Musk and his broligarch buddies have been treating the US as the subject of a hostile takeover. Strip the country of its assets. Take the money and run.
Linda...good point...AND...it’s the part nobody can put on an FEC form.
Musk doesn’t have to buy ads on X. He OWNS the ad server. Every pinned post...every algorithmic nudge...every boosted reply is an in-kind contribution with no receipt.
You’re also right that a campaign paying for that reach...for months...would be looking at NINE figures...not eight. The $366 million is JUST the portion he couldn’t HIDE.
Many of DOGE's targets were organizations within the US government that would have impact on Musk's businesses. Gut them, or push for getting partisans in leadership positions there, and he no longer has to worry about the government having a negative impact on his businesses.
My biggest concern with DOGE was the fact that he and his merry band of geeks had full access to a LOT of databases of information about all of us. Many of the groups he went after pushed back on giving his crew access, but not all succeeded. Think about it -- every taxpayer in this country has to trust that the IRS will keep their personal financial information protected, and they're far from the only governmental office that has our personal information. We have no idea what level of data breach DOGE instigated, and may never know for sure.
You've pegged the part that outlasts DOGE itself. FIRING people is reversible. Regulators can be REBUILT.
BUT...data, once copied...is copied FOREVER.
NOBODY has ever given a straight accounting of what his crew pulled from Treasury...SSA...and the IRS...where it went...OR...who still has it. We just don't know. That's not acceptable.
The man who owns X...and an AI company...got a look inside the MOST sensitive databases in the country...and we’re supposed to take it on faith...that nothing walked out the door. Yeah. Not a chance in hell we can do that.
Trust is the ONE thing Faith... he NEVER had to pay for...and it may turn out to be the most VALUABLE thing he took!
To me, the scariest thing about Elon Musk is his obvious drug addiction. Every time he is on camera, you can catch him rolling his glassy eyes around, staring off into space, grinning inappropriately. He is a walking time bomb as far as I’m concerned, he could blow up at any moment. Not exactly the stable genius you’d want when your astronauts depend on his products. He will never be satisfied until he possesses all of the money on earth, and earth itself. Then he’ll go after the moon, Mars, etc. He has insatiable greed, it’s never enough for him. What a black 🖤heart he must have!
Musk and his broligarch buddies have been treating the US as the subject of a hostile takeover. Strip the country of its assets. Take the money and run.
Citizens be damned.
Ellen Zucker...I'll add nothing to what you wrote. The brevity is its POWER. I'll leave it alone...and let others read YOUR words!
-Jack
Treating the US like it is a company to be bought and sold off in pieces.
Precisely, J.V.
-Jack
Exactly my point.
Thank you.
Yes and, don't forget the value of all the spend on Twitter that he would also be contributing probably I'm sure that runs into eight figures itself.
Actually, what would you charge a company that wanted to desert all the algorithms for months. Probably more than $100 million right there.
Linda...good point...AND...it’s the part nobody can put on an FEC form.
Musk doesn’t have to buy ads on X. He OWNS the ad server. Every pinned post...every algorithmic nudge...every boosted reply is an in-kind contribution with no receipt.
You’re also right that a campaign paying for that reach...for months...would be looking at NINE figures...not eight. The $366 million is JUST the portion he couldn’t HIDE.
-Jack
These rich individuals keep saying democracy isn’t working except it seems to be working quite well for them and the billions they have.
J.V....correct.
And they fail to mention all that they've been doing to sabotage a working democracy and the years-long attacks they've waged against it.
-Jack
Many of DOGE's targets were organizations within the US government that would have impact on Musk's businesses. Gut them, or push for getting partisans in leadership positions there, and he no longer has to worry about the government having a negative impact on his businesses.
My biggest concern with DOGE was the fact that he and his merry band of geeks had full access to a LOT of databases of information about all of us. Many of the groups he went after pushed back on giving his crew access, but not all succeeded. Think about it -- every taxpayer in this country has to trust that the IRS will keep their personal financial information protected, and they're far from the only governmental office that has our personal information. We have no idea what level of data breach DOGE instigated, and may never know for sure.
Faith...absolutely.
You've pegged the part that outlasts DOGE itself. FIRING people is reversible. Regulators can be REBUILT.
BUT...data, once copied...is copied FOREVER.
NOBODY has ever given a straight accounting of what his crew pulled from Treasury...SSA...and the IRS...where it went...OR...who still has it. We just don't know. That's not acceptable.
The man who owns X...and an AI company...got a look inside the MOST sensitive databases in the country...and we’re supposed to take it on faith...that nothing walked out the door. Yeah. Not a chance in hell we can do that.
Trust is the ONE thing Faith... he NEVER had to pay for...and it may turn out to be the most VALUABLE thing he took!
-Jack
To me, the scariest thing about Elon Musk is his obvious drug addiction. Every time he is on camera, you can catch him rolling his glassy eyes around, staring off into space, grinning inappropriately. He is a walking time bomb as far as I’m concerned, he could blow up at any moment. Not exactly the stable genius you’d want when your astronauts depend on his products. He will never be satisfied until he possesses all of the money on earth, and earth itself. Then he’ll go after the moon, Mars, etc. He has insatiable greed, it’s never enough for him. What a black 🖤heart he must have!