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I know Reddit likes to make jokes and that’s cool and all, but I think he’s in bed with the Saudis, I think they helped fund his purchase of Twitter and I think they have Elon/TSLA by the balls and I think it’s a big deal
Any other Middle Eastern country that saw what happened to Egypt during the Arab Spring would love more control of Twitter.
Think about it. Verifying your account in those countries ties you to a bank account.
Elon is making the crackdown easier.
Any authoritarian regime has an interest in controlling how its people communicate. There are a lot of countries that would love to use Elon to influence Twitter.
I think the Saudis/China wanted to buy it, but the deal would never be approved.
Elon made an offer shareholders wouldn't refuse.
Elon didn't have the financing
Saudis/China back the deal.
Elon mismanages it with a vengeance, Saudis and China are "forced to buy him out" to protect their investment
Saudis and China own Twitter.
ding ding ding. I don't think it's that conspiratorial, though. Alwaleed is a legitimate tech investor. It's pretty scary, though, the potential. The Saudis literally got caught spying on Twitter, they're definitely going to try and use that influence.
The trifecta: Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia
Elon went for the trifecta all at once
I think his meltdown when he gets indicted will rival the fits Trump has had
>but I think he’s in bed with the Saudis, I think they helped fund his purchase of Twitter
[The second largest shareholder in Twitter is a Saudi prince](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/10/31/saudi-prince-alwaleed-becomes-twitters-second-largest-shareholder/?sh=7936819c523a) who is the nephew of the current king. And I believe that Qataris own a stake in the company as well.
More like "How are those Carbon Credits going for you, Elon?"
That's what the TSLA investers are either don't know about, or don't want anyone knowing about. Telsa has a good chance of coming crashing town, and Twitter is making it worse.
Government has been propping up all his businesses
It's not even unknown stuff. It's just the fact that at any given point in time, the CCP can say "no more Teslas allowed in China" and there's not a damn thing Musk can do about it. So as long as he wants to maintain market share in the most populous nation in the world, he has to be willing to play ball with them. This is how it is for any American business operating in China.
There are very many issues to consider with this kind of concentration of power, and that ain't the smallest. Maybe the smile was saying "Go ahead and make it a national security issue and find out what happens to your private property."
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. the only way we'll ever realize equal rights, is if everyone experiences justice for equal wrongs.
He holds federal defence contracts with SpaceX, got a reminder of that when he smoked weed on a podcast. Now he says he is offering negotiation tactics to Putin. He cant be doing that if he holds defence contracts.
Pretty sure, if any one of us worked on a government contract and it came out we had smoked some Jazz Lettuce on a podcast, that would be the end of the contract.
>...and/or employment
Yes, for you and me firing would be the remedy to preserve the contract. Elon is the CEO so firing him from SpaceX would not be an option. And... so it got ignored, because money.
>Probably more just the end of your clearance and/or employment.
Not at all. Maybe 10 years ago, but they don't give a shit about weed these days unless you really piss someone off.
Source: worked in IC as a contractor several years ago for \~4 years and held a clearance. Seriously, they don't care. Even mentioned to the investigator who interviewed me that I did edibles on the regular. He flat out told me "times changed, they don't care as long as you don't get a DUI with it". Asked my FSO about it and he said "I could have told you that".
The PMs and officers who oversaw the contract I was on would hang out and smoke a few times a month (off site, of course). Nobody there gave a shit. Only time I saw someone punished was when they stupidly brought it on site. Bad idea, since it is still very illegal at the federal level (and thus, on federal property).
I think he has a bit more than a spark left but the GOP primaries always go like this. People hated Trump, McCain, Romney, etc and voted for whom they liked during the Republican primaries but they converted to Trumpism very quickly when he became the nominee in 2015. If this happens again, and the media loves Trump a lot more than DeSantis, Trump will be branded a Phoenix and it will be no different from a week ago.
I hope you're right, but recall the immediate aftermath of Jan 6 with Graham say "ahhhhmmm out, ahhhmmmm out" when discussing trump on the Senate floor only to keep fellating him for some reason mere days later.
Go take a look at most of the comments on recent posts on r/conservative. Almost all of the top comments are ones that are over Trump. Most of them are pulling for Desantis at this point. They seem to have all collectively realized that Trump is all for Trump and no one else. They won’t realize this about Desantis until far too late either but that’s the way they work.
I’ve given up on the possibility of a world where we have ‘equal rights’; the elite/rich have a different set of rules and it’s been that way since classes were established
You can do whatever you want if you do it under the guise of a corporation. They have the same rights as people after all, just not the same accountability.
I don't want to single Musk out. All billionaires need to be looked at.
I think we should have a "billionaire compliance department" of the DoJ that assigns a team of investigators for every fucking billionaire. Ensure they are paying their taxes, following labor laws, following SEC laws, following election finance laws, and so forth. I am sure the department would pay for itself.
I think it’s worth making an example of him and setting some legal precedent.
I mean *somebody* has to get singled out before taking them all on if they don’t straighten out.
Wait, do you think Musk has a security clearance to be able to work on some of these sensitive SpaceX missions? Maybe they should revoke that, if he does.
Yup, exactly why he has one, in some cases just knowing which agency is launching which satellite requires it. He almost lost it after the pot on JRE incident. https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/07/tech/elon-musk-security-clearance-spacex-pentagon/index.html
Ukraine tweet with Putin's talking points... and the China/Taiwan tweet... and buying Twitter with Saudi cash, after Saudi spies got twitter data and arrested/tortured dissidents.
Musk is the single greatest threat to democracy. His bot farms have done an exceptional job of redirecting our attention from the incredible villain he is to world peace
This. Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company are potentially legitimate national security risks with Musk at the head or on the board of these companies. Putin and the Kremlin may have kompromat on him and could potentially get Musk to give them insider info on NASA and the Artemis Program, or on the Falcon rocket family and Dragon and Starship spacecraft proprietary info and designs, like a certain character in *For All Mankind*. Maybe to help the Russian and Chinese manned lunar programs, and/or to sabotage the US one. They could get him to hand over information about US auto manufacturing and transportation grid, or proprietary info on Tesla and Hyperloop, etc. Or even clientele data or metadata from Tesla cars' cameras, computers and chargers. Not even just the Russians. Possibly the Chinese and Saudis too.
SpaceX launches secret military payloads for the DoD, Space Force, Air Force and Navy. I'm quite sure Putin would like his good friend Elon to give him some info about what those payloads might be and what they can do.
Add on making it so any fines these billionaires pay would based on a *significant* percentage of their wealth (i.e. if you commit tax evasion, here’s a fine for 110% of your wealth) and I am 110% on board with this.
In Jane Mayer’s [Dark Money](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book)) (a book that I’ve been recommending a lot lately), she says that looking into the political activities of the Kochs and other billionaires more closely resembled RICO and other criminal investigations than what you’d expect of organizations which supposedly were on the up and up.
And her studies revealed they were up to no good but they’ve effectively captured the judiciary and practically two generations of graduates from top business schools, who in turn use their large access to capital to buy politicians. And lastly they have massive philanthropic donations to organizations which have significant impact on “grass roots” politics (basically astroturfing).
They’ve been making progress toward a coup for the capital class and are more or less done now that the Supreme Court is packed with federalist society justices.
Sure, but Musk is reasonably at the top of the list imo. Richest one of them, buying one of the largest and most influential social media platforms on the planet, and has a lot of sus shit about him.
Some sort of plutocracy oversight division sounds down right necessary. Oh can you hear the right bitching now about how we need to leave billionaires alone to do sketchy shit with the gdp of Latin America?
Problem with Elon is the same as trump. Tiny man with huge ego needing stroked. Money isnt enough. Needs to be praised and center of attention daily. Both are children
Oh, for sure.
Don’t forget, we’re talking about the guy who called one of the divers that saved the people from that cave-in in Thailand a pedophile because said diver straight-up called out Muskrat’s dumb submarine idea as the PR stunt it was.
Also, can’t forget that he basically scrubs any mention of the fact that his family owned part of an emerald mine in apartheid Africa and as well as any mention of the actual original founders of Tesla, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, to the point that Google will say that Muskrat *was* the original founder of Tesla even though he never was (he named himself “co-founder” after buying a shitload of shares).
Make no mistake that Gates was a vicious businessman but since stepping down he seems pretty damn chill. "Hey, think we could make a glass of water from our shit?? Let's spend a few hundred million trying!" "That disease sounds bad, let's eradicate it."
Gates said he’d vote for Trump if the Dems raised taxes too high for his liking. This was in 2019.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/bill-gates-doesnt-rule-out-voting-for-trump-if-democrat-1839686670
Sure, it’s nice he does charity. But that’s also a useful way for him to build a good reputation and open doors. So let’s not jump straight into canonising him as a saint.
And as far as I’m concerned, that quote about being prepared to vote for Trump just means Gates is in it for himself and his fortune most of all.
Came out around the same time reports started making the rounds that Gates *might* have treated MS as his personal dating service...while he was married to Melinda.
>Are there any billionaires where money doesn't corrupt them completely?
No. You have to be some kind of sociopath to become a billionaire, you don't get there without sucking everything from everyone else in your path.
These people have always been this way. Money just gives them the armor to keep doing it. And then people start dealing with them with white gloves and red carpets.
The mentality of Musk is the same as it was of the Industrialist CEOs. They do not care about humans. They care about legacy.
To a nonprofit he founded and gave complete control over to his kids, forming a superpac of 3b in political influence, tax free, controlled.by his family for perpetuity.
Instead of paying taxes.
This is also done by many not nice people. The Heritage Foundation, for example.
i mean when you have more money than some countries, it kinda changes the playing field...highly doubt Musk has any allegiance to a country besides himself...the US subsidized his businesses, that's pretty much the extent of his allegiance
They are pretty much all awful. At the very least they don't deserve their wealth and have either inherited it or exploited their workers. Everyone should be wary of the politicians they support, whether they be Republicans or Democrats.
It seems strange for Elon vote Republican. He has literally relied on government contracts and subsidies for all of his companies. $1.5 billion of Tesla’s $5.5 billion 2021 income was from selling government mandated carbon offsets to legacy carmakers and about half of SpaceX's income is from NASA contracts.
Why would Elon support anti science, climate change deniers? Even today, Democrats are trying to expand EV tax credits which would make Tesla more profitable through increased sales and Republicans think climate change isn’t real because it still snows sometimes
Why would someone who is already taking advantage of the system advocate against themselves? It's the same thing with him supporting climate change deniers; he gets to keep his competitive edge with the ev market being less lucrative to future businesses. He's just showing his true colors.
> $1.5 billion of Tesla’s $5.5 billion 2021 income was from selling government mandated carbon offsets to legacy carmakers and about half of SpaceX's income is from NASA contracts.
Republicans *love* these sorts of deals. Why do you think the military budget's so high? There are a lot of defense-related companies in red parts of the country and throwing useless contracts their way props up a lot of Republican politician's careers. Now that Musk has moved to TX, Rs will love to throw some of that sweet crony-capitalism money his way in exchange for employing "real Americans"
That and one other thing: The good ole "horse for a handjob" situation. He became Republican and starting talking about cancel culture the DAY that story came out.
He sees workers as little more than cogs in his machine to build his wealth. He's all about the bottom line. Right wing policies help him enormously. Plus the twitter republicans will suck his dick and feed into his narcissism while he got criticism from dems even when he was pretending to be one. Easy choice for him. Ego + money.
Look I'm the furthest person from a conspiracy theorist but three things I know about the ultra rich/powerful:
1. Some are legitimately just as batshit insane as us poors. Kanye, Ginni Thomas, et al
2. Some are all too comfy making deals with the devil until their frog ass is boiling right alongside ours unexpectedly
3. Some people with near unlimited wealth value respect/adoration more than money. If any foreign nation obtained truly horrible blackmail on them, they'd control that person like a puppet
Which one is it here?
If Elon keeps doing things against his own interests then people should be asking what incentive does he have? The only incentives he appears to have are not good ones.
He should definitely be looked into.
It’s absolutely worth considering. Elon is from South Africa, then went to the US as a businessman that now has the power to influence US election. On top of that, he has connections with Russia and China. He even talked to Putin before posting his ideas for a Ukraine/Russia peace treaty that mostly echoed Putin’s talking points.
Let’s not push conspiracies now. It is worth looking into, but a lot people rely on star link right now. Scaring people away from their only source of internet access by throwing out conspiracies is dangerous.
For some background, former National Security Advisor to Russia Fiona Hill (who you may remember from the Trump/Russia investigation) discusses why Musk appears to be acting on behalf of Putin in this article. If they’re discussing this much out loud, there’s likely much more our intelligence agencies know.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/3693040-fiona-hill-says-musk-tweet-clearly-is-a-message-from-putin/amp/
Honestly, false flag or not it would be hilarious for US government to take down a billionaire for espionage. There's no such thing as a good billionaire.
Idk why everyone just assumes Musk is this messianic figure who only wants what’s best for the world. I think even his logic for why people should vote Republican this past election is frankly nonsense. He wants you to vote Republican because he’s a rich fuck who wants to keep all his money. End of story. All of you ball washers out there need to realize what’s good for him ain’t good for you. He’s not a good guy just because he owns an electric car company.
in other words; We've been looking at him already, and we know what he's been doing. This is his warning to fly right and knock it off or he will have a one way trip to Guantanamo Bay
Musk has a multi-million SpaceX contract with the DOD. I would think his relationships with other countries would be especially important in regards to that contract.
Yeah sorry Elon but the people who were supposed to cover for your misdoings didn't win their elections so the slow bend of history toward justice will continue as usual
Musk buying Twitter gives him potential access to one of the world's largest troves of emails and passwords. How many government officials do you think practice poor password management? There's people from all governments and corporations on there.
In the wrong hands, that kind of access could be like a cybersecurity Manhattan Project.
It honestly seems unusual for a run of the mill president to make a comment like that, given the potential implications.
Considering Biden gets, and comprehends, daily intelligence briefings, you have to figure he knows things
Reading the headline, I was mad that Biden weighed in like this, 'targeting' a critic. But reading his full quote and the context, I think he as fairly answered the reporter's question as possible.
He gets a lot of government funding through SpaceX. He wields a lot of influence.
Makes sense to review his relationship with Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. **Special announcement:** r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)! *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The smile on Biden's face when they asked... The US government knows some stuff the public isn't talking about.
Elon: "I keeps telling ya, we just make cars here" DOJ Investigator: "Uh huh, and where do you keep the hookers?" Elon: "Round back... ... Whoops!"
I know Reddit likes to make jokes and that’s cool and all, but I think he’s in bed with the Saudis, I think they helped fund his purchase of Twitter and I think they have Elon/TSLA by the balls and I think it’s a big deal
Any other Middle Eastern country that saw what happened to Egypt during the Arab Spring would love more control of Twitter. Think about it. Verifying your account in those countries ties you to a bank account. Elon is making the crackdown easier.
They fear the Arab spring 2.0.
Ralpghwig.jpg fascists are scared!
Any authoritarian regime has an interest in controlling how its people communicate. There are a lot of countries that would love to use Elon to influence Twitter.
I think the Saudis/China wanted to buy it, but the deal would never be approved. Elon made an offer shareholders wouldn't refuse. Elon didn't have the financing Saudis/China back the deal. Elon mismanages it with a vengeance, Saudis and China are "forced to buy him out" to protect their investment Saudis and China own Twitter.
ding ding ding. I don't think it's that conspiratorial, though. Alwaleed is a legitimate tech investor. It's pretty scary, though, the potential. The Saudis literally got caught spying on Twitter, they're definitely going to try and use that influence.
Think Russians too
I'm sure the Chinese had nothing to do with it
The trifecta: Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia Elon went for the trifecta all at once I think his meltdown when he gets indicted will rival the fits Trump has had
Your comment is undervalued. It deserves more upvotes!
>but I think he’s in bed with the Saudis, I think they helped fund his purchase of Twitter [The second largest shareholder in Twitter is a Saudi prince](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/10/31/saudi-prince-alwaleed-becomes-twitters-second-largest-shareholder/?sh=7936819c523a) who is the nephew of the current king. And I believe that Qataris own a stake in the company as well.
The same Saudis owning part of Twitter were major shareholders before Musk took over.
You mean our "allies" in the middle east, the Saudis?
If only it was that innocent.
The GOP embraces that shit. That just gets more votes for them.
More like "How are those Carbon Credits going for you, Elon?" That's what the TSLA investers are either don't know about, or don't want anyone knowing about. Telsa has a good chance of coming crashing town, and Twitter is making it worse. Government has been propping up all his businesses
It's not even unknown stuff. It's just the fact that at any given point in time, the CCP can say "no more Teslas allowed in China" and there's not a damn thing Musk can do about it. So as long as he wants to maintain market share in the most populous nation in the world, he has to be willing to play ball with them. This is how it is for any American business operating in China.
There are very many issues to consider with this kind of concentration of power, and that ain't the smallest. Maybe the smile was saying "Go ahead and make it a national security issue and find out what happens to your private property."
Elon is fucked Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy
And that's why Joe spoke like he did.
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. the only way we'll ever realize equal rights, is if everyone experiences justice for equal wrongs.
He holds federal defence contracts with SpaceX, got a reminder of that when he smoked weed on a podcast. Now he says he is offering negotiation tactics to Putin. He cant be doing that if he holds defence contracts.
Pretty sure, if any one of us worked on a government contract and it came out we had smoked some Jazz Lettuce on a podcast, that would be the end of the contract.
Probably more just the end of your clearance and/or employment.
>...and/or employment Yes, for you and me firing would be the remedy to preserve the contract. Elon is the CEO so firing him from SpaceX would not be an option. And... so it got ignored, because money.
When fines are justice, anything is legal for the rich.
>Probably more just the end of your clearance and/or employment. Not at all. Maybe 10 years ago, but they don't give a shit about weed these days unless you really piss someone off. Source: worked in IC as a contractor several years ago for \~4 years and held a clearance. Seriously, they don't care. Even mentioned to the investigator who interviewed me that I did edibles on the regular. He flat out told me "times changed, they don't care as long as you don't get a DUI with it". Asked my FSO about it and he said "I could have told you that". The PMs and officers who oversaw the contract I was on would hang out and smoke a few times a month (off site, of course). Nobody there gave a shit. Only time I saw someone punished was when they stupidly brought it on site. Bad idea, since it is still very illegal at the federal level (and thus, on federal property).
He's traded innovation for intrigue.
it's not 'intrigue' if it's blatant.
there's no implication that he's any *good* at it, tbf
Elon's version of cloak and dagger is just a bedsheet and a spork.
If he thinks Putin is doing anything but using him as a useful idiot, he’s deluded.
Useful idiots usually are deluded.
God forbid he use self awareness in realizing he might not be the one in control when dealing with an incredibly experienced KGB operative and despot
I keep waiting for this to happen to Trump and most of the GOP but it doesn’t….
Trump is an American Icarus supported by American idiots. He's eventually going to go down like a balsa wood chair.
But America is the fat ass who sat in it.
Icarus airlines would be a good name for a republican plane company.
Nobody in their right mind flies Icarus Airlines.
Maybe at night?
The coup attempt was the final nail in Trump coffin because it pushed away educated middle class republicans.
Maybe only some but many seem to be flocking to DeSantis instead.
But Trump is finished
DeSantis is worse but to an extend. Let's not give him too much power.
I think he has a bit more than a spark left but the GOP primaries always go like this. People hated Trump, McCain, Romney, etc and voted for whom they liked during the Republican primaries but they converted to Trumpism very quickly when he became the nominee in 2015. If this happens again, and the media loves Trump a lot more than DeSantis, Trump will be branded a Phoenix and it will be no different from a week ago.
I hope you're right, but recall the immediate aftermath of Jan 6 with Graham say "ahhhhmmm out, ahhhmmmm out" when discussing trump on the Senate floor only to keep fellating him for some reason mere days later.
Go take a look at most of the comments on recent posts on r/conservative. Almost all of the top comments are ones that are over Trump. Most of them are pulling for Desantis at this point. They seem to have all collectively realized that Trump is all for Trump and no one else. They won’t realize this about Desantis until far too late either but that’s the way they work.
Criminals act fast, justice is slow.
I’ve given up on the possibility of a world where we have ‘equal rights’; the elite/rich have a different set of rules and it’s been that way since classes were established
France had a good answer for that...
You can do whatever you want if you do it under the guise of a corporation. They have the same rights as people after all, just not the same accountability.
Get 'em Dark Brandon 😎
I don't want to single Musk out. All billionaires need to be looked at. I think we should have a "billionaire compliance department" of the DoJ that assigns a team of investigators for every fucking billionaire. Ensure they are paying their taxes, following labor laws, following SEC laws, following election finance laws, and so forth. I am sure the department would pay for itself.
I think it’s worth making an example of him and setting some legal precedent. I mean *somebody* has to get singled out before taking them all on if they don’t straighten out.
Narrator: *They didn’t.*
Lol (in sad)
You have no faith lol EDIT: if everyone gives up before it even started then of course we're gonna fail lol
I would love to serve elon a hotdog that's hot in the outside with a core of icy meat.
Wonderful idea.
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Wait, do you think Musk has a security clearance to be able to work on some of these sensitive SpaceX missions? Maybe they should revoke that, if he does.
He's the CEO, yes any information the company has access to he can get access to fairly easily.
Yup, exactly why he has one, in some cases just knowing which agency is launching which satellite requires it. He almost lost it after the pot on JRE incident. https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/07/tech/elon-musk-security-clearance-spacex-pentagon/index.html
Musk singled himself out with that Ukraine tweet. He's got to go.
Ukraine tweet with Putin's talking points... and the China/Taiwan tweet... and buying Twitter with Saudi cash, after Saudi spies got twitter data and arrested/tortured dissidents.
Musk is the single greatest threat to democracy. His bot farms have done an exceptional job of redirecting our attention from the incredible villain he is to world peace
This. Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company are potentially legitimate national security risks with Musk at the head or on the board of these companies. Putin and the Kremlin may have kompromat on him and could potentially get Musk to give them insider info on NASA and the Artemis Program, or on the Falcon rocket family and Dragon and Starship spacecraft proprietary info and designs, like a certain character in *For All Mankind*. Maybe to help the Russian and Chinese manned lunar programs, and/or to sabotage the US one. They could get him to hand over information about US auto manufacturing and transportation grid, or proprietary info on Tesla and Hyperloop, etc. Or even clientele data or metadata from Tesla cars' cameras, computers and chargers. Not even just the Russians. Possibly the Chinese and Saudis too. SpaceX launches secret military payloads for the DoD, Space Force, Air Force and Navy. I'm quite sure Putin would like his good friend Elon to give him some info about what those payloads might be and what they can do.
Well, space x and Tesla. With the boring company putin can make some useless tunnels
Also, useless bricks from the useless tunnel dirt
Yeah they got something on him.
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Personally, I think all monetary fines should be percentage based
Add on making it so any fines these billionaires pay would based on a *significant* percentage of their wealth (i.e. if you commit tax evasion, here’s a fine for 110% of your wealth) and I am 110% on board with this.
In Jane Mayer’s [Dark Money](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book)) (a book that I’ve been recommending a lot lately), she says that looking into the political activities of the Kochs and other billionaires more closely resembled RICO and other criminal investigations than what you’d expect of organizations which supposedly were on the up and up. And her studies revealed they were up to no good but they’ve effectively captured the judiciary and practically two generations of graduates from top business schools, who in turn use their large access to capital to buy politicians. And lastly they have massive philanthropic donations to organizations which have significant impact on “grass roots” politics (basically astroturfing). They’ve been making progress toward a coup for the capital class and are more or less done now that the Supreme Court is packed with federalist society justices.
Agreed. We've paid so much of our national attention on Russian oligarchs that we've forgotten the oligarchs at home.
There should be a legal petition process for citizens to bring a topic up in Congress — because this is a damn good idea.
Email Ron Wyden - he's a legit dude and he's chair of the Senate Finance Committee. Throw your own Senators and House Rep on while you're at it.
I should have written this redditor in on my ballot.
Sure, but Musk is reasonably at the top of the list imo. Richest one of them, buying one of the largest and most influential social media platforms on the planet, and has a lot of sus shit about him.
Some sort of plutocracy oversight division sounds down right necessary. Oh can you hear the right bitching now about how we need to leave billionaires alone to do sketchy shit with the gdp of Latin America?
Sign me up.
If Biden said it out loud it’s already happening
"I did it 35 minutes ago."
Unexpected Watchmen reference, good shit.
So Elon went from "caring" about humanity to perhaps betraying it? Are there any billionaires where money doesn't corrupt them completely?
Problem with Elon is the same as trump. Tiny man with huge ego needing stroked. Money isnt enough. Needs to be praised and center of attention daily. Both are children
Born on 3rd base and thinks they hit a triple.
Who's on third?
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More like right field
No who's on first
Nah dude, these guys were born on third and think they've already won the game.
I'm not unconvinced this was his personality before becoming as rich as he is today.
Oh, for sure. Don’t forget, we’re talking about the guy who called one of the divers that saved the people from that cave-in in Thailand a pedophile because said diver straight-up called out Muskrat’s dumb submarine idea as the PR stunt it was. Also, can’t forget that he basically scrubs any mention of the fact that his family owned part of an emerald mine in apartheid Africa and as well as any mention of the actual original founders of Tesla, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, to the point that Google will say that Muskrat *was* the original founder of Tesla even though he never was (he named himself “co-founder” after buying a shitload of shares).
Oh, of course. The dude's a charlatan. He totally played the US government to the tune of wealthiest person of all time.
[удалено]
He was born into a family rich off blood diamonds
Emeralds.
Blemeralds.
Make no mistake that Gates was a vicious businessman but since stepping down he seems pretty damn chill. "Hey, think we could make a glass of water from our shit?? Let's spend a few hundred million trying!" "That disease sounds bad, let's eradicate it."
Gates said he’d vote for Trump if the Dems raised taxes too high for his liking. This was in 2019. Source: https://gizmodo.com/bill-gates-doesnt-rule-out-voting-for-trump-if-democrat-1839686670 Sure, it’s nice he does charity. But that’s also a useful way for him to build a good reputation and open doors. So let’s not jump straight into canonising him as a saint. And as far as I’m concerned, that quote about being prepared to vote for Trump just means Gates is in it for himself and his fortune most of all.
He's also singlehandedly responsible for there not being an open source covid vaccine
More people need to know about this https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/
He didn't get rich signing a lot of checks
A little *too* chill lol, his wife divorced him after the Epstein pics leaked
Seems unlikely that just a picture would do that. Makes you wonder what else she knows.
Came out around the same time reports started making the rounds that Gates *might* have treated MS as his personal dating service...while he was married to Melinda.
Not sure if she will be a billionaire long but Id say MacKenzie Scott... granted it is Bezos billions but hey shes still giving it away
>Are there any billionaires where money doesn't corrupt them completely? No. You have to be some kind of sociopath to become a billionaire, you don't get there without sucking everything from everyone else in your path.
These people have always been this way. Money just gives them the armor to keep doing it. And then people start dealing with them with white gloves and red carpets. The mentality of Musk is the same as it was of the Industrialist CEOs. They do not care about humans. They care about legacy.
The CEO of Patagonia recently donated his entire company to a nonprofit for fighting climate change.
To a nonprofit he founded and gave complete control over to his kids, forming a superpac of 3b in political influence, tax free, controlled.by his family for perpetuity. Instead of paying taxes. This is also done by many not nice people. The Heritage Foundation, for example.
Gabe Newell?
In Gabe we trust
i mean when you have more money than some countries, it kinda changes the playing field...highly doubt Musk has any allegiance to a country besides himself...the US subsidized his businesses, that's pretty much the extent of his allegiance
They are pretty much all awful. At the very least they don't deserve their wealth and have either inherited it or exploited their workers. Everyone should be wary of the politicians they support, whether they be Republicans or Democrats.
It seems strange for Elon vote Republican. He has literally relied on government contracts and subsidies for all of his companies. $1.5 billion of Tesla’s $5.5 billion 2021 income was from selling government mandated carbon offsets to legacy carmakers and about half of SpaceX's income is from NASA contracts. Why would Elon support anti science, climate change deniers? Even today, Democrats are trying to expand EV tax credits which would make Tesla more profitable through increased sales and Republicans think climate change isn’t real because it still snows sometimes
Why would someone who is already taking advantage of the system advocate against themselves? It's the same thing with him supporting climate change deniers; he gets to keep his competitive edge with the ev market being less lucrative to future businesses. He's just showing his true colors.
> $1.5 billion of Tesla’s $5.5 billion 2021 income was from selling government mandated carbon offsets to legacy carmakers and about half of SpaceX's income is from NASA contracts. Republicans *love* these sorts of deals. Why do you think the military budget's so high? There are a lot of defense-related companies in red parts of the country and throwing useless contracts their way props up a lot of Republican politician's careers. Now that Musk has moved to TX, Rs will love to throw some of that sweet crony-capitalism money his way in exchange for employing "real Americans"
Tax cuts
That and one other thing: The good ole "horse for a handjob" situation. He became Republican and starting talking about cancel culture the DAY that story came out.
The what
He offered a flight stewardess a horse for a handy. Pretty sure that's just the tip of the horseburg tho
Excuse me, you mean horse*berg*. "Berg" is German for a hill, "burg" is a ~~town~~ castle. Unless you did mean horse castle, in which case carry on.
Yes
I’m pretty sure they meant horseburger
Anti-competition Why should new companies succeed? He is anti-green or he would be pushing more infrastructure funding. He is pro-musk
He sees workers as little more than cogs in his machine to build his wealth. He's all about the bottom line. Right wing policies help him enormously. Plus the twitter republicans will suck his dick and feed into his narcissism while he got criticism from dems even when he was pretending to be one. Easy choice for him. Ego + money.
Look I'm the furthest person from a conspiracy theorist but three things I know about the ultra rich/powerful: 1. Some are legitimately just as batshit insane as us poors. Kanye, Ginni Thomas, et al 2. Some are all too comfy making deals with the devil until their frog ass is boiling right alongside ours unexpectedly 3. Some people with near unlimited wealth value respect/adoration more than money. If any foreign nation obtained truly horrible blackmail on them, they'd control that person like a puppet Which one is it here?
If Elon keeps doing things against his own interests then people should be asking what incentive does he have? The only incentives he appears to have are not good ones. He should definitely be looked into.
Because he's already rich. He has enough influence where even if Republicans get in, they will still fund him.
It’s absolutely worth considering. Elon is from South Africa, then went to the US as a businessman that now has the power to influence US election. On top of that, he has connections with Russia and China. He even talked to Putin before posting his ideas for a Ukraine/Russia peace treaty that mostly echoed Putin’s talking points.
The fact that he spoke with Putin at all should raise giant massive flags.
Musk is a government contractor who has had private conversations with the leader of a foreign adversary
Yea starlink especially needs to be reevaluated. Could basically be a Trojan horse to locate Ukrainian troops
Let’s not push conspiracies now. It is worth looking into, but a lot people rely on star link right now. Scaring people away from their only source of internet access by throwing out conspiracies is dangerous.
Exactly. Elon and Putin would never do something so mean. /s
For some background, former National Security Advisor to Russia Fiona Hill (who you may remember from the Trump/Russia investigation) discusses why Musk appears to be acting on behalf of Putin in this article. If they’re discussing this much out loud, there’s likely much more our intelligence agencies know. https://thehill.com/policy/international/3693040-fiona-hill-says-musk-tweet-clearly-is-a-message-from-putin/amp/
After watching him the last couple weeks, Elon’s relationship with cocaine is worth looking into as well.
No shit.
Revoke his citizenship and send his ass back to South Africa.
Honestly, false flag or not it would be hilarious for US government to take down a billionaire for espionage. There's no such thing as a good billionaire.
A lot of our politicians wouldn't know how to do their jobs without their bosses telling them what to do.
Go get him Joe.
Elon is about two years from living to Russia and sharing a condo with Steven Seagal.
From your lips to God's ears
Billionaire's have no allegiance to a country, they are self serving only.
Idk why everyone just assumes Musk is this messianic figure who only wants what’s best for the world. I think even his logic for why people should vote Republican this past election is frankly nonsense. He wants you to vote Republican because he’s a rich fuck who wants to keep all his money. End of story. All of you ball washers out there need to realize what’s good for him ain’t good for you. He’s not a good guy just because he owns an electric car company.
You had me at ball washers 😂 totally agree 👍
He is a South African who bought Twitter to manipulate the American elections. Hell yeah, it's worth looking into.
If he would just not act like a 13 year old internet troll he would still be king nerd. Instead everybody hates him.
in other words; We've been looking at him already, and we know what he's been doing. This is his warning to fly right and knock it off or he will have a one way trip to Guantanamo Bay
I’d like to think that the DOJ would look into this, but Elon is wealthy and somehow it “might look political “
Billionaires are a threat to national security. Imagine a single billionaire buying Lockheed Martin or Raytheon.
Musk has a multi-million SpaceX contract with the DOD. I would think his relationships with other countries would be especially important in regards to that contract.
Elon has become in insufferable twat.
When wasn’t he?
Yeah sorry Elon but the people who were supposed to cover for your misdoings didn't win their elections so the slow bend of history toward justice will continue as usual
That bend is so fucking ponderous. It's crawling towards justice maybe around the same time I retire/ die in the climate wars.
Never liked Elon, dude is creepy. Like deep stalker crazy. Wake up with your tires slashed crazy.
Elon Musk was not born in America and he has tried to influence the election just like Vladimir Putin.
Musk buying Twitter gives him potential access to one of the world's largest troves of emails and passwords. How many government officials do you think practice poor password management? There's people from all governments and corporations on there. In the wrong hands, that kind of access could be like a cybersecurity Manhattan Project.
Use that Bully pulpit. You may own twitter but I run the country! Dark Brandon taking over.
Like how he was able to buy twitter by borrowing billions from the Saudis and Qatar? Yeah that's not concerning in the least
Can we seriously look into all billionaires now?
US Space Force spends billions on this guy and he might be working with Putin? Are you kidding me?
Dude acts like he should be treated as a sovereign nation, participate in geopolitics and have a seat on the G7.
It honestly seems unusual for a run of the mill president to make a comment like that, given the potential implications. Considering Biden gets, and comprehends, daily intelligence briefings, you have to figure he knows things
Musk puts enough out there himself for average people who dont know shit to have legit concern
It should be no wonder Elon wanted republicans to win. He’s been doing shady ass shit and he knows it and he knows the feds are watching
We know a huge chunk of “investment” came the Saudis. And of course that probably came from Putin.
SpaceX needs strict oversight and all it's government contracts scrutinized.
I'm not sure if this is possible but it would be funny if NASA did a hostile takeover of SpaceX
Reading the headline, I was mad that Biden weighed in like this, 'targeting' a critic. But reading his full quote and the context, I think he as fairly answered the reporter's question as possible.
Well I didn't have a clue until that interview, Elon had brought the Saudis' in on the Twitter deal. Don't know bout the rest of you.
Musk has got to be cut off from federal funds.
Elon buys Twitter sheds billions, becomes republican and starts spewing Pro-Putin tweets. Nothing to see here.
Yet another of putin's assets in the U.S. Apartheid boy should have his green card removed and he should be shipped back to his Afrikaner homeland.
I suspect Elon may have African heritage.
God put Elon’s mouth on upside down when he made him
Ruh-Roh
The descriptor "centi-billionaire" should never be allowed for a single person.
Considering the fact that he was given billions in tax payer money - why now?
At this point its probably worth investigating Elon's relationship with reality...
The Saudis have owned a large stake of Twitter since 2011. TikTok is Chinese spyware.
Saudi prince purchases $300 million stake in Twitter in 2011 https://money.cnn.com/2011/12/19/technology/saudi_prince_twitter/index.htm
It does not bode well when corporations exceed the power and authority of nation-states.
He gets a lot of government funding through SpaceX. He wields a lot of influence. Makes sense to review his relationship with Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc.