Musk needs to be held accountable. You cannot explain away a threat on a President’s life as a “joke”. Otherwise any threat, be it a bomb threat, etc. could be excused by saying it was just a joke. We don’t do that.
"The ...DPA) is ...to expedite ...resources from the U.S. industrial base to support military, energy, space...." aka take over control of Musk's businesses🙃🙃
Sounds like beyond the time to nationalize in the name of national security. What he did to Ukraine by shutting down critical Starlink satellites and impeding their inability to communicate at an essential moment in battling Russia was unconscionable. Why should a creep like him have that kind of power? And what’s to stop him from interfering again when he disapproves?
The super rich must wear police style body cams that live stream their antics... the recording tape should be available as admissible evidence to keep them honest and honorable😁😁😁
🖥📽🔍AI should determine the NPI narcissism score of the super wealthy and shame them into philanthropy:"Carnegie and oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller were rivals in the field of philanthropy. The newspapers kept score. Here's a snapshot of the race to give it away"
George, you are right, but how can Musk be removed from Tesla, now that he is OK with making the company Chinese with him raking in the bucks? The problem is that super rich men have no sense of the world except that they can get whatever they want and ntions like ours just give it to them. Disgusting!
Does Ukraine want to prosecute him? If so the US should cooperate with any lawful extradition process.
Also, there are alleged to be serious environmental problems with some SpaceX operations and facilities. These should be dealt with as the laws provide.
Elon Musk is the Product of Silicon Valley Culture... Move Fast & Break Things... Get Rich before you are 30yrs old... Microdose Stimulants, and Hallucinogens for Speed, and Creativity... $$$ is everything... Employees are Expendables... The characteristic that the TechnoSiths share is Ruthlessness... Unfortunately the USG gave him that Power... Based upon the non-Success of NASA, and Legacy Contractors, such as Boeing, Elon became a Star... Hmm... I wonder what will happen when all those low-orbit Satellites start falling out of the Sky... Where will Elon be? In Moscow, with DJT.?.. Yes, revoke his Security Clearance...
Anyone who is in business, especially with our defense department and acquiesces to Putin's wishes is a grave danger to our national security. The US, Britain, NATO cannot rely on this man.
Lesly, when has anyone who is super rich been held accountable for anything? If they have, I have not heard of it. Heck, the robber barons were never held accountable, unless they were caught in one of the Wall Street Crashes. Their endowments are still named for them and still rake in the bucks in interest which they give away a bit at a time to keep their names alive. Something does need to be done about Musk. I say, we need to step up soon since his drug use is just making him more crazy and ripe for picking by China or fully by Russia. As he holds so many of our national secrets, he would be a prize for either of them and he'd love it, and they would give him even more until he just happened to fall out of a window.
At least nationalize SpaceX/Starlink, for national security reasons. The threat it poses to national security is orders of magnitude higher than any threat posed by TikTok.
I totally agree. No one person should have that much money or power; even Elon Musk’s big brain can't handle it. He is sick with power. and as delusional as one of James Bond’s villains. It’s time to nationalize his businesses and set aside a separate gulag just for him and exile him there for the rest of his life without any means of connection to the rest of the world. This is what Putin has done to some of his oligarchs and critics when they stopped being useful. Make no mistake, I am not supporting Putin or his methods in any way only pointing out that extreme and dangerous behavior must be contained.
He's going to jail after he loses in 2024. Why do you think his trial was pushed to AFTER the election??? The judge, (was is Chutkan? There's too many!), KNEW he'd lose, so then it would be super easy to send him to a New York or Georgian prison for his last few weeks of pathetic life!
I sincerely hope you’re right. I am so tired of these wealthy men turning ultra conservative and abusing their power once they become fabulously wealthy. Why is it that the wealthier they become the worse they become? It seems very few ultra wealthy people are ever truly generous without some catch to it. If being Uber wealthy means being selfish and controlling I can’t find it in myself to admire them. Musk should be ashamed of himself, he has more money than anyone in the world and is behaving shamelessly. There are so many good causes that he could help, starving children in Sudan for example, homeless people, money to help cure diseases but rather than that he is just selfish and sides with a dictator want to be like Trump who hasn’t one redeeming quality.
This seems easy to me: 1. Declare Musk a Clear and Present Danger to the US and arrest him. 2. Imprison him at Gitmo. 3. Nationalize SpaceX and give it to Space Force. 4. Confiscate his fortune and give it to UNICEF. 5. Rinse and repeat with his tech bro buddies Theil, Andressen, Horowitz, etc. 6. Arrest anyone who signed Johnsons challenge to the 2020 election and send them to Gitmo. 7. Accidentally crash their plane into the Gulf. 8. Sleep easy that night.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Yes-/except for Trump—he used that line even in his debate with Kamala Harris. Did you in fact finally admit that you lost Election 2020 to Biden, “by a hair?” Trump: no, that was a joke, obviously.
Those who do not believe in America’s free & fair elections should not be allowed in American 🇺🇸 elections.
Tracy, and Trump ought to be stopped too, but somehow Republicans and rich people seem to have some kind of teflon coating that keeps any attempts to hold them accountable, sliding off. We don't have to keep that going, but who is going to stop it. Republicans now specialize in cheating, lying, deceit, bribery, misdirection, and more, and the rest of us haven't figured out how to stop it. And, the rich guys mostly support the big cheat, and Musk is one of them.
During the Obama administration the White House was shot at by deranged gunman twice, in 2011 and 2016. Musk ought to be cognizant of this before he tweets. But he won’t because he’s a narcissist. A less patriotic Henry Ford with worse manners.
Having the power Musk's money provides him is something only Elon can relate to. Being the richest man in the world has its advantages, as well as its pitfalls. The man is functioning in uncharted waters and his effect on the security of the world is in the balance. Putin and the Russian military both want an open seaport that isn't frozen over and basically useless during the winter months. The open waters of the Crimean Peninsula would provide the Russian Navy with a new lease on life. Zelensky and the Ukrainian people will never agree to a ceasefire where Russia would be allowed to maintain its control of any newly acquired territory. Trump is dreaming if he thinks he could persuade both sides to end their hostilities. In a world where Putin would be allowed to keep what he's stolen from the people of Ukraine the autocracy Trump would have created here in this country would be smoldering in ruin. Maybe Musk can buy his way out of that future dilemma.
They already have big naval bases at St Petersburg and Vladivostok, and as has been shown access to the Black Sea from Russia proper. The Russian invasion of Crimea, like that of the rest of Ukraine is simply an unjustified land grab by a tyrant with delusions of grandeur.
Kaliningrad is separated from Russia (Belarus) by the Suwalki Gap.
The Suwalki Gap is the border between Poland and Lithuania, it is a flat plane and a historic invasion route used by the Teutonic knights, Napoleon and Hilter and is the target of Putin, after he secures Ukraine. next is Lithuania.
In answer to Greg and Donald we need to account for the fact that the Black and Baltic Seas can be quickly and effectively closed off by NATO. The only major Russian naval bases with direct access to the oceans are Murmansk/Polyarny and Vladivostok.
During the cold war our chief concern about the Soviet Navy (aside from their SSBNs) was disruption of US reinforcement and resupply of Europe. In that scenario, the Sov bases in the Black and Baltic seas played an insignificant role.
Surely the Russians know that on day one of a war with NATO any Russian warship at sea in the Black or Baltic will reside on the bottom.
I'm thinking Trumps big plan to end the Ukraine invasion is to simply cut off Ukraine, handing it to his bff... more reason to keep him the hell away from the white house. Elon is a bit of a loose cannon, and not in a cute way. We have to develop alternatives which will be hard, short of nationalizing SpaceX... or at least having a way to take over operational control if the need arises. But as one trader on the mercantile exchange's button declared "money walks, talks, sings, plays, and dances....bullshit walks...." This was 40 years ago but still too relevant to the current corporate ownership of our body politic.
He CAN . . . until his masters get sick of his mouth. Scumbag, narcissistic losers NEVER get a happy ending. My guess is he will spend the end of his life in a federal prison like his buddy Bunkerboy.
Raphael--The problem lies in the two sides involved in the conflict. A two-state solution will never happen as long a Hamas exists. That group has vowed to destroy all infidels, and the slaughter seen on 10/7 will repeat itself over and over again until either they succeed, or Hamas is no more. They don't think like us, how do you propose we deal with an entire society which is hell bent on our total destruction? The only way to deal with ignorance on that level is to act like them until the threat is gone.
The joke is on us. Money does not make one smart. The worship of those who are wealthy is crazy and very American. Anyone with that much control of communications not to mention X is a real security threat. The government needs to take control of the satellite communication network. It can't be in the hands of an idiot who is beholding to Putin and the Chinese. And someone who should be prosecuted for threatening the President.
Yes, but the persons who caused the worst economic destruction in our century still ... still have lunch with VP Harris. Do you all want to forget 2008??? It's still here and the 25K for new homeowners doesn't help much.
PLEASE Kamala - I'm asking you to have a sit down lunch with Bernie Sanders and start talking about real economic policy before it's too late to save democracy.
#CancelStudentDebt - all of it and you 40 million votes in the bag.
Don’t you realize President Biden has already paid for students debt in part? The Republican House and the Republican Supreme Court prevented him from doing more
I have been correcting this misinformation for a long time. Facts, right? Okay. Number one that debt was to be forgiven under Obama. He "couldn't do it". Number 2. Prez Biden used his weakest position and failed. gas lighting.
Number 3 - if the dems just "can't do anything because of republicans" why should anyone vote for you?
Please go to the Debt Collective . org for more information. Not mislead by misinformation.
Yes, VP/running for PRESIDENT Harris must make practical sense. Whether we remember it or not, the bankers-and/or corporations win all outcomes around 2008 via 'mainstream' Democratic party stances (or lack of a strong stance) created a foundational basis of mistrust for the supposed reputation of the "Democrats are FOR The People" Party. I personally have not understood the hesitancy of our "We the People" nation to squash lives rather than choose to act cooperatively with each other for the common good. Robert Reich sharpened my economic senses via his Berkley class lectures. The lessons of history which I was blind to have recently been sharpened through Reverend Dr William Barber's retelling this history and successful struggles to counter suppression of People Power (via his new, very readable book, White Poverty - How Exposing the Myths about ace and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy). By the way - I applaud Harris' choice of Tim Walz as a perfect "real stories/real people impacts" partner for waking up the American people to the wealth of possibility we have with real honest stories about both the hope and tragedies that our policies cause.
I'm telling the Dems on here what they need to win. I'll recommend a few books too.
This failure goes way back - past Bill Clinton, past Reagan.
William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator - The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. TheCon.tv He's been on Bill Moyers TED Talks etc.
White Trash Nancy Inseberg.
I can "practically" wait to decide all the up to the minute I vote to decide.....
Who's "common good" - not mine nor my community. At this point, she is offering nothing for me and it sounds like a lot for the rest of the folks on here. There isn't anything in her platform that does me any good.
Just saying - change her mind for me if you have a direct call line - cheers.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Incorrect FALSELY yelling fire in a crowded theater is illegal. Again SPEECH alone is not punishable based on content unless it is directly connected to actual planning of illegal ACTIVITY.
I'm so tired of billionaires and corporations owning, running, steering our government. And us taxpayers paying to be ruled by them. This privatization of gov't is killing us.
"Today, there are about 91 million Americans who have voted for Biden and House Democrats since 2016, and about 83 million who have voted for Trump or House Republicans. If this pool of voters votes that way again, and if they constitute 80 percent of those voting in 2024 (a fairly conservative assumption), then the other 20 percent of voters would have to favor Trump by 18 points for him to overcome that deficit." Podheizer.
Not to mention enthusiasm and new registrations favor Democrats.
I suggest that we have public financed elections which controls equal access to qualified candidates. Make election campaigning limited to 2-3 months. No side "gifts" to elected officials.
Lawrence Shipley, totally agree. Prob need an army of enforcers to interrupt the gifters and giftees, and of course, the new SC ruling, of bribes are legal if given to a politician after they do what the briber wants, would have to be struck down.
Brooks Keogh, I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you advocating for or acquiescing to government that doesn't represent the interests of all its people?
i'm saying that a duly elected gov't has ultimate loyalty to the country,whereas individuals like Musk appear to have divided loyalties-this analysis,like any,has flaws-000000000000000000000H
i'm saying that a duly elected gov't generally has loyalty to the country-individuals may have divided loyalties-like all analysis,especially amateur ones,this has flaws-Hitler was elected-Jonas Salk was a great citizen-the voters can be mislead,and we can get lucky-what i'm really saying is be careful-what do you say?
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
he is one of the most dangerous people in the world. vastly rich. very intelligent. narcissistic. seemingly above the law. he's like the worst Bond villian and actually real.
Nick Winney, is he "very intelligent"? I have come to really question the media, who has forever screamed with delight until they are breathless, how brilliant this billionaire or that one is. But people with oodles of money hire people to invent things and advise them. So, perhaps they are the smartest ones or at the very least deserve some of the credit, but get none. Instead, the media moguls in their infinite egoic unwisdom, believe those with the most money like themselves, are the most intelligent.
i think he is undoubtedly intelligent but in a limited way. to have got to the position of power he has requires a great deal of farsightedness and grasp of tech potential. that he has used others to deliver this to him... he knows he has to delegate and acquire the skills of a broad range of people but its his vision behind it all I think.
When Money Talks; Rule of Law Walks. No one reaches such a position of power without an army of enablers, beginning with his family connections. No one stays in such a position of power without an army of complicit hangers on and clever criminal management. Musk is simply a figurehead who seems to believe in his own PR. His political actions are so infantile and historically ill informed that he is very obviously someone else’s very Useful Idiot.
I’m not sure? I wonder if Musk is a child who can just afford bigger toys?
If both Musk and Trump had kept their mouths shut, we would think Musk a genius&Trump a funny NYC character. Neither would be in the trouble they’re in.
I am not stupid, I know money buys a lot. I’m still in shock about 16.
Nick Winney, hmm, so that may be. I don't know. He could have bought that long-plan, not came up with it himself, and hired very smart project advisors. It's food for thought, though. Thanks.
Nick Winney, PS, I lean towards concluding average intelligence with lots and lots of capital. Perhaps, it's possible slightly more than average, but definitely not "very intelliigent". I can't go that far.
If you ever read Sir Arthur Conan Doyles, Sherlock Holmes, you encounter a person who is ignorant of geography, biology, the things that an 8th grader would know, but has powers of observation and deduction beyond that of a normal human being.
That's Trump, dumb as bag of hammers, but a genius at griffing, bullshitting, reading people and staying out of jail.
One looks at his rally's, and see the wild approval and applause, of his followers, and wonders "who are these people"? Well you pass them on the street,you work with them, they are your family, friends, you shop with them, they sit beside you are sports events, at church if you go, they are 48% of America and they are the motivated 48%, many even have advanced degrees,, own or franchise a business, but they all share a common deficit and attribute and there is no effort to determine that deficit and that attribute.
Nick, there are many types of intelligence - creative, spatial, mathematical, musical, logical, emotional, even interpersonal and intrapersonal - which we would probably agree are not Mr. Musk’s forte. To deny he has at least one type of intelligence that would rank him in the “very category” would be unjust. But to fail to recognize his many shortcomings is also foolish. And to allow him free rein because he demands control is beyond reasonable. He is a man among many men, not a supreme being. There are many “very intelligent” people in the world who do not presume his advantage. I agree it is time to restrain his grandiose reach in the arenas of politics, science, and communication. To ignore his ability is dangerous.
What makes you think he's so intelligent, Nick? He has invented NOTHING. He used his "winnings" from PayPal to buy an already established business (Tesla) which is not exactly booming. He bought Twitter an already established social media and fired more than half its employees. He started Space X which so far has done nothing spectacular (compared to NASA) and Starlink internet services which he misuses to assist that lowlife dictator Putin.
I think you're confusing intelligence with greed. He once bragged about having an IQ of 155. My daughter had an IQ of 168. During her too short life she used her intelligence to help people - she became a physician, did research on the Human Immunosupressive Virus and set up the first AIDS Clinic in Portland OR during her residency. But she did not make millions of dollars.
you may not like his decisions and some of them seem stupid, but theyre not stupid if you have a game plan like he does. he wants twitter becasue of its power. he doesnt care of he loses a lot of subscribers who are "nice people". I dont admire him, dont get me wrong here, and smart people use others who they know are smarter than them. this is the sort of intelligence he has. its his narcissism and sense of intellectual superiority that makes him use intelligence in ways many disagree with but he doesn't care. Trump is the same. he's very intelligent in a particular way but he eats burgers and cheats at golf. he doesnt care. hes getting what he wants. Putin... the same. all these people that get to the top and have ludicrous wealth and power they dont get it by being stupid. they get it by having a particular sort of intelligence and not caring about anything but themselves. if he was A philanthropist he wouldnt be the evil bond villain that he clearly is.
Well, Nick, there is no real point in furthering this discussion, so I agree to disagree. I will always believe that trump is as dumb as a door nail. Musk and Putin are smarter than trump, I'll accede that. musk's intelligence is defused in my mind by his goal to be the richest man in the world, which I don't consider to be an intelligent choice. And Putin is power mad, if he had really been intelligent, he wouldn't invaded Ukraine because he 'thought' he could win in 3 days. An intelligent power mad megalomaniac would have KNOWN he would win before he launched his invasion. He did not have the intelligence - either his own or his agencies, to have examined the psyche of Zelensky and the Ukrainians. That plus he believed Biden being older would be as dumb as trump Biden's IQ is probably closer to the 140's, I'd rank trump max at 110 and I'm being generous.
Trump acquired his "fortune" by being a well trained criminal con man. His father left him $400,000,000 this is well known, and trump is well known throughout the real estate and development industry for over valuing his assets.. A truly intelligent business man would not have 6 bankruptcies.
However, you certainly have the right to your beliefs and I have the right to mine.
Well reasoned, and even agree that Trump is intelligent in that thin vein you outlined; otherwise, he is only moderately more intelligent than most rocks. Yes, “a particular sort of intelligence”.
Naw man. He is DUMB AS A STUMP! Who else but musk could TANK the biggest social media platform in existance??? He STEALS ideas and passes them off as his own.
I would bet $20, as I am on SSD, that he has "exceptionalities" or Austism like the afforementioned pretend billionaire.
‘ The CEO then told him that some of the floors could not handle more than 500 pounds of pressure, so rolling a 2,000-pound server would cause damage. Musk replied that the servers had four wheels, so the pressure at any one point was only 500 pounds. “The dude is not very good at math,” Musk told the musketeers.’
Professor Reich: yes, as you suggest, remove musk's security clearance, terminate his government contracts, and definitely build our own -- NOT boeing -- alternatives to the corrupted Space X and Starlink. AND DEPORT MUSK!
seriously, this arrogant imbecile is doing far too well for a person who started out as an ILLEGAL ALIEN in USA!
Prof. Reich, you say, "But who was Musk to decide what actions would or would not violate U.S. sanctions?" Precisely. No private actor should have this power over our government. It reminds me of the flirtations with a 'shadow government' that Trump constantly seems to involve himself in. I am a fan of the political theorist/philosopher Karl Popper who makes a case that an 'open society' leaves itself open to being co-opted by a 'closed society' (authoritarian), when authoritarian actors uses the freedoms offered by the open society to undermine it. I am not unaware of the pitfalls of Popper's approach. It's a balance between free speech and speech which incites violence or other forms of illegality to ultimately diminish those same freedoms. This approach is Trump's MO.
May I suggest that you write a letter to the appropriate group in our government expressing your concerns?
- was Musked ordered to do it? By which entity of the US government?
- would there have been penalties against him if he had violated these sanctions?
- Did he communicate with the US government before acting?
Any company leader may want to act proactively before facing punishment, deflecting potential harm to his organization.
One of the big questions though is:
How did it come to Musk getting into this power position as a premier (and one and only) supplier to the US government to begin with?
Which entities in the US government were fast asleep on duty?
A) Musks technology, and the respective produced units, should be in the hands of the US government.
B) supply chain management 101 states that as a "customer" one never ever (!) relies solely on one supplier (for the obvious reasons, ie power position, potential premium pricing, impact if issues within that suppliers organization, etc.).
It was more adressed at the author of the article, Robert Reich.
I think it is very important to provide the respective specifics in this very challenging time and age, and not fall into the trap of generalization. If the answers to those questions raised are not known, then this should be stated as such. It is just part of providing a complete picture based on the information available.
It is my impression that people on Substack want to be informed properly - unlike the cultists on the other end of the political spectrum.
Carsten, with your clarification of Reich as the addressed, yes I can only agree. In fact, the more I ponder these questions they are absolutely critical. It would seem that some shadow approval would have had to been given for Musk to have proceeded so far. When I first was aware of Musk's Space X company, more than several years ago now, I was struck by the question, "how can a private individual/company do this"? With China developing spy satellites, what happens if Musk and China have an 'altercation' in space? What happens if the equipment collides? As the saying goes, "the known unknowns."
The Biden government allocated billions to build ev charging stations & provide internet service to remote areas of the US. I think something like 7 charging stations have been built as of 9/2024 & no internet/cellular access has been generated. Frankly, Musk would cost taxpayers less than the federal government and he would actually finish the job.
yes. elon musk was an illegal alien (born & raised in south africa, lived in canada, snuck across the border into USA, where he was an illegal alien -- HE claims his US immigration status was a "grey area" ... forgetting of course that his white skin is what made it "grey".)
America has created more than one Frankenstein Monster that it cannot control. It’s up to “we the people” to put an end to this madness before they put an end to this democracy!
How about Kamala Harris' campaign to put out into the public space the idea of "the strong will of the people" to actually be able to change things and put laws into effect that will actually end up the crime and hate rhetoric , keeping all these "loose cannons" in jail or nuthouses where they seem to belong.
If voting all Democrats (starting from Presidency to House and Senate) they will actually have the REAL Power to change /stop all these bad things from happening... EVER !
Roxana, to have a majority in numbers, in both chambers of Congress isn't always a solid guarantee either. It has to actually be a "super majority" to get anything meaningful accomplished. This is because you sometimes have to deal with idiots like Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. They were constant roadblocks in the legislative process. So, we've got to have enough, in larger numbers, to be able to get things passed without one or two egotists gumming up the works.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Peter, now you're talking!! That's the best thing I've heard all month. Elon is both a national and international security threat. His allegiances are highly questionable at best. He's actually very dangerous and shouldn't have any security clearances. He needs to be removed from the picture asap. This country needs to stop outsourcing highly technical operations and start doing it's own R&D and keep that stuff in house. It's too risky otherwise.
Couldn't the government use eminent domain to buy Musk's business due to the public interest and security concerns? Couldn't the House appropriate the money? Or would the Republicans block it? Could it be done by executive order for national defense?
Gloria J. Maloney : Good questions , But we can't even get Justice to use the 14th amendment section 3 disqualification clause to remove the bad actors/traitors from Congress and the Supreme Court. We have corruption throughout our justice system.
The Supreme Court gave President's broad immunity. After the election Biden should use it to do what you have suggested. It's a win/win, we get rid of Musk & shows the Supreme Court that they have given the same immunity to Democratic President's.
Penny, an idea I've often thought about. But..." after the election Biden should use it...". After the election this coming November, Biden isn't on the scene anymore. So, it would be up to either Harris or, heaven forbid, Trump. If Harris, I predict that at the beginning of her term, she will be very circumspect initially until she totally understands the lay of the land.
What’s that old saying about absolute power? Like religion, so too is business, oil, water, etc. Some things and a democracy like that of the United States don’t readily mix and should not be mixed anyway. The blending of government and big business, as Musk and others want, is a perversion of our democracy. Yesterday, Kamala Harris laid out her three-pillar “opportunity economy”. That plan seems like where the country should be heading and keeping a lid on disallowing big businesses like Elon’s companies to abuse through conflicts of interest and his comments that are unacceptable and should have consequences. Early voting is happening in some states, and hopefully, by election day, the Harris/Walz ticket will win. Go Democrats!
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
It’s crazy to me how the outrageous Bond movie “Moonraker”, where the bajillionaire villain Hugo Drax steals a space shuttle, has foretold current events. The villain wants to commit global genocide so that he can repopulate Earth in his own image. Ummm, can anyone see who Hugo Drax could represent in today’s reality?
Great column! Sure makes you wonder what's in the kool-aid our government officials are drinking!! "The swamp" must be full of it! Definitely time to dethrone Muskrot and send him back to So. Africa. I don't know Musk's story -- how did he get so heavily entrenched in the U.S. in the first place??
Robert Reich: It is apparent that the information you have shared shows that you are right. Elon Musk has no business doing business with the United States government, especially in areas that make our National Security vulnerable to his obvious extreme right wing bias. He is working for and with our enemies.
Sadly, President Biden doesn't have the courage to seize his assets & nationalize Starlink. He couldn't even remove a dangerous mafia linked postmaster general who destroyed the venerable Post Office.
Douglas ; President Biden believes in and follows the rule of law. Dejoy 's position can only be terminated by a board. I'm no lawyer, and think if the election is threatened, a president should be able to intervene. It's not always about courage, We are a Nation of laws.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Musk needs to be held accountable. You cannot explain away a threat on a President’s life as a “joke”. Otherwise any threat, be it a bomb threat, etc. could be excused by saying it was just a joke. We don’t do that.
Trump does it all the time. Just sayin’…
Yes, he sure does. I’m sure that’s why Musk said it. They are asshole buddies- both with huge egos and a lust for power.
On Trump's end, he lusts for the power he's never had: the power over his own life.
😉👆🛂US Law:the "Defense Prodution Act"
fema.gov/disaster/defense-production-act
"The ...DPA) is ...to expedite ...resources from the U.S. industrial base to support military, energy, space...." aka take over control of Musk's businesses🙃🙃
Sounds like beyond the time to nationalize in the name of national security. What he did to Ukraine by shutting down critical Starlink satellites and impeding their inability to communicate at an essential moment in battling Russia was unconscionable. Why should a creep like him have that kind of power? And what’s to stop him from interfering again when he disapproves?
Boycott anything musk - Tesla and Twitter
❤🤔🙄😁🌝
The super rich must wear police style body cams that live stream their antics... the recording tape should be available as admissible evidence to keep them honest and honorable😁😁😁
🖥📽🔍AI should determine the NPI narcissism score of the super wealthy and shame them into philanthropy:"Carnegie and oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller were rivals in the field of philanthropy. The newspapers kept score. Here's a snapshot of the race to give it away"
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carnegie-philanthropy-101/
Carnegie was fond of saying, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced."😁😁😁❤
Boycotts don't do much. Many of us won't go to Walmart, but they still have a strong business.
I bought a Tesla. Musk isn’t the brain behind it, rather it’s the talented engineers who have made a good car.
That's very true, but who do you think reaps the profits?
George, you are right, but how can Musk be removed from Tesla, now that he is OK with making the company Chinese with him raking in the bucks? The problem is that super rich men have no sense of the world except that they can get whatever they want and ntions like ours just give it to them. Disgusting!
Does Ukraine want to prosecute him? If so the US should cooperate with any lawful extradition process.
Also, there are alleged to be serious environmental problems with some SpaceX operations and facilities. These should be dealt with as the laws provide.
Elon Musk is the Product of Silicon Valley Culture... Move Fast & Break Things... Get Rich before you are 30yrs old... Microdose Stimulants, and Hallucinogens for Speed, and Creativity... $$$ is everything... Employees are Expendables... The characteristic that the TechnoSiths share is Ruthlessness... Unfortunately the USG gave him that Power... Based upon the non-Success of NASA, and Legacy Contractors, such as Boeing, Elon became a Star... Hmm... I wonder what will happen when all those low-orbit Satellites start falling out of the Sky... Where will Elon be? In Moscow, with DJT.?.. Yes, revoke his Security Clearance...
Anyone who is in business, especially with our defense department and acquiesces to Putin's wishes is a grave danger to our national security. The US, Britain, NATO cannot rely on this man.
You are so right why has he not been held accountable?? By not he gains even more power
Lesly, when has anyone who is super rich been held accountable for anything? If they have, I have not heard of it. Heck, the robber barons were never held accountable, unless they were caught in one of the Wall Street Crashes. Their endowments are still named for them and still rake in the bucks in interest which they give away a bit at a time to keep their names alive. Something does need to be done about Musk. I say, we need to step up soon since his drug use is just making him more crazy and ripe for picking by China or fully by Russia. As he holds so many of our national secrets, he would be a prize for either of them and he'd love it, and they would give him even more until he just happened to fall out of a window.
I agree with every word you wrote!!
At least nationalize SpaceX/Starlink, for national security reasons. The threat it poses to national security is orders of magnitude higher than any threat posed by TikTok.
Nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink is the only rationale answer to curb Musk's weird - and possible dangerous to our nation - behavior!
I totally agree. No one person should have that much money or power; even Elon Musk’s big brain can't handle it. He is sick with power. and as delusional as one of James Bond’s villains. It’s time to nationalize his businesses and set aside a separate gulag just for him and exile him there for the rest of his life without any means of connection to the rest of the world. This is what Putin has done to some of his oligarchs and critics when they stopped being useful. Make no mistake, I am not supporting Putin or his methods in any way only pointing out that extreme and dangerous behavior must be contained.
Agreed, he's a white cat shy of full on Bond villainy! And we already have a special gulag for all these asshats: Gitmo.
yes! i’ve been calling for biden to nationalize spacex/starlink. it’s not too late. yet.
Where would you go for alternative to SpaceX? Boeing?
Only Lockheed Martin seems plausible but they would be years behind .
Clever Musk has placed NASA/DOD between a rock and a hard olé
I love it! But good luck
Of course djt does, that is one of the many reasons he is totally unfit for ANY public office, only fit for a public facility that can house him!!
He's going to jail after he loses in 2024. Why do you think his trial was pushed to AFTER the election??? The judge, (was is Chutkan? There's too many!), KNEW he'd lose, so then it would be super easy to send him to a New York or Georgian prison for his last few weeks of pathetic life!
So do we daily hope and pray.
I sincerely hope you’re right. I am so tired of these wealthy men turning ultra conservative and abusing their power once they become fabulously wealthy. Why is it that the wealthier they become the worse they become? It seems very few ultra wealthy people are ever truly generous without some catch to it. If being Uber wealthy means being selfish and controlling I can’t find it in myself to admire them. Musk should be ashamed of himself, he has more money than anyone in the world and is behaving shamelessly. There are so many good causes that he could help, starving children in Sudan for example, homeless people, money to help cure diseases but rather than that he is just selfish and sides with a dictator want to be like Trump who hasn’t one redeeming quality.
This seems easy to me: 1. Declare Musk a Clear and Present Danger to the US and arrest him. 2. Imprison him at Gitmo. 3. Nationalize SpaceX and give it to Space Force. 4. Confiscate his fortune and give it to UNICEF. 5. Rinse and repeat with his tech bro buddies Theil, Andressen, Horowitz, etc. 6. Arrest anyone who signed Johnsons challenge to the 2020 election and send them to Gitmo. 7. Accidentally crash their plane into the Gulf. 8. Sleep easy that night.
I totally agree
Couldn’t agree morel!!
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Yes-/except for Trump—he used that line even in his debate with Kamala Harris. Did you in fact finally admit that you lost Election 2020 to Biden, “by a hair?” Trump: no, that was a joke, obviously.
Those who do not believe in America’s free & fair elections should not be allowed in American 🇺🇸 elections.
Tracy, and Trump ought to be stopped too, but somehow Republicans and rich people seem to have some kind of teflon coating that keeps any attempts to hold them accountable, sliding off. We don't have to keep that going, but who is going to stop it. Republicans now specialize in cheating, lying, deceit, bribery, misdirection, and more, and the rest of us haven't figured out how to stop it. And, the rich guys mostly support the big cheat, and Musk is one of them.
During the Obama administration the White House was shot at by deranged gunman twice, in 2011 and 2016. Musk ought to be cognizant of this before he tweets. But he won’t because he’s a narcissist. A less patriotic Henry Ford with worse manners.
He's ALSO dumb as a sack of marbles!
That’s an insult to marbles … 😉
As my father would have said if he's so dumb and you're so smart why aren't you rich?
Musk was born to extreme wealth. Why didn't I think of that?
I agree Miriam
Having the power Musk's money provides him is something only Elon can relate to. Being the richest man in the world has its advantages, as well as its pitfalls. The man is functioning in uncharted waters and his effect on the security of the world is in the balance. Putin and the Russian military both want an open seaport that isn't frozen over and basically useless during the winter months. The open waters of the Crimean Peninsula would provide the Russian Navy with a new lease on life. Zelensky and the Ukrainian people will never agree to a ceasefire where Russia would be allowed to maintain its control of any newly acquired territory. Trump is dreaming if he thinks he could persuade both sides to end their hostilities. In a world where Putin would be allowed to keep what he's stolen from the people of Ukraine the autocracy Trump would have created here in this country would be smoldering in ruin. Maybe Musk can buy his way out of that future dilemma.
They already have big naval bases at St Petersburg and Vladivostok, and as has been shown access to the Black Sea from Russia proper. The Russian invasion of Crimea, like that of the rest of Ukraine is simply an unjustified land grab by a tyrant with delusions of grandeur.
Stephen--That they do, but Putin doesn't like ice covered seaports that are basically useless 6 months out of the year.
Also the Baltic Fleet is based at Kaliningrad, taken from Germany in WWII. “the only ice-free Russian port on the Baltic Sea” (per Wikipedia).
Kaliningrad is separated from Russia (Belarus) by the Suwalki Gap.
The Suwalki Gap is the border between Poland and Lithuania, it is a flat plane and a historic invasion route used by the Teutonic knights, Napoleon and Hilter and is the target of Putin, after he secures Ukraine. next is Lithuania.
In answer to Greg and Donald we need to account for the fact that the Black and Baltic Seas can be quickly and effectively closed off by NATO. The only major Russian naval bases with direct access to the oceans are Murmansk/Polyarny and Vladivostok.
During the cold war our chief concern about the Soviet Navy (aside from their SSBNs) was disruption of US reinforcement and resupply of Europe. In that scenario, the Sov bases in the Black and Baltic seas played an insignificant role.
Surely the Russians know that on day one of a war with NATO any Russian warship at sea in the Black or Baltic will reside on the bottom.
I'm thinking Trumps big plan to end the Ukraine invasion is to simply cut off Ukraine, handing it to his bff... more reason to keep him the hell away from the white house. Elon is a bit of a loose cannon, and not in a cute way. We have to develop alternatives which will be hard, short of nationalizing SpaceX... or at least having a way to take over operational control if the need arises. But as one trader on the mercantile exchange's button declared "money walks, talks, sings, plays, and dances....bullshit walks...." This was 40 years ago but still too relevant to the current corporate ownership of our body politic.
What would be the justification for nationalization?
He CAN . . . until his masters get sick of his mouth. Scumbag, narcissistic losers NEVER get a happy ending. My guess is he will spend the end of his life in a federal prison like his buddy Bunkerboy.
Well put, Hodgins.
We can either keep financing a futile war or work toward a resolution.
Raphael--The problem lies in the two sides involved in the conflict. A two-state solution will never happen as long a Hamas exists. That group has vowed to destroy all infidels, and the slaughter seen on 10/7 will repeat itself over and over again until either they succeed, or Hamas is no more. They don't think like us, how do you propose we deal with an entire society which is hell bent on our total destruction? The only way to deal with ignorance on that level is to act like them until the threat is gone.
In my minds eye I see and I hear Putin. What, a nuclear ☢️ strike…….wasn’t me.
Global warming will open the Russian seaport soon enough. Drill baby drill.
The joke is on us. Money does not make one smart. The worship of those who are wealthy is crazy and very American. Anyone with that much control of communications not to mention X is a real security threat. The government needs to take control of the satellite communication network. It can't be in the hands of an idiot who is beholding to Putin and the Chinese. And someone who should be prosecuted for threatening the President.
I’m sure Musk is already talking to those vile dictators making arrangements
Yes, but the persons who caused the worst economic destruction in our century still ... still have lunch with VP Harris. Do you all want to forget 2008??? It's still here and the 25K for new homeowners doesn't help much.
PLEASE Kamala - I'm asking you to have a sit down lunch with Bernie Sanders and start talking about real economic policy before it's too late to save democracy.
#CancelStudentDebt - all of it and you 40 million votes in the bag.
Don’t you realize President Biden has already paid for students debt in part? The Republican House and the Republican Supreme Court prevented him from doing more
I have been correcting this misinformation for a long time. Facts, right? Okay. Number one that debt was to be forgiven under Obama. He "couldn't do it". Number 2. Prez Biden used his weakest position and failed. gas lighting.
Number 3 - if the dems just "can't do anything because of republicans" why should anyone vote for you?
Please go to the Debt Collective . org for more information. Not mislead by misinformation.
Thank you for allowing me to reply.
Yes, VP/running for PRESIDENT Harris must make practical sense. Whether we remember it or not, the bankers-and/or corporations win all outcomes around 2008 via 'mainstream' Democratic party stances (or lack of a strong stance) created a foundational basis of mistrust for the supposed reputation of the "Democrats are FOR The People" Party. I personally have not understood the hesitancy of our "We the People" nation to squash lives rather than choose to act cooperatively with each other for the common good. Robert Reich sharpened my economic senses via his Berkley class lectures. The lessons of history which I was blind to have recently been sharpened through Reverend Dr William Barber's retelling this history and successful struggles to counter suppression of People Power (via his new, very readable book, White Poverty - How Exposing the Myths about ace and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy). By the way - I applaud Harris' choice of Tim Walz as a perfect "real stories/real people impacts" partner for waking up the American people to the wealth of possibility we have with real honest stories about both the hope and tragedies that our policies cause.
I'm telling the Dems on here what they need to win. I'll recommend a few books too.
This failure goes way back - past Bill Clinton, past Reagan.
William Bill Black, PhD, lawyer, former bank regulator - The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. TheCon.tv He's been on Bill Moyers TED Talks etc.
White Trash Nancy Inseberg.
I can "practically" wait to decide all the up to the minute I vote to decide.....
Who's "common good" - not mine nor my community. At this point, she is offering nothing for me and it sounds like a lot for the rest of the folks on here. There isn't anything in her platform that does me any good.
Just saying - change her mind for me if you have a direct call line - cheers.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
It was all TALK no action. Speech, ev we n "advocacy" is (still) protected by the First Amendment
Threatening a person’s life and calling “Fire” are against the law. No action required.
Incorrect FALSELY yelling fire in a crowded theater is illegal. Again SPEECH alone is not punishable based on content unless it is directly connected to actual planning of illegal ACTIVITY.
PRISON anyone??? If ANY American did that, they'd be in prison TODAY!
Incorrect
I'm so tired of billionaires and corporations owning, running, steering our government. And us taxpayers paying to be ruled by them. This privatization of gov't is killing us.
Vote Republicans Out of office.
"Today, there are about 91 million Americans who have voted for Biden and House Democrats since 2016, and about 83 million who have voted for Trump or House Republicans. If this pool of voters votes that way again, and if they constitute 80 percent of those voting in 2024 (a fairly conservative assumption), then the other 20 percent of voters would have to favor Trump by 18 points for him to overcome that deficit." Podheizer.
Not to mention enthusiasm and new registrations favor Democrats.
Democrats have held the presidency for most of the last 20 years. Don’t you mean vote the Democrats out of office?
Do something.
https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/
Daniel Solomon, thanks.
DOJ, DO SOMETHING. CONGRESS, DO SOMETHING.
I suggest that we have public financed elections which controls equal access to qualified candidates. Make election campaigning limited to 2-3 months. No side "gifts" to elected officials.
Lawrence Shipley, totally agree. Prob need an army of enforcers to interrupt the gifters and giftees, and of course, the new SC ruling, of bribes are legal if given to a politician after they do what the briber wants, would have to be struck down.
Well, we know which President put it in motion. But that was 44 years ago.
It is officially a KAKISTOCRACY, or "rule by the least competent or able." That is the ENTIRETY of musk and Bunkerboy's existance: "INCOMPETENT BOOB.'
right-democratic gov't is bureaucratic,slow,often inefficient,etc.,but at least you know where it's ultimate loyalty liese
Brooks Keogh, I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you advocating for or acquiescing to government that doesn't represent the interests of all its people?
i'm saying that a duly elected gov't has ultimate loyalty to the country,whereas individuals like Musk appear to have divided loyalties-this analysis,like any,has flaws-000000000000000000000H
i'm saying that a duly elected gov't generally has loyalty to the country-individuals may have divided loyalties-like all analysis,especially amateur ones,this has flaws-Hitler was elected-Jonas Salk was a great citizen-the voters can be mislead,and we can get lucky-what i'm really saying is be careful-what do you say?
itler was elected-
Brooks Keogh, just what I suspected. Disjointed jibberish from AI generated sources.
maybe disjointed gibberish,but hardly AI generated-et tu,M?
Reight on!!!!!!!!!!!
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Sean Sheeter, definitely, choice b.
he is one of the most dangerous people in the world. vastly rich. very intelligent. narcissistic. seemingly above the law. he's like the worst Bond villian and actually real.
Nick Winney, is he "very intelligent"? I have come to really question the media, who has forever screamed with delight until they are breathless, how brilliant this billionaire or that one is. But people with oodles of money hire people to invent things and advise them. So, perhaps they are the smartest ones or at the very least deserve some of the credit, but get none. Instead, the media moguls in their infinite egoic unwisdom, believe those with the most money like themselves, are the most intelligent.
i think he is undoubtedly intelligent but in a limited way. to have got to the position of power he has requires a great deal of farsightedness and grasp of tech potential. that he has used others to deliver this to him... he knows he has to delegate and acquire the skills of a broad range of people but its his vision behind it all I think.
When Money Talks; Rule of Law Walks. No one reaches such a position of power without an army of enablers, beginning with his family connections. No one stays in such a position of power without an army of complicit hangers on and clever criminal management. Musk is simply a figurehead who seems to believe in his own PR. His political actions are so infantile and historically ill informed that he is very obviously someone else’s very Useful Idiot.
absolutely - he bought his ideas!!!
Smart move
I’m not sure? I wonder if Musk is a child who can just afford bigger toys?
If both Musk and Trump had kept their mouths shut, we would think Musk a genius&Trump a funny NYC character. Neither would be in the trouble they’re in.
I am not stupid, I know money buys a lot. I’m still in shock about 16.
But now all has been revealed.
Nick Winney, hmm, so that may be. I don't know. He could have bought that long-plan, not came up with it himself, and hired very smart project advisors. It's food for thought, though. Thanks.
Nick Winney, PS, I lean towards concluding average intelligence with lots and lots of capital. Perhaps, it's possible slightly more than average, but definitely not "very intelliigent". I can't go that far.
Street Smart Nick. The evil genius of a conman.
If you ever read Sir Arthur Conan Doyles, Sherlock Holmes, you encounter a person who is ignorant of geography, biology, the things that an 8th grader would know, but has powers of observation and deduction beyond that of a normal human being.
That's Trump, dumb as bag of hammers, but a genius at griffing, bullshitting, reading people and staying out of jail.
One looks at his rally's, and see the wild approval and applause, of his followers, and wonders "who are these people"? Well you pass them on the street,you work with them, they are your family, friends, you shop with them, they sit beside you are sports events, at church if you go, they are 48% of America and they are the motivated 48%, many even have advanced degrees,, own or franchise a business, but they all share a common deficit and attribute and there is no effort to determine that deficit and that attribute.
I sold off my little bit of Tesla stock because it was losing $ hand over fist.
Nick, there are many types of intelligence - creative, spatial, mathematical, musical, logical, emotional, even interpersonal and intrapersonal - which we would probably agree are not Mr. Musk’s forte. To deny he has at least one type of intelligence that would rank him in the “very category” would be unjust. But to fail to recognize his many shortcomings is also foolish. And to allow him free rein because he demands control is beyond reasonable. He is a man among many men, not a supreme being. There are many “very intelligent” people in the world who do not presume his advantage. I agree it is time to restrain his grandiose reach in the arenas of politics, science, and communication. To ignore his ability is dangerous.
Judy Davis, you addressed your comment to Nick, but replied to me.
Apologies, M Tree. It was your comment that prompted my response.
Judy Davis, no problem. I just wanted to make sure your thoughtful response went to the right person.
What makes you think he's so intelligent, Nick? He has invented NOTHING. He used his "winnings" from PayPal to buy an already established business (Tesla) which is not exactly booming. He bought Twitter an already established social media and fired more than half its employees. He started Space X which so far has done nothing spectacular (compared to NASA) and Starlink internet services which he misuses to assist that lowlife dictator Putin.
I think you're confusing intelligence with greed. He once bragged about having an IQ of 155. My daughter had an IQ of 168. During her too short life she used her intelligence to help people - she became a physician, did research on the Human Immunosupressive Virus and set up the first AIDS Clinic in Portland OR during her residency. But she did not make millions of dollars.
you may not like his decisions and some of them seem stupid, but theyre not stupid if you have a game plan like he does. he wants twitter becasue of its power. he doesnt care of he loses a lot of subscribers who are "nice people". I dont admire him, dont get me wrong here, and smart people use others who they know are smarter than them. this is the sort of intelligence he has. its his narcissism and sense of intellectual superiority that makes him use intelligence in ways many disagree with but he doesn't care. Trump is the same. he's very intelligent in a particular way but he eats burgers and cheats at golf. he doesnt care. hes getting what he wants. Putin... the same. all these people that get to the top and have ludicrous wealth and power they dont get it by being stupid. they get it by having a particular sort of intelligence and not caring about anything but themselves. if he was A philanthropist he wouldnt be the evil bond villain that he clearly is.
Well, Nick, there is no real point in furthering this discussion, so I agree to disagree. I will always believe that trump is as dumb as a door nail. Musk and Putin are smarter than trump, I'll accede that. musk's intelligence is defused in my mind by his goal to be the richest man in the world, which I don't consider to be an intelligent choice. And Putin is power mad, if he had really been intelligent, he wouldn't invaded Ukraine because he 'thought' he could win in 3 days. An intelligent power mad megalomaniac would have KNOWN he would win before he launched his invasion. He did not have the intelligence - either his own or his agencies, to have examined the psyche of Zelensky and the Ukrainians. That plus he believed Biden being older would be as dumb as trump Biden's IQ is probably closer to the 140's, I'd rank trump max at 110 and I'm being generous.
Trump acquired his "fortune" by being a well trained criminal con man. His father left him $400,000,000 this is well known, and trump is well known throughout the real estate and development industry for over valuing his assets.. A truly intelligent business man would not have 6 bankruptcies.
However, you certainly have the right to your beliefs and I have the right to mine.
Absolutely right. neither of us will be completely correct either but at least we can be civil in expressing our views 😀
Exactly. And I respect your right to have your own views. [in spite of being a domineering old lady (:-)
Absolutely right. neither of us will be completely correct either but at least we are civil in expressing our views 😀
My comment referred to Nick’s post.
Well reasoned, and even agree that Trump is intelligent in that thin vein you outlined; otherwise, he is only moderately more intelligent than most rocks. Yes, “a particular sort of intelligence”.
Naw man. He is DUMB AS A STUMP! Who else but musk could TANK the biggest social media platform in existance??? He STEALS ideas and passes them off as his own.
I would bet $20, as I am on SSD, that he has "exceptionalities" or Austism like the afforementioned pretend billionaire.
Definitely on the spectrum, Trump too
He’s not intelligent, at all. He’s a known idiot, forced out of his companies before he destroyed it.
He was pushed out of PayPal because he wanted to use Windows for all servers, and this was decades ago — it would have killed them. Oh, also Google that time he was bad at math and distributed load: https://medium.com/@noahkingdavis/the-unbelievable-tale-of-when-elon-musk-personally-removed-servers-from-a-sacramento-data-center-2892f21b12c3
‘ The CEO then told him that some of the floors could not handle more than 500 pounds of pressure, so rolling a 2,000-pound server would cause damage. Musk replied that the servers had four wheels, so the pressure at any one point was only 500 pounds. “The dude is not very good at math,” Musk told the musketeers.’
That is not intelligence — that is frightening.
I have to disagree with you I'm afraid. you can't get to his position by being stupid.
Where or what is tge "danger"?
Why isn't he in jail for treason?
There is a different justice system for the rich and powerful. Look a Trump!
There is a reality and something that should be defended...
Answer: $
Prosecute first: punishment is secondary, but the system should act...
The system HAS acted. He is a second or third act for the TV
Confusing: not the TV is the system, but the DOJ. Persecution is needed, the cost or succes is secundary.
Hate to break it to you that there is no opportunity cost. We're over the barrel
prosecution
I think you comment on my command of English; I'm Dutch
Why isn't drumpf? Put Judge Tanya Chutkan on his case too! Here is the legal quote of the century from the Judge, regarding the USSC's ruling in the presidential immunity case, in lay terms: " If you guys hadn't made such a dog's breakfast out of the immunity question, I wouldn't need to know absolutely every detail about how guilty the former president actually is". https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/well-well-well-jack-smith-will-get-to-present-his-jan-6-findings-after-all/ar-AA1r8Uy8?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=a7a45c37e0894c0c9e2bac9f6eae7920&ei=8
Thanks, good it happens. It would have been better four years ago, but it is something...
Treason? Seriously?
Professor Reich: yes, as you suggest, remove musk's security clearance, terminate his government contracts, and definitely build our own -- NOT boeing -- alternatives to the corrupted Space X and Starlink. AND DEPORT MUSK!
seriously, this arrogant imbecile is doing far too well for a person who started out as an ILLEGAL ALIEN in USA!
Prof. Reich, you say, "But who was Musk to decide what actions would or would not violate U.S. sanctions?" Precisely. No private actor should have this power over our government. It reminds me of the flirtations with a 'shadow government' that Trump constantly seems to involve himself in. I am a fan of the political theorist/philosopher Karl Popper who makes a case that an 'open society' leaves itself open to being co-opted by a 'closed society' (authoritarian), when authoritarian actors uses the freedoms offered by the open society to undermine it. I am not unaware of the pitfalls of Popper's approach. It's a balance between free speech and speech which incites violence or other forms of illegality to ultimately diminish those same freedoms. This approach is Trump's MO.
May I suggest that you write a letter to the appropriate group in our government expressing your concerns?
I think there is some info missing, ie:
- was Musked ordered to do it? By which entity of the US government?
- would there have been penalties against him if he had violated these sanctions?
- Did he communicate with the US government before acting?
Any company leader may want to act proactively before facing punishment, deflecting potential harm to his organization.
One of the big questions though is:
How did it come to Musk getting into this power position as a premier (and one and only) supplier to the US government to begin with?
Which entities in the US government were fast asleep on duty?
A) Musks technology, and the respective produced units, should be in the hands of the US government.
B) supply chain management 101 states that as a "customer" one never ever (!) relies solely on one supplier (for the obvious reasons, ie power position, potential premium pricing, impact if issues within that suppliers organization, etc.).
Carsten, the questions listed at the beginning of your comment -- I don't have a clue. The questions beneath that -- A and B -- I agree with totally.
It was more adressed at the author of the article, Robert Reich.
I think it is very important to provide the respective specifics in this very challenging time and age, and not fall into the trap of generalization. If the answers to those questions raised are not known, then this should be stated as such. It is just part of providing a complete picture based on the information available.
It is my impression that people on Substack want to be informed properly - unlike the cultists on the other end of the political spectrum.
Carsten, with your clarification of Reich as the addressed, yes I can only agree. In fact, the more I ponder these questions they are absolutely critical. It would seem that some shadow approval would have had to been given for Musk to have proceeded so far. When I first was aware of Musk's Space X company, more than several years ago now, I was struck by the question, "how can a private individual/company do this"? With China developing spy satellites, what happens if Musk and China have an 'altercation' in space? What happens if the equipment collides? As the saying goes, "the known unknowns."
The Biden government allocated billions to build ev charging stations & provide internet service to remote areas of the US. I think something like 7 charging stations have been built as of 9/2024 & no internet/cellular access has been generated. Frankly, Musk would cost taxpayers less than the federal government and he would actually finish the job.
Can you document that allegation?
An illegal ALIEN?
yes. elon musk was an illegal alien (born & raised in south africa, lived in canada, snuck across the border into USA, where he was an illegal alien -- HE claims his US immigration status was a "grey area" ... forgetting of course that his white skin is what made it "grey".)
https://qz.com/elon-musk-illegal-immigration-tesla-video-1851379406
America has created more than one Frankenstein Monster that it cannot control. It’s up to “we the people” to put an end to this madness before they put an end to this democracy!
How about Kamala Harris' campaign to put out into the public space the idea of "the strong will of the people" to actually be able to change things and put laws into effect that will actually end up the crime and hate rhetoric , keeping all these "loose cannons" in jail or nuthouses where they seem to belong.
If voting all Democrats (starting from Presidency to House and Senate) they will actually have the REAL Power to change /stop all these bad things from happening... EVER !
Roxana, to have a majority in numbers, in both chambers of Congress isn't always a solid guarantee either. It has to actually be a "super majority" to get anything meaningful accomplished. This is because you sometimes have to deal with idiots like Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. They were constant roadblocks in the legislative process. So, we've got to have enough, in larger numbers, to be able to get things passed without one or two egotists gumming up the works.
Musk is an opportunist
He implemented rockets that return to earth to be reused something NASA Could Not Or Would Not Do since Dawn of The Space Program…
He is Not a god even though he Behaves Like one, a native South African Not a Native American…
You really want the federal government controlling people?
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
Or even better, revoke his security clearance, nationalize Space X and Starlink, then deport Musk to South Africa...or Venezuela
Love it. I'm up with insomnia tonite, but will go back to bed and sweet dreams thinking about your post.
Peter, now you're talking!! That's the best thing I've heard all month. Elon is both a national and international security threat. His allegiances are highly questionable at best. He's actually very dangerous and shouldn't have any security clearances. He needs to be removed from the picture asap. This country needs to stop outsourcing highly technical operations and start doing it's own R&D and keep that stuff in house. It's too risky otherwise.
Great plan!
Some things have to be nationalized. I think national security is one of those things.
Couldn't the government use eminent domain to buy Musk's business due to the public interest and security concerns? Couldn't the House appropriate the money? Or would the Republicans block it? Could it be done by executive order for national defense?
Gloria J. Maloney : Good questions , But we can't even get Justice to use the 14th amendment section 3 disqualification clause to remove the bad actors/traitors from Congress and the Supreme Court. We have corruption throughout our justice system.
The Supreme Court gave President's broad immunity. After the election Biden should use it to do what you have suggested. It's a win/win, we get rid of Musk & shows the Supreme Court that they have given the same immunity to Democratic President's.
Penny, an idea I've often thought about. But..." after the election Biden should use it...". After the election this coming November, Biden isn't on the scene anymore. So, it would be up to either Harris or, heaven forbid, Trump. If Harris, I predict that at the beginning of her term, she will be very circumspect initially until she totally understands the lay of the land.
Biden is still President after the election and will be on the scene.
... until the inauguration of his successor.
Penny and Gloria, yes you're correct --my bad.
Harris has more lay if the land than Trump will ever have even though he used to be president. He doesn't know shit. He let his cabinet do his work.
eminent domain
What’s that old saying about absolute power? Like religion, so too is business, oil, water, etc. Some things and a democracy like that of the United States don’t readily mix and should not be mixed anyway. The blending of government and big business, as Musk and others want, is a perversion of our democracy. Yesterday, Kamala Harris laid out her three-pillar “opportunity economy”. That plan seems like where the country should be heading and keeping a lid on disallowing big businesses like Elon’s companies to abuse through conflicts of interest and his comments that are unacceptable and should have consequences. Early voting is happening in some states, and hopefully, by election day, the Harris/Walz ticket will win. Go Democrats!
Henry Hunt : well said.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?
I pray this happens. We can't take anymore of trump and these corporate asses.
Isn't it about time for James Bond to get involved?
For all the action being taken , we might as well have a movie hero working for US.
It’s crazy to me how the outrageous Bond movie “Moonraker”, where the bajillionaire villain Hugo Drax steals a space shuttle, has foretold current events. The villain wants to commit global genocide so that he can repopulate Earth in his own image. Ummm, can anyone see who Hugo Drax could represent in today’s reality?
Elon Musk is an oligarch billionaire that should be charge for this crime
Menace to society?
menace to security.
Musk is turning into a super-villain day by day. Has he built himself an under-volcano lair yet?
Can someone please notify James Bond or the Avengers?
Throw in the Mission Impossible team too, we need the big guns for this task.
Never liked James Bond. What a misogynist. But Idris Elba would have been a great JB.
Like closing the barn door after the cows got out :(
Far too much power has been given to Musk and not just by Republicans. How does anyone think there will be any backtracking at this stage?
Great column! Sure makes you wonder what's in the kool-aid our government officials are drinking!! "The swamp" must be full of it! Definitely time to dethrone Muskrot and send him back to So. Africa. I don't know Musk's story -- how did he get so heavily entrenched in the U.S. in the first place??
We seem to respect $$$$$ over everything else even if it’s made and used corruptly.
Robert Reich: It is apparent that the information you have shared shows that you are right. Elon Musk has no business doing business with the United States government, especially in areas that make our National Security vulnerable to his obvious extreme right wing bias. He is working for and with our enemies.
Sadly, President Biden doesn't have the courage to seize his assets & nationalize Starlink. He couldn't even remove a dangerous mafia linked postmaster general who destroyed the venerable Post Office.
Douglas ; President Biden believes in and follows the rule of law. Dejoy 's position can only be terminated by a board. I'm no lawyer, and think if the election is threatened, a president should be able to intervene. It's not always about courage, We are a Nation of laws.
As that pretty well covers corporate TV and print media bias so now we get to the meat of the matter: Corporate Social Media starting with the Richest guy on the planet – Elon Musk. From a 10-2-23 article titled What was Elon Musk's strategy for buying Twitter? by NBC New's Ben Collins: On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright. Turns out those anonymous text messages were sent by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. The article on Beattie’s site (revolver.news) begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. “Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016,” the anonymous author wrote. “If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.” The author said that “Step 1” after a Musk takeover would be: “Blame the platform for its users.” He or she predicted that “Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’ occurring on its platform.” After Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. “In the nearly 18 months since (he bought Twitter), many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination,” which the fascist went on to blame for the 25 billion buck loss of 60% of the X Twitter ad revenue.
Of course Musk also has his Facebook fan page, whose “free speech” algorithm has been updated to at last barring me from responding to or posting any comment. On July 16 the Jim Hightower team's daily post was titled We've been censored by Facebook! And you probably have been, too. They said in the last week or so they'd seen a lot of social media posts about Project 2025 and when they tried to post their article about it on Facebook it was immediately removed as going against their Community Standards on spam. (Ironically one of the author's of the piece barred me “for 100 years” from posting anything on Hightower's site after posting my months old paper that ends with “the new speaker of the House who openly wants to establish a 'moral' Christian Nationalism run by the next Republican president, who will implement a fascist plan called Project 2025” on multiple comments to their post, violating Their policy on 'spam'!) “I started asking colleagues who work in progressive communications and technology if they’d heard about things like this happening. We’ve now found out that this has been a pattern happening to other organizations publicizing the harm that Project 2025 (“P25”) could do to the country.”
So now that we have fully summarized Anti-Trump News Suppression In Corporate Media, the first question is how in the hell can Progressive Media Counter Mega Billionaire Support Of Trump? Easy and Only Answer – make sure everybody is presented with this Comparison Between The Candidates: Since the huge event of Joe Biden bowing out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States on Sunday the 21st of July, there is only one question before us: Would you rather have a Fascist Dementia Addled Supreme Narcissistic Moron whose Father Also Had Dementia running this country or the Daughter of Two University Professors?