than he does an interview and steps in it, telling Charlamagne tha God that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Biden spent the rest of the week apologizing.
As I said, the guy is not ready for prime time.
They need to keep him in the basement and not schedule another interview until the day after he defeats Trump in November.
By the way, Biden’s campaign song should be “Wake Up Everybody” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. And no, I’m not trying to be a smart aleck. Check it out: It’s a very inspirational piece, about how it’s all our jobs to help and support each other.
Elder art: City College of San Francisco is closing the art school it operates at Fort Mason. It will do senior citizens and lots of other people a disservice. For 30 years, City College has been the only school of higher education with an extension in the Marina.
Fore: Mark your calendar for the first week of August, when the PGA Championship is scheduled to be played on our own Harding Park municipal golf course.
If it happens, the world will be watching, even more so than would have been the case without all sports having gone away for months.
Our friends at the Olympic Club, led by Dan Dillon and Scott Sollers, got it for us years ago. I’m told Mayor London Breed and Gov. Gavin Newsom are hoping to make the event a showcase for the state coming back to life — even if it ends up being played without a gallery of fans.
Here and there: On one of my walks in the city, I got to talking with one of the many tent dwellers bedding down on the sidewalks, this one at First and Mission.
“I want to to improve my situation. You know I graduated from San Francisco State,” he said.
Maybe, I thought.
“Let me give you my phone number, so if you hear of any jobs you can call me,” he said.
Just then a Muni bus rolled by.
“Well you know, Muni is looking for drivers. There’s a shortage.”
“Muni driver?” he said incredulously. “I told you I wanted to improve my situation.”