US Politics-2022

[silva]

Then why do you want to steal his hard earned money?

You have a real misunderstanding of hard earned money
Nothing makes millionaires like having money to make money on
Nor do you understand tax shelters, and disproportionate pricing for energy use, recycling costs, trash collection.......
Working a labor job 50 hours a week where your only tax saving comes in the form of saving contributions to a retirement account (if you can afford to) is hard work

 

[silva]

Not wanting to denigrate people based on their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation , etc. = being woke.

I think being woke is a good thing. I'm sorry you don't.

I agree, however the democratic party is doing about as much to keep the progressive movement down as the republicans. They want complacency

 

[Mischief]

Could it be that the reason he's thinking of Iraq is that he feels bad about it?

My thought also.

 

[anarchist100]

Elon Musk Twitter takeover: How did he make his money and what’s his net worth?

The Tesla CEO has denied claims that his father owned an emerald mine

www.standard.co.uk

....that seed money didn't come out of nothing.

If you live frugally, and invest wisely, it's not unimaginable that you could get the sort of seed money needed to become a billionaire, but even if we're talking about someone like Elon Musk, (which we clearly are) who got his seed money from his rich parents, it is still impressive that he managed to turn that money into 300billion dollars, of course I'm assuming that the seed money was a lot less than that, which it probably was, because owning one emerald mine makes one a lot of money. but it certainly doesn't make someone a multibillionaire.

 

[anarchist100]

I agree, however the democratic party is doing about as much to keep the progressive movement down as the republicans. They want complacency

Then don't vote for them, they know that all they have to do is remain more progressive than the Republican party and people will still vote for them, they're never going to give you what you want, the only way they're going to act progressively, is if the progressives make them work for their votes.

 

[Mischief]

Don´t forget this thread is an echo chamber: Republicans are predicted to do well in the mid terms. As long as Democrats almost exclusively focus on race, abortion rights, and so on, that isn´t going to change.

Not feeling good at the moment after Elon Musk announcing after a history of years of voting Democrat he will now vote Republican. Yes Musk is a jerk, but he´s a centrist who is a very public figure. This is the kind of thing that will make people thing that the winds are blowing in a certain direction.

The Democrats are still going on with the same old woke agenda as always - just had a look on Twitter.

From Biden yesterday:
"White supremacy is a poison running through our body politic. We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. Failure to do so will be complicity. Silence will be complicity. We cannot remain silent."

They don´t represent the American people. They represent woke intellectuals and minority groups.

Looked at other leading Democrats - not much better.

What makes you think Musk is a centrist? As far as his claim that he used to vote Democratic - his political contribution history doesn't support that claim. As far as I'm concerned, he's just another twitter troll who claims "I used to vote Democratic until [here insert whatever the troll wants to stir outrage over].

So now Musk is being accused of sexual harrassment only 2 days after coming out as a Republican. Obviously this leads to the question that this story has been leaked/encouraged/promoted by someone pro Democrat or someone at Twitter who is - I speculate - a progressive in favour of some reasonable limit on free speech. In which case, that doesn't make the story not true. When they come after you with hit pieces, the hits can often be accurate.

Musk is clearly an entitled jerk with limited self control - anyone who follows him on Twitter as I do can see this - it wouldn't be a surprise if the story was true.

As the article says "This is the only known allegation and settlement for sexual misconduct tied personally to Musk." Musk has commented ""If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light,". That's a poor response on two counts. Firstly, he hasn't paid attention to the metoo movement if he thinks women casually come forward. There were stories of people that abused 10 or more women and none of them came forward. Secondly, can't it be true that he just did something like this occassionally, or just the once? Maybe he was dumb enough to do it once or twice, but smart enough to stop doing it once he had to (allegedly/hypothetically) pay off the first woman?

A SpaceX flight attendant said Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, documents show. The company paid $250,000 for her silence.

SpaceX paid a flight attendant $250,000 in severance after she accused Elon Musk of exposing himself and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for a sexual massage.

www.businessinsider.com

There is another possible explanation that I find persuasive here. Musk may have known that stories against him were coming when he tweeted on May 18th:
"In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold"

Maybe that's why he tweeted when he did. As a way of getting ahead of this or other stories and then be able to say after the fact "Look everyone, these accusations came out as soon as I became pro Republican, coincidence....?"

Business Insider says it contacted Musk for comment, but it doesn't say when. Would be interesting to know if it was before or after the above tweet....

Not that I'm saying Musk's move away from the Democrats it's fake, it's extremely likely real, as it absolutely fits in various ways I could explain later if you like, but my point is the timing of that tweet and the way he added "now watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold"...

Musk tweeted about " becoming Republican" on the 18th. The story about paying off the flight attendant became public on the 19th. Business Insider had reached out to Musk, and he had responded to them, before the story broke. So yeah, he was definitely trying to get in front of the story when he tweeted about "becoming Republican" and to expect "political attacks."

Also, if anyone thinks that this was an isolated incident on the part of Musk, I have some nice oceanfront property to sell you. Space X wouldn't shell out a quarter of a million dollars at the drop of a hat if this wasn't part of a well known pattern of behavior by Musk.

 

[Mischief]

I wouldn´t be surprised if Musk runs for President one day. 2024 may come too soon. It would have to be on the Republican side, since the Democrats would never accept him. Not sure if the Republicans would accept him either, though. Honestly don´t know about that.

If it wasn´t for the two party system, he could run as an independent since he is probably a centrist and probably has some left-wing and some right-wing views.

I'd support him running as a Republican candidate since he can't be any worse than Trump or Ted Cruz or let's be honest almost any Republican. At least the Republicans would have a chance of changing some of their wrong views on climate change as a result.

Musk doesn't qualify to run for POTUS. He's not a natural born citizen of the U.S. It's a requirement set out in the Constitution.

 

[Mischief]

He is just old and made a senior- like mistake.
I wouldn't make much of it.

However, His invasion of Iraq was unjustified and thousands of Iraqi died for absolutely no reason. Maybe he didn't know any better but his cronies lied to us and the world.

Some people ask who was the worst president. I think it was George W. Bush. Trump was pretty bad but he didn't Start Two Wars. Trump might not even be the second worst president. Andrew Johnson may have been even worse.

trump is the only president who tried to overturn the results of an election and incited a violent insurrection. That qualifies him as the worst president all by itself.

 

[Mischief]

All these people who hate Elon Musk are just jealous that he has more money than them, he worked hard for that money, if you want to be rich like him then you can, but you'll have to work for it, don't hate on him just because you're lazy and he's not.

That's funny. I know you didn't intend it to be funny, but it is.

 

[Mischief]

Imagine working your *** off for your whole life to get rich, and then you have your money stolen because lazy people are immature and spiteful, tax the rich is the motto of lazy childish losers, not only is it immoral it's also a bad idea practically, big businesses are good for the economy, they provide jobs for millions of people, why would you want to make it harder for them to operate? Grow up already.

You should take your own advice to "grow up." I gather you're a teenager, but even taking that into account....

 

[Mischief]

Also Elon Musk is hardly a conservative, he's a libertarian anarchist, he would never get the approval of the authoritarian republican party.

You made me laugh out loud again.

 

[Mischief]

To me, it´s actually still an open question whether the war in Iraq was a good or a bad thing. A dictator was removed, and people were freed from a terrible regime and abuse, however the country then went through years of strife and internal conflict and lack of stability, and some Iraqis thought it was worse than with Saddam. But Saddam´s son would go around the country raping whoever he choose, it was a pretty awful country. Tony Blair points to evidence and data showing children´s lives were improved and saved. Also, Iraq seems to be less of a threat to its neighbours now. Then again, the war perhaps led to more terrorism in the west. And the Americans committed some awful abuse. And a less stable Iraq may have helped lead to the rise of Islamic State which controlled parts of Iraq for a while.

It seems to me that there are lots of arguments on both sides and yet a lot of people just take the idea that the Iraq war as a bad thing as an article of faith without really seriously considering most of the above.

There were, and are, worse human rights abuses going on elsewhere that we haven't bothered to do anything about. We didn't invade Iraq with clean motives, and we shouldn't pretend we did.

 

[Mischief]

Then why do you want to steal his hard earned money?

No one is stealing Musk's money, which is actually earned by the peons he despises. (Although he's been doing a bang-up job of tanking his own net worth the last couple of months.)

Why do you want to steal the money of hardworking poor and working class people, while insisting that grifters like Musk shouldn't pay their share?

 

[Mischief]

I agree, however the democratic party is doing about as much to keep the progressive movement down as the republicans. They want complacency

Progressives are a relatively small portion of the voters. If progressives want to have a bigger voice, they need to show they can deliver votes.

The DNC has actually been smart this election cycle, and have been letting things shake out locally for the most part, instead of endorsing one candidate over the others. The Pennsylvania Senate race is a good example of this, although Fetterman (like many progressives) is viewed with suspicion by many Black voters. Of course, Fetterman doesn't tick all the progressive boxes, but he's an interesting candidate.

 

[Mischief]

If you live frugally, and invest wisely, it's not unimaginable that you could get the sort of seed money needed to become a billionaire, but even if we're talking about someone like Elon Musk, (which we clearly are) who got his seed money from his rich parents, it is still impressive that he managed to turn that money into 300billion dollars, of course I'm assuming that the seed money was a lot less than that, which it probably was, because owning one emerald mine makes one a lot of money. but it certainly doesn't make someone a multibillionaire.

Apart from everything else, you're overstating his wealth by ~$100,000,000,000. Elon Musk lost $10 billion in net worth in a single day after sexual misconduct claims emerged. He's lost almost $70 billion in net worth since the beginning of this year, basically because he's been so public about being an erratic glass bowl.

 

[Mischief]

Then don't vote for them, they know that all they have to do is remain more progressive than the Republican party and people will still vote for them, they're never going to give you what you want, the only way they're going to act progressively, is if the progressives make them work for their votes.

Great advice for anyone who's willing to say "bye bye" to democracy in this country.

 

[Mischief]

You have a real misunderstanding of hard earned money
Nothing makes millionaires like having money to make money on
Nor do you understand tax shelters, and disproportionate pricing for energy use, recycling costs, trash collection.......
Working a labor job 50 hours a week where your only tax saving comes in the form of saving contributions to a retirement account (if you can afford to) is hard work

Yes.

By and large, good people don't amass large fortunes. Those that do, don't keep them.

Fortunes are made on the backs of the poor and the working class. I don't understand the propensity of so many to worship the rich. Maybe it's a survival instinct - suck up to those in power, and maybe they'll let you live. The sycophancy is nauseating.

 

[anarchist100]

No one is stealing Musk's money, which is actually earned by the peons he despises. (Although he's been doing a bang-up job of tanking his own net worth the last couple of months.)

Why do you want to steal the money of hardworking poor and working class people, while insisting that grifters like Musk shouldn't pay their share?

It's not stealing, they agree to sell their labor for money.

 

[anarchist100]

Great advice for anyone who's willing to say "bye bye" to democracy in this country.

And what we have now is democracy? Neither party is representing the will of the majority, they don't have to. Forcing them to do what the voters actually want by making them compete for votes is the thing that is going to help restore democracy.

 

[anarchist100]

trump is the only president who tried to overturn the results of an election and incited a violent insurrection. That qualifies him as the worst president all by itself.

Worse than George Bush II? A president who lied to go to war in Iraq and killed over 100,000 innocent civilians?