6/ this isn't a question most military contractors have any interest in testing. US policy, for better or worse, provides plenty of markets where they can sell their weapons. But already in the early Biden years Musk was starting to run what amounted to his own ...
7/ foreign policy. This came out early in the Ukraine War when it emerged that Musk was running his own arrangements with Vladimir Putin which looked very much like it was running counter to US foreign policy which at the time was Biden's to make. It also goes without saying ...
8/ that no other federal contractor and no one with a highly level clearance could be having unreported discussions and bargains with an adversary foreign state. Here's where we get back to the question of over-mighty subjects. Musk has vast wealth and control over ...
9/ core national security technologies which give him the ability, along with his wealth, to rival the power of the US on the foreign policy stage. Here's where the acquisition of Twitter becomes a much bigger deal and a much kind of deal than many I think realize. Musk has this overmighty ...
Cc @whstancil.bsky.social
10/ power but the US govt *in extremis* has laws and powers to curtail that power. But when Musk took personal control of one of the country's most powerful and pervasive communications mediums AND began using his limitless money in the political real he made himself essentially too ...
This all should never have been allowed and all pols are to blame!
I do not blame AOC.
The point is this should have been screamed from the rooftops. Of course there are outliers.
Ok, so bloviating that all pols are to blame… but not really… but we should yell from the rooftops… reactionary bullshit. None of that does shit.
I forgot that the real solution is condescending internet comments. Truly, history’s greatest agents of change. Hard to take you seriously. Go put your fight in the correct direction. I have went face to face with my reps along with calls. Go do the same! BTW…Bloviating is your “description.”
You assume too much about me. It undignified.
What exactly would that have done? Jack all. Jack all is what it would have done.
I see congressman very uncomfortable all over the news right now. Talking can do a lot.
Refresh my memory—has any non-governmental entity ever made legal use of guillotines? (Sorry—couldn’t help the Dark humor…)
We don't do laws anymore so guillotines it is.
More Luigi moments.
I predict we could see more of those
Many states outsource incarceration. Why not executions as well?
11/ big to touch. You can see it in his vast grip on US politics and now also in the UK and now Germany. Whether he's able to shift the result of the German general election we'll see. But he's made it quite clear that there are vast costs to any nation-state which challenges him.
12/ Can he turn the course of an election? I'm skeptical. But no national government wants to find out. And pretty clearly any US national government really wants to find out. This is why the combination of Twitter, plus the vast wealth, plus the critical national security technologies created...
13/ something genuinely new under the sun.
But Musk is very vulnerable. His wealth would evaporate if: 1) Trump indicted him (and threw him in jail) for any of the illegal stuff he has been doing. Tesla stock would tank and the board would probably have to remove him as CEO. 2) Trump nationalized SpaceX.
Twitter is probably not a profitable business now, and it would get worse if Musk's aura was punctured. Any future President could do this.
Biden couldn't jail Trump for attempting a violent coup on national TV. I'm skeptical that a future Democratic President will be able to do jack shit about Musk, and that's not even considering what Musk might do outside of courts/Congress to counter any adverse action.
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Make treason an Actual crime again he and Trump have numerous instances of acting against US soveign interests and citizenry.
Courts: Gee, look at that. The wording is too vague. 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷🤷♂️🤷♀️🤷
@skyview.social
The really strange this is that he’s unbeatable under the existing rules of the game—but he’s rapidly changing those! His power would be irrelevant in Putin’s Russia, for example. Or in a war-torn country, or in the middle of an active revolution.
If any conspiracy theories ever had any grain of truth, somewhere someone is working some problems for Elon. Guy with 8 ex wives, pharmacological interests, and general recklessness has a lot of surface area for problems.
Obama gave Musk a slice of NASA Creating a state within a state Now musk has our 💵 printing machine
Overreacting. Let’s give the guy a chance. He is like… really smart. And he is, really, hardcore and stuff.
Letting him acquire that uncontested space through SpaceX and Starlink was truly governmental malpractice. It was insane that potentiality wasn't forseen.
I've always been curious about who specifically in the US government made these decisions to tolerate or encourage Musk in the past 10 years.
It would've helped if tech journalists had not acted like paid PR for the man for the last 10yrs+, like Kara Swisher. She only found her "journalistic integrity" & turned on Musk (for more personal monetary gain) when he called her an asshole.
Putin. (I.e. Kompromat.)
Who didn't fire DeJoy,Comey,Dr.Randy Feelgood and Garland??? Dems have a lot of this blame to admit to.
Who gave Musk contracts and access to begin with? He was a fraud who didn't deliver for a long time previous!
Privatization is the original sin here. Though I think that just shouting "neoliberalism" as the explanation for everything is a sign of a kind of brain rot, neoliberalism really does explain why our government helped create Elon Musk.
Same. I can’t remember the last time I went a full day without wondering this. At risk of sounding conspiratorial-which I’m not prone to-it almost feels inside jobby-like organizing for this was seeded long ago. Bc it’s impossible no one saw where this was going, why was it enabled?
*it is insane...
It was orchestrated. He had a person on the inside who was appointed by Trump in his first term and approved the contracts.
it was but often any pushback is silenced by higher level influence. Look at how the State department was treated under Blinken all last year.
Modern day British East India Company on a global scale…
If he were Russian, he’d be dead by morning if he did not play ball. Starlink satellites are tiny which is why there are so many of them.
@skyview.social unroll
Indeed. But for now he still needs Trump/power of the state. Perhaps some of the pension funds that hold Tesla stock might consider current events. CA state teachers pension fund is on the 3rd or 4th page & others follow, albeit with smaller holdings www.nasdaq.com/market-activ...
I feel as though this was called out long ago in the privatization debates during Clinton and W. The people against privatization were chastised for thinking the US government could be matched by one corporation. And here we are
No argument from me here, but someone/some group gave him those contracts and that power. And they can just as well remove them, but they won't and are willing to sacrifice the country and the people in it. For what? They need to understand it is them *he* should fear, not the other way around.
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Almost like the banks being too big to fail? Except of course the banks were gravely wounded and needed help. Leon's not at that stage, though Tesla is tanking.
Well one thing in everyone’s control is to leave Twitter. There is no way any more to justify or rationalize your decision to be on Twitter. Anyone out there is enabling this Nazi psychopath - there’s no other side to this any more.
@skyview.social unroll
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Just wondering if his hacker friends have anything to do with bullet ballots, D-caps, in key swing state precincts....Nov 2024
And that’s what I came here to say after reading through all of this is it not absolutely possible that he fucked with this election? I’m not asking that because I think we can turn it around. I’m asking this because I’ve always believed he has those capabilities.
Why skeptical? He talks to Putin all the time... We know Putin has been involved. I don't think there's anything on that note to be sceptable about. Let's get real... If millions of people don't want your ass around, you'll own sweet fuck all if they decide you will. Unless jetting away in time.
Trump II was just a Trojan horse for the Ketamine King to install himself
Elon Musk’s wealth is very dependent on an overvalued Tesla. It would be helpful to democracies if Tesla’s valuation declines. He is doing his best to make the brand toxic.
Great thread. Both are — the over mighty and this. We are in uncharted waters.
Elon purchased the presidency for Felon and uses his wealth and Felon's political power to bend US and Europe to his will. Once he starts buying our judges (think Thomas and Cannon) all bets are off
I get what youre saying but the only real reason elon musk has the power he apparently has is that the congress has tolerated him and continues to do so. Were that to change, musks power would be shown for the facile thing it really is. The question is, will that happen? And it's scary to wonder.
It’s amazing to me how this guy started out as a champion of our possible Green future and has become a caricature of a Bond villain.
It is the nature of capitalist industry to practice anti-environmentalism; the cost of cleanup is always relegated to tomorrow's problem solvers. It is up to us to determine true value of production and assign its hidden costs appropriately.
A Temu Bond villian at that.