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Musk’s success vs Trump’s failure

Elon Musk arrives at Twitter
Musk arrives at Twitter, ready to clean house

While the buzz about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has mostly focused on his effort to end censorship and the banning of conservatives, none of this constitutes his most important accomplishment there.

Yes, mandating freedom of speech at Twitter is a good thing. And yes, ending the banning of tens of thousands of conservative voices demonstrates Musk’s unwavering commitment to freedom and open debate.

However, it is his action to house-clean — to fearlessly remove from power the thugs and goons at Twitter who created these oppressive policies — that matters the most. By firing the Twitter apparatchiks who had installed that system of censorship and blacklisting, Musk has guaranteed that this censorship and blacklisting will not return easily to Twitter should his other business interests force him to pay less attention in the future.

The house-cleaning is literally changing the culture at Twitter, allowing the supporters of freedom to run the show while kicking from power the authoritarians and blacklisters. The change is beyond refreshing, and practically unprecedented in the past half century.

More important, Musk’s unapologetic and almost enthusiastic firings of the worst abusers of power at Twitter has sent a signal throughout the entire culture. It is possible for CEOs to remove these people without harming the bottom line. In fact, the evidence so far suggests this kind of drastic but courageous action will help that bottom line significantly. The surge in new sign-ups at Twitter after Musk’s takeover indicates this strongly. That the new head of Disney immediately signaled that the company would retreat from promoting the queer agenda, even though he had instigated that campaign when he was previously in charge, indicates Musk’s actions — along with an aggressive anti-Disney campaign by parents and politicians — are having an impact elsewhere.

Musk’s actions also tell us that our culture can also fight these thugs. In schools, in colleges, in the entertainment industry, in politics, in industry, and in the corporate world, there is no need to kow-tow to them out of fear. They are simply bullies, and if you have the simple courage to stand up to them, they will back down.

Fundamentally, Elon Musk is showing Republicans their only possible path forward should they ever regain even the slightest amount of power. Compromise will not work with those in the executive branch who were so willing to conspire to overthrown a sitting president, and then work hand-in-glove with the next administration to blatantly violate the Constitutional rights of many American citizens. These corrupt government employees must be removed, and removed as thoroughly and as quickly as possible, in the same manner as Musk is doing at Twitter.

Trump at press conference
He failed to house-clean, and we have all paid the price
for that failure.

Musk’s actions at Twitter also illustrates forcefully the greatest failure of Donald Trump while he was president. Though I have noted with admiration the way Trump was the first president in my lifetime to actually carry out his campaign promises, the one promise Trump failed to fulfill in any way was his promise to “drain the swamp.” For four years he allowed the federal bureaucracy that he legally controlled in every way according to the Constitution, our nation’s fundamental document, to run rampant.

Central to the bureaucracy’s abuse of power were the actions of the Department of Justice and the intelligence community, including the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. These agencies conspired with the leftist press and the Democrats in Congress to manufacture the Russian collusion hoax, claiming with no evidence that somehow Donald Trump was a stooge of Putin.

During this fake investigation Trump did nothing. When his own appointed attorney general, Jeff Sessions, recused himself from the investigation for utterly bogus reasons, Trump did nothing. When the investigation itself was finally forced to exonerate Trump entirely, admitting that no Russian collusion ever existed, Trump still did nothing.

Almost no one in these agencies were fired. Instead, Trump left office with their entire partisan and Democratic Party infrastructure intact, allowing them to immediately begin working with the Biden administration to use their power to harass, arrest, and persecute conservatives nationwide.

Musk at Twitter is demonstrating to all that a total house-cleaning can be done, without fear. It is doable, and any Republican politician who runs in fear from doing it once gaining power reveals him- or herself to be a quisling of the Democrats, mouthing lies in order to maintain the corrupt status quo.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

41 comments

  • Larry

    Yes, there should’ve been many more firings, including in intelligence agencies, DOJ, State, and military (where “firing” a general or admiral usually means reassignment to someplace nasty and meaningless where they can’t do any harm — and most of those fired would immediately put in their retirement papers) and wherever possible, wholesale closures of some offices. Trump’s other failure was not nominating people to fill a number of empty positions that really ought to have been filled with conservatives. Sure, with the tainted advice he was getting, some would be ringers, but overall would probably have been beneficial.

  • Stephen Richter

    something that is worrying about Elon is that there is only one of him. Other people with the same level of intelligence and drive would also be able to upend whatever industry they work in. Yet industry, politics, media disrupters seem very rare. Consider Rush Limbaugh. A great talent who spoke to and for millions of listeners. Since his passing no one has emerged with an equal talent level.
    Elon is warning about the threat of censorship. Once the establishment is able to clamp it fully into place there may be no way to break free. Arguably, censorship perpetuates itself. The free world was lucky this time. The one person with enough ability and achievement stepped forward and smashed a key component of the group think regime.

  • Ray Van Dune

    Mitch McConnell held his hand on the throttle for all nominations requiring Senate approval, using parliamentary maneuvering to keep the Senate in session even when it really wasn’t, and preventing Trump making recess appointments. After McConnell’s throttling of campaign funding in the last election, I will not be sorry to see the end of him.

  • James Street

    Trump’s just getting started. He’s got the Council of Wizards & Warlocks.

  • Concerned

    Stephen Richter—I agree with everything in your post except one thing: “Since (Rush Limbaugh’s) passing no one has emerged with an equal talent level”
    You really should check out Charlie Kirk.. He is the most articulate and well-read young conservative broadcaster I’ve heard maybe ever. To me, he is clearly Rush’s heir apparent. And he may have gone one better than Rush by founding his Turning Point USA organization that targets college kids and below. His knowledge of our Founding Fathers and their Greco-Roman and most importantly Christian influences is truly impressive. It’s somewhat long, but check out this podcast if you haven’t listened to him before. If you’re a conservative, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone else who can better articulate your values.
    https://omny.fm/shows/the-charlie-kirk-show/the-cult-of-scientism-live-from-university-of-miss

  • Cotour

    There is only one Rush.

    Kirk is articulate, he is smart, and he is driven, no doubt.

    There are several Conservative talking heads who have all been schooled by Rush and shown the way.

    But there is only one Rush.

  • Concerned

    Bob—yes Trump was a failure in draining the Swamp, but you have to consider the cesspool he grew up in (New York City). He had good success working with very slimy creatures there to get things done and to make a lot of money. He then graduated to the mainstream media and managed to work with plenty of embedded leftists at NBC to produce a wildly successful and long-lived TV series. So why wouldn’t he think he could continue that pattern once he reached the apex of power? He thinks if he can make money for everyone around him, then everyone will get along. The fantastic economy during his administration would certainly lead one to agree this would be the case. Maybe he is wiser now after discovering the depth of depravity of the leftist opposition embedded in all our government and cultural institutions. They would rather literally burn down everything in order to hold on to power and influence. Knowing the enemy is the first step to countering that enemy. I fervently hope this lesson has been learned and tactics adjusted accordingly.

  • Les

    You are correct. The main impetus for DJT to get into office – for many of us – was to shut down the corruption of the DC criminal class. THAT would have been an accomplishment worth talking about! But he was not savvy enough about people, to get this done. In the beginning he had good people but they were forced out quickly when they should not have been (for example, Bannon) instead the vile Pence remained thruout, stabbing DJT in back with all the leaks, as often as possible.
    Its easy for me to say, he should have known better, but that doesn’t bring much light to the room – sorry.

  • Edward

    Robert wrote: “Though I have noted with admiration the way Trump was the first president in my lifetime to actually carry out his campaign promises, the one promise Trump failed to fulfill in any way was his promise to ‘drain the swamp.’

    This was the first promise to be broken, and it was broken two days after the 2016 election when Trump said that he would let Hillary Clinton get away scot free with her long list of felonies — a literal long list, as enumerated by FBI Director James Comey ( https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system ).

    Once Trump said that Clinton would not be punished for her many felonious actions, we all knew that the swamp would remain intact and that the election of Trump was a futile action.

  • Danimal28

    A hell of a lot easier to fire private company employees than unfirable ‘civil servants’, buddy, especially ones who have control of the intelligence apparatus.

  • We simply do not give Presidents the dictatorial authority to clean house. The Senate confirmation process and civil-service laws are big roadblocks to that,

    Furthermore, had Trump tried harder to clean house, it is plausible that BOTH sides would have conspired to impeach AND remove him from office … and in the process, suppressed the urge in DeSantis and others to not build upon Trump’s confrontational precedent and instead listen to the consultants who tell them that playing “nice” and tickling ears is more important than securing our rights,

    Remember Scott Walker (R – Throne of Skulls)? He was my first choice for President in 2016; Trump was my third., Then the consultants got to Walker and he went squishy on immigration (to be fair, not that big a concern in his Wisconsin at the time). Result: campaign reduced to irrelevance,

    Trump made the best of a bad situation, and showed that policies can be changed for the better and federalism is still worthy of respect.

    And Congress showed that they are more than capable of squandering that because politics … and the voting public has shown that they still buy into the assumptions of social technocracy and retail politics that prioritize “nice” over rights, even as they complain about the results of doing so,

  • Richard Bayne

    Yes. But … two comments. (1) the woke people’s revolution is based on the strategy of infiltrating and controlling middle-management (and hence upper management) committees. The control of all kinds of committees gives all sorts of power to the Left, including a shield of anonymity. In universities they hire and fire, set teaching agenda’s, determine campus safety, guide “research” programs and projects; they also hand life and death power to academics over careers of students. Imagine you are almost finished an arduous expensive post-grad degree and you upset a woke supervisor, or anonymous woke examiner, or woke progress committee! You are screwed. Now notice the committees at Twitter that closed down, were all censorship committees with fancy titles. Massive sackings is the only way to handle this problem, but at least the committee structures show where these people are! The people at the top need to sack them all. (2) Trump’s inaction was deliberate, he believed in the essential goodness of Americans working at the DOJ/FBI/CIA/etc and so did nothing. Hannity, Trump’s spokesperson in many ways, went on about this ad nauseam. Barr made his position clear from the start, protect these organisations for “the good work” they do at all costs, effectively to run a protection racket for them. Trump agreed (though Trump understood he had a political problem here). If what people in these departments did was sedition aimed at the Presidency itself, and Trump did nothing, then Trump was complicit in the attack. For THIS reason Trump should never again be allowed near the office of the Presidency, he sold out the Presidency, and will do so again.

  • As Cotour said, there is only one Rush. Just as in any movement, there is that first person who became the shining light of the movement. That person cannot be fully replaced. For Conservative Talk Radio, Rush is the lamp that showed the way. We now have many people that follow in his footsteps but never will there be another Rush Limbaugh.

    Trump didn’t clean the Swamp. Part of it was a certain Political Naivety since he came from outside the governmental political realm that lead him to not select the right people to do the job because he was given misdirection by certain advisors and even the people themselves. Another part was the massive Deep State pressure against him that constantly threw “curve balls” at him and even openly defied Presidential direction. They either had positions of power or sinecures and did not want to relinquish them.

  • A lot of the comments here are correctly noting the reasons why Trump failed in this regard. I recognize them all.

    My point however remains: Musk is demonstrated what future Republican politicians must do, whether Trump or not. They must exhibit no mercy. Like Musk, they must move hard, and they must work unified, changing the laws fast if necessary to give their president the power to act.

    Whether this can happen of course is questionable. Republicans have exhibited no such unity or courage for decades. I am merely noting their only option to truly save the nation.

  • Edward_2

    That thing Elon is carrying doesn’t look like a Kitchen Sink.

  • Edward

    I would not put Rush on too high of a pedestal, as he talked up Trump. Limbaugh almost certainly thought that Trump would clean house as well as do other things. Instead of getting a Republican who had the fortitude to clean house, we wound up with a Clinton-era Democrat wrapped in Republican clothing.

    Elon Musk is not the only person with the fortitude to do the right thing, but there are many people in charge who are leftists, so not much is done. Plenty of companies refused to go woke, and they are led by people with intestinal fortitude, bucking the establishment in favor of what is right. The FAA had been slow walking their approval of the Boca Chica site, so when Musk got upset with Twitter’s policies and actions he had the time and inclination to do something about it. If it hadn’t been for the FAA, Twitter would still be propagating tyranny.

    Unfortunately, the Republican Party has moved so far to the left that, to Republicans, a Clinton Democrat looks like a conservative Reagan. Now the Republican Party isn’t even willing to defend the integrity of the American election system. No wonder Musk does not wholeheartedly support the Republican Party. No reason exists for doing so, unless you favor a party that is the equivalent of the Democrats in 2010 when they passed Obamacare, which is so horrific that it cannot even cope with a mild flu epidemic and allows medical facilities to refuse to treat people who disagree with The Party.

    Republican voters, in 2016, refused to elect anyone who would do the job of taking back America, and now they worship the guy that they did vote for, who failed to do so. All the while, these same Republican voters long for the return of our country. They talk like they are right wing, but they act in support of the left and its tyranny.

    Welcome to Obama’s fundamentally transformed America, land of the formerly free, home of the left-wing Republicans.

  • Concerned

    Edward— yes, Trump wasn’t the best leader we could imagine to roll back the Marxist encroachment of our country. If you believe incremental steps in that direction, that you have to admit Trump was able to do, are insufficient or no longer possible, then that doesn’t leave us with many options. How to elect a truly swamp-draining leader or set of leaders? Or are elections a lost cause?

  • Lemuel Vargas

    IIRC, the Donald signed an executive order before he lost the 2020 election that would allow him to reclassify tens of thousands of protected federal workers and allow him to implement mass firings and fill their positions with his loyalists.

    w/c means he has a plan to drain the swamp if he has won the election.

    https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2024-2657711909/
    “As the report notes, before being ousted in 2020, the former president signed an executive order that would allow him to reclassify tens of thousands of protected federal workers and allow him to implement mass firings and fill their positions with his loyalists.”

  • Phil Berardelli

    “Musk’s actions also tell us that our culture can also fight these thugs. In schools, in colleges, in the entertainment industry, in politics, in industry, and in the corporate world, there is no need to kow-tow to them out of fear. They are simply bullies, and if you have the simple courage to stand up to them, they will back down.”

    Bob, it continually astounds me how these bullies can get away with their intimidation seemingly with impunity. Their only attribute, so to speak, is that they are loud and obnoxious. But they are not the majority — far from it. Moreover, we not only outnumber them, we outgun them. The armed population of American dwarfs all of the armies of the world combined. It’s long past the time to remind the Left of this inconvenient truth — that a Second American Revolution, once unleashed, could not be contained or controlled. It would sweep them all away and confine them to the dustbin of history.

    You criticize Donald Trump for failing to drain the swamp when he was in office. Granted. But I greatly admire his tenure for what he was able to accomplish when so many forces allied against him. It was truly extraordinary. I doubt I could have persisted — and still persist — given the years of daily attacks. I remain supportive of him and belief he is still our best hope among those seeking the presidency. That said, what we desperately need right now is what I call a Donald Trump without the charm. Someone so ferocious, ruthless even, that the Left trembles at the thought of confronting him, or her. Unfortunately, I see no one in public life emitting the necessary ferocity. So, maybe what we all should be doing is not waiting for one person to step in to save the Republic. Maybe it’s incumbent on each of us — all of us — to fight this scourge in every way we can, every day, including open rebelling.

    Dan Bongino described walking away from the White House grounds with his wife in August 2020 after Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination. That’s where Senator Ron Paul and his wife were attacked by a mob of screaming leftists. They tried the same with Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, taunting him and threatening his wife. When Bongino suddenly wheeled around and started after them, they all scattered like the chickens they really were. In doing so, he set an example for us all.

    Maybe it’s time, after 246 years, once again to pledge “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

  • Richard M

    While it’s clear that the jacobin censorship regime at Twitter bothered him, I think what bothered him even more was just how much dead weight there was. We’d all seen the social media clips of the bizarre array of perks at HQ, but the full extent of just how little tangible work was being done by so many, many people is the kind of thing that sends Elon off a cliff. He works his ass off and demands actual results, and he insists you do the same if you work for him.

    It turns out to be a nice knock-on effect that his housecleaning also ended up purging so many of the ideologues and government moles. The question now is whether he can survive the counterattack by the big platforms and big state actors. I don’t know about the EU, but he might be the only person who could take on Apple and win.

  • Richard M

    There is only one Rush.

    I agree. But the nature of the media market in the 2020’s is such that a guy like Rush cannot dominate, or operate, in the way Rush did in his heyday. There’s simply too many platforms, too much ease of access on to them for that to ever happen again. In the 80’s and 90’s, AM talk radio was really all there was.

    And maybe this isn’t a bad thing.

  • Sandra Larson Gonzales

    Musk is no Trump

    And Trump made his money. Most of Musks is from the government, that’s me and you.

    And he’s an African

  • Sandra Larson Gonzales

    Rush thought the world of Bush 2

    Rush loved Apple

    We have to forgive him that

    Rush had his demons, but no one is ever going to have his intellectual wit. He could see several miles ahead of us and often he soothes my rattled nerves

    No one does that, no one

  • BLSinSC

    I do believe that PRESIDENT TRUMP was fighting for us! The issue with “draining the swamp” was how BIG and SURROUNDING the swamp actually is! Now if he had had the POWER to do what Mr. MUSK has done – FIRE THEM ALL or a GREAT MANY – then he would have had one of those “reset” buttons that simply said “YOU’RE FIRED”!!! But, we ALL KNOW that he did NOT have that ability or authority due to the inbreeding of Government Unions and “rules”! I had posted BEFORE he took office that his FIRST EO should be to REVERSE President Kennedy’s EO that ALLOWED Government Unions! His reasoning should be that it is a conflict of interest for a UNION to OPPOSE the very people whose TAXES are taken to PAY for those people! And let’s not forget the “OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE” that popped up with EVERY SINGLE mention of “You’re FIRED”!! NO, PRESIDENT TRUMP did not have the success that Mr. MUSK enjoys because Mr. MUSK ACTUALLY OWNS HIS COMPANY! Maybe when PRESIDENT TRUMP regains his RIGHTFUL place, he can use ALL the PRECEDENTS set by the biden bunglers and take actions and then simply say “Hey, it was OK when biden did it so SHUT UP”!!

  • jeremiah

    Stop making excuses for Trump. He either doesn’t know how to yield power or he’s part of the swamp. It means he’s either too dumb for the office or he’s one of them. Being naïve or stupid is no excuse. What could Trump have done, that would have empowered the evil left more ? If you don’t know how to yield power you should never be president of the US or even an amateur politician.

    It’s a test whether you will sell out your conservatism so you don’t have to get involved, more or less putting your head in the sand. True conservatives don’t make a bunch of excuses for failure and it was the most important issue, the one our countries’ survival depended on.

    And he empowered the swamp so that the communist left is entrenched, likely permanently. A total failure by any measure.

  • Concerned

    Jeremiah—the Marxist Left’s encroachment of our culture, politics, and government has been incremental and steady—I call it the Long March through America. Their rollback must similarly be deliberate, incremental and sustained. Otherwise the only option is dictatorial power and civil war. If Trump had acted the way you thought he should have by immediately firing half the government leviathan (which I also would have loved if I thought it was feasible), they would have impeached him the 1st year in and the Senate would have convicted and removed him posthaste. There were (and still are) plenty of RINOs both then and now that would have gladly stabbed him in the back. They will do the same to any other leader that overtly threatens the swamp in the manner you propose. We have to be more strategic in our thinking IMHO, there are no single saviors that will instantly make this all better.

  • Richard M

    And Trump made his money. Most of Musks is from the government, that’s me and you.

    I’m not here to knock Trump’s business acument, but Trump inherited a lot more from his dad to start his money-making than Elon did from his.

    But the other point is less fair. No question, Tesla/Solar City benefited from a lot of tax breaks and government loans, early on (I grumble about that); but the tax breaks are mostly gone, and the loans were all paid back nine years ahead of schedule. Tesla is making money now simply because it’s selling a lot of cars to a lot of private customers.

    As for SpaceX, only 8 of its 54 launches to date for 2022 have been for federal government agencies. NASA and DoD have been nice customers to have, but most of what SpaceX launches really is for the private sector now.

  • jeremiah

    concerned: There is no excuse for what Trump did. No tactical attempt at draining the swamp. He made a point of giving his enemies or at least the ones committed to destroying this country everything they wished for, sometimes more and then whines to the people who voted for him how mean they are to him. Every time he does this stale, excuse laden routine. You do know who Trump is pushing for speaker of the house? I know after only 6 years no human could possibly figure out that a swamp creature will remain a swamp creature and his business formula doesn’t work.

    Tell me concerned, are you sure your xtra weak excuse is a solid justification? No other president has had to navigate complexity or strong resistance and succeeded? When you fire anyone who attempts draining the swamp and blindly hire whoever the swamp wants when they recommend it and the nation’s existence is dependent on the draining of the swamp there might be less wandering and more urgency, at least if it’s a great leader or any type of leader at all? Because i think you could come up with a way that Trump could have drained the swamp than firing 50% of the work force. Here, let me get you started Trump could have appointed allies rather than a trojan horse to head agencies and key positions.

    Wall yourself off in that cocoon of lies, you won’t have to do anything and you won’t have to solve the real problems or accept responsibility.

  • pawn

    Hindsight is golden.

  • Concerned

    jeremiah—if Trump is as feckless about, nay complicit with, the embedded Left as you allege, then riddle me this: why are they literally apoplectic about making sure he never again runs for president again and colluded with the CCP to concoct and release a worldwide pandemic/psyop to provide cover for removing him from office?

  • jeremiah – the Senate confirmation process and civil-service laws are two BIG roadblocks in the way of a President acting like you think Trump should have done, He wasn’t going to be ALLOWED to fire 50% of the work force and hire outside the professional/political complex.

    We don’t give our Presidents dictatorial powers – and avoid that, sometimes to a fault, That is not a “cocoon of lies:”.

    Your beef lies with Congress. Not Trump. Especially when he demonstrated respect for federalism when the elite in DC wanted all 50 states to get the full Cuomo treatment.

  • Bob

    For gawd sake get off your knees,musk hasn’t done a damn thing that matters.
    He’s not the great White hope you morons think.

  • Bob: A warning: If you wish to debate you are welcome here to do so. If you wish to disagree here, even strongly, you are welcome to do so.

    What you are not welcome to do here is to use insults as a method of argument. Calling those you disagree with “morons” is not an acceptable argument. Do this again and I will suspend you for a week. Do it after that and you will be banned.

    I don’t think it is unreasonable for me to ask you you to act like a polite, civilized adult. And if you can’t, then you don’t deserve a place at the table.

  • Cotour

    Musk doing something and being relevant: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1598778884639653891

    Stay tuned.

  • Cotour

    “Frankenstienien”

    Now there is a word that you do not hear every day.

    https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598824834334687236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1598825121992638465%7Ctwgr%5Efc5ce3ee517e2546bc30bd3c7901da3971a97d48%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2022%2F12%2Fbreaking-elon-musk-reveals-twitter-suppressed-hunter-biden-laptop-story%2F

    “3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.”

    Musk IMO? A man of consequence and something not nothing.

  • James Street

    So Musk really did buy a crime scene.

    Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing.
    https://bit.ly/3Fo5BuY

  • In a world where people are put on pedestals on the basis of credentials and connections, it is quite notable when one actually earns our respect on the basis of performance.

    Too many people consider it sufficient to fill their resumes with their CV and positions held – but speak little of what they actually accomplished to better the lot of themselves, their colleagues, and their employer, let alone how they advanced the state of their art.

    As Yorgi said to Xander in XXX, “Most people talk a lot, few are up for the moment.”

    Elon Musk has demonstrated, again and again, that he is up for the moment in what he takes on.

    That is why he is respected, by Robert and most of us in the commentariat here, Bob.

  • Edward

    Sandra Larson Gonzales wrote: “And Trump made his money. Most of Musks is from the government, that’s me and you.

    Actually, the money he made from PayPal was not government money. That gave him enough to invest in Solar City and Tesla and to found SpaceX. The money he makes from Solar City and Tesla is not government money. Most of the revenues at SpaceX are also not government money. Musk makes his money from commercial sales, that’s you and me, and many people invest in his successes. The value of Musk’s companies is based almost exclusively on expected future sales to commercial companies and individuals in the economy.

    The intent of most of the government contracts to SpaceX was to inspire superior spacecraft at lower cost, which Orbital Sciences and SpaceX fulfilled. That matters so much, Bob (not Robert), that additional government contracts have been signed with other space companies in order to inspire superior and lower cost space stations, space probes, and other space hardware and methods. These other contracts are only a few short years away from being fulfilled. Why don’t we hear complaints about those contracts?

    Instead of cheering on what Musk’s companies do for We the People, many people complain about the minor government input to his success, as though all companies and individuals that do business or receive money from the government are bad. So much for Social Security, welfare programs, and the maker of the pens that are printed with “U.S. Government.”
    _________________

    Richard M responded to the same comment: “… But the other point is less fair. No question, Tesla/Solar City benefited from a lot of tax breaks …

    Keep in mind that all the other solar and auto companies had the exact same incentives, tax breaks for their customers. For some reason it is only Musk who gets called out on them. The intent of these tax breaks was to inspire superior electric automobiles, which Tesla fulfilled (this matters), and to inspire superior solar arrays, which no company fulfilled.
    __________________

    Jester Naybor replied to another comment: “Your beef lies with Congress. Not Trump.

    How very true. The Republican Party had promised that if We the People gave them the House, the Senate, and the Presidency that they would eliminate Obamacare (with the implication that other good things would follow). We did, and they didn’t. The Republican-held Congress failed us. The Republican Party is useless and untrustworthy. The only way that elections could possibly matter now is if another party were formed; a party that would drain the swamp and once again “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

    Of course, that assumes that the Democratic Party ends its election fraud.

  • Cotour

    THE REAL THREAT TO DEMOCRACY AND AMERICA? GOVERNMENT!

    “Musk says Twitter was ‘acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech’ as he releases Hunter Biden laptop files that show execs replying ‘handled’ to requests from ‘Biden team’ to delete tweets”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11498015/Musk-says-Twitter-acting-orders-government-suppress-Hunter-Biden-laptop-story.html

    What are the rules of political warfare? That is a trick question, there are no rules in political warfare.

    Trust neither political party, ever, with your freedom. And in this modern time of mass corporate techno communication and government manipulation especially never trust the radical now Leftist Democrat party machine with your freedom.

    This group of government and corporate actors working hand in hand for absolute political power and control has been revealed as an extreme threat to America and what the Constitution structures.

    The Constitution is not the government. The Constitution structures the government and how it is to operate and what it must never do. The Constitution represents an eternal threat to government and absolute power. This essential model is in great danger of being flipped on its head today.

    And we can now all plainly see that Democrat political party machine actors in concert with “Social Justice Warrior”, “Progressive”, corporate entities with great power have aligned in order to install what in their opinion MUST be in America and the world. And those efforts are both perverted and wrong and very dangerous for all concerned. And that is what in fact is the threat to Democracy that is what they themselves cry about.

    Do you really have confidence in the validity of elections today? I do not, not for one second, not by the facts and evidence.

    Elon Musk fundamentally understands how important revealing and cleaning out the massive perversion and corruption in American politics and corporate America is for everything he seeks to accomplish and for the freedom of the American people and the majority of the people in the world. America and its Constitution is the ONLY way.

    “Racist America”, “Climate Change”, mail in voting, ballot harvesting, flooding the borders with illegals, absolute control over free speech through technology, all essential things that the Democrat party machine has installed and must have in order to retain their political power.

    What do you think about that?

    https://evenpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Elon-Musk-Twitter-1140×641.jpg

  • Cotour

    How much does truth and free speech cost in America today?

    $44 billion.

    https://youtu.be/fzc7o1zdhYw

  • Cotour

    What is the truth and is or has the truth ever been important in politics?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11499111/Elon-Musk-slams-NY-Times-ignoring-expose-Twitter-censored-Hunter-Biden-laptop.html

    Strategy Over Morality:

    EXPLANATION: Strategy Over Morality describes a two-tiered “conversation” between a Public and their Politically Empowered Leadership where the Public believes there is only a single, no tiered conversation occurring. And that single conversation is assumed by the Public to relate to the Public’s morality and truth model perspective.

    CONCLUSION: The public lives and operates under a subjective moral code or within a “Pedestrian Realm” perspective which they assume their leadership which exists within the “Political Realm” is constrained by. This is a subjective false perspective conclusion on the part of the public. Leadership at its existential core is not about morality, truth and honesty. Politically empowered Political Realm leadership is about the fundamental exercise of power and “Its” subjective agenda interests and “It’s” political power prevailing. jgl

    What does truth and free speech cost in America today?

    $44 billion.

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