Elon Musk

[Smoove_B]

The Apartheid Bros and their larger family of Tech Bros have the country sewn up and under control.

How much are the crpyto-bros all going to make when the U.S. economy implodes?

[LawBeefaroni]

The Apartheid Bros and their larger family of Tech Bros have the country sewn up and under control.

How much are the crpyto-bros all going to make when the U.S. economy implodes?

Crypto-bros =/= Tech Bros. The Tech Bros will have already made their money. They all have multiple compounds in multiple countries. They have multiple exit strategies. Who cares if they lose $5,000,000,000 when they've already extracted $50,000,000,000.

Crypto-bros, they're going to get fucked. Unless their crypto is BTC or ETH.

[LordMortis]

The Tech Bros will have already made their money. They all have multiple compounds in multiple countries. They have multiple exit strategies. Who cares if they lose $5,000,000,000 when they've already extracted $50,000,000,000.

This. I always knew it was bad and then when I saw how they single handedly and intentionally crashed the regional banks making billions on the way down and then again on the reorgs they forced. And then seeing Shady as a ship's figure head... That was pretty much it. That was when I could see Starlink was just a small piece.

[Max Peck]

Leon understands that it's all about life balance. Even when working hard to run multiple companies (as well as America, democracy and the world) into the ground and destroying his relationships with his kids, he also takes the time to chill out and be the best Diablo 4 player in the world.

Elon Musk might officially be the best Diablo 4 player in the world

Elon Musk is many things. The world's most annoying tweeter. A wannabe Martian. The dude partially responsible for Donald Trump's impending return to power. And now, if his run is officially accepted, the best Diablo 4 player in the world.

Musk's love of Diablo is well documented. He's obsessed. While he enjoys boasting about how hard he works, he always finds time to delve into Blizzard's ARPG, and earlier this month chatted to his weird pal Joe Rogan about his demon-slaying talents. At the time, he was ranked #19 on the Helltides leaderboard for his clear time in the Pit—the dungeon that's become the measurement of player skill.

Since then Musk has dipped to #44. No doubt he's been quite busy threatening America with his plans for the Department of Government Efficiency. Or at least you'd think so. But it looks like he's still pretty invested in the Diablo leaderboard, judging by his adventures in Sanctuary yesterday, as spotted by Dexerto.

On Twitter, Musk has shown off a run where he cleared the max tier (150) Pit in under two minutes. The video is accompanied by some proper bonkers nonsense: "So many life lessons to be learned from speedrunning video games on max difficulty. Teaches you to see the matrix, rather than simply exist in the matrix. Diablo Tier 150 finished in under 2 mins."

[Holman]

With German elections coming up, last night Musk tweeted "Only the AfD can save Germany."

AfD is the far-right neo-Nazi party.

[LordMortis]

I saw far right, and christian nationalist but didn't see anything about neo nazi. What I did see is that early adopters left the party because they became a pro-russian movement, just like a certain set of US oligarchical political influencers who have corrupted US elections.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfD_pro-Russia_movement

This made me chuckle, though it shouldn't have

Vadar

AfD Politician from the federal level founded the association “Association for the Prevention of Discrimination and Exclusion of Russian-Germans and Russian-speaking Fellow Citizens in Germany” (Vadar e.V.) in June 2022.[19] The association attests that Germany has an “anti-Russian mood” and wants to offer legal help to “Russian-Germans and Russian-speaking fellow citizens” who would be discriminated against or excluded by the war of aggression.[20]

According to a report in the Sächsische Zeitung, Vadar shares a bank account with an institution that is majority Russian-owned. According to German public broadcaster ARD, German security authorities are investigating the association connections to Russian authorities.[20]

I suppose Vadar reports to Emporer Putinitine.

[LawBeefaroni]

Have we discussed the fact that he is continually violating terms of his security clearance with zero repercussions?

NYT (paywalled)



Independent:

Executives working for Elon Musk have been advised not to seek a higher security clearance for him due to concerns about his drug use and contact with foreign nationals, according to reports.

Lawyers at Musk's rocket launch company SpaceX had warned senior executives that applying to upgrade his access would force him to answer awkward questions and even put his existing clearance at risk, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Any doubt that he gets full access come Jan 20?

[El Guapo]

This kind of thing may be why Musk spiked the budget deal.

[Victoria Raverna]

[disarm]

Unfortunately, most of the people who will watch Bernie's statement are already well aware of the problem. He's 100% correct, but the audience who needs to hear him aren't the ones listening.

[Holman]

I saw far right, and christian nationalist but didn't see anything about neo nazi.

AfD is known for calling for a "reconsideration" of the Nazi era, essentially trying to normalize Hitler's regime and minimize the Holocaust.

They might not be skinheads, but rehabilitating the SS is about as Nazi as you can get. Oh, and they're all-in on pseudo-science racism.

So, yeah.

[LawBeefaroni]

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-12-2 ... overnment/

For weeks now, House Republicans have been negotiating a traditional American funding bill. Since the government is broken and regular-order budgeting doesn’t happen anymore, Congress is routinely passing “continuing resolutions” (CRs) funding the government for a few months at a time, always at the last minute.

The bill had the usual give-and-take. Members of Congress from areas hard-hit by hurricanes wanted disaster relief. Republicans wanted aid for farmers. Democrats were fine with all that but wanted some things in return, since they would have to provide the votes necessary for passage. And a number of bipartisan agreements on things like health policy and junk fees were added, because this was the last bill out of Dodge in this Congress. This is all very normal.

The process has been ongoing for weeks and was almost complete, until Elon Musk stepped in. Out of nowhere on Wednesday, he started posting frantically on Twitter, demanding the CR be stopped and the government shut down until January 20, and threatening to primary anyone who voted for it. For the moment at least, that’s exactly what happened. Both President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance turned against the bill. The latest is that a new bill was offered stripping practically everything out, but because it includes a temporary suspension of the debt limit, it lost 38 Republican votes in the House and failed. There is no path forward, and the government shuts down tonight at midnight without action.

In short, the world’s richest man is running Republican Party strategy, through posts on his own social media network. Voters thought they elected Donald Trump, but Elon Musk is calling the shots.

It’s hard to say with any certainty what Musk’s motivation is here. One factor might be that his companies are under multiple federal investigations from the NLRB, EPA, FTC, and SEC, among others, and shutting down the government until Trump takes office would put a stop to that, probably permanently.

Progressive take but not far off the mark.

[LawBeefaroni]

Oh, also:

https://newrepublic.com/post/189603/elo ... n-shutdown

Elon Musk really hopes you don’t remember when he was cheering on a government shutdown … less than 48 hours ago.

Shortly after a new “clean” spending bill failed to pass the House Thursday night, Musk took to X to lament how this was all the Democrats’ fault.

“A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor,” Musk wrote. “Therefore the responsibility for the shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of @RepJeffries.”

“Shame on @RepJeffries for rejecting a fair & simple spending bill that is desperately needed by states suffering from hurricane damage,” he wrote in another post.

Musk conveniently did not mention that 38 Republicans also voted against the bill.

[Max Peck]

Leon isn't big on math, I guess. If the GOP has a majority in the House, how could it be the fault of the Democrats that the bill failed to pass?

[Punisher]

Leon isn't big on math, I guess. If the GOP has a majority in the House, how could it be the fault of the Democrats that the bill failed to pass?

You are trying to bring facts into a feelings issue. You're bound to lose.

[GreenGoo]

Leon isn't big on math, I guess. If the GOP has a majority in the House, how could it be the fault of the Democrats that the bill failed to pass?

Irrelevant. It's just about throwing misinformation out there into the social media sphere.

It took me a long time to realize that facts are less useful than propaganda.

[waitingtoconnect]

Leon isn't big on math, I guess. If the GOP has a majority in the House, how could it be the fault of the Democrats that the bill failed to pass?

Biden is president. So therefore it’s “Bidens fault”.

Even though of course that’s ridiculous. But people don’t understand civics anymore. The president is “king”.

What’s truly horrific though is now Musk is saying he will back “moderate” democrats in primaries. That could mean we effectively get two Maga parties.

[Holman]

The Apartheid Bros and their larger family of Tech Bros have the country sewn up and under control.

How much are the crpyto-bros all going to make when the U.S. economy implodes?

It's weird that tech/crypto bros are so eager to blow up the one system in world history that allowed nerds to reach the top.

[LordMortis]

The Apartheid Bros and their larger family of Tech Bros have the country sewn up and under control.

How much are the crpyto-bros all going to make when the U.S. economy implodes?

It's weird that tech/crypto bros are so eager to blow up the one system in world history that allowed nerds to reach the top.

Only now that they are at the top, there's an entitlement and desire to plough others under, a la The Republic unto its natural fascist extension. Not weird at all for people who managed to find unfathomable success by exploiting and destroying others in a "free market."

[Isgrimnur]

Pull the ladder up behind you.

[Holman]

It's like the ultra-wealthy who believe their armed guards will protect them as the empire collapses.

Sure, the praetorians will keep the rabble out of the palace for a while. But at a certain point they'll notice that they outgun the VIP whose wealth they're paid to keep safe.

[GreenGoo]

It's like the ultra-wealthy who believe their armed guards will protect them as the empire collapses.

Sure, the praetorians will keep the rabble out of the palace for a while. But at a certain point they'll notice that they outgun the VIP whose wealth they're paid to keep safe.

And the grain will stop arriving. For some mysterious reason.

It's like watching a guy sit on a tree branch sawing away at it,while berating the tree for not being as awesome as he is, all the while he's sitting on the wrong end of the branch.

[Isgrimnur]

[Alefroth]

Yet again it only becomes an issue when they are affected.

[Holman]

What's perfect is that both sides remain committed to their own brand of evil.

Musk spoke up in favor of legal immigration because he believes Americans are too stupid and want too much money compared to engineers from Asia (who can also be coerced to work extreme hours due to their immigration status vulnerability).

MAGA has now turned on him for his insufficient commitment to white nationalism.

[Max Peck]

Musk spoke up in favor of legal immigration because he believes Americans are too stupid and want too much money compared to engineers from Asia (who can also be coerced to work extreme hours due to their immigration status vulnerability).

Vivek Ramaswamy went all-in on "we need H1-B workers because Americans aren't up to the job" to back up his Dogelord:

https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/18 ... 9945234507

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.

This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it.

Arguing that immigrants rule, Americans drool is a bold case to make to MAGA, but let's see how it works out for him. At least his blue checkmark is safe.

[LawBeefaroni]

Pivoting from the rhetoric that wins elections to the policy that benefits him personally. Wouldn't expect anything less from Musk.

[Zarathud]

Back to the usual Republican playbook — blame television rather than business hiring practices or MAGA anti-education rhetoric.

If TV is bad, Elon Musk’s X.com is a nuclear wasteland. If promoting a “jock” stereotype harms society, why did America vote for social influencer Trump? Let MAGA eat their faces.

[El Guapo]

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

Feels like Vivek should be telling this stuff to a therapist not to Twitter.

[Holman]

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

Feels like Vivek should be telling this stuff to a therapist not to Twitter.

The therapist should start with the conflation of television with actual lived human experience.

I can't believe that we're going to have to put up with these clownlords for the foreseeable future.

[Daehawk]

Aw future behind the scenes president elon musk. We're doomed with either of them.

[Zarathud]

No, Elon is doomed. It’s like getting caught in a cage with a scorpion. He’s going to get stung, even if he tries to fight back. But it will be entertaining.

[Grifman]

The MAGA infighting over H1B’s and immigration is delicious:



Billionaires vs Rednecks, who’d going to win?

[Grifman]

[Grifman]

Forgive him, he’s a little slow:

[Max Peck]

I guess circular firing squads aren't entirely the prerogative of the progressives after all.

[Zaxxon]

Something about leopards and faces…

[Punisher]

Something about leopards and faces…

Maybe this election may actually turn out to be the best.
They all can't get what they want and maybe the entire thing will implode beyond repair.

[Daehawk]

So basically that Sidharth douche didn't care how shitty the GOP acted are until it affected him.

[Kraken]

Something about leopards and faces…

Maybe this election may actually turn out to be the best.
They all can't get what they want and maybe the entire thing will implode beyond repair.

Turns out billionaires and deplorables don't have much in common. Who could've imagined?