Neither Musk nor Trump are patient men, and I’m kinda hoping their bromance won’t last past whatever horrors will be perpetrated at the inauguration — if that long. Mar-A-Lago is very much Trump’s Happy Place, but those Thanksgiving dinner clips didn’t make it seem as though Musk was having much fun, between being ordered to dance like a monkey & getting dumped on the college kid to discuss gaming. And in the spate of very earnest discussions over Trump’s more recent cabinet proposals, nobody’s paying attention to the Department of Government Efficiency except to point out that it’s basically another grifty, yet essentially powerless blue-ribbon commission…
My latest: Why Elon Musk wants to ‘delete’ an agency that protects your money "The CFPB protects Americans from vested financial interests, ranging from too-big-to-fail banks to Silicon Valley fintech startups. They hate it, not because the agency is “duplicative” but precisely because it is not."
— Helaine Olen (@helaineolen.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 2:40 PM
Also, while he’s competing for attention with all the other Trump henchmen, Musk has less attention for his other, more financial profitable grifts…
Delaware judge reaffirms ruling that invalidated massive Tesla pay package for Elon Musk
— Associated Press ?? (@asssociatedpress.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 5:50 PM
And his overpriced social-media ‘public square’ is turning into a pixilated bus station toilet… but least he’s still got his Mommy to literally hold his hand!
Hey, remember the 90s when conservatives kvetched constantly about HRC's influence in policy-making, bc "no one elected her?"
Helluva historical whiplash to see the GOP 30 yrs later cheering on not just an unelected illegal immigrant (Elon) influencing WH policy, but HIS MOM–HIS MOM–joining in.— Brooke Harrington (@ebharrington.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 8:05 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,014: Not Now South Korea, We’re Busy!!!!!
Villago Delenda Est
Leon needs a tumbrel ride. All there is to it.
Aussie Sheila
@Villago Delenda Est:
And a blade that needs sharpening, but isn’t so blunt it can’t do the job at all.
anitamargarita
@Villago Delenda Est:
not without mommy to hold his hand.
NotMax
Muskaswamy poised to alienate everyone.
p.a.
FAFO.
TTFRNEYFIV
Try To Fucking Remember Next Election You Fucking Idiot Voters
Baah, just doesn’t roll off the tongue…
Central Planning
His mom sits in the meetings?? I would never even think of inviting mine to my work meetings, and the answer would be a hard no if she asked to attend one. WTAF?
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m in favor of de-platforming, myself. In the manner used at the Nuremberg trials for the likes of Ribbentrop, Keitel, and Jodl.
Shalimar
I don’t know how Musk makes it to the inauguration without being humiliated. Trump and Musk both have their own social media companies where they make themselves the center of all attention. The difference is ex-Twitter still has a massive audience. There is no way Trump’s ego accepts that for months.
Jeffro
it’s great that not only are billionaires automatically super-smart (and smart in ALL areas, about absolutely everything all the time) but even their relatives and buddies are worth interviewing and getting their deepest thoughts.
“Congratulations on your son’s pile of money! Now let me ask you about brain surgery…”
Baud
Remember in July when Biden was too old and Trump was not.
Potential Dem voters are the biggest marks in the history of the world.
Jeffro
somewhat related, since it’s about scams: Michelle Singletary has an excellent, eye-opening series going in the WaPo about the sheer number and sophistication of financial scams these days.
SCAMMED (gift link)
I follow this kind of stuff and even I was amazed at the shit going on out there. Be careful, folks!
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: People believe what they want to believe and people voted for a fool they believed was more competent than one of the most qualified presidential candidate in my lifetime. I will never give the voters who voted for Trump a hall pass.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
I was already there with Hillary. Harris was the final straw. I’m going to let others figure stuff out. I’m done with everyone not in my club.
Elizabelle
@The Thin Black Duke: Not impressed with the morons who could not even take an interest in voting, either. Although who knows what fake shit they would have fallen for.
Princess
@Elizabelle: And then there’s the group, small in absolute terms though I encounter a lot of them, of voters who wanted a Harris win but stayed home or voted third party as a protest. That’s a special kind of stupid. Utter contempt for them.
Baud
@Princess:
You have no obligation to take those people at face value.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: This fraud victim, who was a retired therapist and licensed clinical social worker, was vulnerable because she was in personal trauma. Dealing with a husband with Parkinsons.
We are going to be a nation in trauma, in a very few short months.
Cue the sharks circling.
Really interesting series by Michelle Singletary; the scammers are so professional and psychologically adept it is scary.
And this was a woman not in the early stages of dementia, or even that isolated.
Elizabelle
@Princess: Ugh. My sympathies for running across those geniuses.
Princess
@Elizabelle: some I know personally. I tried to persuade one his protest vote was a waste of time to no effect. Somehow his vote for Harris in a red state was going to have no effect but a protest vote for some anonymous third party was going to save Gaza.
Elizabelle
@Princess: Congratulations for not slugging him. (A university student?)
All het up to “save Gaza” but can’t step in to save his own country. Moron.
Ramalama
@Jeffro: This is great. I think Michelle Singletary is an excellent journalist.
Related: Malicious Life podcast which I listen to on occasion had a really moving episode about Cyber PTSD a while ago. Recommended listening.
Cory Doctorow is a crazy prolific writer (sci-fi and tech stuff) and he also has a tale about how he got scammed.
I think your comment should start a trend about people talking about being the victims/survivors of this kind of crime. My own wifey who’s a senior citizen has gotten scammed a number of times including one time when I was present and almost fell for it until I turned on my Google-fu while she was still on the phone. It was eerily related: claiming she didn’t pay duties and we had just driven in from the USA. I saw it was a scam so I yelled out Hang up!
I think seniors get targetted the most (based on vibes, maybe there’s data out there), and are the ones who MOST won’t want to talk about it. But people: we need to help each other out with this…
Kay
All media do in Africa is scream the same question about the pardon over and over. I know nothing outside their own careers interests them, but US policy in Africa might be interesting to the people who actually buy what they sell: liberals. This industry deserves to die. Its produces low quality junk.
Kay
If we manage to build up high quality nonprofit news agencies for US news we should then move to creating some US-based quality shops for international news.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Elizabelle:
She’s one of the bright spots at the Wa(com)Post. Still not bright enough to subscribe tho.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
She’s on blue sky.
https://bsky.app/profile/michellesingletary.bsky.social
Elizabelle
@Kay: Disappointing. Great. We flew a pack of hyenas to Africa.
Princess
@Elizabelle: A student 25 years ago. Old enough to know better now.
Elizabelle
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I like Ms. Singletary a lot. She tells tales of her grandmother (is that “Big Momma?”, something like that), who knew how to manage her finances well.
She’s a lot less scoldy than Suze Orman (gah).
Baud
@Elizabelle:
We should leave them there.
Shalimar
@Baud: Only if we find a desert where they can’t bother other people.
Jeffro
Five years ago, a woman in my office got a weird call from someone pretending to be a DEA agent. Supposedly her son had been arrested in Mexico and her car had been impounded, etc etc. The “agent” was calling to give her a time-limited offer to bail her son out before the Mexican authorities locked him up but good.
She was about 30 seconds away from giving the dude her credit card for her son’s “bail money” before I walked over to her and said, “it’s a scam – hang up”. It took a few minutes, but eventually she realized there was no way the caller was for real, her son was fine, etc.
Amazing to think about it, really.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes I do. I also remember being lectured by people the only reason why Biden wouldn’t resign was he was just being to stubborn.
Kay
@Jeffro:
We see scams a lot in the law office and I’m sympathetic but a “time limited offer” on bail? That didn’t seem off to her?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Speaking of that….
One of the Trumpers at work insisted on venting to me about Trump’s cabinet picks. During that discussion he admitted he was impressed how much Harris had improved since 2020 with me thinking “Jesus Christ dude!”
As for why he was doing it, well he is East Asian and I am a old white guy, and old white guys are magic to them, apparently. The CRT professors are right, racism is insidious stuff were even the victims of end up talking themselves down.
prostratedragon
Starmer takes a unique (unfortunately) stance while wearing a formal suit:
Baud
@prostratedragon:
Good.
Jeffro
@Kay: if I’m remembering correctly, the “DEA agent” said he had 24 hours to intervene before his colleagues in the Mexican police were going to process the son on drug charges, and then it’d be “official” and in the system, the kid would be moved from jail to prison, etc.
It sounded like a pretty good line to me, honestly. =)
There are folks who fall for “agents” who eventually ask for payment in gold and crypto. How THAT doesn’t register with the victim, I’ll never understand…and yet…
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Whatev. Let him see the light the next election or not.
Jeffro
I can’t decide if this would make me bust out laughing, or get me swearing up a blue streak.
(Maybe one, then the other? LOL -> #%$&! )
“It’s December 4th and you just NOW realized that trump’s picks were going to be a bunch incompetent, malicious morons just like their orange idol??? PUH-LEEZE”
Kay
@prostratedragon:
I thought it was I interesting (and maybe hopeful) that a European journalist org will leave Twitter due to Musk turning it into a Trump propaganda site. Europeans never took to Twitter anyway – the two big users were US (dominates Twitter much more than any others) and India.
Rose Judson
@prostratedragon: That’s an interesting slant on Starmer’s speech. Over here, people are angry he wasn’t forceful enough (I am working on a post about this for tomorrow).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: That was my thought at the time, and also, politics at work, how unprofessional. The things I have to tolerate because I am in a leadership position.
Anyway, I think what I am doing with him is how it’s done, make them come to us and admit, in so many words, they were wrong. My experience is the only voice most people will listen to is their own.
Ksmiami
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: you forgot to add Mussolini to the mix
linnen
I’m not sure that Trump voters were scammed. Yes, Trump is involved in scams and grifts, at the least getting money from them by being the figure head. And yes, he has many in his circle and attendants that are scammers and grifters. (Insert something about dogs and fleas.) But to say that the Trump voter is a passive object in this ignores their active rejection of the bits of reality that manages to break through and their active participation. Trump voters look more like MLM and other cult type groups. And what works to get people out of being scammed will not work the same for people in MLM schemes or cults.
zhena gogolia
Why the fuck is the pardon the big story? What about the sexual abuse allegations on cabinet picks? What about Patel? What about GABBARD, for God’s sake?
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: People got conned by a con man into thinking we could go back before Covid. He promised anything to anyone, which takes advantage of people’s belief that all politicians are scummy anyway so you might as well go with the one you think might help you. Voters don’t want to be talked to like they’re adults, they want to be told what they believe already is correct.
Soprano2
@Kay: I really wish Joe would tell them to fuck off, he wrote a statement that answers their questions. I’ve had it with reporters who care more about Biden protecting his son than they do about TCFG nominating someone for FBI director who has a public “enemies list”. They’ve shown that they’re mostly worthless when it comes to what’s important. The only people who seem to be upset about Biden pardoning Hunter are pundits. The average Democratic voter is happy about it.
evodevo
@Ramalama: I give ~$45 a yr to Better Business Bureau and in return I get a quarterly index (“Wise Giving Guide”) to almost all the charity orgs in the US, and a rating for each. They are rated on how their funds are spent, who is on their BoDs, etc. A LOT of the religious ones won’t contribute any data on their financials, and most of them get a D rating lol. I contribute only to the ones who are rated “accredited” and throw away the rest of the solicitations…
Kay
@Soprano2:
100%. our big mistake was not listening to the 500 promises he made – mortgage rates at 2%, credit card rates at 10%, 10k to every homeschooling family, deport 20 million, 2016 grocery prices, inflation “vanishes”, peace in the Middle East and Russia/ Ukraine, ban all unhealthy foods…
There were literally people coming into the law office saying “now I can buy a house”. They can’t buy a house because they have a low credit score, no down payment, they change jobs every 9 months and a shitload of credit card debt, but Trump told them all that was Joe Biden’s fault.
We’re a nation of spoiled 5 year olds.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And while I am venting about work. The actual full blown MAGA at work is, naturally, a woman engineer who is an under-qualified DEI hire. Under-qualified isn’t a matter of opinion, she doesn’t even have an AS degree, much less the four year degree that’s required for the job. The word is she got the exemption because she was sleeping with the VP, whose sense quit, and is only keeping it because she looks good on the corporate org chat.
She is also manager, with a staff of one tech. Compare and contrast my manager who has fifteen people under him at two different job sites. The reason why she isn’t taking our site off my manager is basically most of us told management we would quit if she was putting in charge us because at one point she had another engineer under her, and she destroyed his career because he wasn’t in her comfort zone.
It’s always projection with those people.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Yeah. That’s not DEI.
None of the DEI videos I’ve watched advise people to sleep their way to a promotion.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, that’s my feeling. And Trump really into things like MLM.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Because the MSM is really outraged about is Biden is over in Africa apologizing for slavery.
Kay
The one and only reason the Right didn’t abolish Social Security in 2005 was Democrats in Congress. All of media were cheering cutting “entitlements” just like they are now.
Democrats can’t bail the dumbasses out this time – there aren’t enough of them in Congress. This time they get what they fucking vote for. I wish them luck under Elons boot.
Soprano2
You mean like the people my manager said think they have it tough but then said “they order $100 of Doordash”, that’s when I said “They just lost all my sympathy, people who order $100 from Doordash don’t have it hard, they’re making bad choices”. I kind of went on a mini rant about how when I was in my early 20’s I took a second job and lived with a roommate, that people in their 20’s have always had it hard and I’m tired of hearing that these people have it harder than anyone ever has in the history of the world. That’s just not true, when my husband was young 18 year olds were being drafted to fight in a war. Who had it harder? He told me it was “bad out there” because we get lots of applications when he posts a job; I see that the unemployment rate in Greene County, MO in October was 3%! I told him if we ever have a really bad economy all these people will cry constantly.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: But who’s in your club? And do they know that? ;)
RevRick
@zhena gogolia: It appears that Hegseth’s nomination to head the DOD is sinking in the mire of allegations. The Trump team is already hinting that Gov. Ron DeSantis may be their Plan B, as word is floating around that at least six GOP Senators are “uncomfortable “ with Hegseth, and Sen. Joni Ernst is promising to grill him in committee. And Trump agreeing to FBI background checks on his picks is a good sign that he won’t be able to jam his nominees through. Perhaps Gaetz crashing and burning enabled at least some GOP Senators to just say no
Denali5
What is MLM?
Ramalama
@evodevo: Um…
you
could
bypass giving BBB money and
instead look at Charity Navigator, a non-profit that ranks other non-profits and is frequently featured in the news as a legit source
for free
Booger
@Elizabelle: Same tactic taught to Mormon Missionaries.
Dave
@Jeffro: I’ve hit the belly laugh when people who voted for it suddenly are surprised. Still able to be kinder after that “basically you were sold a bill of goods by whatever media you absorb” but the laugh is weird mix of actual joy, sardonic amusement, and bitterness.
Or with people that want me to pretend a choice like Hesgeth is anything but an absolute shit show I just laugh make a very basic point and cheerily give the “let’s see how it plays out I’d love to be wrong”.
Dave
@zhena gogolia: Because our media is absolute garbage. Some of it is intentional and some is just, as much as they love to preach at liberals about being in a bubble, is mutual reinforcement of values and assumptions that are in no way serve their putative goals.
Though I’m sure you know that I’m just damned livid about it all I need to explicate it.
Dave
@Kay: I can’t help but see this as the end result of amongst many other factors people swimming in a sea of advertisement both direct and subtle that caters to them in the most shallow, immature, and narcissistic manner possible. “You deserve it” and so is the message people swim in.
If I had my druthers I would place incredibly strict limitations on all advertisement and messages like. In practice of course that won’t happen and would be impossible to enforce but man would love it.
Kayla Rudbek
@Denali5: Amway and things like that
RevRick
@Denali5: Multi Level Marketing. It’s a pyramid scheme where the name of the game is to rope in others to who will rope in others pushing products.
Timill
@Denali5: Multi-Level Marketing: things like Amway and so on
ETA: as Kayla Rudbek and RevRick said.
Old School
@Denali5:
Multi-Level Marketing. Where individuals are salespeople and also recruit people to sell under them in the hierarchy.
Edit: Should have refreshed. But I guess the question is answered.
AKA The Man
@Denali5: Multi Level Marketing – think “tupperware parties” or “Norwex”
Denali5
Thank you. I did google it, but did not relate it to TTWICFFG. But his marketing of Bibles, etc, shows the connection.
Villago Delenda Est
Going to an MLM meeting is like going to a tent revival meeting. Same rhythms and vibes. I’ve attended a couple, and it’s fascinating to watch as people just give it up for Mammon. My wingnut sister got into Herbalife for a while, I told her from the outset it was a scam, she ignored me, and after about 9 months the promised rewards failed to materialize. She quietly dropped it. She still does “research” on the internet, but for MAGA bullshit.
Jeffro
@Kay:
People really do believe what they want to believe.
trumpov’s use of outlandish promises seemed dumb/crazy/misleading, but boy it sure worked.
His use of near-moronic language sure worked, too. In our area, we saw a ton of yard signs that said “TRUMP LOW TAXES / KAMALA HIGH TAXES”. Like, total caveman-speak. And I guess that registers with enough folks.
“TRUMP LOW CRIME / KAMALA HIGH CRIME” was one, too.
Jeffro
@Ramalama: I use GiveWell, too. They’re great.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Absolutely. Poor Africa.
Martin
Musk wants to kill CFPB because Musk wants to turn X into a bank.
The right (and most voters) hate the banks, want alternatives, and the tech bros, rather than come up with ideas like more local credit unions, which people typically like, keep coming up with ‘what if we combined a bank with a lottery’ bullshit or another memecoin. Musk wants nothing more than to get his remaining blue check marks to deposit their hard earned money so he can create some scheme that lets him fuck them over while maintaining their aspirations to make it big.
All of the tech guys that jumped to Trump are running fintech schemes, and all of those schemes are potentially under fire by CFPB.
There is a LOT of money swimming around in the Robinhood/Chime/crypto space and none of those guarantee your assets – at all. They are all 1929 era ‘lose everything’ prospects. And they’re appealing because they aren’t fucking you over every goddamn day like the big banks do (whose business model really is exploiting people), and a lot of these do have the aspirational ‘maybe I can be a millionaire’ built into them, but man are they bad for the economy because they still only exist to funnel money from regular people to investors, they just do it in a less orphan crushing way.
Was reading some studies last night on how much online sports betting has increased incidents of domestic violence. Things are great all over.
Misterpuff
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That’s OK, Trump can pardon the seditious Confederacy for being slavers when he pardons the Jan6ers for being violent seditious goons.
Elizabelle
@Martin: Whoa. That would be awful.
Like you, I want to see Post Office banking.