I vaguely understood that Elon Musk was a giant douchebag from his forays into U.S. politics, but I don’t pay the wanker much mind, so I was kind of shocked by this:
“Khrushchev’s mistake”? The fucking fuck?? After getting brutally ratioed, he trotted out the following:
And after that shot, this chaser:
Poor Musk could achieve world peace by lunchtime if only you smooth-brains would listen. Jeebus, Mary and Joseph, what a walking argument for confiscatory tax rates.
Open thread.
raven
yo
trollhattan
Dude from South Africa gazes fondly at 18th century for determining who owns a piece of land that has been occupied for millennia.
Guess you otta know, you thick fuck.
Baud
Whether to impose confiscatory tax rates on Musk should be decided by a Twitter poll.
trollhattan
Half a degree removed, Peter Thiel does a thing.
dlwchico
So the annexed regions get to vote on joining Russia but the rest of Ukraine must remain neutral, which I assume means they aren’t allowed to vote to join NATO?
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I was just about to post this in a comment on the previous thread, LOL. Fuck this fucking guy.
Also, Zelenskyy has his own poll. When I first saw it, it was 93% to 7%, but I’m sure the Muskbots are starting to flood it:
Scott
Yeah that all worked out in 1945-46 for Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, etc.
Maybe have elections for all the other “Republics” that are part of the Russian Federation.
Ksmiami
Where tf is the Democratic messaging rn?!! I’m really afraid GOP attack ads are working
MomSense
Shout out to NAFO for pushing back on Musk’s BS.
They also helped me with the disinformation account that my friend had been posting.
StringOnAStick
@trollhattan: My impression was that Ryan was beating Vance, and that Kelly was doing quite well against Masters. My impression also is that Thiel is not nearly as smart or prescient as he thinks he is.
Roger Moore
I think this poll shows what Musk is actually good at: garnering attention. That can be an incredibly useful skill for the CEO of an industry-disrupting startup. I honestly think it was a critical part of what made Tesla succeed when it was still trying to establish itself. The attention helped to bring in capital, and it helped to get people to pay attention to what seemed like a wild idea at the time. It’s mostly tiresome for a more established company, and it’s completely useless for foreign relations.
fancycwabs
I refuse to take anything Elon Musk says about Ukraine seriously until he fulfills his promise to engage Vladimir Putin in some sort of single combat, be it MMA, boxing, or professional wrestling. Or maybe a sword fight.
Point is, his first proposed solution was the only good proposed solution and I will entertain no others until I see some action on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ksmiami: During yesterday’s Packer game, I saw one Barnes ad for every Johnson ad.
Ohio Mom
@trollhattan:
The last I looked, Vance and Ryan were essentially tied. One day one of them is ahead by two points, a week later it’s reversed — not quoting real numbers, that’s just my version, just my way of saying neither one of them has a clear trend line.
So who knows what Theil is really thinking but it can’t possibly be My work here is done.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: Maybe this is why startup CEOs typically get replaced when a company gets serious financing.
gratuitous
Let’s try this, then: Participation trophy for Vlad, and cake decorated in Cyrillic with “At Least You Tried.” Russian forces head back to Mother Russia, tails between their legs, eastern provinces and Crimea go back to Ukraine, and a shit-ton of foreign aid pours into Ukraine to rebuild the country.
After a suitable cooling off period (six months or so), the war crimes tribunal convenes.
C Stars
@Roger Moore: Right. It’s the same puzzle presented by almost all GOP politicians these days: “Do they really believe this BS or are they just trying to get attention?”
zhena gogolia
@gratuitous: I’ll vote for that!
Jay
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: we need better national thematic messaging like Republicans want to kill social security and grandma too.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Musk has about as much intellect as a slightly below average groundhog.
MattF
My first serious doubts about Musk came from watching a video a few years ago where an actual expert on automobile manufacturing took him and his various claims apart. Then came the ‘pedo guy’ business, and then came all the Twitter stuff. So, he’s full of shit and has been forever.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ksmiami: That’s what 90% of the ads I have been seeing have said. Do you, by chance, live in a cave?
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
A lot of startup CEOs are the founders, who know a lot about the product they’re working on but are often less good at the business side of things. When serious money gets involved, they want to bring in a CEO who will take care of the business side of things so the founders can get back to product development.
My impression is that’s the role Musk was supposed to fulfill at Tesla. He was brought in after the company was founded as part of the first big capital infusion. And it’s hard to argue with his results at bringing the company from an interesting idea to a successful business. But I really think it’s past time for him to turn the company over to a CEO who’s better suited for managing a mature business.
jonas
@Ohio Mom: These days I always assume unless the Dem is up by 5-10% points consistently, they’re either going to barely squeak by, or it will be an upset by the R-candidate.
StringOnAStick
@MattF: I’ve read rumors of a payment being negotiated so he can walk away from his stupid attempt to buy Twitter; some value less than the major millions that were in the contract. A bunch of the texts between Musk and the high level business guys who were all swarming around him about that (including Larry Ellison) were released too, showing that Musk is your classic narcissist that has selected his inner circle to be the usual gang of yes men and suck ups. Musk comes across looking less like a genius and more like a tRump.
Urza
What is it with rich people thinking their so-called ‘talents’ are applicable to societal problems? If only they could be properly cancelled and forced into poverty until they all learn to STFU about things they know very little about. Stick to satellites and batteries.
Roger Moore
@gratuitous:
Let’s not forget the step where the Ukrainians kidnapped by Russia (including all the children they turned over for Russian adoption) are repatriated.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: Kind of strange that he’s stayed. Most guys I know can’t wait to get out (e.g., take an advisory role) once they’ve had the big IPO or other payout. Running a mature company can be boring and stressful. It lacks the excitement of the startup phase and you have to deal with boards and shareholders.
jonas
@Jay: Why would they need to offer people cars? That seems a bit over the top. And expensive. An old-fashioned “check this box here and if you don’t, we go for a ride and they won’t find your body” seems a lot cheaper and more efficient. And was basically how most of the voting went down, from what I’ve been seeing.
StringOnAStick
@Roger Moore: Tesla is going to have a hard time getting rid of Musk, he identifies with the company way too much so his ego and potential narcistic injury are on the line. The best thing Tesla could do is get rid of him, but either way their vastly overvalued stock will meet with gravity at some point and if Musk has been forced out, his fanbois will blame the fall on lack of Musk. If he’s still in charge when it happens, then it will get blamed on the evil shortsellers and their D friends and whatever other group the fanbois can rail against. Musk is just as much a malignant narcissist as tRump is, but with a higher level of intellectual ability, same amount of moral deficiency.
Hoodie
@Urza: Musk really is not an expert on satellites or batteries, there are other people at SpaceEx and Tesla that do that. He’s probably doing politics because he’s bored. Of course, his success in starting companies provides no basis for believing he has any acumen at foreign relations, but this isn’t an uncommon conceit. Success can make people weird. A seal who can balance a beach ball on his nose doesn’t think he’ll be good at particle physics.
Tony G
@trollhattan: Elon lived the first 20 years of his life under apartheid in South Africa. His father was a half-owner of an emerald mine under apartheid. He grew up wealthy under a system of white supremacy. Everything that Elon has been for the past 30 years makes perfect sense given his hiper-privileged upbringing. He probably hasn’t had a thought in his life that wasn’t narcissistic.
InMyRoom
Best reply ever.
Andrik Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, summed up much of the collective online sentiment in a nine-word reply to Musk. “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” he wrote.
Jay
Tony G
@InMyRoom: A very succinct and accurate reply!
mrmoshpotato
Yet another vote (by that assclown himself) for Musk to be fired into the Sun.
middlelee
Why does the CEO of a car company have any say in what happens in Ukraine? Why does he think he would have any say? I felt the same way about Noam Chomsky weighing in a few months ago. Let Ukraine decide what Ukraine is gonna do. The world seems to be full of people who think they are authorities on everything who are just plain full of shit.
That is not the same as front pagers and commenters having discussions about everything. We aren’t going on NYT opinion page, Twitter, wherever and telling sovereign countries what they should be doing.
Thanks for reading. I needed to rant. I’ve been pissed off about this for several hours.
Jay
@jonas:
I’m not saying they were going to get Lada’s, it’s more that they were offered Lada’s.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: “Vote yes or else we will give you a Lada” might have been more effective.
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: we are buried online…
Omnes Omnibus
@middlelee: But what about Baud?
JustRuss
As I recall Ukraine already negotiated a deal where they agreed to remain neutral and in return Russia would respect their border. Hasn’t worked out real well.
The Moar You Know
@StringOnAStick: the herpes he got from his endless parade of rentboys is residing in his frontal lobe, having a grand old time snacking on his rapidly-dwindling supply of neurons.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Same in WA, I’m seeing Suzan del Bene and Patty Murray ads outnumber the R candidates’ ads about 3-1.
Kim Schrier is being hit by Republicans who think they smell a chance, but I’m seeing more ads for her than for Larkin, and more anti-Larkin than Anti-Schrier, but not such a dramatic difference.
Steeplejack
I heard from my elderly friend in Naples, FL, that her power came back on just before midnight last night. Yay!
ChristianPinko
https://twitter.com/MelnykAndrij/status/1576977000178208768
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
My gut feeling is Musk stays at Tesla because he’s a narcissist, and being CEO of a big company gets him lots and lots of attention. I also think he must not be really doing the full job of CEO. He’s simultaneously CEO of SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. There might be another company or two in there that have slipped my mind. Given that being a real CEO of just one company is at least a full-time job, I can’t believe he’s really doing all the work for that many companies at once. My gut feeling is he’s play acting the CEO role while his subordinates are doing the real work.
germy shoemangler
Meanwhile…
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: This is, of course, the same Elon Musk who claimed that employees need to be in the office doing the job at least 40 hours every week if they were to be productive. Guess he fails his own metric.
Oh, wait, I’m sorry, he’s _special_.
Bill Arnold
@Hoodie:
Worth looking at Gwynne Shotwell … the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX,, …
Another Scott
Where you stand depends on where you sit.
James Murdoch is on Tesla’s board.
Why would anyone think that Musk wouldn’t favor VVP’s desired outcome?
Musk is a troll who craves free publicity.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
@germy shoemangler: NFTs are so “on the rise” that they’ve lost I think it was 97% of their aggregate value over the last several months.
Now you can buy your ape images at a steep discount!
MisterDancer
He’s been told for decades now how smart and [EDIT: prescient] he is (just like Thiel). And that vision of him flowed right into the mass media, and esp. entertainment (see the comparisons in the first IRON MAN movie between Tony Stark and Musk, if I recall correctly).
And much like Stark (who, is it fair to say, is far smarter, if fictional) in CIVIL WAR, Musk thinks he’s ready to play on a bigger stage, and isn’t. He thinks his ability (however questionable at scale) to run a company means he can run damn near anything, including peace between Russia and Ukraine. He thinks his talents lie everywhere, because Intellect is Intellect, and “smarts” is a Universal Lubricant for all problems, foreign and domestic.
It’s a bad problem in, really, Western media at least, and Musk just is taking advantage of that pseudo-technocratic bias, to all of our loss.
(And this doesn’t even get into the rampant bias he allows at, at least, Telsa.)
germy shoemangler
@dmsilev:
“All my apes are gone”
eclare
@germy shoemangler: And it’s my birthday!
Baud
@eclare: Happy birthday!!!
Jay
Jay
Holy,……………..
SiubhanDuinne
@eclare:
Happy birthday!
Gin & Tonic
Thing is, Musk gained a *great* deal of goodwill in Ukraine by means of Starlink, which is really invaluable to the armed forces and people working with them. If you like looking at car wrecks, you could watch all that go up in flames in real time this afternoon. Dude shot himself in the dick, with both barrels.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
Oh, good news! I know you were concerned.
NotMax
@eclare
Have a joyous one!
Dan B
@StringOnAStick: Wait until the right wing Supreme six rule that people can refuse to do business with Thiel for “religious reasons”. Followed by overturning marriage equality and adoption. Thiel, his husband, and their two kids will be spending more time in New Zealand, perhaps.
Mo MacArbie
Isn’t Musk just doing his bad-news-tweet-“squirrel!” thing again?
Jeffro
+1 vote here for the confiscatory tax rates. I’m tired of really rich folks having more than their 1 vote per person.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@middlelee: Amen. This is a rich guy who thinks his success in one area means he knows what should happen in all other areas, even those that are none of his business.
Another Scott
@JustRuss: What are you insinuating??!
Raymond ShawVVP is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.Despite the Russian military build-ups, Russian officials from November 2021 to 20 February 2022 repeatedly denied that Russia had plans to invade Ukraine.
What’s the problem?? People are acting like VVP’s russia broke its word! Like that would ever happen!!
Russia has a veto at the UN and takes the responsibility seriously! Of course they respect free and fair elections where the will of the people is transparently expressed!! Just like they respected VZ’s election!!
(sigh)
[ mumble, grumble ]
Cheers,
Scott.
John S.
@opiejeanne:
I don’t see how Larkin wins here. He had to run so far to the right in order to appease the right flank that I don’t see how he wins in a general election. Same with Tiffany Smiley.
Tony G
@Tony G: The fact that a privileged, arrogant jackass like Musk has an army of fan-boys is a real indictment of our “culture”.
Steeplejack
I tried to follow the Oath Keepers trial a little bit today (haven’t looked at anything in the last few hours), and I have a question. If the Oath Keepers’ defense is going to be (in part) that they were standing by for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, why did they think that they would be the go-to guys, rather than, oh, I dunno, the Army or the National Guard?
Plus, when I looked up the Insurrection Act, I saw this:
So Trump would have had to issue a proclamation ordering his own mob to disperse? And, if not them, then who? The whole thing is a farcical mess.
Villiageidiocy
@MisterDancer: he seems to suffer from what is known as the “engineer’s disease”, common among libertarians as well. “I can do this one thing we’ll so I am smarter than you and can do everything well.”
dmsilev
@Gin & Tonic:
Never mind trying to buy Twitter and then backing out, just posting on Twitter is a bad idea for him.
His response after half the world called him an idiot was to…
…complain about all the Twitter bots that suddenly showed up in his feed. No dude, they’re real people. All of whom you pissed off.
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
The really ridiculous part is that when they actually reported to the office as commanded, it turned out there wasn’t enough space, the WiFi couldn’t deal with the load, etc. It’s bad CEO think in a nutshell.
C Stars
@Steeplejack: Oh good! Is this the friend you were a bit worried about the other day? If so, I’m glad to hear you know more and she’s getting power back.
schrodingers_cat
Elon Musk is a white supremacist, and white supremacists are Team Putin. It is as simple as that.
patrick II
Elon has a fanboy Youtube channel named “Tech Zone”. Among the titles:
NASA & Elon Musk SHOWED Spacex’s Nuclear Rocket to Stop Russia
Elon Musk’s SpaceX & Tesla DESTROYED Russian And Chinese Economy
Elon Musk JUST SHOWED New INSANE Way to Breathe On Mars
Elon Musk JUST BLEW UP Russian Nuclear Rocket and SHOCKED Putin
“I DESTROYED All Russian & Chinese Spy Satellites” -Elon Musk HUMILIATED Presidents.
Elon Musk JUST SANK Russian Aircraft Carrier And SHOCKED Putin.
I don’t know if Elon has much to do with it — but it seems to have access to a lot of Elon Musk video.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Beyond the usual concerns for her safety, I was also worried because since she moved to Naples in April she has seemed a little mentally erratic. I hope it’s just the stress of the move and subsequent events and not something age-related. I still am a little worried about that. I hope she gets better as her situation settles down.
cain
@The Moar You Know:
Not gonna lie, if I was drinking my usual tea, I would have sprayed it out of my mouth after reading this.
Another Scott
Yet another reminder that every election is important.
BoltsMag.org:
PA Democrats and sensible independents need to be fired up and turn out to vote.
Cheers,
Scott.
Falling Diphthong
@trollhattan: Vance is not up by a consistent 20-30 points in the polls, so I would take Thiel’s claims of withdrawing funding from him because things are going so well with a grain of salt.
Steeplejack
@Jay:
That’s a great graphic!
Dan B
@Another Scott: I believe James is the decent Murdoch. Lachlan is the chip off the old block.
trollhattan
@germy shoemangler: Does Melanie know what any of the items listed in that Tweet, mean?
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
Realistically, the whole thing with the insurrection act was intended as a cover for a violent coup. The attack would serve as justification for suspending the electoral count and for declaring martial law. All Trump’s
brownpolo shirts would be deputized to keep order.Baud
@Steeplejack:
I wonder how much of their plan hinged on counter protestors showing up.
Kevin
New poll: Uncle Sam should confiscate Elons wealth then we all vote what to do with it!
Baud
@trollhattan: She don’t care, do u?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy shoemangler: Melanie might want to pay attention to this story:
trollhattan
@Jay: Damn well played, Fetterman.
Better still, Simpsons folks will have signed on for allowing the use.
Steeplejack
@C Stars:
Yes. She just turned 85 and doesn’t currently have a car, and she just moved into her current place five or six weeks ago.
azlib
Kruschev did actually give the Crimea to Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine was just another part of the Soviet Union at that time and before that it was part of the Russian Empire. I am not sure that fact is really relevant at this time since Russia started this war and is losing it badly.
Also, does Musk really believe a self selecting online poll really means anything?
Jay
@Steeplejack:
a critical requirement for the Stupid Coup’s “success”, was to have violent street battles between the Insurrectionists and Antifa.
That was when the Act was to be trotted out, against Antifa.
Steeplejack
@eclare:
Happy birthday! 🎉 🥂
Geminid
@Steeplejack: Maybe they anticipated a large turnout from antifa forces. There were some skirmishes in DC a couple of Saturday nights before, between antifa people and Proud Boys etc. That might have raised the expectations of the militia people. Plus, they had built antifa into larger than life danger, and might have believed their own bullshit.
On January 6 a few score antifa people did show up but they remained several blocks west and north of the Capitol, near Lafayette Park. The cops kept them separated from the right wingers at the scene. But I think the Insurrection planners just assumed that if they staged a high profile event the antifa crowd would turn out in numbers too.
There was a debate among antifa sympathizers in the the week before January 6, and I followed it some through the Twitter account of Molly Conger, @SocialistDogMom. Some people argued that they had a duty to confront fascists whenever they showed up on the street. Others said not this time, they want to use us as a provocation. The latter group seems to have carried the argument. Also, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser discouraged counter demonstrators very emphatically.
trollhattan
Is getting smaller and smaller, newest Russia. Posted ten minutes ago on BBC.
Matt McIrvin
@MisterDancer: Musk’s big technological ideas are, almost without exception, recapitulating the stuff I thought was cool when I was reading futurist articles at the age of 13 in 1981. It’s just all that OMNI Magazine stuff, only he’s a grown man with an immense fortune who can get people to listen to him.
The companies he bought into actually managed to produce successful products a few times, which is more than most ever do and is to their credit. But this guy’s thoughts are basically immature and nobody he listens to is going to tell him that.
Another Scott
(via Oryx)
Cheers,
Scott.
cptlhill
I’d like to gently weigh in regarding how we choose to demonize awful people. Thiel is undoubtedly awful––monumentally so–– but jokingly referring to his catching herpes from “rent boys” plays into ubiquitous stereotypes of gay men as promiscuous and sexually irresponsible. Unexamined, damaging tropes always offer themselves up as the quickest types of insults; that is how they are promulgated….
Going back to Gay lurking now….
Jackie
Trump is suing CNN for $475 million because they’re mean to him.
karen marie
@trollhattan: I looked at my phone this morning and discovered a dozen texts from the Masters camp. Fear-mongering about “illegals” was their argument in favor of Masters. I texted back each one to “fuck off, you anti American wanker,” then reported each number as spam and blocked them.
Is that what Thiel is spending his money on for Masters?
As long as he’s throwing his money at that lost cause, he can’t throw it elsewhere, so I suppose it’s a win?
Roger Moore
@azlib:
Of course they do. If the poll agrees with him, it’s proof he was right. If it disagrees, it’s proof the poll has been taken over by bots. That’s especially true of Twitter polls, where the existence of bots is more evidence he should be allowed to give up his attempted takeover.
C Stars
@Steeplejack: Whew, she got Ian as a welcoming committee!! I hope her mental state–and general life circumstances–have a chance to settle down now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m still partial to Mr Haney references, but Pierce comes up with a good nickname for maybe the biggest fraud in the Senate (thinks about Susan Collins… Kennedy is worse)
you can watch the obnoxious Kennedy video he’s referencing, if you so choose
karen marie
@Jackie: How much does it cost to file in federal court? It’s a small investment to create a new income stream.
trollhattan
President of Lithuania has a word for Elon.
https://twitter.com/GitanasNauseda/status/1577014897321291776
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
That much is obvious, thanks. I’m just wondering what tortured logic leads them to think it’s part of their defense.
Another Scott
@Dan B: Dunno.
Wikipedia:
News Corp is a cancer on the world.
The phone hacking scandal link says in part:
I don’t think a good person would be involved in stuff like that.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Jackie: Even after they tossed all their reporter hippies out the window? Seems ungrateful if you ask me.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Yeah, I have wondered if Antifa not showing up threw a monkey wrench in the works.
@Jay:
That seems plausible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jackie: one of the nugget’s in Maggie H’s new book was trump thought he could block the first impeachment by suing Congress
Ruckus
@StringOnAStick:
“My impression also is that Thiel is not nearly as smart or prescient as he thinks he is.”
How many insanely rich assholes are actually as smart as they think they are? They think having money makes you smart, while all it actually does is make you wealthy, most often by being in the right place at the right time, ie being born into it usually.
Jackie
@Jackie: CNN doesn’t have anything on their website, but here’s a link:
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-sues-cnn-defamation-saying-194508717.html
trollhattan
@Matt McIrvin: I can name two or three car and airplane designs clearly lifted from my gradeschool notebook margins. Still looking for those royalties.
Jackie
@trollhattan: I know, right? Sadly, this will probably be the end for Jim Acosta – the only program I watch.
Bill Arnold
@Steeplejack:
It did. Those who organized and pushed the “stay away from DC” messaging did good work, that did good.
Dan B
@Another Scott: It may be Lachlan who’s decent. That may be by comparison. One of the sons wanted Fox to be solid journalism and less sensationalist propaganda.
Geminid
@cptlhill: I think you make a good point.
karensky
@trollhattan: Sweet!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, TheOnion files an amicus brief with the SCOTUS.
Seriously.
Novak-Parma Onion Amicus Brief (23 page .pdf)
(via Angry_Staffer)
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Jackie:
Judge Canon!
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
“Decent” is doing some heavy lifting in “the decent Murdoch.”
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Make that $1.26 billion. And the SEC board can tell her to go fuck herself.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dan B: my recollection is Lachlan is more racist and rightwing than Rupert, and James has been moved left (all things being relative) by his wife.
speaking of the various Murdochs, here’s an amusing anecdote from Bryan Cox of Succession:
I’m assuming she sees herself as Siobhan, but maybe she’s Connor?
Jay
CaseyL
@Dan B: ISTR that James was tossed out of Fox News Corp by his family because he was
not sufficiently fascistcritical of the Corps support for the insurrection and insurrectionist GOPers. Doesn’t make him a good person, just makes him a slightly less awful one.Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Also this:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and… my favorite fictionalized version of the Murdochs— Tracy Ullman is underrated, IMO
(did Jerry and Rupes get a divorce? Betty’s funeral knocked a bunch of celebrity stuff out of my head)
satby
@Ksmiami: your algorithms are off if you think we’re “getting buried online”.
No, we’re not.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Haha! Fuck them both!
artem1s
probably more along the lines of “my grifting work is done here”. the ranks of MAGAts that were willing to keep dumping dollars at their great orange leader has been shrinking. And they all know Vance is getting backed by big money from outside the state. So why send any dollars his way?
Dan B
@CaseyL: Decent at times and in some very small measure.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Shit, if the Beeb can be bothered to write “the river is called Dnipro by Ukrainians” the they could easily call it that themselves.
kalakal
Russia’s ability to supply Ladas as bribes would seem to be in doubt
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a39414674/lada-stops-building-cars-russia/
Perhaps Trabants* would be more within their capabilities. And by a happy chance there’s an automotive manufacturing CEO who’s in a class all of his own who’d be perfect for the job
*old East German joke
“How do you double the value of a Trabant?”
“Empty the ashtray”
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah WTF?
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: Beeb: The Ukrainians can’t have everything they want. Be realistic! *
* Clutch pearls…
/s
RaflW
Jeebus, Mary and Joseph, what a walking argument for
confiscatoryordinary, Dwight Eisenhower-era tax rates.Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: Sounds like the BBC thinks very highly of its own stylebook.
kalakal
Well saying all international boundaries should be set back to where they were is certainly a bold idea. I guess it’s one way of moving his car factories to Spain. Not sure he’ll like all those EU Labour laws though
sab
If we want to use black women as our weathervane,I am concerned about Tim Ryan.
My city is divided. I have been in his district for 20 years. The west side of town was Marcia Fudge and before that Stephanis Tubbs Jones.
Ryan tacked way right after the primary. Now he is going after white male factory workers or former workers who hate China. That’s it. My husband throws his shoes at the tv every time a Ryan add comes on. “What makes me as a Democrat want to vote for this man? ”
I went to my dad’s nursing home, and the black nurses aides didn’t like Ryan. They think he might be really a Republican. They live on the other side of town and don’t know him because someone else was their Congressperson.
If this is how badly his shift to the right has gone on the fringe of his own district, I dread to think about how he is perceived in the rest of the state. Republican light and/or dishonest with voters. What is his campaign thinking? Liberal Democrat losing black middle-aged women voters
ETA Of course they won’t vote for Vance, but they might leave the Senate box blank. Republican light really doesn’t work.
middlelee
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh all right.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Roger Moore:
IIRC, that’s exactly why SpaceX brought in Gwynne Shotwell to actually run the company so they don’t have to worry about Elon doing something stupid with the company.
Bobby Thomson
Except Musk is a moron who never invented a sandwich and just bought/forced other people out with his apartheid mines inheritance.
artem1s
@sab:
yea, he’s running a state wide campaign like the only voters he has to worry about are the ones from his old House district. Too many people encouraging him to run his campaign like Fetterman. Vance is going to have trouble getting out the MAGAt voter even with TFG (lukewarm, purchased) endorsement. But Ryan doesn’t stand a chance if Black women voters don’t believe he’s any different than the union bosses from Youngstown. Believe me white liberal voters remember how he tried to kneecap Nancy Smash in 2018. I still have my doubts about how he’s going to vote if he manages to win. There is a lot of potential there for another Manchin. If the base doesn’t turn out in Akron and Cleveland, he doesn’t stand a chance.
Bobby Thomson
@Roger Moore:
My gut feeling is he’s play acting the CEO role while his subordinates are doing the real work.
Let me let you in on a not very well kept secret. That describes the majority of people in the CEO position. Glorified carnival barkers.
Starfish
@dlwchico: How has “voting” been working out so far, you might ask. Soldiers have been in people’s houses, pointing guns at them and telling them to “vote” to become part of Russia. These are not ideal voting circumstances.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sab: sorry to hear that. Maybe Joyce Beatty can sort him out. I find her impressive.
Gin & Tonic
Sebastian
Musk had to distract from disastrous Q3 delivery numbers released over the weekend and the terrible Bot presentation Friday evening, which sent the stock tanking 8% today.
He must keep the stock up until the quarterly filing mid-October because he can only sell after that date.
He needs to sell a lot of his stock and he could even end up underwater if it falls too much.
sab
@artem1s: Half of Akron and none of Cleveland was in his district and don’t know him.
Ruckus
@ChristianPinko:
That is hilarious.
And very well stated.
evodevo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes she is, and yes they did … I think Tracy had it nailed lol
lashonharangue
Apparently the mine was in Zambia. https://www.businessinsider.co.za/how-elon-musks-family-came-to-own-an-emerald-mine-2018-2
Ruckus
@Tony G:
We have culture?
Where have we been hiding it for at least my lifetime?
The Lodger
@Gin & Tonic: Inconceivable! Nest thing you know, the Beeb will learn how to pronounce Nicaragua (which, to natives of Earth, is not “ni-car-AG-yew-uh”.)
Tehanu
@middlelee:
Uh … because he has lots and lots and lots and lots of money? I’ve begun to think that greed is really the deadliest of all sins.
also @Ruckus:m
2liberal
It’s actually “Cannon” as in “Loose Cannon”
2liberal
It’s actually “Cannon” as in “Loose Cannon”
jame
Every billionaire is a policy failure.