Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

T R E 4 5 O N

The words do not have to be perfect.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Morning Lighter Topics Open Thread: All Those Billions, and He Still Can’t Buy A Clue

Monday Morning Lighter Topics Open Thread: All Those Billions, and He Still Can’t Buy A Clue

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In our new high-speed globally-connected universe, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is no longer just for the low-IQ and ill-educated. Elon Musk apparently believes himself to be an expert at EVERYTHING, if only because his millions of busy twitter fanbois couldn’t possibly be wrong!

Per the Washington Post, because it has the most comprehensive background I’ve seen:

It has been five days since a dozen boys were rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand, and five days since Elon Musk has been wandering in a Twitter labyrinth of his own making.

The Silicon Valley engineer and billionaire was briefly seen in Thailand last week, hauling a miniature submarine to the mouth of the cave just before an international dive team rescued the boys without it.

Since then, he has been arguing with people who accuse him of shoehorning himself into the drama and imagining hypotheticals in which rescuers had not deemed his hastily built submarine unnecessary and impractical.

This has, inevitably, led Musk into a rhetorical war with people who actually participated in the rescue operation — a war that he drastically escalated on Sunday morning, when he called one of the cave explorers a “pedo.”…

It really had nothing to do with Musk — until one of his Twitter fans suggested, a week and a half into the operation, that he build an invention to help get the boys out.

As Abby Ohlheiser has already chronicled for The Washington Post, Musk accepted the challenge with “a lengthy, live brainstorming process on Twitter,” which ended when he traveled to Thailand with a miniature submarine made from rocket parts, tweeted some photos of the cave, left the device there and went home…

Then, three days after the rescue operation was completed, CNN posted an interview with a British spelunker who had helped locate the boys. That spelunker, Vernon Unsworth, called Musk’s submarine “a PR stunt.”…

In a series of tweets that Musk appears to have deleted while this article was being written, he claimed that he had been repeatedly asked by rescuers to build the sub. He wrote that he was escorted into the cave by Thai Navy SEALS — “total opposite of wanting us to leave.”

He said he had not seen Unsworth — whom he dismissed as “this British expat guy who lives in Thailand” — during his brief guided tour of the cave system and suggested that, therefore, Unsworth had not actually participated in the rescue operation. (Unsworth absolutely and crucially had, per CNN.)…

And midway through his rant, for some inexplicable reason, he accused Unsworth of sex crimes…


Reader Interactions

82Comments

  5. 5.

    Bostonian

    I think we won’t be at Peak Elon until he peddles a self-named cologne through infomercials.

  11. 11.

    magurakurin

    @Platonailedit: In fairness, he hasn’t always been this crazy, at least not publicly. I think he will end up being a Howard Hughes type tragic figure. Genius and madness are close companions in some people. Some should check if Elon has Ice Station Zebra loaded into the blue ray player.

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    Show some respect, peons. Elon Musk was able to dump this outside a cave! For a bunch of scamps!

    Just get back to marrying and divorcing the same English actress and building rockets, Elon. You’re in a well worn groove there. Stop trying to be a fictional character!

  15. 15.

    hueyplong

    All this tells me is that it takes extraordinary effort for an asshole to stand out these days.

  16. 16.

    Bostonian

    @R-Jud: Now available for the discerning shopper: Elon Musk. Bold, rich, smart. Enough to make an asshole stand out in these trying times.

  18. 18.

    Citizen Alan

    Stories like this are why I support a top marginal tax rate of 90% and an estate tax of 90% on all estates above $5 million. I don’t even care if we spend the money on anything. I just think vast sums of money make people stupid and evil and empowers them to do stupid evil things on a massive scale.

  21. 21.

    Quantumman

    It is the Trump Disease. Trump is a black hole that sucks up IQ and morals. Musk has been infected. I wonder if garlic over the doors and windows will protect us from Trump Disease?

  23. 23.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I was following it in real time. I’m not certain but that we wouldn’t be better off if Silicon Valley didn’t suffer a meteor strike or plague – it’s not as if most of their past 15 years’ of development and investment haven’t gone to social media platforms and apps that have made everyone’s life worse.

    And it isn’t like SpaceX is a font of usefulness…

  26. 26.

    Platonailedit

    The two topmost assholes in the world are apparently playing who is going to be most late for the meeting stupid game. So many stupid voters put these thugs in power.

  28. 28.

    Quinerly

    Anyone else watching this shit show in real time? Interesting body language.
    Trump talking about “extraordinary relationship.”

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Nah, we are in total agreement, we just use antonyms to describe the exact same phenomenon.

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    I haven’t been able to listen to the treason summit but I walked past the tv and agent orange looked like he was sitting on the toilet at that presser. Why can’t the dude sit on a chair without looking like he’s on the toilet?

  36. 36.

    hueyplong

    Maybe we’ll get lucky and Trump will get too big for his britches, figuring, now that he’s president of the US, he can stiff Putin as he has so many others. Because the 24/7 Putin’s Gimp we’ve seen so far isn’t going to motivate Putin to burn him.

  39. 39.

    R-Jud

    @Bostonian: [Husky cosmetics advertising voice]: For the makers. For the geniuses. For the misunderstood. Don’t just show them who you are: smell them who you are. Musssssssk.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    Today show doesn’t think the Capitulation Summit is newsworthy. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

  44. 44.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Probably just the odd timing. They can’t figure out which way the wind is blowing in real time.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    TPM:

    Here’s the key language: “Following this initial meeting, Novartis determined that Michael Cohen and Essential Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further. As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018.”

    It turns out this was totally false.

  48. 48.

    Bostonian

    @R-Jud: Why just smell like ass when you can smell like a rich ass? The pungent, lingering slap of Elón Müsk will linger pugnaciously, making you the topic of conversation long after you’ve left the room. Leave no doubt. Leave your mark. Müsk!

  53. 53.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Poor social skills, tries to solve ALL problems with technology, thus does Musk revel himself to be an engineer lol

    What amazes me is Musk didn’t get the concept how impractical a submarine would be in a cave with the tight squeezes and all that.

  54. 54.

    Phylllis

    25 minutes and counting on hold to set up garbage/recycling service in our new hometown. The upside is I’m currently excused from unpacking chores.

  55. 55.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    If he’d ever moved a couch or box spring or mattress up a turning set of stairs, he’d have known why his rigid design and dimensions sucked (not to mention the stress on the rescue divers to manage the buoyancy, orientation and weight of the bubble).

    Shit, the thing was likely to get lodged in a choke point, consigning everyone behind it to certain death.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Phylllis:

    I’m sure you’ll appreciate the low, low taxes that leave your infrastructure understaffed (or outsourced).

  57. 57.

    Phylllis

    @Steeplejack (phone): Much different from Tinytown, where all I had to do was call the town clerk on his direct line.

    Of course my phone gave up the call right as the representative answered, so we’re on try #2.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you are Elon Musk, everything needs some kind of rocket.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @Platonailedit:

    There is a famous story of someone trying to play that game with Steve Jobs during the negotiations for Jobs to buy Pixar from Lucasfilm. Jobs showed up on time but the Lucasfilm lawyer decided to show up late to show that he was really important. But Jobs started the meeting immediately, which meant that the guy who tried to pull that walked in on a meeting in progress without him. ?

    Jobs was an asshole, but he knew how to shut down someone else’s macho posturing.

  65. 65.

    debg

    @rikyrah: Sweet god above, that was fabulous. “That’s fine with me” kinda sums up my feelings about my own brother in childhood.

  66. 66.

    Bess

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    If you had a clue as to what you were talking about you’d know that the engineers who built the sub worked from the measurements of the passageways that had to be transversed and tested the sub underwater in a mockup of the passageways.

    Here’s a guy who takes the time to develop a solution, builds it, delivers it to the site. And you assholes call him an asshole?

  67. 67.

    Bess

    @Ruckus:

    I’m amazed at how people who comment rationally on most topics can go batshit crazy over Elon Musk.

    Musk is one of the most innovative people the world has ever seen. He’s pushed us forward at least a decade in quitting oil and removing oil’s CO2 from our climate change problem.

    He’s lowered the cost of launching rockets into space which, among other things, will lead to world-wide access to the web.

    He built PayPal.

    He’s creating a superfast subway system which should help cut down on urban congestion.

    He’s not using his money to fund right wing politics or the irrational right. He’s not doing stuff in order to get himself seen on red carpets and at the “the” clubs.
    .
    Is this simply a case of irrational envy over a successful individual?

  68. 68.

    scott (the other one)

    @Bess:

    I’m amazed at how people who comment rationally on most topics can go batshit crazy over Elon Musk.

    Couldn’t agree more.

    [reads the rest of comment]

    …oh. That did not go where I anticipated.

  69. 69.

    Scotius

    @Bess:
    Elon, is that you? It’s great to see you take the time out of your busy schedule of libeling various heroes of the Thai cave rescue.

  73. 73.

    Bess

    @Steeplejack (phone): I am not Elon. I’ve had that bullshit thrown at me previously when I’ve defended Musk on this site.

    Elon should have not said that. Even if he thought it highly likely. Even if the guy had admitted it to him.

    It’s a small error like ‘clinging to their guns and Bibles’. Using it in an attempt to discredit someone who is doing a lot of good is pure crap.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @Bess:

    You chose to misinterpret/​redirect Scotius’s pointed joke about “Elon, is that you?” with:

    I made exactly zero comments about the people who got the kids out.

    Nobody said you did.

    If you have had shit thrown at you on this site, perhaps it’s because you come off as disingenuous at best or slightly unhinged at worst on the subject of Musk.

    Elon should have not said that. Even if he thought it highly likely. Even if the guy had admitted it to him.

    Great. Keep digging.

  76. 76.

    Bess

    People here make unwarranted attacks on someone who is actively working to help us avoid extreme climate change and pushing back against them is seen as “you come off as disingenuous at best or slightly unhinged at worst on the subject of Musk.”.

  77. 77.

    Bess

    @Dman:

    Why did you not go a bit further and relate why Musk gave some money to a Republican organization? Would that have made your attack on him obviously foolish?

    Following a burst of news reports about his donation, which surfaced in campaign finance documents, Musk made a few points on Twitter . . .

    He donates to Republicans “so that they are willing to listen when I call to object about issues that negatively affect humanity,” he said in one exchange.

    Musk said his donations to Republicans are “about 0.5%” of what he gives to the Sierra Club, which he called a “reasonable amount to maintain an open dialogue,” and also noted that “I have given vastly more to humanitarian causes.”

    Musk also appeared to suggest that he’s going to start paying more attention to his donations. “I do not actually see the checks (changed that policy today). A nominal annual amount goes out automatically to both parties to maintain dialogue,” he said.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    @Bess:

    Nobody here is criticizing Musk for his efforts on climate change. He is getting dragged for being a complete horse’s ass about the Thai cave rescue. You’re the only one dragging in everything else and claiming it’s really about that. Like I said, disingenous at best.

  79. 79.

    Bess

    @Steeplejack:

    OK, I guess I must have missed something. Can you link video of Musk playing it up for the cameras at the Thai cave?

    All I’ve seen is that he offered a couple of possible solutions plus delivering another possible solution devised by another company to the site. Then he posted a few pictures/video from the site.

    Show me the horse’s ass footage.

    (Yes, the pedo comment should not have been made. But some people here were ripping and tearing on Musk well before that statement was made. They must have seen something I haven’t.)

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    @Bess:

    Okay, I’m gonna go with unhinged rather than disingenuous. Where did I mention any video? Rhetorical question. I’m done.

  81. 81.

    Bess

    You bullshitter.

    You portray an Elon Musk as using the Thai cave rescue as a way to create publicity for himself. But as far as I can see he simply delivered a couple pieces of equipment that could have been useful in the rescue, posted a few pics that someone (he?) took of the cave, and came back to the US.

    Did Elon post any video of himself posing in front of the cave talking about his contributions? Did he do the rounds on the TV shows talking about how he helped?

    You’re done because, as far as I can tell, you made an attack on someone based on nothing but your own bile. If I’m wrong then post the evidence.

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