There are good and bad people everywhere on earth. Unfortunately, we hear about the bad more so than the good. I cannot understand how anyone can say 'all southerners are rascist', as an example. I would want to know if they actually know all of the southern people in order to make such a statement. Ignorance.
Exactly..and while many Afrikkaners are pleasant to socialize with, I believe the majority still hold the tenets of Apartheid very close to being a spiritual path.
When we visited South Africa on a trip (we won it from All Classical) a while back, we noted that there were plenty of walled houses and poor townships, some with housing and some with lots of shacks. The white South Africans were lucky with Nelson Mandela. We saw a large and I mean large government building from the apartheid era where they kept records of everyone's race and also Robbins Island where Nelson Mandela was held for a while. Their racial problems are not over.
And how many of us descend from southern slaveowners and post-war White SSupremacists?
My ancestry is 3/16 southern, but they were all out of the South by 1845. My Wallace ancestors, from South Carolina, ended up in Kansas after the Civil War, where they found it prudent to lie about their origin.
I have a couple of White South African friends, who may be descended from Afrikaners, but they are not Afrikaners in their politics. They live in the US.
Thank You! When I searched for a definition I found: an Afrikaans-speaking person in South Africa, especially one descended from the Dutch and Huguenot settlers of the 17th century.
So, I didn’t understand. Thanks to all of you here for educating me.
He's (TC) using shorthand for what many understand as the AWB, or Weerstandsbeweging who were an extreme right wing white South African political group committed to either continuing apartheid or creating their own separate South Africa nation. They were brutal thugs Evelyn.
Elon Musk's ancestry is mostly English and American (through Canada), with one line going back to colonial Connecticut. There is an Afrikaner element in his ancestry, about an eighth.
Yes. I have not only read complaints about him racially, but also sexually. Also, one is judged by the company one keeps. Look at his Twitter company. He embraces the right wing as a member.
Here is a discussion that might clarify that even if the Afrikaner's are not in power they continue to exist in South Africa as cruel, racist, violent, White people.
When I studied African history, my professor shared the violent means of oppression of different groups. I remember the Germans (my people), Belgians and Dutch being particularly brutal, but it was all brutal if you ask me. The Dutch became the Afrikaners of South Africa and Rhodesia, and ruled with apartheid until it was overthrown. Racism is so hateful and insidious and is on the rearing its ugly head very blatantly in the Repugnicant party here in the Good Ole US of A.
Timmy, I repeat the idea because I read Prof Kathleen Belew's book Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. I consider her book quintessential to read to have a bigger take on what is going on in our country. She appeared in a lot of workshops that I attended a few years ago, and I knew some young Southern White men that had come to U of C and were interested in studying about White Supremacy with her. Anyway, reading her led to investigating the the topic in Europe too. Not because I believe that there are different races, I do not believe in race. Our family fills out our census forms with the word "human" when asked what race or ethnicity we are. While I do not believe in the concept of races, I do believe in racism, which is buying into the idea that different physical appearances can be categorized into races. I also happen to live in a community where this is discussed a lot. It is the community that Barack Obama comes from. My morning walk is with a friend that many would call White, and her husband, but their son is dark brown. I have many friends who have adopted across skin color, and in some case culture. Families where I live are many things, but different races is not what we are. This is true in my family too. We are many different colors and yet, we are one race. So, I understand that Racism is based on a lie, but many don't even know that. I was told by some in my job when I mentioned this that I was too ahead of everyone else and don't confuse them, and others felt that I did not understand. I repeat the idea of racism not race, and frankly in my household we do not view people as Black or White, but everyone is some shade of Brown. When you have a painting class and you have to look at everything on the gray scale, like it were a black and white photograph, well I see people on the Brown scale, and when my students painted skin color they basically used primary colors. They would make collages of themselves, and paint paper to get their skin color. However, I think that Angélica Dass illustrates what I am talking about best with her Pantone scale. https://angelicadass.com/photography/humanae/
I also talk about colorism. In Europe there is much more discussion of colorism than there is here.
Just read the link and look up Afrikaner. I knew Brits who were involved in trying to feed blacks in South Africa. They had to leave. (One later became head of Public Health at UNC-CH.)
Evelyn, we have to actually be in a declared war for anyone to be a traitor. Elon (like TFG) is solely looking out for himself. He’s taking advantage of the laws (or lack of laws) protecting against monopolies. We’ve seen (in the baby formula crisis) what can happen when an important product is produced by a virtual monopoly.
As for Elon, Rod Hilton summed it up when he posted on December 22,2022 on Mastodon “ He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard anyone say, so when people say he's a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.”
Getting this into circulation along with the rest of our tribe’s ( noting a few -no names are needed- who for the sake of skuttelry poise as one of us and pen nonsense or quote some Russian ‘righter’ and who I easily now skip over) amplification of truth is paramount.
August 8 a big showdown in Ohio, I am sending notes of encouragement for friends there to get-out-the-early-vote and show yet again the🗣️ 💙BLUE TSUNAMI💙 in progress 🤞🙏👍🫶💙.
Get-out-the-early-vote in every state’s affidavit, election, truth positive banner headline
“WE ARE ENDING THIS LOUDLY‼️⚫️ 👈that’s a BIG PERIOD”
Our country’s decency and legacy is at stake.
WE have an admitted amount of correcting to do, WE have a lesson as Jim Crow/McCarthyism/and now MAGA has underscored. And for those who ‘went along’ - the complicit, the planners, the financiers, the coat-tail riders... those specifically complicit need an adjoining cell, banned forever, and boo-ed along their final walk.
This isn’t judgement -but it sure is justice.
Let’s get on our boots ( not like those ghastly white ones the Governor wore 🤦♀️ who dressed him that day anyhow,huh?) sorry Florida ..just saying ....haul in our belts, hitch up our pants and make this clean up a FIRM SWEEP.
He's also the guy who keeps talking about colonizing Mars--which is an absolutely uninhabitable planet for multiple reasons--invoking the word, "terraforming," which in the case of Mars is magical thinking.
There must a law enforce by our government to restrict their limitations of what they can do in space. Billionaires like Musk can be dangerous. Space is for NASA to explore and research for man to learn. Not for billionaires like Musk to do what they want.
Rod Hilton might know about software, so he's taking his own expertise to make a judgement about areas he's not an expert in. He's welcome to do that. But for me personally, to take Hilton's opinion as my own because I don't have the expertise to form my own would be like accepting that all Democrats are evil Socialists because FOX News said so in an entertaining way.
And having been a coder myself in an early phase of my career, I can tell you that Hilton is speaking hyperbolically. The reality is that the best software results came when one thought of what functionality should be available and then work to make it so, if you can. But first, the vision should be stated. That's how one expands one's capabilities.
Jerry—Hilton’s statement was sent to me by a good friend in the field who prefaced it with the statement “See, that’s what I’ve been saying about how he’s running Twitter!” I trust my friend (who’s been cracking purchased commercial game software to play the way he wants it to play since his teens) a whole lot more than Musk.
Musk himself said buying Twitter might be his biggest mistake. Running Twitter isn't the same as writing the code. Musk just knows he wants it, and how it interacts worh government, to be different than it had been and is willing to break a few things to make it so. He's successful with Space-X, with Starlink, with Tesla e-cars and with Tesla power banks. He built none of their components. What he's going to do with Tesla is opaque to me, but it will have to do with more than just software.
Though Elon Musk has done incredibly well in bringing us innovations that the world needs more than ever, his impulsive, instant decision-making is backsliding the gains that he is already making. Elon Musk, with a don't-care attitude, don't factor in the consequences of his decisions. He rarely relies on bearaucratic, legal structures to make announcements because the major driving factor of his decisions is his emotional faculty that mostly depends on his feel-good moments. I am not surprised with his u-turn moments of his projects. But, to make his satellite Internet unavailable when Ukraine soldiers need it most is tantamount to jeopardising the whole strategy. It inconvenienced Ukraine soldiers in the battlefield as the consequences of missing information is detrimental. There is evidence pointing out that Ukraine soldiers were killed during the fight with Russia for every failure of communication because Russia, when they were sensing defeat, destroyed their network boosters to capitalize on their confusion and lack of signal. If Elon Musk has been allowed to operate in battleground field by US and its allies, then he shouldn't be allowed to make impulse decisions because this is sensitive and can risk the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Should that happened, he should be penalized and another satellite Internet company given a chance.
. . . or the US gov’t should get back in the military communications space game! Not that I know US military communications structure, but, just imagine Musk shutting down US military communications at some critical battlefield moment. There are things that only a government should control - as opposed to some whimsical private citizen billionaire!
And, yet another sound reason to keep the defeated FORMER president out of government....."There are things only gov't should control as opposed to some whimsical"......and in both cases, unbalanced and unsavory unqualified and selfish....
Who is it that shapes our government? We, the voters. What makes democracy dangerous is stupid people. I am appalled that at least 28% of Americans are truly stupid, or for a better description--non-critical thinkers. They are willing to give trump the presidency again and bring about their own demise...something I can't wrap my head around....
Correction: military communications should be in the hands of the military, just as potato peeling should be back in the hands of the military instead of being contracted out. Time to get real!
Perhaps government ultimately serves our interests by contracting out potato peeling, but there are some functions of our society's interests that are best held under complete public supply and control, not only because they are vital, but because misuse of them is dangerous. I would put the whole Blackwater, Wagner thing clearly in that category, as well as policing, prisons, certain functions of public health, and any of a number of functions in which folding in the profit motive risk inherent conflicts of interest with the common weal and/or insufficient public supervision ans control. I believe in both a robust private and a public sector, but neither is appropriate for all tasks.
As for Musk, Trump built his reputation in business by using, sometimes exploiting, the talents of others, which he could do because he controlled tremendous wealth. I am unclear how much of Musk success is due to his personal innovation and how much is the ability to buy other's talents.
Elon Musk is a spoiled child who unfortunately happens to be smart. He is obsessed with getting attention by shocking us with his fascist and dangerous antics. He should be tried for treason for adjusting his technology to deliberately hurt and kill Ukrainians and sent to prison so he can play with himself all day.
It's like Twitter, but worse. People sobbed and cried when Musk took over Twitter, but if you put all your eggs in one basket, you've got to take responsibility for making that choice. Who were the chumps who trusted Musk enough to invest in SpaceX and allow this dangerous monopoly to grow?
And where is the lost task of government exerting some control over industry and monopolies...we are circling around to the wealth and control of the less than 1%.
Usually monopolies happen because there has never been enough competition to stop them. But in this case, the industry failed itself. It's just like Twitter, really. Nobody ever said, "Whoa, this one company is the only one of its kind. It's a monopoly raking in billions in advertising and sales revenue, and it's become a political entity."
now, that would restrict billionaires like Musk from doing what they want in space. This is dangerous. Men with money and power will always be a threat to space.
Why another company? Seems to me something so vital to just about every aspect of life should be in the hands of a neutral entity. Certain utilities should be the under the provenance of all the people. Nationalize it. Or give it to a completely independent bipartisan commission.
While we're at it let's include all the internet robber barons!
Private entities like that of Elon Musk are ahead in regard to improved processes and innovations. What is only required from them is abiding by the rules of the military game for successful win over enemies. Their mission should not be to test whether the product is working or not but understand why their product is being used. In this case, satellite technology.
Posts where another Substack author says "read my posts" or posts links to them. As a for instance, if I were to say something along the lines of "I address this in my essay here on Substack" and provide a link to it.
Inconvenienced Ukrainian soldiers? They were killed!
Scariest paragraph I’ve ever read in LTAM:
“A study by New York Times reporters on Friday noted that Elon Musk has steadily come to dominate satellite internet technology with the Starlink technology made by his SpaceX rocket company, and that he has used that dominance to restrict the activities of Ukraine’s military. Musk began to launch satellites into space in 2019, and currently has in position more than 4,500 of the 42,000 satellites he plans. He controls more than 50% of the globe’s working satellites.”
Elon Musk should work as per military rules and not his business playbook. Military and hospitals almost operate under the same umbrella; caution, one flow of information, and slow to make mistakes.
Elon Musk is a South African racist. Period. The money has obscured for some Americans that simple fact. How does this connect to X, etc.? As we used to say, it’s all about money.
He is an Afrikaner, and as such, is not loyal to the USA's agenda. He is loyal to Trump, not Biden. Causes a problem. I think that he should not be allowed to decide who gets support if the government is paying for the usage of the satellites. However, it sounds like NATO needs their own. Is Musk wealthier than NATO?
Linda Weide: The population of South Africa is over 60 million. Afrikaners make up 4 million of that population. The EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) led by Julius Malena, openly calls for the murder of whites in South Africa. They sing a song about killing Afrikaners. An Afrikaner farm couple was attacked yesterday. The husband died and the wife barely survived. This happens often in South Africa.
Evelyn, we are trying to avoid a broader war, so while we're supporting Ukraine in its war, we're avoiding being dragged in so we can avoid WW3. Do you really want to nationalize Starlink to match our ideology?
I understand that we’re trying to avoid getting involved in a larger war Jerry. It doesn’t seem right to have Musk in charge of of a system that can deter our efforts to that end.
You're right But Musk built it at his own expense and considerable risk, and we are not at war now to provide an excuse to take Starlink over. That wasn't even done in WW2, but it wasn't needed becsuse it was a declared war.. If we want our own constellation to operate as we wish, we could commission one at a fraction of the cost.
If not from Starlink, then there are other such companies, such as Iridium. There are also other launch companies besides Space-X. For instance, Astrium (European Union), but Space-X has the most efficient system that I know of.
If we take over a private company's operations, we would be no better than Russia or Venezuela.
Double, yes, but I don't believe it was done by mistake :). I get annoyed by the constant complaining in most of the posts of this forum, but I don't tell anyone not to post. Having someone who puts out thoughtful posts that don't simply repeat others points is refreshing, advertisements or not. But please, leave the double posting to Smeagle, or Smeekle, or what ever his name is.
Musk is becoming more and more, a walking id. Unless we work hard at it, most of us will get worse as we age. We work at it because we need each other. Some powerful people are insulated from this need - hence people like Musk, Trump, that awful boss you once had, etc.
Off topic, put any group of individuals together, and group process happens! Roles are filled. Thanks, Steve!
Back to the conversation, Trump, Musk, and the awfullest boss I ever had, all suffer from the delusion that they know best, and therefore can do what they want. My awfullest boss made the error of forcing himself on an extremely mentally ill woman during a therapy session. She left the room, went down one floor to the partial care unit where she spent a lot of time, laid down on a pool table and said, loudly,”Call an ambulance. Bring a rape kit. The boss of this whole place just had sex with me.” The rape kit was utilized,evidence was procured, and the boss spent 7 years in jail. My supervisor told me that he asked the boss why he did it. The boss answered,”I thought she was too crazy to tell anyone, and if she did, they wouldn’t believe her.” The day I started work there that guy had invaded my boundaries, standing a little too close, a little too long. I had avoided being alone with him. I was surprised so many other people who worked there were surprised. People generally don’t hesitate to show you who they are. Why so many people can’t see Trump for who he really is continues to astound me.
Meredith Russell: Women should carry protection of some type at all times both at work and elsewhere. I've known too many women who were raped. (They were all raped by African-American men.)
At least the rapist spent 7 years in jail in your story.
When the two girls living below where my roommate and I lived were raped by a very large black man, my roommate went to the local police and told them about the rapist.
The cops staked out our apartment building and caught the rapist when he came back for more.
One of the two girls was able to handle the rape. The other girl went to a mental institution.
We’re kind of at war…doesn’t that make Elon a traitor? Or just another small man compensating?!!
He's your standard-issue Unreconstructed Afrikaner white supremacist lover of fascists.
I get all that TC, but not sure what you mean by unreconstructed Afrikaner.
Afrikaans were the White Supremacist authors of Apartiade. Very fascist and minority rule mentality. Unreconstructed= non- repented!
Not by any means all of them. I've met some very pleasant Afrikaners. Not that I think I'd enjoy meeting Musk.
There are many very good ones, as there are many very good white American southerners. Both places have the unregenerates.
There are good and bad people everywhere on earth. Unfortunately, we hear about the bad more so than the good. I cannot understand how anyone can say 'all southerners are rascist', as an example. I would want to know if they actually know all of the southern people in order to make such a statement. Ignorance.
Exactly..and while many Afrikkaners are pleasant to socialize with, I believe the majority still hold the tenets of Apartheid very close to being a spiritual path.
When we visited South Africa on a trip (we won it from All Classical) a while back, we noted that there were plenty of walled houses and poor townships, some with housing and some with lots of shacks. The white South Africans were lucky with Nelson Mandela. We saw a large and I mean large government building from the apartheid era where they kept records of everyone's race and also Robbins Island where Nelson Mandela was held for a while. Their racial problems are not over.
That "while" during which Nelson Mandela was in prison was 27 years.
And how many of us descend from southern slaveowners and post-war White SSupremacists?
My ancestry is 3/16 southern, but they were all out of the South by 1845. My Wallace ancestors, from South Carolina, ended up in Kansas after the Civil War, where they found it prudent to lie about their origin.
I’m related to Robert E Lee- they’re first born girls in my family were all named Lee… My family’s past generations all worshiped him and his family.
I have a couple of White South African friends, who may be descended from Afrikaners, but they are not Afrikaners in their politics. They live in the US.
Louise, perhap we should recall that condemning an entire ethnic with a broad brush is the very picture of bigotry.
Afrikaaners were also victims of the very first concentration camps, during the Boer War in 1902.
Thank You! When I searched for a definition I found: an Afrikaans-speaking person in South Africa, especially one descended from the Dutch and Huguenot settlers of the 17th century.
So, I didn’t understand. Thanks to all of you here for educating me.
He's (TC) using shorthand for what many understand as the AWB, or Weerstandsbeweging who were an extreme right wing white South African political group committed to either continuing apartheid or creating their own separate South Africa nation. They were brutal thugs Evelyn.
Peter Tosh"s song "Fight Apartheid" sums it up:
https://youtu.be/jp92k25SuII
John Schmeeckle - Peter Tosh"s song "Fight Apartheid" sums it up:
You in a me land - quite illegal.
You're in a me land - a dig out me gold.
In a me land - digging out my diamonds.
In a me land - digging out me uranium.
Now we gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
My brothers gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
You're in a me land - you no build no school for my children.
You're in a me land - no hospital for my people.
You're in a me land - all you build is prison, prison, prison.
You're in a me land - set up your army, camp, camp, camp.
You break off - break off from Britain.
You're quite illegal - right where you are.
You get your forces - from colonial powers.
Taking my diamonds - financing your ballistic missiles.
Now we gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
My brothers gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
(..)
Come outta mi land.
Come outta mi land.
Come outta mi land.
Come outta mi land.
Now we gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
My brothers gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
Come outta mi land - you're illegal.
Come outta mi land - you're victimization.
Come outta mi land - robbing all of my resources.
Come outta mi land - I say you're in there too long now, now.
We gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
My brothers gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
Come outta mi land - you know that you wrong, boy.
Come outta mi land - everything you do upside down.
Come outta mi land - you buried down yourself, too deep.
Come outta mi land - I say, you're inna my momma's land, too long.
We gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
My brothers gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
We are gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
Don't care, we gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
We gonna fight, fight, fight, fight..
I say we gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
We gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid.
Everybody gonna fight, fight, fight, fight 'gainst apartheid..
Note:
See also a slightly different version, by Peter Tosh.
It's called Apartheid and was released in 1977.
Louise explained it.
Elon Musk's ancestry is mostly English and American (through Canada), with one line going back to colonial Connecticut. There is an Afrikaner element in his ancestry, about an eighth.
As most of us should know by now, one doesn’t need to be an Afrikaner to espouse Afrikaner beliefs.
I have never seen Elon Musk accused of being a racist. Perhaps you have?
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-racist-rhetoric-twitter-advertisers-1234710991/
Yes. I have not only read complaints about him racially, but also sexually. Also, one is judged by the company one keeps. Look at his Twitter company. He embraces the right wing as a member.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/01/elon-musks-defense-of-scott-adams-shows-why-he-is-misguided-and-dangerous
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-25/black-tesla-employees-fremont-plant-racism-california-lawsuit
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/18/tesla-california-racial-harassment-discrimination-lawsuit
https://qz.com/tesla-penalty-racism-lawsuit-reduced-elon-musk-1850297516
Afrikaners were mostly of Dutch ancestry, since even the word is a Dutch one.
Here is a discussion that might clarify that even if the Afrikaner's are not in power they continue to exist in South Africa as cruel, racist, violent, White people.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/transnational-white-supremacist-militancy-thriving-south-africa
When I studied African history, my professor shared the violent means of oppression of different groups. I remember the Germans (my people), Belgians and Dutch being particularly brutal, but it was all brutal if you ask me. The Dutch became the Afrikaners of South Africa and Rhodesia, and ruled with apartheid until it was overthrown. Racism is so hateful and insidious and is on the rearing its ugly head very blatantly in the Repugnicant party here in the Good Ole US of A.
Thanks for the link Linda.
Linda Weide: You mention race and racism more than anyone on this site. Race is an invention of the eugenicists. Hitler believed in this race crap.
Skin color means nothing more than skin pigmentation. All the rest is in the human mind. Race is a lie. Racism is based upon a lie.
Why do you keep repeating the idea of race?
Timmy, I repeat the idea because I read Prof Kathleen Belew's book Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. I consider her book quintessential to read to have a bigger take on what is going on in our country. She appeared in a lot of workshops that I attended a few years ago, and I knew some young Southern White men that had come to U of C and were interested in studying about White Supremacy with her. Anyway, reading her led to investigating the the topic in Europe too. Not because I believe that there are different races, I do not believe in race. Our family fills out our census forms with the word "human" when asked what race or ethnicity we are. While I do not believe in the concept of races, I do believe in racism, which is buying into the idea that different physical appearances can be categorized into races. I also happen to live in a community where this is discussed a lot. It is the community that Barack Obama comes from. My morning walk is with a friend that many would call White, and her husband, but their son is dark brown. I have many friends who have adopted across skin color, and in some case culture. Families where I live are many things, but different races is not what we are. This is true in my family too. We are many different colors and yet, we are one race. So, I understand that Racism is based on a lie, but many don't even know that. I was told by some in my job when I mentioned this that I was too ahead of everyone else and don't confuse them, and others felt that I did not understand. I repeat the idea of racism not race, and frankly in my household we do not view people as Black or White, but everyone is some shade of Brown. When you have a painting class and you have to look at everything on the gray scale, like it were a black and white photograph, well I see people on the Brown scale, and when my students painted skin color they basically used primary colors. They would make collages of themselves, and paint paper to get their skin color. However, I think that Angélica Dass illustrates what I am talking about best with her Pantone scale. https://angelicadass.com/photography/humanae/
I also talk about colorism. In Europe there is much more discussion of colorism than there is here.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/09/colorism-racism-why-black-people-discriminate-among-ourselves
Linda: Thanks for you excellent comment. I agree with it completely.
Just read the link and look up Afrikaner. I knew Brits who were involved in trying to feed blacks in South Africa. They had to leave. (One later became head of Public Health at UNC-CH.)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has an excellent public health department.
Don’t you think he also wants to be a new reincarnation Ernest Blofeld, Bond’s nemesis?
Once again, you nailed it.🙏
Exactly.
What do you base that assessment on, TCinLA?
Finding his twitter account - full of the same crap he posts here
Evelyn, we have to actually be in a declared war for anyone to be a traitor. Elon (like TFG) is solely looking out for himself. He’s taking advantage of the laws (or lack of laws) protecting against monopolies. We’ve seen (in the baby formula crisis) what can happen when an important product is produced by a virtual monopoly.
As for Elon, Rod Hilton summed it up when he posted on December 22,2022 on Mastodon “ He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard anyone say, so when people say he's a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.”
This was a concise statement. Well done Mary.
Getting this into circulation along with the rest of our tribe’s ( noting a few -no names are needed- who for the sake of skuttelry poise as one of us and pen nonsense or quote some Russian ‘righter’ and who I easily now skip over) amplification of truth is paramount.
August 8 a big showdown in Ohio, I am sending notes of encouragement for friends there to get-out-the-early-vote and show yet again the🗣️ 💙BLUE TSUNAMI💙 in progress 🤞🙏👍🫶💙.
Get-out-the-early-vote in every state’s affidavit, election, truth positive banner headline
“WE ARE ENDING THIS LOUDLY‼️⚫️ 👈that’s a BIG PERIOD”
Our country’s decency and legacy is at stake.
WE have an admitted amount of correcting to do, WE have a lesson as Jim Crow/McCarthyism/and now MAGA has underscored. And for those who ‘went along’ - the complicit, the planners, the financiers, the coat-tail riders... those specifically complicit need an adjoining cell, banned forever, and boo-ed along their final walk.
This isn’t judgement -but it sure is justice.
Let’s get on our boots ( not like those ghastly white ones the Governor wore 🤦♀️ who dressed him that day anyhow,huh?) sorry Florida ..just saying ....haul in our belts, hitch up our pants and make this clean up a FIRM SWEEP.
Thanks Heather 🫶🙌
💙💙VOTE💙💙VOTE EARLY💙💙VOTE PROUD💙💙
I am phone banking for Ohio right now!!
Thank you Lee, and all of you...makes me so grateful, proud , excited.
AMEN ! , Patricia ! COME ON !, DEMS ! Lets DO IT ! , TO IT ! VOTE !!
YES. YES. A thousand times YES👍
Super well said by Ron Hilton, thanks for quoting.
He's also the guy who keeps talking about colonizing Mars--which is an absolutely uninhabitable planet for multiple reasons--invoking the word, "terraforming," which in the case of Mars is magical thinking.
Yes, he sounds like he read the Kim Stanley Robinson books about Mars, and thought they were not fiction.
There must a law enforce by our government to restrict their limitations of what they can do in space. Billionaires like Musk can be dangerous. Space is for NASA to explore and research for man to learn. Not for billionaires like Musk to do what they want.
Perfect!
And then of course he has Asperger‘s disorder.
Rod Hilton might know about software, so he's taking his own expertise to make a judgement about areas he's not an expert in. He's welcome to do that. But for me personally, to take Hilton's opinion as my own because I don't have the expertise to form my own would be like accepting that all Democrats are evil Socialists because FOX News said so in an entertaining way.
And having been a coder myself in an early phase of my career, I can tell you that Hilton is speaking hyperbolically. The reality is that the best software results came when one thought of what functionality should be available and then work to make it so, if you can. But first, the vision should be stated. That's how one expands one's capabilities.
Jerry—Hilton’s statement was sent to me by a good friend in the field who prefaced it with the statement “See, that’s what I’ve been saying about how he’s running Twitter!” I trust my friend (who’s been cracking purchased commercial game software to play the way he wants it to play since his teens) a whole lot more than Musk.
Musk himself said buying Twitter might be his biggest mistake. Running Twitter isn't the same as writing the code. Musk just knows he wants it, and how it interacts worh government, to be different than it had been and is willing to break a few things to make it so. He's successful with Space-X, with Starlink, with Tesla e-cars and with Tesla power banks. He built none of their components. What he's going to do with Tesla is opaque to me, but it will have to do with more than just software.
Though Elon Musk has done incredibly well in bringing us innovations that the world needs more than ever, his impulsive, instant decision-making is backsliding the gains that he is already making. Elon Musk, with a don't-care attitude, don't factor in the consequences of his decisions. He rarely relies on bearaucratic, legal structures to make announcements because the major driving factor of his decisions is his emotional faculty that mostly depends on his feel-good moments. I am not surprised with his u-turn moments of his projects. But, to make his satellite Internet unavailable when Ukraine soldiers need it most is tantamount to jeopardising the whole strategy. It inconvenienced Ukraine soldiers in the battlefield as the consequences of missing information is detrimental. There is evidence pointing out that Ukraine soldiers were killed during the fight with Russia for every failure of communication because Russia, when they were sensing defeat, destroyed their network boosters to capitalize on their confusion and lack of signal. If Elon Musk has been allowed to operate in battleground field by US and its allies, then he shouldn't be allowed to make impulse decisions because this is sensitive and can risk the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Should that happened, he should be penalized and another satellite Internet company given a chance.
. . . or the US gov’t should get back in the military communications space game! Not that I know US military communications structure, but, just imagine Musk shutting down US military communications at some critical battlefield moment. There are things that only a government should control - as opposed to some whimsical private citizen billionaire!
And, yet another sound reason to keep the defeated FORMER president out of government....."There are things only gov't should control as opposed to some whimsical"......and in both cases, unbalanced and unsavory unqualified and selfish....
Who is it that shapes our government? We, the voters. What makes democracy dangerous is stupid people. I am appalled that at least 28% of Americans are truly stupid, or for a better description--non-critical thinkers. They are willing to give trump the presidency again and bring about their own demise...something I can't wrap my head around....
You have 'stupid' people when less than half of the pop. voted. You didn't care about education .
COME ON !! TELL IT ! A, Y !!
I suggest Elon should be made play by the rules of the military and sign a non-interference contract as long as agreed terms are honored.
How about requiring he serve in the military, starting with basic training....
Surely it is treasonous to interfere with the US Military in action.
May be basic training only
And a quick court marshal
Better to put communications in the hands of the military.
Correction: military communications should be in the hands of the military, just as potato peeling should be back in the hands of the military instead of being contracted out. Time to get real!
Perhaps government ultimately serves our interests by contracting out potato peeling, but there are some functions of our society's interests that are best held under complete public supply and control, not only because they are vital, but because misuse of them is dangerous. I would put the whole Blackwater, Wagner thing clearly in that category, as well as policing, prisons, certain functions of public health, and any of a number of functions in which folding in the profit motive risk inherent conflicts of interest with the common weal and/or insufficient public supervision ans control. I believe in both a robust private and a public sector, but neither is appropriate for all tasks.
As for Musk, Trump built his reputation in business by using, sometimes exploiting, the talents of others, which he could do because he controlled tremendous wealth. I am unclear how much of Musk success is due to his personal innovation and how much is the ability to buy other's talents.
Elon Musk is a spoiled child who unfortunately happens to be smart. He is obsessed with getting attention by shocking us with his fascist and dangerous antics. He should be tried for treason for adjusting his technology to deliberately hurt and kill Ukrainians and sent to prison so he can play with himself all day.
What has the United Nations sanctioned Russia for? shouldn't Elon be sanctioned also and put in jail in the good ole US of A
It's like Twitter, but worse. People sobbed and cried when Musk took over Twitter, but if you put all your eggs in one basket, you've got to take responsibility for making that choice. Who were the chumps who trusted Musk enough to invest in SpaceX and allow this dangerous monopoly to grow?
And where is the lost task of government exerting some control over industry and monopolies...we are circling around to the wealth and control of the less than 1%.
Usually monopolies happen because there has never been enough competition to stop them. But in this case, the industry failed itself. It's just like Twitter, really. Nobody ever said, "Whoa, this one company is the only one of its kind. It's a monopoly raking in billions in advertising and sales revenue, and it's become a political entity."
Our government must enforce a law
now, that would restrict billionaires like Musk from doing what they want in space. This is dangerous. Men with money and power will always be a threat to space.
Why another company? Seems to me something so vital to just about every aspect of life should be in the hands of a neutral entity. Certain utilities should be the under the provenance of all the people. Nationalize it. Or give it to a completely independent bipartisan commission.
While we're at it let's include all the internet robber barons!
Private entities like that of Elon Musk are ahead in regard to improved processes and innovations. What is only required from them is abiding by the rules of the military game for successful win over enemies. Their mission should not be to test whether the product is working or not but understand why their product is being used. In this case, satellite technology.
Thanks for that good analysis. Please don't keep advertising your newsletter - we got the message in earlier posts, and it starts to get annoying.
please, can you keep it free of advertising???
I am sayin' it as well. Plesse no advertisements. Thx
Keep what free of advertising?
Posts where another Substack author says "read my posts" or posts links to them. As a for instance, if I were to say something along the lines of "I address this in my essay here on Substack" and provide a link to it.
Inconvenienced Ukrainian soldiers? They were killed!
Scariest paragraph I’ve ever read in LTAM:
“A study by New York Times reporters on Friday noted that Elon Musk has steadily come to dominate satellite internet technology with the Starlink technology made by his SpaceX rocket company, and that he has used that dominance to restrict the activities of Ukraine’s military. Musk began to launch satellites into space in 2019, and currently has in position more than 4,500 of the 42,000 satellites he plans. He controls more than 50% of the globe’s working satellites.”
Agreed. That is dangerous.
Sure. That's too dangerous for the Ukrainian soldiers.
Elon Musk should work as per military rules and not his business playbook. Military and hospitals almost operate under the same umbrella; caution, one flow of information, and slow to make mistakes.
Absolutely. Clearly, we can't rely on Musk to follow any law beyond his whim. Ukraine deserves more.
Military is a business! A business that has Congress in it’s pocket!
Unless US and its allies do not have the interests of Ukraine at heart.
The comment section is not a platform for advertising any business. Suggest you refrain from doing so.
I agree 100%
It should be said that Musk did not do the innovating. He bought Tesla, and he bought SpaceX.
Or both?
The later.
Elon Musk is a South African racist. Period. The money has obscured for some Americans that simple fact. How does this connect to X, etc.? As we used to say, it’s all about money.
He seems like a super villain to me.
He is an Afrikaner, and as such, is not loyal to the USA's agenda. He is loyal to Trump, not Biden. Causes a problem. I think that he should not be allowed to decide who gets support if the government is paying for the usage of the satellites. However, it sounds like NATO needs their own. Is Musk wealthier than NATO?
Linda Weide: The population of South Africa is over 60 million. Afrikaners make up 4 million of that population. The EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) led by Julius Malena, openly calls for the murder of whites in South Africa. They sing a song about killing Afrikaners. An Afrikaner farm couple was attacked yesterday. The husband died and the wife barely survived. This happens often in South Africa.
Yes it makes Elon Musk a traitor. Billionaires must have a law to restrict their limitations in space.
What Musk is doing , is wrong and dangerous.
Evelyn, we are trying to avoid a broader war, so while we're supporting Ukraine in its war, we're avoiding being dragged in so we can avoid WW3. Do you really want to nationalize Starlink to match our ideology?
I understand that we’re trying to avoid getting involved in a larger war Jerry. It doesn’t seem right to have Musk in charge of of a system that can deter our efforts to that end.
You're right But Musk built it at his own expense and considerable risk, and we are not at war now to provide an excuse to take Starlink over. That wasn't even done in WW2, but it wasn't needed becsuse it was a declared war.. If we want our own constellation to operate as we wish, we could commission one at a fraction of the cost.
If not from Starlink, then there are other such companies, such as Iridium. There are also other launch companies besides Space-X. For instance, Astrium (European Union), but Space-X has the most efficient system that I know of.
If we take over a private company's operations, we would be no better than Russia or Venezuela.
Might be time to move on to another source.
Double, yes, but I don't believe it was done by mistake :). I get annoyed by the constant complaining in most of the posts of this forum, but I don't tell anyone not to post. Having someone who puts out thoughtful posts that don't simply repeat others points is refreshing, advertisements or not. But please, leave the double posting to Smeagle, or Smeekle, or what ever his name is.
Musk is becoming more and more, a walking id. Unless we work hard at it, most of us will get worse as we age. We work at it because we need each other. Some powerful people are insulated from this need - hence people like Musk, Trump, that awful boss you once had, etc.
Off topic, put any group of individuals together, and group process happens! Roles are filled. Thanks, Steve!
Back to the conversation, Trump, Musk, and the awfullest boss I ever had, all suffer from the delusion that they know best, and therefore can do what they want. My awfullest boss made the error of forcing himself on an extremely mentally ill woman during a therapy session. She left the room, went down one floor to the partial care unit where she spent a lot of time, laid down on a pool table and said, loudly,”Call an ambulance. Bring a rape kit. The boss of this whole place just had sex with me.” The rape kit was utilized,evidence was procured, and the boss spent 7 years in jail. My supervisor told me that he asked the boss why he did it. The boss answered,”I thought she was too crazy to tell anyone, and if she did, they wouldn’t believe her.” The day I started work there that guy had invaded my boundaries, standing a little too close, a little too long. I had avoided being alone with him. I was surprised so many other people who worked there were surprised. People generally don’t hesitate to show you who they are. Why so many people can’t see Trump for who he really is continues to astound me.
Meredith Russell: Women should carry protection of some type at all times both at work and elsewhere. I've known too many women who were raped. (They were all raped by African-American men.)
At least the rapist spent 7 years in jail in your story.
When the two girls living below where my roommate and I lived were raped by a very large black man, my roommate went to the local police and told them about the rapist.
The cops staked out our apartment building and caught the rapist when he came back for more.
One of the two girls was able to handle the rape. The other girl went to a mental institution.