Elon Musk tried out letting people get the blue-check mark, if they paid for the Twitter Blue subscription. The idea was that such a subscription service would help to support Twitter, so that it could be less reliant on ads and then not subject to pressure from advertisers. It could truly be an independent town square for all voices.

What was funny was that the sudden blooming of the blue-check mark then annoyed a lot of people on the left, who suddenly didn’t seem to like that ordinary people might also have a blue-check mark. Clicking on the blue-check mark would tell you whether it was because of Twitter Blue or because it is a blue-check “notable” person.

So, that’s slightly more effort and it did cause some confusion, but it isn’t rocket science to figure out.

Musk has now put the applications for the newTwitter Blue blue-check mark on hold, while he refines it. Reports are that it may be back next week.

But Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) flipped out about it, claiming that someone had impersonated him.

A @washingtonpost reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me—I’m asking for answers from @elonmusk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again. pic.twitter.com/R4r7p6mduP

— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 11, 2022

“A @washingtonpost reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me,” Markey complained. “I’m asking for answers from @elonmusk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.”

He demanded answers by “November 25, 2002.” Sorry, Sen. Markey, but it would be hard to meet that deadline which is twenty years ago.

But it’s funny how Democrats like Markey are suddenly concerned about “misinformation” now that Musk is in charge, yet they weren’t concerned at all about the misinformation about Russia collusion and the suppression of information that would hurt the Democrats, like the Hunter Biden laptop story. It didn’t bother him at all that the American people were misled about things like that.

Musk had a hilarious response to Markey.

Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

He also asked why Markey was wearing a mask in his profile picture (which would make it hard to identify that he was truly him).

And why does your pp have a mask!?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

pic.twitter.com/oNmqc7NlxY

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

Was Markey going to catch COVID over Twitter?

But if you put Markey’s remarks together with the threat that Joe Biden made against Elon Musk, that it was worth looking at his acquisition of Twitter, one has to be concerned about what Democrats would do against someone they would view as a political opponent–or at least someone they couldn’t control. It was quite something to watch leftists who used to like to claim they were calling out government power, suddenly seeming to come down with a hammer on the platform.

Probably not a great idea to troll a high ranking Senator with a history of taking down rich people who just so happens to sit on multiple committees which regulate your businesses the day after his party retakes the Chamber pic.twitter.com/EG3Geq8Lpp

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) November 13, 2022

Musk had something to say about that as well.

Are you suggesting the Senator will abuse his political power to attack me?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

But leftists like the Bernie folks are now cool with that, as long as they hold the power–proving it isn’t about the principle, just about the power.

Here’s more of Markey’s malarkey:

Here’s @SenMarkey demanding tech companies censor in accordance with his political views, all in the context of his party threatening social media companies with legal and regulatory reprisals if they fail to obey their censorship orders. Classic tyranny:pic.twitter.com/j64rCdZ82L

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 13, 2022

That’s what it’s about–control.

Musk doesn’t seem to fear kicking sand in their faces, and that’s good to see. Finally, someone who may hold some principles standing in the way of the narrative.