Support NeoGAF

[DeafTourette]

You're making this explicitly political now, so I am owed at least 1 response then I'll drop it. The guy is speed running his own death, and it's the most predictable outcome ever.

I quite like this whole set up we've had in the US my whole life where we abide by laws and at least attempt to try and assess things impartially according to the rule of law. It's never been perfect, but it's stable, it's close to fair most of the time, and it's mostly non-violent. That's great. I'd suggest we all try to keep that going as its better for everyone.

Signs that this is breaking down are never a good thing. Things like having an unelected person march into the most sensitive agencies we have, bullying people and not just demanding classified access to our most sensitive data, but demanding source code and then working on it remotely. All of that is explicitly illegal. No one really has the power anymore to enforce the laws at this point against him though. He's not just above the law, he's above the lawmakers as well. He's personally threatened to primary anyone that opposes him so most are just cowering before the dictates of 1 unelected man. For several years if the topic came up, I'd post things like "having massive income inequality is inherently destabilizing for democracy" and usually just get laugh emojis on here, but it's obviously true and we're seeing it near its tipping point of no return. Just his personal wealth eclipses most lobbying by our largest companies and even outside nation states. AIPAC is one of the most influential lobbyist groups out there, backed by an entire other country, and they usually only spend around 100 million a year. Pocket change.

So now we've passed the point where laws work. We've cleared the point where lawmakers work. Unfortunately he also has such an intense personality disorder that he seems unable to pick up on even glaring social queues that he is pushing things too far. Most maniacal billionaires just out of self-preservation tend to keep to the shadows. He gets up there with a chainsaw and posts 200 times a day on his personal social media apparatus and tweaks the algorithm to make his posts as visible as possible.

Then you have our president literally saying publicly that "he who saves the country breaks no law." The thing about laws is that they're usually intended to be impartial, but something like "saving the country" is pretty subjective and vague. That literally is the kind of motto a terrorist would use. Who else has a problem with laws? Laws are great most of the time and help stabilize society and prevent violence. Probably a really bad idea to openly break the law as flagrantly as possible, to openly tell everyone that you don't even think laws apply, to push a Supreme Court that just said the president is also above the law, to illegally fire hundreds of thousands of people without due process or review. It literally just takes 1 disgruntled person who got fired to snap, so it's probably a bad idea to run things this way. Laws and the perception of fairness are release valves for society that help people buy in to the system and helps release steam. All the levers have been ripped out on purpose while pushing the steam as high as possible so the fact that some people are starting to talk about ignoring the law is literally the most predictable outcome ever.

I recommend we all start following laws again and bring the temperature down, starting from the top. Political violence and unchecked authority without any legal checks and balances are both pretty bad things. What's hilarious is that Musk is openly telling everyone that his position is limiting empathy now, literally a policy of sociopathy so even if you do feel bad for him and worry about his safety - which I don't - he would probably tell you that you're a victim of the empathy exploit. It's like he's purposefully trying to destroy himself.

People not buying Teslas is a healthy outcome as its one of the last peaceful release valves we have left that's functioning still. People can choose to not buy something, so let's all hope that is enough to trigger some kind of reaction and course correction because they're setting all of us up for a fall into chaos without one.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

But you can be damn sure the reporting would have been identical no matter who would have attempted this reform.

Eh - no? It's obvious Musk has no idea what he is doing, he is applying "go fast and break things" to government operations. As he mentioned - ups, we killed the Ebola program, but we turn it back on now, no worries! That's not how you run a country.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

If elons name being associated with the brand which is causing those profits to fall and in the future then the board might have to get rid of him.

I would say it's the board's obligation to do so when faced with 40% share drop in 2.5 months.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Eh - no? It's obvious Musk has no idea what he is doing, he is applying "go fast and break things" to government operations. As he mentioned - ups, we killed the Ebola program, but we turn it back on now, no worries! That's not how you run a country.

And you really think that government reform would have ever happened from anyone else but people like him? You're delusional. There is no way anyone would get a chance to attempt this "the right way". He or she would have been destroyed at base 1. To tell you the truth, I'd be surprised if Elon makes it 4 years without an "accident". I mean, he's always joking about it but man I'm sure a lot of people have an eye on him - and it's not just little folks destroying Teslas. Guy has some balls to do this.

 

[Punished Miku]

And you really think that government reform would have ever happened from anyone else but people like him? You're delusional. There is no way anyone would get a chance to attempt this "the right way". He or she would have been destroyed at base 1. To tell you the truth, I'd be surprised if Elon makes it 4 years without an "accident". I mean, he's always joking about it but man I'm sure a lot of people have an eye on him - and it's not just little folks destroying Teslas. Guy has some balls to do this.

Republicans control every branch of government. Literally all they have to do is put out their budget and lay out what they are deciding to fund. Happens every year. People vote them in, and they lay out what we spend in detail.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

And you really think that government reform would have ever happened from anyone else but people like him?

Do you understand how government reform works? You seem to be under the impression that the way to push the reform is to fuck shit up, then rebuild it. Again, this is not how running a country is, let alone the country that is the US. Are you trying to tell me US passed to meaningful reforms ever till Daddy Musk got on the train?

 

[JimmyRustler]

Do you understand how government reform works? You seem to be under the impression that the way to push the reform is to fuck shit up, then rebuild it. Again, this is not how running a country is, let alone the country that is the US. Are you trying to tell me US passed to meaningful reforms ever till Daddy Musk got on the train?

Yes and no. Thing is, government is really good at "adding" new stuff but very bad at removing redundant stuff. And I think for that you need people like Musk. Laws and regulations have been piling up way to much over the past decades. Someone needs to clean this up and get it into order - and I don't think anyone else but an outsider can actually do this.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Tesla tumbles again as investors bail on Elon Musk's suddenly struggling electric vehicle company

Shares of Tesla slid again Monday as confidence in Elon Musk’s electric car company continues to disintegrate following a post-election “Trump bump.”

apnews.com

Tesla stockX outageNFL free agencyD.J. ReedKenny Pickett


I think it's actually over for Tesla. Between China gaining a true advantage in EVs and Europeans getting fed up with Musk's psychotic antics, the possible market place for Tesla has shrunk drastically internationally.

The US is booming. It is on the right way with employee Trump and President Elon Musk.

I saw a Tesla car 3 weeks ago and they look horrible.

 

[Romulus]

It's interesting how people are targeting Elon's personnel wealth when his government job is exposing waste spending and corruption. Hmm.

But no violent protests against Trump's properties for DEI, immigration etc etc. Apparently that's just not important.

 

[winjer]

NASA cuts staff, closes key offices to comply with Trump's executive order

Announcing the mass layoffs, NASA stated it is beginning a "phased approach to a reduction in force" to optimize its workforce and comply with Trump's executive order....

www.techspot.com

You can bet it was Musk's idea to cut NASA staff and funding, to give SpaceX an advantage in getting more contracts.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I’m at the point where I want Elon riding on the next Space X rocket.

I’m not sure it’s possible for me to hate someone more.

 

[Romulus]

It's interesting how people are targeting Elon's wealth when his government job is explosing waste spending and corruption. Hmm.

But no violent protests against Trump's properties for DEI, immigration changes though. Apparently that's not important.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I would never own a Tesla after Musks behavior. Homebody is toxic AF.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Enjoy the vote.


Disfruten lo votado

 

[kindaGoth]

About time to buy tesla stock

 

[Cyberpunkd]

It's interesting how people are targeting Elon's personnel wealth when his government job is exposing waste spending and corruption. Hmm.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Yes, the waste spending that he has no data to back. Corruption that he also doesn't justify in any way.

 

[DeafTourette]

It's interesting how people are targeting Elon's wealth when his government job is explosing waste spending and corruption. Hmm.

But no violent protests against Trump's properties for DEI, immigration changes though. Apparently that's not important.

It's telling when he:

1. Didn't target the Pentagon and the DoD when they've failed every audit from the past 8 years and can't account for some $800 Billion dollars

2. Is honoring HIS contracts (conflict of interest) with the government but cancelling others (including competitors)

3. Is giving out ridiculous numbers that have no basis in reality when it comes to SS, Medicaid and Medicare

4. The Inspectors General that were investigating him are all fired

5. Firing people Willy nilly for seemingly no reason who are ESSENTIAL to the government and then scrambling to rehire them*

And quite a few other things... But those are the biggest, I think.

*Edit

 

[winjer]

3 decades ago, Bush Senior was the President in office when the USSR collapsed. A Republican that took no shit from petty dictators.
Now we have Trump, a President that surrenders his country and allies to a Russian dictator and former KGB agent.
The reality is that Trump is not making America great again, it's making the USSR.

 

[Punished Miku]

It's interesting how people are targeting Elon's wealth when his government job is explosing waste spending and corruption.

They're really not targeting his wealth, but his actions.

I would actually target his wealth as well. No one should be allowed to have that much money as it literally is detrimental to global security. People can't be allowed to amass more than nation states or else you'll just have a oligarchy steering the corpse of what is left of government, like Russia. Just a mafia state. People have to choose, 1) Mafia state, or 2) a wealth cap. It can be a very high cap, you can buy whatever you want for life and your kids and their kids, but you can't buy governments. Either we keep some semblance of a representative government, or we're in the Aliens universe with Weyland-Yutani running everything.

 

[dave_d]

3 decades ago, Bush Senior was the President in office when the USSR collapsed. A Republican that took no shit from petty dictators.

On the other hand Bush is also the guy that didn't make it clear to a petty dictator (Sadam) that no, we weren't ok with him invading Kuwait.(Yeah, that was a bit of a mistake.)

 

[winjer]

On the other hand Bush is also the guy that didn't make it clear to a petty dictator (Sadam) that no, we weren't ok with him invading Kuwait.(Yeah, that was a bit of a mistake.)

You might not remember this, but Saddam was supported by the UK and the US.
When he betrayed us, he got destroyed, twice. One by a democrat president. And the second time, by Bush's son.
You can bet that neither Clinton, nor Bush senior or junior, would betray the US and surrender to Russia, the way Trump is doing.
It's a disgrace that the Republican party went from being the hawks that defeated the USSR, to a Russian puppet.

 

[Clear]

3 decades ago, Bush Senior was the President in office when the USSR collapsed. A Republican that took no shit from petty dictators.
Now we have Trump, a President that surrenders his country and allies to a Russian dictator and former KGB agent.
The reality is that Trump is not making America great again, it's making the USSR.

Yeah because nothing says "smart move" like funding an endless proxy war versus a nuclear power...

 

[winjer]

Yeah because nothing says "smart move" like funding an endless proxy war versus a nuclear power...

What do you think the Cold War was?
And might I remind you that the USA won. It was the USSR that collapsed.
Russia today is near collapse, and instead of supporting our allies, the USA surrendered to a Russian dictator.
Have you no shame, no honor, no pride in the accomplishments of your forefathers?

 

[Punished Miku]

Have you no shame, no honor, no pride

 

[dave_d]

You might not remember this, but Saddam was supported by the UK and the US.

Yes, I'm very aware that Iraq used to be a US ally against Iran. (Iran/Iraq war) The problem which is covered in this quora link is he had further aspirations, IE taking over Kuwait and the Bush admin played a stupid game where they kind of hinted we might be ok with it. Would we have been ok with just taking over some oil fields but not the whole place? Who knows but it turned into a complete shit show.

 

[Clear]

What do you think the Cold War was?
And might I remind you that the USA won. It was the USSR that collapsed.
Russia today is near collapse, and instead of supporting our allies, the USA surrendered to a Russian dictator.
Have you no shame, no honor, no pride in the accomplishments of your forefathers?

Ukraine vs Russia is not a cold war. Its very much a hot conflict where the use of tactical nukes has been openly considered as an option.

Seriously, what's your endgame? Hmmm? Give Vlad a bloody nose and send him and his thousands of nuclear warheads running for the hills?

Your naivety is astonishing,

 

[UnrealEck]

Yes, the waste spending that he has no data to back. Corruption that he also doesn't justify in any way.

I think Elon should take aback seat and hand over the position in government to someone else. Go back to doing SpaceX, Tesla etc.

But if you're referring to waste from things like USAID it's documented on USA Spending website.

 

[Romulus]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Yes, the waste spending that he has no data to back. Corruption that he also doesn't justify in any way.

I highly doubt all the gay/trans funding in random countries and social security drawings from people over 100 years are all wrong because you don't like his politics.

 

[winjer]

Ukraine vs Russia is not a cold war. Its very much a hot conflict where the use of tactical nukes has been openly considered as an option.

Seriously, what's your endgame? Hmmm? Give Vlad a bloody nose and send him and his thousands of nuclear warheads running for the hills?

Your naivety is astonishing,

The Cold War also had Russia invading other countries and the USA supporting those countries.
And in the end the USA won. Not the USSR.
And yes, we should give them a bloody nose, like we did so many dictators before.
FFS, where is the courage that the Republican use to be proud of.
When did the Republican become the party that gives up and surrenders to dictators.

 

[DeafTourette]

I highly doubt all the gay/trans funding in random countries and social security drawings from people over 100 years are all wrong because you don't like his politics.

All that is completely made up BS. You'd realize that if you spent more than 2 mins thinking about it or googling it.

 

[winjer]

This is what happens when the leader of a democracy believes in the lies of a dictator and surrenders another country as sacrifice.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

You guys know this is all manufactured consent, right? Except now it's with a side of domestic terrorism

We live in a world where you can do anything as long as you're aligned with the Democrats, up to and including terror attacks on American soil

Your Democrat party come across as total thugs.

Wasn’t one celebrating a city burning?

 

[Romulus]

It's telling when he:

1. Didn't target the Pentagon and the DoD when they've failed every audit from the past 8 years and can't account for some $800 Billion dollars

2. Is honoring HIS contracts (conflict of interest) with the government but cancelling others (including competitors)

3. Is giving out ridiculous numbers that have no basis in reality when it comes to SS, Medicaid and Medicare

4. The Inspectors General that were investigating him are all fired

5. Firing people Willy nilly for seemingly no reason who are ESSENTIAL to the government and then scrambling to rehire them*

And quite a few other things... But those are the biggest, I think.

*Edit

4 weeks on the job, not 4 years.

1) 4 weeks on the job

2) Dipshit move if done for those reasons. As an investigator in my previous job, I see alot of conclusions made that are proven wrong over and over again.

3) How do we actually know that. Could it be some numbers are wrong and others aren't? I find it incredibly difficult to imagine everything is a lie and conspiracy to make the previous admin look bad etc. I've looked it up and both sides of the argument everyone is obviously siding with their political party. Obviously.

4) They fired of ton of them. How do we know that's not just coincidence?

5) This is just criticism. Completely fine. I don't know which strategy is better.


My question is, despite all the dipshit moves(if they are) if DOGE saves billions of dollars in the end of the term and uncovers real corruption, will anyone on the other side give him credit? And by that I mean its proven and accepted by both sides. I don't think anyone who's trashing him now will have the ability to say they were wrong. They'll just continually dogpile because "rich people suck" or "Republican bad" etc etc and all these excuses as to why the numbers are actually wrong.

4 weeks on the job and a looong way to go. Not saying its not going up in flames either.

 

[Romulus]

All that is completely made up BS. You'd realize that if you spent more than 2 mins thinking about it or googling it.

That does absolutely nothing to counter anything, at all.

 

[Puscifer]

I live in California, a state absolutely filled to the rim with both liberals and Teslas.

Watching Tesla owners collectively struggle with some sort of existential crisis over their car has been quite interesting to say the least.

He should've stayed a bootleg Tony Stark

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

I highly doubt all the gay/trans funding in random countries and social security drawings from people over 100 years are all wrong because you don't like his politics.

Hook line and sinker. They really know how pull your strings.

 

[Romulus]

Hook line and sinker. They really know how pull your strings.

Which one? The over the hill SS payments or social programs funding? Which one pulled my strings so I'm more aware?

 

[Punished Miku]

Which one? The over the hill SS payments or social programs funding? Which one pulled my strings so I'm more aware?

You have to be willing to do some basic reading. No one knows how to explain this stuff to you when its all out there. It's been so widely debunked, even Musk's best friend Joe Rogan had to admit he had it wrong on his podcast. They're lying to you. It's such an important and popular program that no one has been willing to cut into it, because voters would object. They are purposefully lying about it so they can claim they're cutting "fraud." Look up "the third rail (politics)" on wikipedia and see what the first example is since I guess you've probably never heard of this either.

No biggie, it's only one of the most important government programs in existence. No reason to worry that they're aggressively lying about the most sensitive government program there is after just a few weeks in office while illegally fucking around with the source code remotely.

Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims

apnews.com

Focusing on gay / race issues is the oldest wedge issue in the book. Look up wedge issue, southern strategy, etc. They've literally used that move since the civil rights era. They can simply stop funding whatever DEI stuff they want in the budget. Trump already ended a ton of it through executive order and nothing from Musk is required (or legal). But who cares about laws.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

He gave an insanely high figure like $700 billion which made me think he was going to kill the whole thing. iirc, the entire medicare budget was $800 billion a few years ago. He keeps talking about these things as entitlements when people have been paying into these programs their entire lives. it’s no more an entitlement than having car insurance.

“Entitlement” in the context of government spending just means that it is a program that the government is required to fund by law. As opposed to discretionary spending which is the spending covered by appropriations bills.

Mandatory spending - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Entitlements are where the majority of government spending goes, and nobody democrat or republican wants to touch them.

 

[YCoCg]

AJUMP23 get in here, it's all kicking off

 

[AJUMP23]

AJUMP23 get in here, it's all kicking off

Thanks An Elon thread becomes a Gay rights thread....definitely going to be in Before Lock.

Looks like DeafTourette can't help himself and is gunning for more In Before Lock points.

 

[M1chl]

You hate to see it

/s

 

[Madflavor]

Dude it hasn’t even been two months. Like god fucking damn. How is there going to be 4 years of this? People are already losing their minds.

 

[DeafTourette]

Thanks An Elon thread becomes a Gay rights thread....definitely going to be in Before Lock.

Looks like DeafTourette can't help himself and is gunning for more In Before Lock points.

I'm the undisputed "in before lock" King!

 

[Romulus]

You have to be willing to do some basic reading. No one knows how to explain this stuff to you when its all out there. It's been so widely debunked, even Musk's best friend Joe Rogan had to admit he had it wrong on his podcast. They're lying to you.

No biggie, it's only one of the most important government programs in existence. No reason to worry that they're aggressively lying about the most sensitive government program there is after just a few weeks in office while illegally fucking around with the source code remotely.

Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims

apnews.com

Focusing on gay / race issues is the oldest wedge issue in the book. Look up wedge issue, southern strategy, etc. They've literally used that move since the civil rights era. They can simply stop funding whatever DEI stuff they want in the budget. Trump already ended a ton of it through executive order and nothing from Musk is required (or legal). But who cares about laws.

The article reads that its essentially trump overinflating the numbers like he always does. Those are 2 completely different things though. DOGE finding actual problems has nothing to do with whatever Trump says. He's almost always saying dumb things and inflating numbers, that's known.

It could easily be a far less number that whatever trump or elon says, yet still worth investigation.

 

[Punished Miku]

The article reads that its essentially trump overinflating the numbers like he always does.

Good luck with your ongoing battle trying to determine fiction from reality. You're going to need it.

 

[AJUMP23]

Maybe we should have one thread where people can talk about how much they love or hate TRUMP or America, Israel/Palestine, China/Russia, Ukraine/Europe. And just express your opinions so you can get it out of your system. Then come in to the other threads and talk about things we are united on. Like how terrible that new Snow White looks. Or how bad Marvel is right now.

 

[Rentahamster]

social security drawings from people over 100 years

What is your claim? People over 100 getting social security payments is bad? If they paid into the system and are still alive, they are entitled to it. For many of our elders, it's their only source of income to keep them out of poverty.

 

[Bojji]

It's telling when he:

1. Didn't target the Pentagon and the DoD when they've failed every audit from the past 8 years and can't account for some $800 Billion dollars

2. Is honoring HIS contracts (conflict of interest) with the government but cancelling others (including competitors)

3. Is giving out ridiculous numbers that have no basis in reality when it comes to SS, Medicaid and Medicare

4. The Inspectors General that were investigating him are all fired

5. Firing people Willy nilly for seemingly no reason who are ESSENTIAL to the government and then scrambling to rehire them*

And quite a few other things... But those are the biggest, I think.

*Edit

Damn, what is his official position again?

Does US constitution allows this?

 

[LimanimaPT]

All this MAG supporters are with Trump until they start to be affected by what this administration is doing. I'm wonderin how many Reptrumplicans have already lost their jobs or businesess. I can't say I feel for them.
I have nothing against being a republican or voting for them, what I can't stand is a Reptrumplican.