Category: The Twitter Project

Twitter – Elon and Me – Where Are We Now?

So Elon and I take over Twitter today. If you haven’t been following the “and I” bit is tongue and cheek. I own ten shares. I think. My online “broker” (I guess – who knows these days what role anyone actually plays? I sent them a few hundred bucks and purchased my shares so…), anywho, Webull, my “broker” displayed a cryptic message last night (after I poked around) saying starting today Twitter shares would no longer be publicly traded. Okay I expected that, but back up a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a letter from Webull about another stock I own. It’s a few shares of ADT and those were given to me as part my “sign-up bonus” from Webull. It’s one of those deals where they promise the moon and deliver a few grains of dust. The letter said there was an offer on the table for my shares. I diligently inquired only to find out that it would cost me $50 bucks to take up the offer. Well, gee, I don’t think my entire holding in that company is worth $50. So much for that.

Now. Twitter. Call me a dinosaur. Long, long ago I was a “stockbroker” myself. I held a series 7 license and was legally qualified to sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and maybe other stuff but leave it at that. That was long ago before time and the internet. Somewhere in the back of my mind I delusionally thought there would be an actual stock certificate laying around somewhere. Now I understand that there could be but I’d pay dearly for it if I insisted on something I could actually put my grimy fingers on. These days, it’s all electronic. So the question is, do I own Twitter stock and if so what happens now?

As I said before I’d rather keep my stake in the company than sell it off. Granted I know it could be worthless for all practical purposes. There’s no market for it and so if Elon wants to offer me fifty cents a share, take it or leave it, there’s nothing much I can do. And my pittance of a holding gives me no say in the company at all. All I am really entitled to as far as I can see is an accounting not publicly available. And still I want to hang on.

All of this is if I have any choice in the matter at all. For all I know there is some weird ass loophole somewhere that would allow Elon to buy me out whether I like it or not. I just don’t know where I stand right now.

My druthers is to hang on to my stake and tout my “part ownership” in the now private Twitter. It’s not much but it is something. Plus I’d get to be a bit of a thorn in Elon’s side. More like a mosquito bite but I really don’t expect to be all that antagonistic. As long as he promotes free speech and keeps an even hand, I’m fine with it all.

As with anything, time will tell.

Elon’s Latest Move Losing Me Money

So Elon Musk is hedging on his bid to buy Twitter saying he’s got to look at the number of reported fake accounts vs the reality of it all. Is it a ploy or is he serious? How does this affect my purchase?

When  I first read about this, my heart sank. I have no doubt Twitter’s fake accounts are above 5%. Could this kill the deal? Of course the price of the stock has sank well below my purchase price. I’m losing money. But do I care?

Not really. I bought Twitter on principle. I advocated buying stock in order to have some modicum of influence. By now you know my “influence” here amounts to pissing on the dumpster outside corporate headquarters. Well, okay, not that much because at least that could get be arrested. Like I said… principle.

Add to the principle, I’ve said all along I would rather we ALL bought Twitter rather than expecting Elon to carry the entire load. I wasn’t all that hyped about selling my shares for a few dollars profit. I wanted to be on the “inside”, even if he took the company private. Of course the reality was I’d be more like a fly on the wall there, you know, the one that got swatted. So much for that.

In no way did I consider Twitter’s profitability or should I say their inability to turn a profit. At this point, Twitter’s losses give me more leverage to hold them accountable. It is likely the only real leverage someone like myself is likely to have, as long as I am a lone wolf or the pack is small. However, that was the one bright spot I saw in the event Elon took it over. At least he seems to have a head for business.

So is all lost? Was this an exercise in foolishness? Maybe. Acting on principle can often be a lost cause. Unlike the movies there is a very real chance I could lose a substantial portion of the money I’ve in this. I knew this going in and let’s face it, we’re talking about less than $500 here. I’m not going to starve for that. Besides, it was never about the money. So let’s talk principle.

Twitter has turned themselves from platform to a publisher. A platform offers a place for people to speak freely. Obviously those running this shitshow don’t want that. Federal law is no help. Section 208 gives these platforms a huge loophole so they can censor to their heart’s desire and still be protected from any lawsuits. If you ask me, any politician who voted yea on this legislation should be immediately dismissed for being either too stupid, lazy or compromised to properly vet the bill.

As I delayed posting this, news has surfaced. It appears Elon Musk wants to renegotiate the deal as it now seems as much as 20% of the accounts are fake and/or bot accounts. Is anyone surprised?

I can’t say as I blame him. He correctly points out how this directly relates to advertising revenue as pricing is and should be directly related to reach. Bots don’t buy shit. And advertisers don’t want to pay to reach them. Having been there myself, I can tell you from experience that cost is a huge factor in online advertising. The most important factor is arguably the conversion ratio – how many times the ad is displayed vs how many times someone clicks on the link. In the best of times this metric is extremely low, meaning it has to be displayed lots of times to get enough eyes on whatever is being advertised to make it profitable. Now skew those numbers by 20%. Ouch.

So, yeah, the fake to real account issue is a major factor. No doubt by now, those advertisers now spending money on Twitter are reevaluating their efforts, if not pulling back or pulling out altogether. However, this may not be as critical as one might think. Any serious advertiser ultimately considers the bottom line – the ROI or return in investment. If their advertising is making money for them then these recent revelations should actually be good news. Why? Because they should expect and demand a reduction in cost to reflect the true metrics, thus making their advertising even more profitable. Good for the ad buyers, not so much for Twitter as they could likely see up to a 20% reduction in ad revenue right off the bat.

Then again, once one accounts for a 20% bot account rate, it should make the ROI on advertising look much better. Either way I don’t think this is a game-changer unless one was counting in Elon’s offer to make a killing on Twitter stock. In such cases, well, speculation can be a bitch.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m happy with my sliver of Twitter for the moment. Sure I would be happier if I’d bought at $35 or less than at $46 but it’s not the end of the world either.

 

 

Supreme Court Protests, War – So Much to Keep Up With!

My apologies to anyone stopping by during the past few days expecting to see something new. On a personal note, I’ve been writing articles to promote my book and disputing with an online publisher about it. I ended up pulling my articles from their site with the intention of publishing them on my own site AMHavens.com. At least there I have complete and total control (evil laugh). The downside is traffic is not nearly as substantial. The reasoning that won out, other than the principle that I was absolutely in line with their TOS and still they whined, was if I that extra traffic cannot be at least introduced to my book, what good does it do me? That and I’m a pigheaded jerk, to keep things clean.

In other news, I’m working on my garden. This is not a new thing but I am determined to expand on the success I had last year – my best year yet. The timing of things doesn’t hurt either. While I’ve been attempting to green up my thumb for years, the fearmongering as of late is certainly an added incentive.

Finally, the progeny is descending on the homestead this week and thus preparations are being made. This will be the first time in a couple of years so other things must take a back seat.

All that said, I feel compelled to at least agree with Tucker Carlson on one point – these recent protests and attacks on the Supreme Court justices as well as those on churches and pro-life organizations is indeed an attack on Christianity. It is as if Christ is once again being displayed by Pilate and the crowd is screaming “crucify him!”. Strangely enough, I wrote something just yesterday (yet unpublished) about the word “crucify”. Metaphorically, some say the word means to utterly destroy something. This rings true to me. Also yesterday, I concluded Carlson does not claim Christ. It is an observation rather than an accusation, as I noticed he always refers to Christians as “them” instead of “us”. It is a shame. Hopefully he will see the light.

On Twitter, I’ve had some revelations and some thoughts.

They released their earnings a week or so ago. They are bleeding money. So far it is a relatively small wound but they are not making a profit nonetheless.

As I purchased too late, I did not qualify for a dividend, had they actually turned a profit. Should I hold on to my stock AND they actually make a profit AND declare a dividend, I would then qualify. Then again, I’m didn’t buy the stock for the dividends. Even so, I DO expect them to be profitable as they are in business and not charity.

In the proxy info, I also learned I do not yet have a vote in the upcoming annual stockholder’s meeting. Again, I bought too late.

In addition I found out I have far less say than I thought I might. For instance one must own 1% of the company to recommend a board member. From what I was able to ascertain, it was a cursory glance so I need to verify this, I can band together with other stockholders so together, we can put up someone for the board, even if none of us has that magical 1%. Let’s run some numbers for the fun of it.  First…

Musk owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, which represents a 9.2% passive stake in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing released Monday. The stake is worth $2.89 billion, based Twitter’s closing price Friday April 4, 2022

source: cnbc (I know… right?)

Okay so the price fluctuates meaning any calculations depend on settling on a stable price. Thus let’s fudge a bit. There are about 764 million Twitter shares outstanding. So 1% would be  7,640,000 million shares. I have ten shares. so I’m about 7,639,990 shares short of 1%. Put another way, from the figures in the cnbc story, 10% was worth about oh, let’s say, $3 billion give or take. Ten percent of $3 billion is $300 million. Either way you look at it, I’m a few dollars short.

Now if Twitter stock dropped to a penny per share, it would still cost me $80,000 to buy my 1%. It would take some doing. I may or may not make that but why in the world would I sink that kind of money into Twitter at that point?

Long story short, ain’t no way I’m owning enough Twitter to have a real voice. I haven’t looked into other aspects yet but I’m pretty sure I could still be a thorn in the corporate side. Once again, my idea of a shareholder group looms large. My voice might still be tiny but at least I’d have a chance to be heard, as would anyone else. But there’s another rub.

I’d also have to own the stock for three years. Yup. Can they do that? I’d say they can. Granted, this could be challenged in court but chances are, only the lawyers would win that one. In a way, this obstacle actually makes some sense. Considering my lowly stock holdings would have to work to be a drop in the capital bucket, imagine thousands of us stockholders all making countless demands and such. Stretch that imagination to include the idea that anyone could buy a single share and immediately start making demands. Such may be the ruin of any business. So, I can see the point of it and I don’t necessarily disagree.

Considering all of the above, I’d say the larger lesson is such adventures require much planning and some serious scouting. Now I did not have to prove I was a stockholder to gain access to the above information. I’m reasonably certain this would be true in most, if not all cases concerning public corporations. Additionally, the sheer scale of any corporation raising money should be taken into context.

While I am not ready to abandon the ideas of influencing corporate policies from the shareholder perspective, the stark reality of such an attempt tends to be a bit daunting. To be sure, such a reality exists for our constitutional aspects as well.

WE the People are the massive obstacle the authoritarians must face in order to have their way. To an extent, their outlook is far darker as WE CITZENS are limited to a single vote each. Thus it becomes obvious why the controllers are so intent on stuffing our ranks with illegals and then giving them voting “rights”. They cannot tip the scales in their favor otherwise.

The point we should all take on this is none of us can do this by ourselves. We need each other. We need to stick together as citizens, sovereign or corporate, and stand strong in the face of those who would grind us down.

 

 

So Twitter and Elon is a Done Deal – What Now?

It was announced yesterday after the market closed. The Twitter board accepted Elon’s deal. What was all that about? Last I knew, they were ready to swallow a poison pill. Might it have something to do with their fiduciary responsibility as I mentioned in a previous post? Funny thing is, I saw a clip from some fool at BSNBC talking about “fiduciary responsibility”. Either he had no clue what term meant or he was depending on the supposition his audience had no clue. Well, what do you expect from such people anyway?

So many people on the right are applauding Elon’s “win” while the left is bemoaning the total obliteration of “democracy”.  You know, that sort of democracy whereas the only correct words are those spoon-fed us from government authorities and their elite handlers. Bite me.

Even Tucker Carlson got in on the act, declaring Elon as the man of the hour, the only one brave enough to save us. All I could think of was “here we go again.” Look, I’m glad Elon took the initiative. I’m glad he forced Twitter’s hand. That said, I don’t think for a minute his was the best possible outcome. Why? Because Elon is one man. Mark Levin hit the nail on the head Sunday night.

In his monologue, Levin, broke down the common terms bandying about these days: America First, Nationalist, Populist, and so forth. While he did not expressly put it as I would, he finally got down to brass tacks. We are self-governing citizens in a Constitutional Republic. This is the basis for our nation and that basis necessarily forms a decentralized  government.

In this same sense, Elon Musk is essentially becoming the dictator of Twitter. HE owns (or will own) most of it – enough where what HE says goes. The outcome of such an arrangement depends on who is in charge. In Elon Musk’s case, I do believe he is sincere in his quest to free our nations tongues. Such is not the case at FnBook or other social media platforms. Does anyone see the problem here?

This is why I own Twitter and this is why I am loathe to give it up. It is not good enough for my voice to be heard on Twitter. I want my voice to be heard as one invested in the platform – someone with a dog in the fight.

It’s not too late but, as I’ve stated so many times, I am only one voice. It is weak. It has limitations. Alone me and my handful of shares are nothing. With others, with you, I am stronger. With us, we are mighty. This is why I’m asking you to pick up a few shares yourself, if you can afford it.

There are several brokers can facilitate your purchase. I use Webull. I chose them because they had the best offer at the time. At this writing they still do. I ended up with nearly $30 in free stocks for signing up and funding my account. Others could end up with more or less (the least amount would be 5 stocks at $3 each). And of course those stocks could grow or shrink in value. Either way, instead of providing a link in the post, I put it in a widget at your right. Feel free to use Webull or someone else. What matters more is if Twitter is owned by a huge number of patriots instead of just one man. I’d like to see the company stay public in such a case. Otherwise it will be a privately held corporation.

What’s Next In My Devious Plan?

I promised in my last post so here it is. Mind you, this latest news is likely to change things and thwart my plans altogether.

First I’d planned on contacting shareholder services at Twitter and requesting any and all information I could get my hands on. Annual reports, bylaws and so forth.

Next, I thought I’d start a Twitter Shareholder’s site where we all could debate on the direction of the company and how we see things moving forward. It would also be a place where we could hold straw votes on issues. Put forth candidates for the board and such.

Beyond that, I had no plans other than see what trouble the bylaws would allow me to get into. You’d be surprised what can be done if one simply reads the rules. 🙂

However, as it appears I am yet again just one voice crying in the wilderness, I’m not seeing any great need to go forward. It appears Elon will complete his purchase. I may or may not sell my shares. Much depends on how I expect it all to play out. If I can remain a minority shareholder I might just keep my fingers in the pie. The worst that can happen is I lose a few hundred bucks.

 

Elon’s Latest Move – Go Your Own Way

Last I heard, this morning, Elon is establishing three holding companies and moving forward with his idea to buy Twitter outright. That’s the thing with public companies – one can do that. Once again, Elon Musk is ignoring my pleas for Plan C (for Citizen) and going his own way. Well, two can play at that game.

The fact is Elon… I don’t have to sell my shares to you. At least I don’t see how you can force me to do so. Even if you take Twitter private, you may well have to put up with me. I may not be alone.

It should be obvious, anyone with a few dollars can do what I’m doing. You need not be rich. (I’m not.) You need not even be a proponent of free speech. In fact, those who diametrically oppose my point of view can buy just as much stock as anyone else. I’m betting they won’t. Granted there those wealthy globalists who seem to want it all who are most likely to try and stop Elon and myself. Okay, those of us who advocate the idea of Twitter being a platform for free speech. I’ll be the first to admit, Elon has yet to return my calls. The problem is, how many of you are willing to put your money where your mouth is? (I’m betting most leftist, globalist, big-government lovers can’t stand  this site. Who’s left? The stalwart liberty-loving patriots and those with strong stomachs, but I digress.)

Granted, I can almost hear some mutter – “Yeah, yeah, what can I do? It won’t matter.” What you can do is suck it up and pick up a few shares of Twitter. The question is not whether you can but whether you have the will to follow through on your convictions. What conviction am I speaking of? The conviction that we, as Americans, have the basic God-given right to free speech. As of right now the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, is on record as opposing free speech on the platform.

Per the NY Post:

“In a 2018 interview, Agrawal said Twitter should “focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.”

As a stockholder, I contend twitter should focus first and foremost on free speech. The organization is based on giving users a voice. My voice belongs to me and no one else. Just as I have no right to silence anyone else, including Mr. Agrawal, he and the other employees at Twitter has no right to silence anyone.

Mr. Agrawal, as a Twitter stockholder, I have this to say to you: if you desire to transform this company from a platform to a publisher, then please put your  plan in writing and present it. As CEO your obligation is to utilize the resources available to you to grow the company and produce a satisfactory profit. Focus on that. I see no need to waste time on reinventing the corporation. From what I’ve seen of you thus far, I am leaning towards calling to have you replaced.

Now I have said my peace. I am just one stockholder and my ownership of the company is miniscule. However, if just ONE person joins me, our voices grow louder. If 100 voices join in, they will ring out amongst a crowd. A million voices would be hard, if not impossible to be ignored.

So why not join me? Pick up some shares of Twitter for yourself. You can have your say too. While I can spout here all I want, I really can’t do this alone. My shares, your shares, heck Elon Musk’s near 10% shares cannot do this. It will take a hoard of patriots to make a difference but that’s how our constitutional republic and our free-market systems were designed to work! Our strength, our power is in our numbers. Never was it intended to concentrate power in the nation’s capitol. Never.

For those of you who do desire to take the leap, please consider using my broker referral link below. Not only will you get a great deal (like no commission trading and free stock), but you will also be helping to support this site and my efforts to promote liberty at no cost to you.

The broker I used is Webull and here is their current offer.

LIMITED TIME OFFER: Get 5 FREE stocks valued up to $9,600 by opening & funding a #Webull brokerage account! Get started

https://a.webull.com/ga6te3G5921n4f3kfb

In my next post, I’ll reveal my own devious plans on leverage my shares to effect real change. Will it work? Heck, I don’t know but I’m willing to give it a shot.

You Did WHAT? You Twits!

Okay so the excitement, such as it is, about my “big Twitter buy” has passed. As been my habit lately, my ears perk up when I hear news about Twitter or Elon Musk. This morning Fox reported Elon is setting up for a move within 10 days. Okay fine. He’s not telling me, his new partner anything about this. Apparently he doesn’t give a whit about my holdings. While I kinda unnerstand, I think he’s missing something extraordinary – the potential of his fellow citizens.

Look, I know my idea is a longshot. Hell that’s why I don’t gamble – I’d spend all my living on longshots. If I ever hit one, I’d spend my winnings looking for another one. It’s my nature. I get that. But I’m no Elon. (You are welcome, Mr. Musk.) Whereas I don’t stand a chance in snowball’s chance in hell of pulling something like that off, but I think Elon could do it, IF he was of a mind to do so. Then again, he might not because he understands his own limitations.

In any case, he’s raising the money to buy Twitter outright. If I understand correctly he won’t need my holdings to take it private. I mean, I don’t think he can force me to sell my shares. I’d end up a very minority shareholder and if the company is private, limited options to sell my shares. Still, the entertainment value of owning a sliver of Twitter might be worth holding on to.

So that’s Elon’s side. Also in the article is the first news I’ve heard of the Twitter board’s “poison pill”. From the article linked above:

The poison pill would give stockholders as of April 25 the right to buy one one-thousandth of a share of preferred stock for each common share they own, at a price of $210. The rights are triggered if any person or group of investors buys 15% or more of the company’s shares without board approval.

WHAT?! They must be using common core math or something because it makes NO sense to me. I paid $46.50 per share for my stake. So my ten shares would entitle me to 10/`1000 = 1/100 or 1% of ONE Preferred share of stock at a price of $2100? (10x $210 for those of you on the board) What kind of special idiots are you anyway? Even at $50 per share I could quadruple my stake and have change left over. So the preferred stock is also a voting stock. This is not all that usual as far as I know but big freakin deal. With the Twitt board’s plan I’d gain 1/100 of a vote. Buying another 40 shares gives me an additional 40 votes. Go back to grade school fools. That plan is almost as bad as Nobama sending blankets to aid Ukraine. No, it’s worse. At least the blankets have some usefulness.

Okay, so here’s my plan so far… I’m holding on to my shares for the foreseeable future. Sure I could make a decent profit percentage-wise if Elon’s current offer stands but I’d rather keep my piece. In the grand scheme of things, my tiny sliver is of no consequence to anyone. It may or may not be worth something in the future but I’m not concerned about that. I didn’t get into it for the money.

Now if anybody would like to join me, please consider using my broker via my referral link below. You would pick up a couple of free shares from the current promotion just for signing up and three more if you fund your account by any amount. That’s a minimum of $15 in your pocket by my calculation. I’d pick up some shares for referring you. Sweet.

The broker is Webull and here is their current offer.

LIMITED TIME OFFER: Get 5 FREE stocks valued up to $9,600 by opening & funding a #Webull brokerage account! Get started 

https://a.webull.com/ga6te3G5921n4f3kfb

Hey Elon! I Just Bought Twitter – While Gardening

Seriously. Well, okay, I bough ten whole shares. Any regular readers (okay, READER – you know who you are.) knows I’ve been threatening to buy Twitter for a few days now. Today, I pulled that trigger – while working on my garden. Here’s what happened.

Last Wednesday I decided to open an account to buy some Twitter stock – this after my financial advisor hesitated. Granted, I’ve never called him up and told him I wanted to buy anything but he knows me well enough so he should understand I was serious and he also knew why I was buying. Still he seemed reluctant. Okay. Fine. I went another way. I’m glad I did actually. The account I opened was for the express purpose of buying one company – Twitter. That doesn’t mean I’m limited though. Already, I own other stock. No, I didn’t go on a spending spree – the broker I signed up with gave me stock as an incentive. Now look, it wasn’t much – two $3 stocks. Whooopdedo. I will give three more because I funded the account. Now they say this could all total up to $9600.  Key words – “up to”. I don’t think I’m going to get three stocks totaling $9594m buy hey, who knows? Right?

Besides the free stock, I added a bit more than I needed to buy the Twitter. It’s not burning a hole in my pocket so I’m in no hurry but I might just buy some more if I feel like playing. And with this whole poison pill deal the Twitts on the board passed, I might increase my Twitter holdings if it comes to that and proxy a free speech vote, Elon Musk or no Elon Musk.

Meanwhile this is the sort of money I used to recommend. (I was series 7 licensed once, fully qualified as a stockbroker.) “Don’t invest money you can’t afford to lose.” Well if this money all goes up in smoke, so be it. I bought the stock on principle not with any thoughts of riches and yachts. Good thing, I don’t like the water all that much anyway.

Okay, I’m transplanting some seedlings into bigger pots. I’m about three weeks away from planting outdoors. Dragon Cayenne Peppers, if you must know… and I’m watching the stock. I planned on buying it yesterday but it kept going up instead of down. It closed over $48. I thought it might go down a bit today (what goes up…), It did. Down, then up, like a roller coaster I was on a ride. Well it got towards the end of the day and it was heading down. Now I was pretty sure this stock would do one of two things: go up or go down. It was selling around $46.50 so I bought. It went down. to $46.16, so I didn’t hit the absolute low. But you know what? It could go down tomorrow too. And the next day. I don’t care. Like I said, it’s principle.

I did it all on my cell phone. That’s right. I watched the stock and then bought it from my cell phone while transplanting hot pepper plants. How cool is that? Heck, I don’t even LIKE smart phones but now and then they do come in handy.

Anyway, while I’m sure Elon and I will make a great team, my personal opinion is it would be a great help if other patriots interested in free speech would get in the game. Now just because I spent a little less than $500, that doesn’t meant anyone else has to. For about $50 someone could be one share or 100 for $5K. That’s not my call. Now here’s the thing:

The broker I used is Webull and here is their current offer.

LIMITED TIME OFFER: Get 5 FREE stocks valued up to $9,600 by opening & funding a #Webull brokerage account! Get started > https://a.webull.com/ga6te3G5921n4f3kfb

That’s not all. They have promotions that will put more stock in someone’s account for referring someone. The one above nets me 10 free stocks for each person I refer. I’m sure there’s a limit but I haven’t dug into the fine print. They do say each stock is valued between $3 and $3000.

For this offer you do need to set an app up on your cell phone but it’s easy to do and use. I doubt if many people out there are as adverse to using smart phones as I am so if I can do it, I’m sure anyone can.

Why not join Elon and me and let’s all buy Twitter? We’ll show ’em!

Move Over Elon Musk, I’m Buying Twitter

All right, all right! I’m no threat to Elon’s bid. I’m only buying ten shares but I AM buying Twitter! Per my last post, this is to support Elon’s efforts but also to make a point. WE the People should NOT be looking for another savior. (Jesus the  Messiah is my Lord and Savior, I need no other.)

Now, while I would love to see others follow suit and buy a few shares of Twitter – you only need to buy one share to become a shareholder – this probably won’t happen. Why? I hate to be this blunt but because most of my fellow  citizens are far too used to sitting in front of their monitors/cell phones whatever and whining. I have no doubt most anyone capable of reading this is also able to cough up the $50 more or less to buy a share of stock. As a matter of fact I’ll show you how you can do it without paying a nickel in commissions. (There are other fees and such that may apply, I don’t know, this is murky territory and it appears our beloved government has their sticky fingers all over our pockets – again.) It’s not hard. You can do it on a smart phone and, if you play your cards right, you might even end up a few dollars ahead, even after the greedmongers devour their “share”.

Now, let me be up front about this – the link I provide will be a referral link, meaning I stand to get a few shares of some unknown stocks by sending you to this broker. How many or what it is all worth, I don’t know. What I do know is you can do the same – grab a referral link after you sign up and send some folks to the broker too.

The broker is Webull and here is their current offer.

LIMITED TIME OFFER: Get 5 FREE stocks valued up to $9,600 by opening & funding a #Webull brokerage account! Get started > https://a.webull.com/ga6te3G5921n4f3kfb

It only took a few  minutes to set things up. It’s a lot like opening an online bank account so you’ll need all the standard information you’d need for that. You don’t need to fund the account to get your first two shares of stock but for the other three you do. But since you are buying Twitter stock, you’ll need to fund it anyway. Now, if you already deal with a major bank, your account will likely be verified immediately. I deal with a small local back so it took a day longer for them to deposit a few nickels into my account (more FREE money – YEAH!) and for me to tell them the amounts.

Long story short – for $100 out of pocket you can buy TWO shares of Twitter and be a bona-fide stockholder. Big deal… right? Actually, it is a bigger deal than you might think.

First, consider the poison pill scenario. The honchos at Twitter are considering invoking a strategy to stop Elon from buying the company. They’ve even said they’d rather crash the company then let him buy it. Whoa there Nelly! Wait just a gol darn minute. Just because YOU don’t like the idea, crashing the company, MY company (or my piece of it anyway) is an abdication of your fiduciary responsibility. In other words, they are legally, ethically and morally required to act in the best interests of us shareholders and guess what? Anybody with an IQ bigger than their shoe size can understand crashing the company is NOT in the best interest in the shareholders. We are talking legal action here. But that’s not all.

What if Elon simply walks away? What if he says the heck with the whole idea and dumps his shares? Well, first of all, you can expect the stock to drop like a rock. Us shareholders will lose some money.  Okay. Fine. I understand this, but there is something else, a very, very serious issue that, so far, has not been addressed. This glaring issue predates this whole Elon Musk thing by far. What is it?

Twitter is breaking the law. Yep. That’s right. (Now take this with a grain of salt – I am not a lawyer and this is not to be considered legal advice – it is an observation based on what I’ve garnered as a citizen.) You see, as a social media platform, by federal law, they are insulated from being sued for libel, defamation, etc. as they are supposedly providing a platform for free speech. But they are not. Not at all. In fact, they are quashing free speech. In effect they’ve turned the company from a social medial platform to a publisher. As such they’ve potentially opened the company up for potential legal action.  As I said, I’m no lawyer but I’m sure there are some savvy legal minds out there who could make some hay with all this. As shareholders, we can sue on this issue too.

Guess what? These same principles apply to other social media platforms as well. The best part is we, as shareholders, need not depend on any government official to take action. Shareholders have rights. Among those rights is the right to hold the company we are part owners of accountable.

Note here. I hate it when someone posts something and the deletes it without explanation so I won’t do that here. Without direct knowledge the above was posted concerning, I think, Section 230 of the Federal Code. Others and stated and I took them at their word, this law allows for free speech by insulating the platform from legal action. Well, my layman’s reading of the code confirms the platforms are insulated from legal action but it essentially gives them carte blanche to “edit out” free speech and protects them from legal action for that. Leave it to the politicians to muck things up.

While this ill-constructed legislation does NOT protect citizens AT ALL (by my calculations) this doesn’t mean shareholders have no pull. It just means we will need to find another way. Meanwhile, we’ll need to work on getting this fixed. It is not the platforms per se that need protection – at least not THIS protection. The end all should be to protect free speech. Period.

Okay, so depending on how things play out, my next move is uncertain. I may decided to go ahead with my purchase of FnBook. I will probably only buy a single share but a shareholder is a shareholder, with all the rights and privileges that come with that class of share. (Different classes, such as common and preferred, have different rights. Usually, common shareholders have voting rights, for instance.) As a shareholder, I will keep an eye on things from a different perspective. While I do not plan on personally suing anyone, I may well join a suit should one be filed. I may find it necessary to start asking questions and requesting information I am entitled to as a shareholder. I may band together with other shareholders – with or without a common interest. By this I mean, I  content ALL shareholders should have a say – for you Twitter honchos, this is one of the principles of free speech. People can say things whether I, or anyone else for that matter, agree with them or not.  I may send Elon my proxy votes. I may not.

Here’s an interesting thing. Twitter headquarters is in San Francisco. If they have a vote, I have a right to participate. Now, I’ll have to check this with my tax expert but I’m pretty sure I could go to San Francisco to vote and write off the entire expense as a tax deduction. My further understanding comes with a couple of caveats. First, one must have enough write-offs (total) to make it worthwhile. These days the “standard deduction” is pretty high so it likely wouldn’t be worth it for  me.  Next, is I’m not sure if there is a  limit to how much anyone could actually write off. Take gambling, for example. My understanding is gambling losses can only be written off against gambling winnings. Thus, if you spend $20,000 to win $500, well you can only write off the $500. You’ll eat the other $19,500. The bottom line is basically the same as always – never underestimate the greed of a politician (or in this case, the politicians’ minions).  Like I said, ask your tax professional but under certain circumstances, some folks could offset at least part of the cost of a trip to say, San Francisco.

The Bottom Line

What have you got to lose? If you bought ten shares of Twitter like me, then maybe $500 +/-. Chances are you wouldn’t lose ALL of that because even Twitter is worth something even if they crash and burn. Heck if they run the stock price down to $0.02 per share I’ll spend another $500 and buy another 25,000 shares.

The upside is you took action. You did something. Sure, maybe we won’t change the world but how do you know you won’t? Or at least you are not a part of it. Look, back in February I posted about buying Fnbook. It was somewhat tongue in cheek but not entirely. Did my post have any impact Elon Musk? It is highly doubtful, but what if it did? What if someone read my post (Hey! It happens! Really!) and through a series of wild convolutions, some germ of the idea somehow reached Elon Musk? I doubt anyone will ever know for sure. All I can say is I write what I write, I do what I do and maybe, just maybe, some good will come of it. What about you?

At the very least check out Webull.  Again their offer is below.

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And again, this is a referral link so yes, I do stand to profit. (Yet another government agency, the FTC, I think, or maybe the FCC,  requires me to disclose such things.)

Consider Battle Plan “C” (for Citizen) in the Fight for Twitter, Elon

Watch out Twitter, here I come. I’m siding with Elon on this one and my plan is to bring more, a lot more, with me.

As I read about speculation that Twitter will invoke a “poison pill” to thwart Elon Musk’s attempt to take over the platform, one thought came to mind: the gloves are about to come off. Not Twitter’s. Not Elon Musk’s. Mine.

Okay, yeah, everybody’s real scared. After all… who the heck am I? Well, point blank, I am nobody. I’m just one citizen. That’s is. But here’s the rub.

On Monday, I’m buying ten shares of Twitter. At the current price it will set me back a tad under $500. (I think I can announce this without pumping up the price too much.) I never thought I’d say this but the money doesn’t matter. Then I’ll be a citizen nobody who holds voting shares in Twitter. So what?

Well, as an account holder on Twitter, I’m less than nothing. All I gotta do to prove it is tweet something management doesn’t like. Hell, I got away with more than that when I was gainfully employed. Now, Twitter whateveryourpronouns are listen up… as a stockholder, everything changes. I have rights. Among those rights is the right to hold you accountable for your actions. Once my shares are securely in my account, I’ll elaborate. For the time being you can go ask your pals at Grrrgle.

So, Elon this is Battle Plan “C” (for Citizen). You are not alone in your quest to free speech from Twitter’s shackles. I’m with you. While it is possible you stole my idea, disguising that fact by buying Twitter instead of FnBook, I forgive you. Actually, your twist on my plot was better. Why consider my plan? Simple, I am not the only citizen capable of buying a few shares of Twitter. My fellow citizens need not announce their intentions. None of us owe the authoritarians anything. For that matter we don’t owe you anything. Well, maybe a debt of gratitude for the action you took, the insane amount of money you laid out, not to mention the offer you’ve made. You set an excellent example and for that I do thank you.

However power in the hands of the few is always dangerous. For this reason I advocate decentralization. Granted, I cannot say for sure us freedom-loving citizens will act accordingly but I think it’s worth a try. Unless we start acting like self-governing citizens and wean ourselves off of expecting someone to come along and “save” us, we are going to lose not only our liberty but our nation as well.