#guys he’s threatening elon

[bluesnow21]

I mean he's trolling Elon BUT HE HAS A CAT! #yusuf dikeç #kedi #kediler

Don't mess with Yusuf Dikeç's cat!

Photos by Yusuf Dikeç Official

[artfulstar]

Woah woah woah. Twitter is shutting down in Brasil? I'm thankful for your mental health but what?

Yep.

TLDR: Elon fired everyone in the Brazilian offices of twitter but legally Twitter can't continue existing in Brazil WITHOUT a legal representative. So now our Federal Supreme Court subpoened him to apoint a new representative or the website is getting shut down in the country

The long version with the context about the fight:

It all started when the supreme court started to shut down in the country profiles of brazilian people who had commited crimes using the website (an example is Monark, a dude who literally used his profile to say we should give n*zis and racists unlimited freedom of speech [he fled to the US to escape prison btw]).

Elon caught wind of this and decided to threaten our constitution and said that he would get the profiles back on because he wouldn't accept a government restricting "freedom of speech" on his platform. The supreme court issued a statement that if he did that, he would face a fee everyday for every account reactivated. It was money so he didn't do that (or maybe turns out he couldn't do it anyway and he was just lying for his lil fanboys).

This was all back at the start of the year but suddenly almost two weeks ago it was reported he fired every single employee in the offices of brazil, including the legal representative.

Then tonight, around two hours ago the official profile of STF replied and tagged elon with the doc of the subpoena because since they didn't have a legal representative, they couldn't do it in the proper way. The subpoena says that Elon has 24 hours to appoint a new guy for the job or the social is getting shut down in brazilian territory.

So we have 3 options for whats gonna happen in the next 24 hours:

Alexandre de Moraes (The guy who Elon started a one-sided beef with) backs down and doesnt shut down the website (highly unlikely)

Elon backs down and appoints a new guy so he doesnt lose the 4th biggest public of his site

Twitter gets shut down until Elon's manchild's ego gives in

thats all <3

Edit:

This was Elon's reply to the tweet. YES he is pathetic like that

Edit 2: it's currently 17:38 brasilia time of 30/08 and Twitter is bound to get disconnected soon, the order has been given by Moraes. People who use a VPN to access Twitter will get fined 50k reais (almost 9k dollars).

Yesterday a note was posted lying about Brazil being a dictatorship and saying that one of the people being censored is a 16yr old girl. The truth is that it's a grown ass man that use his daughters account to promote attacks on delegates, ministers, judges and other politicians. They also call orders to ban n*zi accounts "illegal orders" (WHICH ARE VERY LEGAL UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF BRAZIL). They also say "we don't want every other country to have the freedom of speech laws the US has" meanwhile they've been trying to impose them in a sovereign state.

I would say what I want to say to Elon but unfortunately my mother taught me to keep those kinds of thoughts inside. Just know they're three letters <3

edit 3: twitter was officially unavailable on brazilian territory by the time it struck midnight of the 31st

Edit 4:

Translation: 🚨 NOW: Elon Musk is looking for executives to represent Twitter/X in Brazil, to negotiate the platform's RETURN in the country, reports Correio Braziliense.

he's going to do what cellbit said kkkmk he purposely let them suspend it, then after a few days he'll come out and be the savior of the brazilian people and say he only did it for us

Don't let elon fool you. He doesn't care and is probably only doing it because his investors are threatening him with money

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Pavlovitz at The Beautiful Mess:

Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her running mate in the coming presidential campaign.

The decision was met with effusive praise from both Blue voters, as well as a disparate group of politicians and commentators. Walz’ effortless warmth, his heart-on-sleeve demeanor, and his undeniable joy for life, which have been apparent for a long time in his home state—have suddenly become a national story. In a matter of hours, millions of people fell in love with the Governor, sharing videos of he and his daughter on thrill rides at the State Fair, and photos of him being joyfully embraced by a group of school children and cheerfully holding a tiny, sleeping piglet. And in the wake of the announcement and of his and Kamala' Harris’ electrifying appearance in Philadelphia at their first rally, the “Christian” MAGA Right rolled out a telling reply that they surely imagined was a real zinger: They created the hashtag #TamponTimmy. Really. That’s where they went. That’s all they got. Not only does this desperate response underscore the reality that Republican voters have nothing left but sophomoric name-calling in an effort to emulate their emotionally-stunted orange messiah in the absence of substantive critique, but it reveals how hateful toward women and how threatened by non-toxic masculinity they are.

MAGAs don’t see how much they expose themselves by using a female medical product as a slur, the way it reveals their complete contempt for women and their agendas toward them. They are so intimidated by a man this confident in who he is and so endowed with natural humility, that they have to attack these things as if they’re some sort of character flaws. Emotional maturity is a red flag for them.

[...] They are fully fed up with Trump and his surrogate’s contrived John Wayne dudebro American tough guy cosplay, and they are ready to embrace a better kind of manhood: one that doesn’t need to prove how tough it is, doesn’t have to be the center of attention, and most of all, is not concerned about showing its deep humanity because it revels in it. Tens of million of boys and young men of this nation have been irreparably harmed by the sexist dehumanization of Trump and the MAGA movement, which have been reinforced by Dark Ages theology, culture war politics, inherited/internalized misogyny, and good ol’ fashioned fragile masculinity. This nation is ready to embrace a masculinity embodied in Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff: one that does no harm, one that gladly defers to a strong, capable, talented woman, and one that makes all of us better.

John Pavlovitz nails it. The masculinity of Tim Walz is what’s needed for America, instead of the kind of masculinity the likes of Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, and Elon Musk push.

[contemplatingoutlander]

BERNIE SANDERS | Welcome to the world of oligarchy. | 12-20-24

After Elon Musk interfered with a bipartisan spending bill in late Dec. by threatening to spend money to primary any Republican who voted for the bill, Bernie Sanders felt it was time to acknowledge the U.S. has now become an oligarchy. Here is a partial transcript:

Take a deep breath and appreciate what’s going on here. The wealthiest person in the world, who spent at least $277 million to elect Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, has now claimed complete ownership of that party. And what he’s saying is, hey Republicans, forget your constituents. Forget your constitutional responsibilities. If you don’t do what I, Elon Musk, want you to do, you’re out of office. And I have the money to do just that. My friends, what we are looking at here has nothing to do with democracy. What we are looking at here is oligarchy. This is up and up government by the billionaire class for the billionaire class. And by the way, Musk...is trying to inject himself into the Democratic Party as well. He is threatening to target Democrats who are standing up to him and his agenda. Further and very dangerously--and this is the guy, you know, who owns Twitter...Musk has been spreading an enormous amount of disinformation and outright lies about what is in the bill. [...] What we are dealing with right now is that the billionaire class, which owns so much of our economy, which owns so much of our media, they are now moving aggressively to own our political system as well. So we got a lot of work in front of us. We’ve got to educate. We’ve got to organize and we have got to stop them.

It is worth watching the entire video. A complete transcript of the video can be found here:

[thinking-emoji]

Ok contrary to my expectations I actually found the Today Show interview interesting for, like, a couple of reasons???

1. Other people have said this but the interviewer opening with "together for 15 years, how do you make it work", and Dan going through the turtle metaphor and then, with the widest grin, saying "professional relationship" - was SUCH a refreshing moment imo bc it didn't feel awkward at all!!! It's such a fun middle ground - giving the fans what they want (tortoises), giving the interviewers what they want (an answer), giving himself what he wants (control of the narrative and focus on the professional aspect), giving me, sophia thinking-emoji, what I want (feeling like I'm in on a joke) thank FUCK they've gotten good at media now after 15 years.

2. What Phil said about everyone being aware of internet content and professional content creators now. That's the one thing I noticed from the start. There was a post going around here earlier about phannies interviewing them vs non-phannies, and it was kind of based on those old interviews when journalists would ask "well what does a youtuber even do", and generally being disrespectful because they either didn't understand or felt threatened by new media - and I think that is pretty much gone now. Of course the tv presenters on Australia Today Extra know who dnp are and what they've done over the years. Not knowing that would be embarrassing! We're not wasting our time with the very basics anymore. You're allowed to just say hi and promote your show without having to justify your entire career now. Finally

3. The interviewer repeatedly trying to get more speaking time from phil, and dan ALWAYS rushing in to help phil wrap his answers up - and then at the end, Phil claiming that he "yaps too much" for tiktok. That's so fucking funny bc it looks like he's just blatantly ignorant of how he comes across as the guy who talks significantly less, but it's even funnier if you realise that it's probably true? If you leave Phil alone with a camera, I think he would talk for 10 hours but occasionally sit in silence for 20 seconds at a time, and that's why dan has to step in with these fast-paced interviews before phil can think of an answer of his own. We pretend they're one person but I find it fascinating how you can see their different approaches to communication in these interviews

4. Elise posting this on bluesky of all places unironically makes me happy. I'm still not on there but it feels like a small victory over elon musk specifically lmao. I hope more twitter phannies move and then in a few months we can completely replace twitter as a source, at least within our small fandom space

Edit. 5. I knew I had forgotten something over the 20 minutes of writing this and it's of course them willingly, openly and unprompted talking about being queer and having a queer audience on a show that is not decidedly queer! It's one thing to talk to Attitude mag or to a phannie about identifying as a twink and a third or so of your audience being trans, but honestly saying this on The morning show on national tv hits, dare I say it, different

[argyrocratie]

“Did you see that Facebook post about the budget cuts?” my co-worker asks. “What the fuck, no,” I reply. She hands me her phone. I see a headline announcing that, due to the push to slash basic services coming from Elon Musk and Donald Trump, 20% of our funding for local public transportation is now threatened. Lawyers are fighting it out in the courts, but if these cuts go through, it will mean less service, possible layoffs, and lots of people not having access to a system that is one of the few lifelines for poor people in our area. People depend on these buses to get to their jobs, to medical appointments, to programs for special needs adults, to court dates.

I sit back down, staring out the window at the cold, grey parking lot. I am waiting for a member of the morning shift to come in with a bus so I can take it out. A few buses dot the bus yard. They’re sitting idle because the parts on order haven’t come in for months—even years, in some cases—and because the city refuses to hire enough mechanics to keep up with daily maintenance. This means that drivers on night shift, like me, sometimes have to wait hours for a bus to arrive. Our transit agency, which contracts out to a huge multi-national corporation, is already dramatically underfunded. The new cuts will only compound our existing problems.

“Fucking Musk, man,” I say with a sigh. Another co-worker on the night shift agrees with me. He’s in his mid-70s, but he’s still working full time because he recently burned through all his savings burying his parents. I launch into a long rant about how both Musk and Trump hate labor unions and workers and want to replace us all with artificial intelligence. A third co-worker, presumably a Trump supporter, grumbles about how “they” just want to blame the cuts threatening our jobs on the “administration.”

It’s pitch-dark when I enter the trailer park, passing a metal gate, I drive slowly through the ever-growing rows of manufactured homes. Some of them have signs reading “For sale.”

“Lots of people moving out?” I ask my only passenger.

“Yeah, no one can afford to live here anymore,” she replies. As I turn the corner, she launches into a long tirade about the corporation who owns the trailer park and how they keep raising the cost of “space rent,” the monthly fee that mobile home owners pay to trailer park owners. “Every year the rent here goes up. New people move in from out of town and they can pay more, and that’s pushing us out,” she says, as I unhook her walker inside the cold, dark bus cab. “I don’t know why the landlords are so greedy. Do they just want everything?” I lower her and her walker down onto the pavement outside her trailer.

As the electronic ramp whirls its gears, I turn to my left. In her front window, there is a strange collage of images of Donald Trump. It is faded and worn from the sun. I shake my head and chuckle, resisting the temptation to point out the obvious. How can you complain about a corporate landlord ruining your life, but place all of your hopes in another landlord who is trying to become a dictator?

Perhaps she senses my disdain. “Trump is gonna fix it, you’ll see. Prices are going to go down once he starts drilling.”

My eyes narrow. “Biden was drilling more oil than any president before him,” I reply.

I meet all sorts of people like this at my job. One guy smells like piss so bad while I strap in his wheelchair that I have to turn my head so I don’t gag. The car in front of the house where I pick him up has a bumper sticker on it reading, “I Don’t Trust the Liberal Media.” I wonder if the conservative media is telling him his healthcare is about to be nuked from orbit.

Another guy, as I load and unload his wheelchair, takes out his Trump hat, puts it on, and asks me what I think of it. I tell him Trump and Musk want to use the military to shoot protesters, destroy unions, and fire workers like me, so why would I give a fuck about them. He looks away, says, “Alright then,” and jets off on his electronic scooter. I wonder if he is looking forward to ICE deporting half of his neighbors.

On election day, I lost it and got into a heated back and forth with a pro-Trump guy. He rested his case by proclaiming that we need to make it easier on rich people so that the wealth will trickle down to the rest of us. I want to grab these people and shake them.

Trump represents the triumph of the nihilism of our age. The foreclosure of the idea that the working-class can take and shape its own destiny. Instead, apparently, we should throw ourselves at the mercy of a reality TV star who shits in a gold toilet, eats breakfast with billionaire pedophiles, and has dinner with neo-Nazis between rounds of golf. In the absence of the kind of social movements that could connect people and enable them to grow and change, Trump has built a mass parasocial spectacle that makes these isolated people feel like they are part of something greater than themselves even as all of our lives become smaller and smaller, more and more impoverished and alienated.

I shuffle into the union hall, past the placards reading “ON STRIKE” and faded signs several decades old. Almost fifteen years ago, during Occupy, I attended a meeting in this same room. I wonder what’s changed since then. I find a seat and one of our union shop stewards slides a packet across the table to me. I open it up and start paging through it, looking at the spreadsheets and graphs.

We start to discuss the ins and outs of the proposed contract that our elected union representatives and corporate lawyers have been going over during recent meetings. One of the much-hated top corporate bosses was recently fired for corruption, much to the delight of the entire workforce. As one of my co-workers said, “Really tells you a lot about a place when motherfuckers are walking around singing, ‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead!’ and morale has never been higher!”

We go through the contract. Despite a few small improvements, things are mostly the same. “What about the pay?” I ask, fingers crossed. The shop steward cocks her head to the side and turns a page, pointing with her pen to a graph showing a dollar increase. She explains that the contract will be for five years, during which time we’ll only be getting a few cents more each year. “This is literally what I was making ten years ago,” I sigh, “and this contract will be valid for five years?”

I already can’t save money. Imagine what things will be like in five years.

She shrugs. “We’re encouraging you to vote “Yes,”’ she says, and hands me a piece of paper on which to mark an “X” signifying yes or no.

If enough workers vote the contract through, the company will ratify it and it will govern my life for the next five years—presuming that I don’t get downsized. Any strike or protest activity will be illegal, as per our “No Strike” agreement. If enough people vote no, it goes back to the union bargaining team, and they will continue to bargain for more changes in closed door meetings.

I head into another room, mark an X by “NO,” and drop the piece of paper into a wooden box. I wave to a few co-workers on my way out. As I leave, I pass a portrait of Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union. You smug bastard, I say to myself. I remember his glasses and bald head on stage of the Republican National Convention last year, when he called Donald Trump a “Tough son of a bitch.” What a dipshit.

I used to have a poster in my room many years ago, proclaiming, “The past doesn’t pass.” Next to the slogan was a photo of striking Teamster bus drivers—bus drivers, just like me—beating police officers with baseball bats during the general strike of 1934 in Minneapolis. That was one of the decisive labor battles that forced the ruling class to accept the New Deal in order to cool down the class war that was brewing on the streets.

At home, I look over a letter announcing that people in my neighborhood shouldn’t drink the tap water because the levels of uranium in the river are too high. Sometimes I wonder what I would say to my children about this moment in history—if I could afford to have children. Probably the same things my parents say to me now: they’re sorry we are inheriting this world. Sorry they didn’t fix it. Sorry they didn’t build strong enough movements to turn the tide against these monsters.

At work, as I drive, I begin to notice that there are fewer Trump flags and signs out. Resentment is rising. A joke by a cashier here about being replaced by AI, a comment there about Trump cutting programs. I walk into the break room and someone is shaking their head angrily while watching a video of Musk on their phone. They mutter something about tariffs and rising prices.

The tension in the air is palpable. It is similar to how things felt at the start of the economic crisis in 2008, when many of the homes in my neighborhood were foreclosed on and many people lost their jobs. It also reminds me of the start of the pandemic—how at first, I thought it wouldn’t be so bad, only to watch in horror as our family members and friends succumbed to the virus.

In 2008, many people thought that crowds would flood the streets immediately when the administration bailed out the banks while leaving the rest of us high and dry. That didn’t happen. It took years for resistance to grow. In Chicago, workers occupied their factory when they were terminated without pay. In Wisconsin, workers occupied the capitol building against government attacks on collective bargaining. In California, students occupied universities to protest budget cuts. The Occupy movement began in the fall of 2011 and rapidly built to massive occupations of city squares across the US, coordinated port shut downs, and a general strike in Oakland, California. With Joe Biden as vice president, the federal government helped to coordinate violent raids targeting the movement in order to break it apart.

In 2020, on the other hand, things didn’t fester—they exploded like a bomb. Millions of people across the country mobilized in response to the pandemic, providing mutual aid in the face of government inaction and right-wing disinformation, and then hit the streets in the George Floyd uprising.

Who knows how things will evolve this time. It will probably be different from both of those scenarios, but it could be similar in some ways. What is clear is that things are not as people expected them to be. Many people on the left thought—or at least hoped—that Trump would govern the way he did the first time, constrained by mass protest, the courts, and his own party. Many who voted for him honestly did not expect him to follow through on many of the policies he explicitly promised to carry out. Those who were not paying attention are surprised that suddenly, jobs are disappearing and services are being cut while prices only continue to rise.

The material conditions are forcing people to reckon with the fact that the state is attempting to reshape our lives for the sake of an authoritarian project. As we speak, thousands of people are flooding town halls across the United States, screaming at their so-called representatives about the plan to gut programs like Medicaid—only to hear the bureaucrats repeat a slew of MAGA talking points. Anger is brewing. Hopefully the MAGA strategy of “flooding the zone” with shit will produce diminishing returns as people turn towards their neighbors and co-workers and away from their phones and YouTube.

This is an opportunity for us to call out the authoritarian project of the Trump administration, the techno-dystopian fantasies of billionaires like Musk, and the complicity of the Democrats who helped make all of this possible. Beyond naming the systems that we are up against, we also need to be clear about our position as workers and how the billionaires running the country want both to hurt us and to weaponize our anger, turning us against each other through propaganda and fearmongering. This is why it’s important to stand in solidarity with everyone attacked by the Trump administration, whether trans folks, migrants, prisoners, or beyond. We can’t leave anyone behind. The only immigrant trying to steal my job is Elon Musk. It’s time to be clear that our interests are not theirs; we must develop and promote our own vision of a better world in total opposition to the ruling class, the billionaires, and their fascist puppets.

Moreover, it’s time for action. We need to give expression to these antagonisms while revealing the poverty of the institutional forms currently at our disposal—the Democratic party, the ever-shrinking union bureaucracy, the non-profits. We can show examples of past struggles and resistance from the mass wildcat strikes by teachers in West Virginia and the fierce anti-fascist mobilizations against the alt-right to the airport shutdowns following the Muslim Ban. We can support and expand the existing fronts that are already breaking out around us: protests against Musk outside of Tesla, rallies to demand that hospitals continue to treat trans people, community defense and rapid response networks to address ICE attacks, bashing back against the violence of the far right. We can demonstrate the utility of tactics and strategies that others can take up and expand on as all of us figure out how to fight in the new reality.

It’s hard to look at the news without imagining tanks on the streets or scenes out of V for Vendetta. But the scenario I worry about most is that this will simply become the new normal. That we will accept this just as we accepted the last round of attacks. As we accepted the genocide in Gaza. As we accepted the ecological gun to our heads that is climate change.

While people are angry and energized, we have a chance to push in a new direction. Let’s use this moment to foster broad and popular networks of resistance that improve our lives, strengthen our communities, and enable us to meet our needs directly. At this point, we don’t have much of a choice.

Like it or not, this is life now—and it is coming for all of us.

-“The Only Immigrant Trying to Steal My Job Is Elon Musk” A Bus Driver’s Perspective on Elon Musk’s Austerity Measures

[bromantically]

Transcript:

"Thanks very much for joining me. We are living in a dangerous and unprecedented moment in American history, and I'm getting a lot of calls from people who are not only upset about what's happening, but are wondering how we best go forward. Well let me tell you, we've got to be smart. We've got to be organized and we've got to fight back. This is not a time for wallowing in despair and hiding under the covers. The stakes are just too high. We are not just fighting for ourselves. We're fighting for our kids, for future generations. We're fighting for the future of this planet. In the first two weeks of his presidency, Donald Trump defied the Constitution by ending birthright citizenship, fired government watchdogs, allowed drilling along our coastlines, pen violent insurrectionist, suspended all foreign aid, and tried to cut off virtually all federal funding. So how do we go forward? First to be effective, we've got to understand what in fact is happening around us right now. Second, we need a short-term strategy. What do we do tomorrow and the next day and the day after that? Third we need a long-term strategy. How do we build a movement that gains political power?

Here is, in my view, a brief overview as to what is happening under Trump. Most importantly, the move toward oligarchy in our country, government run by the rich and the powerful is proceeding rapidly. And it's not being done secretly. A little over a week ago, Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term, standing right behind them with the three richest men in the world, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. Men who have become over 200 billion dollars richer since Trump was elected, and who now are worth almost a trillion dollars more money than the bottom half of American society, 170 million people.

But it's not just oligarchy that we should worry about. This country under Trump is moving rapidly toward authoritarianism. Just a few examples: In violation of the Constitution and federal law, Trump attempted the other day to suspend all federal grants and loans. That means he blocked funding for Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, homeless veterans, etc., etc.. Tens of millions of Americans, some of the most vulnerable people in our country, were impacted by that decision. Fortunately, Americans all across the country stood up in outrage and said, no, no. And with the help of the courts, much, but not all of that freeze and funding was rescinded. You may have noticed that Trump is intimidating the media with lawsuits against ABC, CBS, Meta, and the Des Moines Register. If Trump does not like what media reports, he is threatening them with lawsuits, undermining the First Amendment. That is a direct movement toward authoritarianism.

Now, that's a very broad overview of where we are today. In terms of short-term strategy, we've got to mobilize as strongly as we can against Trump's dangerous proposals. And let me just say this, importantly, yes, the Republicans control the House and the Senate. But do not forget, their majorities are small. In the House, a body of 435 members, they have a four vote majority. That is a razor thin margin. And their legislation can be defeated. There are a number of Republicans out there who won in Democratic districts by small margins. So let me tell you, these guys do respond to phone calls and emails. So if there's a piece of legislation you disagree with, get on the phone and call the capital switchboard at 202-224-2131. And what is some of that legislation that we should be concerned about? Republicans right now are working on what's called a budget reconciliation bill. The most important element, which would be a massive tax break for the wealthy to be paid for by large cuts in Medicaid and other programs that working families and low income people desperately need. At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, when so many of our people are struggling to put food on the table, we must not savage programs for working families to provide huge tax breaks for billionaires. We must vigorously oppose Trump's efforts at mass deportation. Yes, we must strengthen our borders. Yes, we should deport people who have been convicted of serious crimes. But no, no, we cannot destroy families who have lived and worked in this country peacefully for decades.

Not only is Trump's Mass deportation program immoral, it will have a severely negative impact on our economy. As all of you know, we are seeing extreme weather disturbances and devastation in our country and all over the world related to climate change. Think about LA. Think about North Carolina. We must vigorously oppose this absurd drill baby drill doctrine, which will only make an incredibly dangerous climate situation even worse. And those are just a few of the issues that are coming down the pipe. But we cannot just play defense. We have got to be on the offense. Please never forget that the agenda that we are fighting for is widely supported, widely supported by working families all across this country, and we must continue to fight for that agenda. The American people do not want cuts to Medicaid and the privatization of Medicare. They understand that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. We must continue the struggle for Medicare for All so that every American has the health care that he or she needs. That's not a radical idea. That's what Americans want. Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. We must raise that minimum wage to a living wage. At least $17 an hour. If you work 40 hours a week in America, you should not be living in poverty.

All over this country, we have a major housing crisis. And it's not just 800,000 who are homeless. It is millions of working families who are spending 40, 50, 60% of their limited incomes on housing. Instead of spending almost a trillion dollars a year on a wasteful and bloated Pentagon budget, we have got to build millions of units of low income and affordable housing. And when we do that, we put large numbers of people to work at good paying union jobs. I could go on and on, but let me conclude by saying this: The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. If we stand together and oppose right-wing efforts to divide us up by our race, by our religion, our sexual orientation, or where we were born, if we stand together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. Bottom line, let us go forward and fight for a government and an economy that works for all, not just a few. We simply do not have the luxury of moaning and groaning. We have got to stand up and fight back. We can do it. Let's go forward together. Thank you very much."

[with-my-murder-flute]

Cristabel and the proverbial sandwich

(Spoilers for Harrow and Nona the Ninth)

I have not known inner peace since I saw someone say, "But come on, does anyone ACTUALLY buy John's story about how the nun died?"

Because honestly, I'd just kind of gone, "Super random, very weird interaction, boy there sure are cult mindworms at play here," and moved on to the next page.

But as soon as I saw that question asked, the amount I did not buy that story hit me like a load of bricks, to the point I'm kind of amazed that I ever did believe it.

Two people. A locked door. A nuclear standoff. A close-range head injury.

On one side, a full-fledged Catholic nun—well done, that’s the classic—who's best friends with a staunchly atheist world-class scientist and believes, if we're to believe John, that Jesus's problem is that he didn't stick to office hours.

On the other, a woman described as, "A total delight. Effervescent. Kind to animals and children. A master of the sword. Did not have the intellect you’d ordinarily find in a sandwich or an orange, and was a sickening twerp into the bargain."

Oh, and in the middle, there's also a necromancer who wants to bring back his friends... minus any little details about things he they might have done wrong. He "knows where memory lives in the brain", and they "won't have any of it." And "guys as careful as me don't make mistakes," but then again, all that means is that if he kills someone, he did it on purpose.

C— talks her way into a locked room with John, who's on the phone threatening some world leaders with a nuke, expresses care and concern for him, and then... decides he needs more data on the soul? And kills herself to provide that for him?

I'll be honest, I just don't believe that John was an ordinary guy, totally normal, could be any of us, and he just got put in a really stressful situation and made some bad choices but who HASN'T done things they aren't proud of??? I reject that point of view completely. Like, Elon Musk in any given interaction probably is really stressed out and unhappy and having trouble responding in a way that's at all well-considered or emotionally mature, but that doesn't mean that Musk isn't also, at baseline, a deeply stupid, petty, immature, grandiose, entitled, egocentric person. No matter what situation you put him in, he's going to keep on being those things.

I think that John's initial idea was to put the entire human population of Earth, minus some necessary staff, into some giant cryonic freezers, and give the Earth some amount of time to rest and recover from the effects of human-caused pollution. A plan about which I will confess some hesitation myself; being told "just lie down in this coffin, bro, you'll only be a little dead, I'll totally bring you back to life* in a couple centuries (*98% effective!) " does not fill me with an enthusiasm to hop on board.

And then his project got cut. And he decided, "Well, if they won't agree, I can just make them agree." After all, all that end game needs is 10 billion frozen corpses hanging out in those tin cans, and a small team of staff left to keep the place running. How it gets there is something he can afford to be flexible about. If people won't climb in on their own, he can put them there.

So when C— or the nun tell him to stop focusing on revenge, to bend all his energies to saving the world, I think he thinks: Well, I am. He's gonna wash the earth clean at the end of this! He just needs to be able to set the dominoes in motion. He just needs to engineer a situation that will justify taking his nuke out of the vault and making the pieces fall.

A situation that would be sabotaged, ruined, if anyone made a true deep sincere good-faith effort to talk him out of Plan Nuke and called the legitimacy of this crisis into any sort of question. He needs to prevent that from happening.

Actually. Also. He needs one more thing than that.

He needs an excuse to use the nuke, but also, he's finishing his homework at the very last minute. He still hasn't mastered the soul. He does need a few more test subjects.

Maybe he let her in and thought: Two birds with one stone, eh?

[kaythefloppa]

Wild Kratts - Bumblezzzz - Thoughts

This episode airs on TV tomorrow, but was released online in the PBS Kids Video App. So if you're planning on watching it on television, or unable to access the videp app, you may want to scroll off for spoilers

I was aware some bees come in blue (hi Martin). But GREEN???? The fuck?

The epitome of "waking up and choosing chaos."

I envy Chris's organized manner.

Bros went from Salamander Streaming to a Salamander Snack ☠️

This raises - so many questions and thoughts.

Apparently there is a "Villain Weekly" magazine that is sold in copies? I mean there's a Finding Your Inner Villain Seminar so I guess that tracks but... just how many people are stanning, supporting, and funding these villains who, I should specify, NEARLY FLATTENED THE AMAZON. You can't just... walk backwards from that without a serious career-and-possibly-life-ending PR disaster.

(Actually I just remembered that Elon Musk exists and has his share of supporters despite how awful he is to the point where it borders on cartoonish, which I guess kinda tracks here)

2. The magazine has a picture of Donita on it, which implies that it's about her. Why would Donita have a COPY of a magazine featuring her? Why would she have to buy it. Do I not know enough about advertisements in the magazine industry?

3. Why would Donita trust Zach with anything? ANYTHING? He regularly gets his inventory mangled by the enemy every week as a result of his own ineptitude and often steals whenever said inventory is too shitty for his own good. She really shouldn't be surprised that he forgot to give it back.

4. Donita canonically lives in New Hampshire. Zach lives in Massachusets. That is an hour and a half away just by driving. Even if Zach isn't by his mansion, still he could've just flown his plane over to Donita's mansion. Or if he was too lazy, he could've hired his bots to do so. Inversely, Donita could've just come and have the manequins collect.

5. DONITA THREATENING ZACH WITH MOB VIOLENCE BY SICCING DABIO ON HIM IF HE DOESN'T RETURN THE BOOK WHAT THE HELL???

I feel like I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, this is the same person who quite possibly forced Martin to undress and into new clothing whilst he was in suspended animation in her debut appearance (and also sicced Dabio onto him when he resisted), nearly drove lemurs to extinction all over a dress in the Season 3 finale, attempted to skin salamanders alive for a fire-proof suit in S5, and oh yeah, was instrumental in the attempted destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. But still, this was so out of nowhere, and the fact that Dabio smiles; (and remember, according to Season 3, his ancestors have been working with the Donatas for generations, so this shit was a family business) This one scene, if all others haven't, single handedly manage to show Donita and Dabio as arguably the most brutal, nasty, and vile villains. It's just one scene, but I see these guys in a pretty different light now.

Also, I mentioned this before. If she's willing to do all that previous stuff mentioned above for her own gain, if she's willing to do this to Zach over a petty book loan, what the heck is she gonna do to Paisley when she finds out about her betrayal? What's she gonna do to Rex if he eventually redeems himself?

As someone who has made it my legal obligation to analyze the timeline in Wild Kratts, I will definitely say that this episode takes place on June 20th, the first day of the summer season. That means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I don't even think I should explain how terrible of an idea this is.

This is plain biology and a fact of life, but since they missed the opportunity to make a Bee Movie reference, I will take this as such as compensation.

Because I didn't say it earlier, I'll say it now: Bumblebees are so. Fucking. Cute.

AAAAAH!!!!!!!!!

Not enough screengrabs to convey this but the brothers are obviously trolling Zach here and I love it.

For all of you angst writers, here's some new ammo. Because I'm fairly certain that this can unoequivically KILL a human being if bumblebees were as big as us. In fact between this episode, and the next episode, Chimpanzee and Me, I'm convinced that the only reason Zach's robots are henchmen is so that the brothers can get away with being as violent as fuck towards them in so many beautifully creative ways without any actual bloodshed.

The fuck even is this episode 😭😭

CONCLUSION:

PROS:

The humor, once again, is amazing. It didn't get in as much laughs as the previous one, but still.

The Bumblebee Suit. It's such a breath of fresh air from the more uncanny looking Creature Power Suits in the modern seasons

Bumblebees are indeed highly endangered. It's good that this episode brings light on that and how important it is to protect them

CONS:

This entire episode's plot goes by... way too damn fast. Seeing the bros immediately get themselves into the jam, and then also immediately seeing Zach, and even the brothers quickly explaining bee features to Aviva. It all feels like this episode is just on fast-forward, even though it's a regular-length episode. It really could've been paced better.

Zach's motivations are stupid as ever, and he is at his peak bitchiness here. But again, the fact that such cartoonishly bullshit evil like this happens in the real world (which WK cleverly delivers a giant middle finger towards), and the fact that Zach gets his ass kicked for his genuinely awful plan mitigates a LOT of damage.

Final Ranking: 7/10. Still pretty good. I've been anticipating a Bumblebee episode for the past year after seeing leaks of a magazine featuring the Creature Power Suit, and it did not disappoint.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

I don't mean to age-shame except for the part where I 100% do... but these guys look 100% like the 20 year old cismen that I experienced in my early 20s that caused me to formulate the opinion that anyone under 25 is literally a child.

Because like "Look at you with your lack of emotional regulation 🥺 You gonna threaten to throw something at me because you think I'm annoying? You gonna give me the silent treatment because you can't handle the big feels around the fact that I passed a test and you didn't? 🥺 You look like a 20 year old that has the emotional intelligence of a 5 year old. Yes you do. And you're in charge of it nation's money!"

-fae

[two-white-butterflies]

this feeling flows both ways | m33

Description: Twitter's reaction to the relationship. Y/N and Tony Stark feud. Max has newfound fame.

part two of do i wanna know?

Pairing: max verstappen/nepo-baby!reader

starkfamilysupremacy: 'this fact is disputed' i'm sobbing 😭 - ironmanisbatman: he had to call elon up

steverogerssupremacy: i love their relationship

maxverstappen1: A little rest before the Austrian GP. #OrangeArmy

890 comments 912,128 likes

y/n_stark: the y/n effect is real - maxverstappen1: 😇💪🏽

tony: Stark Industry's New Venture '16

129 comments 294,290 likes

eattherichfoundation: sick and tired of seeing billionaires 🤮

bombasticsideeye12: The entire campaign sucks lol

oneinsertgal55: see if he actually helped the poor instead of staying a billionaire i'd actually support him but like

y/n_stark: beautiful! 🥰

comments have been restricted.

MAX VERSTAPPEN REVEALS INTERESTING DINNER WITH TONY STARK. by racecar1 interviews.

Max Verstappen: I mean honestly at first, I was a little nervous. I don't talk to superheroes everyday. It was a little adorable at first, according to my sweet girlfriend. I couldn't stop asking [Mr. Stark] about the Battle in New York and of course, his superhero co-workers. But then it sorta moved to more difficult parts, I felt like a superhero fighting a villain in that moment - but of course Tony is not a villain. He's a nice guy. Oh gosh, I've said too much.

Interviewer: Was there ever some threatening? Because a lot of people in social media joke about the billionaire being protective of his only child.

Max Verstappen: No, not at all. [laughs] that's all I'm allowed to say.

y/nfans

from "i'll bring her home at 6 sir!" to "she calls me daddy too"

82 comments 9,294 likes

y/n_stark: THIS IS LEGIT

vivlorien6: Max Chadstappen 🥶

archiemenon: Pretty sure that he EATS the rich 🥶

y/n_stark: NO BCS WHAT IS THIS 😭 Pls don't turn my bf into one of those sigma alpha males 🙏🏻 (will delete later, ruins my feed.)

823 comments 45,692 likes

LandoNorris: Don't show me your attitude, if I show mine...you might forget yours 😏 - y/n_stark: this one is actually better -- y/n_stark: MY ACCOUNT WILL BE A MAX VERSTAPPEN MEME PAGE FOR THE NEXT 24 HRS.

y/n_stark: pov ur my dad after making his first suit

89 comments 258,129 likes

maxverstappen1: my heart

tony: pov ur my dad after making me* - y/n_stark: bro had to put oil in his body for his parts to work

user99: SHE'S CORNY UR HONOR

y/n_stark: yes to today, yes to yesterday, and yes to tomorrow. tagged: maxverstappen1

928 comments 456,293 likes

Charles_Leclerc: Congratulations!

maxverstappen1: Mrs. Verstappen soon 🧡💙 - y/n_stark: yes to that too 💗

tony: congratulations are in order! 🥂

maxverstappen1: I'd like to hang out with you, all my life. 💗

0 comments 1,283,120 likes

comments are restricted.

Y/N STARK REVEALS STUNNING ENGAGEMENT RING: TONY STARK'S REACTION.

Y/N Stark: Max is a very traditional man. He pays for everything. He's a willing provider. When it came to our engagement, he asked my dad if he was allowed to propose. I wasn't in the room when he asked.

Tony Stark: He was cute with his European accent. He didn't have to work to have my approval. He asked and I gave it.

Y/N Stark: You didn't ask him if his intentions were pure?

Tony Stark: I believe that I should be asking you, but - we had a serious talk about marriage and Max is a good guy. He'll keep her safe and feed her through the long winter.

Y/N Stark: Gosh, another game of thrones quote.

Tony Stark: Comes with the name.

[pastafan20000]

Elon Vs lilia rap battle!

For starters I js want to say this is VERY satire and I just wrote this for fun and because I was bored

Again none of this is serious and I don’t like Elon in any way shape or form also this is a one time thing I will never write anything like this again.

Thabk u to my friend adrian for elons rap! (Also @funky-puff @vampyrscurse see I told u guys I would make it.)

THIS DOES CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7!!

———————————————————

Lilia wakes up (as one does) and pours himself a fresh cup of the liquid of sorrow and treachery (as one does!!).

As Lilia walks downstairs and gets his walker Hahahah GET IT HES REALLY FREAKING OLD!!!! he spots a strange looking vehicle outside the dorm and obviously goes to take a look.

“I wonder what this strange invention could be…” He wonders as he hums in thought, making his way towards the car.

“A ship? A machine? A something sometbing sordy I ran out of ideas??” He asked himself as he tapped on the window and gasp as it rolled down to reveal…

ELON MUSK??

Lilia audibly gasped in horror and almost threw up right then and there as Elon shot Lilia a smug smile and spoke.

“How’s it going little lady?”

“I’m a grown man”

…

Silence.

I don’t wanna write any good parts js know malleus sebek silver yuu and grim r there now and Elon and Lilia r having a rap battle

Elon smiled again and tilted his head up as he sat on his Cybertruck. “You’re about to get destroyed, punk!” Elon exclaimed, his tone cocky and smug.

Lilia sighed and rubbed his head, he was too old for this and (BOOK 7 SPOILERS!!!) he JUST came back from the dead…still, he wanted to engage because he was bored and he could show the dorm the skills he’s got!

“You go first, sir.” Lilia spoke with the most sickening kindness in his tone as he clutched his mic and tried not to start DESTROYING ELON ON THE MIC!!!

Elon then smirked again and began to rap. “My name is ELON MUSK!! I love (someome I Csnt say the name of but u can probably guess who.)! I am his biggest fan! Yk I js love riding on his cock and riding on his money!! Yeah I love riding on his…!!!!! ************ is awesomeeeee!!! IM GONNA SALUTE TO HIM RN GUYD!!! This is provung hiw much I loveeee ************…uhhh…i guess you could say I’m in the thick of it—“

Lilia couldn’t take it anymore, Elon’s voice was grating his ears and he felt like he was abt to die AGAIN.

Silver and Malleus saw this which made Malleus start giggling and hoping Lilia would crash out on Elon but Silver was prettu worried about what was happening so in a feeble attempt Silver tried to speak.

“Father—“ Silver was soon interrupted by Sebek as he shushed him and whispered “let him cook…” so Silver just stood there as yuu and grim pranced around in fucking daisy happiness land.

Lilia then threw the mic at Elon’s head and began to fist fight him in a not so nice way. Silver gasped and clutched his pearls as sebek and malleus began hysterically laughing and giggling at the sight of Elon getting his shit rocked—yuu paused and looked around, they looked at Grim as grim was shaking in fear, hoping he wasn’t next.

“Uhmm…” Yuu began, beginning to speak up. “Grim is scared chat can we go—“ Yuu was then ran over and flattened by the cybertruck BUT THEY DIDNT DIE!!! This caused Sebek to freak out and run around frantically, seeing the seriousness of the situation as malleus KEPT FUCKING LAUGHING.

Lilia was caught off guard which then caused Elon to get the upper hand and knock Lilia to the floor, thats when Malleus took the situation seriously and walked over to Elon.

“Listen, Musk. You’re crusin’ for a bruisin’ right now.” Malleus spoke, his tone low and threatening as Malleus called out to Sebek and silver. “Oh boyssss!” He, silver, and sebek began to snap their fingers and approach Elon menacingly, smirking as they did so.

Silver grabbed Elon’s eggsalad sandwich from out of his lunch box and smashed it on his head, as he did so he said: “NICE SANDWICH DWEEB!!!” Sebek then gave Elon an atomic wedgie and spoke.

“Where did u get that underwear from? UR GRANDMA??” Then they shoved Elon in a locker and refused to get Yuu the medical care they desperately needed after being ran over.

Yuu died in diasomnia dorm 2 hours later, right before professionals arrived.

Lilia, Sebek, Silver, Malleus, Elon, and Grim are now serving 56 years in prison.

——————————————————————————

I hope y guys like this LIJE and aub plxlzpsl

[vavuska]

Elon Musk is threatening a Brazilian Supreme Court justice after the court issued a summons to him which threatens the suspension of Twitter if he does not comply within 24 hours.

To combat disinformation, Brazil gave a Supreme Court justice sweeping powers to order social networks to take down content he believed threatened democracy. Here's how the experiment led to a ban on X, the social network owned by Elon Musk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/world/americas/brazil-x-ban-free-speech.html?smid=threads-nytimes

Elon Musk claims this is a censorship, because previously he was ordered to ban and close a lot of far-rights account that spread fake news and hate online by that same judge. As protest, Musk closed X offices in Brazil - which means people losing their job or their income.

When free speech is interpreted as anything which matches the law (and viceversa). Under Elon Musk's Leadership, Twitter has approved 83% of censorship requests by authoritarian governments globally. The social network has restricted and withdrawn content critical of the ruling parties in Turkey and India, among other countries, including during electoral campaigns.

Since Musk assumed control in October 2022, the platform has received a total of 971 government requests, a significant increase compared to the 338 received between October 2021 and April 2022.

Prior to Musk's takeover, Twitter had agreed to 50 per cent of such requests, as indicated in their last transparency report. However, no transparency reports have been published since October 2022, making it challenging to assess the current situation. Nevertheless, data from the technology information portal Rest of World suggests that the compliance rate has risen to 83 per cent following Musk's leadership, which again contribute to detect what Elon Musk REALLY think about free-speech: this right is granted only if comply to what oppressive governments and far-right politician approves. Discrimination and criminal behavior are allowed and protected under Musk's Leadership, because targets minorities, immigrants and political oppositors. Musk is a conservative and apply censorship, he isn't the victim of a 'woke' complot lead against him. Musk is receiving the payment for his unlawful action.

Source: El Pais English

As far I can understand, without having many clues here, this order of summon says that Elon Musk refused to appoint a legal rapresentative for X Brasil. For some typology of corporates Brazil require a % of residents in management or a legal rapresentative, with power to vote and deliberate in meetings, to operate online in the country. Yeah. Law apparently seems to be applied to everyone except him.

Summons with translation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/technology/brazil-x-ban-elon-musk.html

Edit: A legal rapresentative is more a managerial position than what do you think of. Yes, it could be an attorney or a lawyer too, but still isn't simply the guy who defend the corporate's interests in court. In Brazil you need a % of residents in management position to operate. This was a problem issued also with WhatsApp and Telegram.

Edit 2 - 31th August 2024: I was curious about the consequences of Musk's decision to close X's offices in Brazil for his employees. Have they been fired? Suspended with or without salary? I didn't find anything. However, I found this article that adds some informations, like Musk declaring he did this to "protect his staff". However, his legal rapresentative is impossible to be found.

Edit 3 - 31th August 2024: Another article of NY Times that analyzes the matter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/18/world/americas/elon-musk-x-brazil.html

Update - 31th August 2024: Brazil has turned off Twitter. Musk’s genius is again on glorious display in losing the 7th most populous country in the world. Oh well. At least the Cybertruck is doing awesome.

Another Update - 31th August 2024: Musk is freaking out right now. He knows if he gets blocked in Brazil it is just a matter of time before other countries follow suit.

However, someone forgot to tell Musk that you get fined for using VPNs to access Twitter in Brazil before he posted this.

Also seems that for a tech genius Musk isn't very smart though, doesn't he know using a VPN will worth the same with apps as it does with a browser?

However, The Brazilian Supreme Court has moderated its first rule. First, even the VPN apps were targeted and should be banned from App store and Google Store to prevent people getting access to Twitter exclusively. Now, the Court realized that banning VPNs is too extreme, so they will only apply a 50k (about $8,900) fine for those caught accessing the platform.

Basically, you don't get fined for using VPNs, that would be too 1984. You might get fined if they FIND OUT that you're accessing X via VPNs, and this is exactly the kind of thing VPNs are designed to prevent.

Just a reminder, you can always access better platform than X, even on your phone. No app is needed.

VPNs are great tools to use worldwide to get around authoritarian and abusive government surveillance and blocking. Zero to do with Musk. And they can only catch you if you aren't savvy.

In a perfect world you shouldn't need to download any VPNs to access innocent contents, because democratic countries will never block a platform that gives informations and entertainment to people. In a perfect world you won't be stuck with platforms that are not free from disinformation and neo-nazi posts.

3rd Update - 31th August 2024:

Musk owns more of SpaceX than Zuck owns of Meta or Bezos owns of Amazon, fwiw. For all intents and purposes, Musk is Twitter, SpaceX, Neuralink and X.

I'm gonna add some technicalities here:

In Brazil there is something called "Corporate Personality" that protects the shareholders patrimony from the company's debts.

But... If you hide behind legal shenanigans in a fraudulent manner, "corporate personality" is bypassed and thus the court moves into your personal patrimony.

Elon is, personally and fraudulently, removing X office from Brazil so they don't obey Brazilian laws.

So the judges target him on his other shares: SpaceX and Starlink.

[mariacallous]

Tech billionaire Elon Musk accused Sen. Mark Kelly of betraying his country after the Arizona Democrat visited Ukraine over the weekend and urged the U.S. to stand with Ukrainians against continued Russian aggression.

The accusation from one of President Donald Trump’s most influential advisers came in response to Kelly’s observations about the war in Ukraine on X, the social media platform owned by Musk and known formerly as Twitter.

“You are a traitor,” Musk told the senator on Monday.

“I’ve sworn an oath to this country. I’ve flown in combat. I served in the Navy for 25 years. It appears to me the oath that Elon Musk stands by is the oath to billionaires make their lives easier, not the American people, not veterans,” Kelly said in response. “He’s not a serious guy. He should go back to building rockets.”

Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot and astronaut, visited a military hospital and met with Red Cross staff during his third visit to Ukraine since 2023. He heard from wounded service members and spent time with pilots who’ve flown combat missions defending from Russian air attacks.

“No one wants this war to end more than President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people,” Kelly said in a statement. “But it has to end in a way that protects their sovereignty and security. The safety of Ukraine is tied to the safety of the United States, that’s why I stand with Ukraine.”

He added more comments online on Monday which appeared to trigger Musk, a critic of Zelenskyy and U.S. support for Ukraine.

“It’s not ‘America First’ to pull the rug out from under an ally and leave their people to die,” Kelly wrote. “This kind of foreign policy will end with no one in the world trusting America.”

The senator’s visit followed Trump’s heated meeting at the White House last month with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance, in which Vance berated Zelenskyy, resulting in the Ukrainian president leaving the White House without signing an agreement for security guarantees from the U.S. in exchange for Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

Since the Feb. 28 meeting, Trump paused U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. He’s also threatened sanctions on Russia in response to its deadly bombing campaigns in Ukraine.

It’s not the first time Musk has attacked Kelly. Last month, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO called the senator a “Dem donor shill” after he and his brother Scott Kelly, who is also a retired astronaut, criticized Musk for his derogatory comments about a Danish astronaut.

Kelly then challenged the Department of Government Efficiency head to “climb into a rocket ship” before talking to the three of them.

“If he’s ready to go up into space at any time, I am happy to go with him,” Kelly told CNN last month. “I know where the space station is, how to get there, I’ll be happy to join him on that mission.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Adam Gabbatt and Dan Milmo at The Guardian:

Donald Trump has accused Elon Musk of “losing his mind” as the dramatic breakdown between America’s most powerful person and the world’s richest person escalated into a full-blown feud that could have seismic political and economic consequences. In a series of phone calls to US media on Friday morning, Trump snapped back at Musk, after the tech mogul and Republican financier launched an extraordinary social media attack on the president the day before, which ended with him accusing Trump of being named in the so-called “Epstein files” – documents related to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The row between the two men, who were near constant companions during the latter stages of Trump’s presidential campaign and his first months in the White House, showed no sign of abating, with Musk’s self-proclaimed status as “first buddy” rapidly disappearing in the rear-view mirror.

Trump, who is not known to take criticism well, made his displeasure clear on Friday, doubling down on his newfound hostility to Musk, who spent nearly $300m to elect the 78-year-old. In an interview with ABC News, Trump was asked about reports of a potentially peacemaking phone call scheduled with Musk for later in the day, to which Trump responded, “You mean the man who has lost his mind?” and added that he was “not particularly” interested in talking to his former confidant right now. The president also spoke to CNN, saying, “I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem,” and told Politico that the relationship with Musk was “going very well, never done better”.

As well as giving many people a reason to return to X – the social media site Musk owns and where he has recently been amplifying rightwing, pro-Trump views – the bitter fight could heavily affect the political landscape. Musk suggested starting a new political party, one “that actually represents the 80% in the middle”, and given his wealth he would be able to pump millions into next year’s midterm elections, potentially influencing races across the country.

[...]

Trump, meanwhile, threatened to cancel Musk’s US government contracts, and the president’s ally Steve Bannon suggested that Musk, a South African-born American citizen, “should be deported from the country immediately”. In a sign of the immediate impact on Musk, his net worth fell by $33bn on Thursday alone, while Tesla’s shares initially dropped by about 14.2%, wiping roughly $152bn off the value of the company. The rolling quarrel began after Musk criticized Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” – tax and spending legislation that experts say would add $2.4tn to the national debt, strip more than 10 million people of their health insurance and enshrine tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Trump said he was “very disappointed in Elon” over the criticism, as Musk said Trump’s trade policies would cause a recession, before the dispute escalated wildly.

Elon v. Donald feud: Elon Musk wants to talk to Donald Trump, while 47 says no interest in a truce.

See Also:

Daily Kos: How Trump and Musk went from best friends to frenemies to nuclear war

HuffPost: Trump And Musk’s Public Breakup Is Messy, But It Won’t Sink Trump’s Tax Bill

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

How to make enemies and repel people.

February 24, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

Trump and Musk have turned the corner—in a bad way. There is a great scene in the motion picture Broadcast News where Holly Hunter tells Albert Brooks that she has “crossed a line” because she is starting to “repel people I am trying to attract.”

At town hall meetings across the nation, Republican representatives are learning the hard way that Trump and Musk are not the anti-hero crusaders they imagine themselves to be. See NYTimes, Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash. (Behind a paywall; out of gift subscriptions; please post a shared link if you can.) Instead, Trump and Musk personify the “mean-boss” bullies who are born into privilege and spend their time offending and alienating people without a clue they are doing so.

Musk’s weekend email demanding that government workers prepare five “bullets” of their accomplishments in the prior week or face termination was about as “un-self-aware” as it gets. Most people in America hate Elon Musk so badly that he is accomplishing something that Trump's eight-year run of criminality, insurrection, and racism could not do: Musk is causing people to turn on Trump. Political gravity is real, and Elon Musk is a gravitational wave of karma that is finally pulling Trump back to political accountability.

I am surprised how often readers respond to my references to Trump's negative poll numbers by saying, “Trump doesn’t care about polls.” Assuming that’s true (and I don’t believe it is), that’s not my point. Trump has been able to force the GOP into mass capitulation because his favorability ratings remain stubbornly flat despite his crime sprees, civil findings of sexual abuse, revelations of extramarital relationships while married to the current First Lady, and open courting of white supremacists.

If Trump's favorability declines, it means two things: (a) Trump is losing support among Independents (and Republicans lose) and (b) Republicans at the margin in Congress can take the risk of voting for the best interests of their constituents rather than the idiotic, self-destructive, revenge-driven agenda of Trump.

It matters that people are beginning to see Elon Musk as the evil billionaire hellbent on controlling the world who is portrayed as the instantly unlikable bad guy in every science fiction and spy-thriller movie. Musk is easy to hate. As hundreds of thousands of federal workers fear for their financial security, Musk wielded a bejeweled chainsaw on stage at the CPAC convention while MAGA acolytes laughed at the now-unemployed working-class Americans who are lying awake at night wondering how they will pay their mortgages.

It doesn’t get any crueler or more clueless than that. Read the room, Elon.

None of this suggests that Trump or Musk will stop their offensive, hateful abuse of the American people. But it does suggest that we can build a firewall in Congress to join the courts in slowing down Trump's revenge tour. And it should certainly give Democrats confidence that they can craft winning messages and coalitions in 2026 and 2028.

Musk’s email was so unpopular it ran into resistance within Trumpworld. Heads of various federal agencies, in including the FBI, Department of Defense, State Department, intelligence community, and judiciary told employees to ignore the email. See generally, The Hill, Agencies push back on Musk email, including FBI, Pentagon, State, Intel.

Two of the largest unions representing federal workers also advised employees to ignore the email and sent a response to the Office of Personnel Management stating that the request was “plainly unlawful.”

By overstepping in such a mean and petty way, Musk may have sparked a backlash that overturning the Constitution could not achieve.

The same resistance is appearing elsewhere. Trump threatened to pull all federal funding from Maine because it refused to adopt Trump's anti-transgedner policy in sports. See Portland Press Herald, Trump threatens to cut federal funding to Maine over transgender athlete policy

Governor Janet Mills of Maine sent a blistering response to Trump. See Governor Mills’ Statement on Notice of Investigation From U.S. Department of Education | Office of Governor Janet T. Mills.

Governor Mills writes, in part,

“No President – Republican or Democrat – can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold.

“Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently? Where does it end? In America, the President is neither a King nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it – and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so.

Well said, Governor Mills! And nice work noting that Trump's threat to withhold funds violates the Constitution—something that is frequently overlooked in the back-and-forth political discussion.

To similar effect is the recent speech by Governor Pritzker of Illinois to the Illinois legislature regarding the state’s 2025 budget. The speech is worth watching in its entirety. The video is here: Gov. Pritzker delivers Illinois State of the State Address 2025. Governor Pritzker said, in part,

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it. [¶]

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Concluding Thoughts

I need to cut this newsletter short due to travel. I recommend reading the Comment section to Sunday’s newsletter, where readers posted responses to Musk’s “justify your existence” email. Sunday Comments open

I have been in correspondence with several readers over the weekend regarding the events of last Friday in the upper echelons of the military. Some commentators have referred to the broad-ranging replacement of top military leaders as a second coup by the Trump administration. I don’t disagree, although I feel less qualified to comment on military matters than general politics. I therefore urge everyone to read Heather Cox Richardson’s essay on the military terminations on Friday, here: February 22, 2025 - by Heather Cox Richardson. This is an important story, please read HCR’s take on the firings.

I agree with the sense of alarm and urgency that everyone is raising over the firings. But I have spent some time over the weekend disagreeing with readers about one point: I have great faith in the men and women of the military to abide by their oath to defend the Constitution. Frankly, I feel much more comfortable with the 1.3 million Americans who have volunteered to serve their country than I do with the six members of the reactionary majority on the Supreme Court.

The military is representative of America. They are you and me. They look like America. They are America. And they are professionals who are loyal to the Constitution despite the handful of leaders at the top who live fantasy lives as heroes in first-person shooter video games.

Despite Hegseth’s efforts to corrupt the military, he might as well try to corrupt the American people. He can’t. Will some follow his lead? Certainly. But a million or more will not. Asking millions of men and women in the military to violate their oaths is the quickest way to dissolve military order and discipline.

To be clear. We should be alarmed by Hegseth’s moves with military leadership. But I believe in and trust the professionalism and patriotism of the 1.3 million Americans who serve their country—and us.

[Robert B. Hubbell]