Elon Musk, Trump, Security Concerns for America

[Phil1111 1,149]

Elon Musk has a new friend as a result of hooking up with trump. His name is Vladimir Putin. "The Tesla C.E.O. has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal. Their conversations have been wide-ranging, touching on personal issues, business and geopolitics. On one occasion, the Russian president asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite service over Taiwan to help China’s leader, Xi Jinping, The Journal reports."..."Last year, his companies counted almost 100 contracts with 17 federal agencies, promising to pay out $3 billion, The Times has reported. SpaceX, his rocket company, essentially controls NASA’s rocket launch schedule — that was in full view again with another successful mission this on Friday — and the Defense Department uses it to get most of its satellites into space. Starlink services are used by U.S. embassies and government departments,"

trump's readiness to sell out NATO, NATO partners is well known. He has stated again and again that he is willing to deliver Ukraine to Russia within "one day".

What if a trump president puts Elon in charge of the DOD?

[base698 14]

Oldest propaganda in the book:

Antony did not belong to Rome, but to Egypt and Cleopatra. Octavian attacked Antony's romanitas (Roman-ness); he was now hopelessly enraptured by Cleopatra, to Egypt, and their 'strange' deities.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

3 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

What if a trump president puts Elon in charge of the DOD?

What if Elon gives access to US satellites to Putin?

The US allowing a private company controlled by one person to be the key to their satellites and access to space is absolutely bizarre. It is so incredibly dumb.

[JoeWeber 2,720]

6 hours ago, SkyDekker said:

What if Elon gives access to US satellites to Putin?

The US allowing a private company controlled by one person to be the key to their satellites and access to space is absolutely bizarre. It is so incredibly dumb.

Yep, and we're just getting started.

[feuergnom 28]

I used to read a lot of sf-novels when I was younger. in many of the stories the World was run by companies and corporations 

as a lot of these dystopian stories have become reality on a smaller scale I guess it's time to go for the next level 

[tkhayes 348]

4 hours ago, feuergnom said:

I used to read a lot of sf-novels when I was younger. in many of the stories the World was run by companies and corporations 

as a lot of these dystopian stories have become reality on a smaller scale I guess it's time to go for the next level 

Trump would absolutely allow Musk to do whatever transactional things he could do with Russia, regardless of the outcome for the USA or the world, as long as those transactional things also benefited Donald Trump.

[jakee 1,489]

47 minutes ago, tkhayes said:

Trump would absolutely allow Musk to do whatever transactional things he could do with Russia, regardless of the outcome for the USA or the world, as long as those transactional things also benefited Donald Trump.

He says he’s going to put RFK in charge of medicine, drugs and vaccines so yeah, there are no limits. Clearly the message is that the only concern of a Trump presidency is to serve himself and his loyal backers and there will be zero fucks given about anyone or anything else.

[ryoder 1,590]

The best Elmo meme I've see this morning:

[billvon 2,991]

And now it turns out that Musk was  . . .. AN ILLEGAL!

He came here under a J-1 (student) visa in 1995, enrolled at Stanford - but never took any courses.  Instead he started a company - Zip2 - while here under the J-1 visa, which is of course illegal.  

A year later, in 1996, he tried to get funding for the company.  A canny investor asked if he was here legally, found out he wasn't, and demanded he get an H-1B visa before they would invest any money.  Eventually he did.

He's made jokes about this.  In 2013, he joked about being in an immigration “gray area” early in his career. In 2020, Musk said "I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work."

Which makes him the perfect Trump supporter - attacking others for doing what he did.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

10 minutes ago, billvon said:

And now it turns out that Musk was  . . .. AN ILLEGAL!

He came here under a J-1 (student) visa in 1995, enrolled at Stanford - but never took any courses.  Instead he started a company - Zip2 - while here under the J-1 visa, which is of course illegal.  

A year later, in 1996, he tried to get funding for the company.  A canny investor asked if he was here legally, found out he wasn't, and demanded he get an H-1B visa before they would invest any money.  Eventually he did.

He's made jokes about this.  In 2013, he joked about being in an immigration “gray area” early in his career. In 2020, Musk said "I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work."

Which makes him the perfect Trump supporter - attacking others for doing what he did.

Ah yes, but he isn't a brown illegal, so none of that matters.

Right now the republican party stands for nothing but racism and fascism.

[Phil1111 1,149]

1 hour ago, billvon said:

And now it turns out that Musk was  . . .. AN ILLEGAL!

He came here under a J-1 (student) visa in 1995, enrolled at Stanford - but never took any courses.  Instead he started a company - Zip2 - while here under the J-1 visa, which is of course illegal.  

A year later, in 1996, he tried to get funding for the company.  A canny investor asked if he was here legally, found out he wasn't, and demanded he get an H-1B visa before they would invest any money.  Eventually he did.

He's made jokes about this.  In 2013, he joked about being in an immigration “gray area” early in his career. In 2020, Musk said "I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work."

Which makes him the perfect Trump supporter - attacking others for doing what he did. Or marrying them.

FIFY

"Melania Trump was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States worth $20,056 that occurred in the seven weeks before she had legal permission to work in the country, according to detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related documents from 20 years ago provided to The Associated Press."

[JerryBaumchen 1,363]

54 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

FIFY

"Melania Trump was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States worth $20,056 that occurred in the seven weeks before she had legal permission to work in the country, according to detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related documents from 20 years ago provided to The Associated Press."

Hi Phil,

Or, to paraphrase Leona Hemsley:  Those rules are for the little people.

Jerry Baumchen

[nigel99 474]

Seriously seeing the news about Musk and Putin, if Harris wins he should have his US Citizenship pulled and be deported to South Africa. 

[brenthutch 444]

On 10/28/2024 at 3:09 PM, SkyDekker said:

Ah yes, but he isn't a brown illegal, so none of that matters.

Right now the republican party stands for nothing but racism and fascism.

But he is an African American 

[Phil1111 1,149]

On 10/28/2024 at 3:19 PM, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Phil,

Or, to paraphrase Leona Hemsley:  Those rules are for the little people.

Jerry Baumchen

If trump wins they will be both little people and enemies.

[ryoder 1,590]

5 hours ago, nigel99 said:

Seriously seeing the news about Musk and Putin, if Harris wins he should have his US Citizenship pulled and be deported to South Africa. 

At the very least he should be informed that SpaceX and Starlink will get no more government money until he sells them.

Edited November 5, 2024 by ryoder

[JoeWeber 2,720]

40 minutes ago, ryoder said:

At the very least he should be informed that SpaceX and Starlink will get no more government money until he sells them.

That would be fun but in reality he has our government and us by the short curlies. In the immortal words of my 9 year old grand niece: this game is broke!

[base698 14]

3 hours ago, ryoder said:

At the very least he should be informed that SpaceX and Starlink will get no more government money until he sells them.

We should divide it up and let Boeing run it!  I love the idea of fucking up one of the few positive progress stories of the US.

[kallend 2,027]

24 minutes ago, base698 said:

We should divide it up and let Boeing run it!  I love the idea of fucking up one of the few positive progress stories of the US.

Progress to what?  If SpaceX and Starlink had never existed, I doubt it would have made one iota of difference to my life, or that of 99% of American voters.

Edited November 5, 2024 by kallend

[base698 14]

A kid watching rocket launches that land and do Mars missions will be more likely to go into engineering and science.  Starlink can be used to provide rural broadband instead of whatever grotesque $42 billion waste the government had attempted.

That's the most asinine and myopic comment I've ever seen here.

[normiss 800]

22 minutes ago, base698 said:

A kid watching rocket launches that land and do Mars missions will be more likely to go into engineering and science.  Starlink can be used to provide rural broadband instead of whatever grotesque $42 billion waste the government had attempted.

That's the most asinine and myopic comment I've ever seen here.

Which has dick all to do with Musk, other than money.

[base698 14]

15 hours ago, normiss said:

Which has dick all to do with Musk, other than money.

Musk won the election and now in addition to being the richest man in the world, the most important defense contractor, he has the direct influence at the highest levels of government.

Not just money.

" The people you hate the most are going to be in charge of the things that are most important to you."

[SkyDekker 1,465]

21 hours ago, base698 said:

Starlink can be used to provide rural broadband

Sure, can also be used to ensure it only delivers Musk approved content. Or only works in counties that vote according to Musk's wishes.

[normiss 800]

4 hours ago, SkyDekker said:

Sure, can also be used to ensure it only delivers Musk approved content. Or only works in counties that vote according to Musk's wishes.

Having deployed multiple Starlinks for backup internet, it sucks. 

[JoeWeber 2,720]

5 hours ago, normiss said:

Having deployed multiple Starlinks for backup internet, it sucks. 

Brother, we can be as angry as we want but the truth of Keyne's statement holds. Today, tomorrow, or a year from now we will all be in line with the new facts. That's just how we work.