Elon Musk demands firing of ‘disgusting and cruel’ WSJ reporter who uncovered DOGE employee’s racist tweets
Summary
Elon Musk called for the firing of Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Long after she exposed racist tweets from Marko Elez, a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee who later resigned.
Long’s report revealed Elez had posted remarks promoting racism and eugenics.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” Elez posted in July, according to the Journal’s review of archived posts.
Musk, who claims to support free speech, labeled Long “disgusting and cruel” and demanded that she should be fired.
Critics noted the hypocrisy of Musk advocating for a journalist’s removal over accurate reporting on a public official’s misconduct.
https://www.mediaite.com/news/elon-musk-demands-firing-of-disgusting-and-cruel-wsj-reporter-who-uncovered-doge-employees-racist-tweets/Open linkView original on lemmy.world1534
Comments208
Musk is officially part of the government now, so this literally is an attack on free speech
Not that any conservative cares.
They. Do not care. About the law.
Why does this keep needing to be said?
If it isn't news to you, why are you saying he hasn't been vetted or doesn't have security clearance as if that's relevant?
Which other people? What power do you think they have?
And who do you expect to restrain them?
And yes, America is over. It is a fascist dictatorship now. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will stop expecting this to be fixed by any sort of government or legal opposition which will never come and hopefully actually start working on trying to do something about it yourself. Like taking to the streets when you can.
Because it's the root of the problem and is important to be repeated constantly.
Congress took an oath to defend the Constitution. Let's see who cares.
Congress also has specific authority over making laws and allocating money. You’d think they’d have the self-interest to protect that authority from whatever baboon tried to take it, especially an unelected one
When has congress ever cared about that oath?
My guess is that a lot of people don't realize or accept that the game is already over and the constitution is as good as shredded. A lot of people think that if only one person would put one in his brain case or vote him (Trump and Elon by extension) out, we could return to normal. The Republic is cooked, we're right now, as a society, deciding what happens next.
Considering the person I'm talking to thinks that fascist dictatorships start when protesters start getting shot, I think that a lot of people don't even understand that it's a possibility, let alone that it's happening.
Maybe it’s the way we keep saying it. Have we tried alternate punctuation such as: They. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Law.
Maybe this helps
Nothing helps. I've had someone argue with me vociferously that U.S. elections still count and then finally said they aren't even in the U.S. so this doesn't affect them so they aren't worried about it.
So just like the rest of the Trump kakistocracy, then.
With the way the Dems, King, and even Bernie are rolling over and letting them do almost everything they want, they're not gonna start bothering with vetting now.
Yet, somehow, he seems to have unfettered access to the entirety of the government's record keeping system.
Special government employee. Why he’s allowed to do that without senate approval and has access to so many departments is beyond me
I mean, I think it's specifically more targeted at freedom of the press, and the 1A really only prevents Congress from passing laws to limit free speech or the press. So while I agree with you 100% in principle, I don't think what Musk is doing is illegal here, he's just a fucking asshole.
Clearly 1A also limits the executive branch. For instance If an executive order infringes on freedom of speech this can be challenged with an appeal to 1A.
I thought the GOP didn't like it when people get cancelled?
It's always different when they perceive themselves as the victim.
And they're always the victim.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
Rules for thee but not for me
Nazis turn out to be self-serving unprincipled assholes. It's really a surprise.
If only there was nearly a century of history behind us we could have drawn on to see this coming.
If they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.
Yes, she's the disgusting one, not the guy who was "racist before it was cool."
And people still defend this Nazi.
And
peopleNazis still defend this Nazi. --FTFYCan we fire Musk... into the sun?
That's a lot of ∆v, can we fire him out of the solar system instead?
One problem would be that he'd expire happy, because he was doing "cool exploration stuff".
Perhaps it would be more environmentally friendly (which would upset him) if he was "retired" in a more traditional, boring, normal manner (which would upset him), on Earth.
He could then be composted and used to grow flowers, in some kind of "All-Nations LGBTQ+ Peace Garden" (which would upset him).
The amount of special K in his body would probably fuck up the flower garden
I don't want to piss in the All-Nations LGBTQ+ Peace Garden tho :c
Nobody said anything about giving him oxygen.
Man, now we're debating hypothetical scenarios about how to best get rid of toddleresque billionaire mad kings?
It's no small wonder "the left" in America has been taking daily losses the entire time I've been alive.
And risk him initiating alien first contact? How about sending him to Venus?
Just fire him, from orbit into the earth. Way more efficient
And risk him coming back to earth? Just aim for a vaguely circular solar orbit near the asteroid belt. He can pretend he's on his way to mars forever.
I mean I'm fine with him coming back to earth, at a very high velocity
Compromise, send him to Venus.
We should fire him into an irretrievable orbit with enough food, water, and oxygen for months. Put cameras everywhere inside the capsule and live stream his descent into madness as he runs out of supplies.
There's a Tesla in sun orbit. Why not sending him there?
What did the sun do to deserve that?
Would be a better use of nasa resources
We could try but he's likely to explode if we use one of his rockets.
I vote for a collision with that car he launched into space.
He is really, REALLY becoming fucking absolutely unhinged VERY fast. He is trying to suppress any form of overlook VERY fast and very aggressively. He hasn't acted like this before. While it is expected, he needs to be told that he can go to hell.
What I fear is that he won't be asking for people to be fired, he will be soon asking for arrests and I am very, VERY confident he will brazenly calling for hits on people very openly.
always has been, he is the son of a slaver in apartheid SA and iirc grandson of a nazi. of course he is racist too.
now that he is the literal dictator of the biggest empire in the world, i don't think he needs to worry about softening it anymore. its logical that fascism will serve him judging from the... gestures hes been making. or the casual fascist shit hes been saying for years at this point. or the alleged attempted coups. or the fact hes a billionaire. or ...
i think your hunch is correct though. he didnt bother climbing onto that throne not to use it. the silver lining is that he already showed himself incompetent.
Not the grandson or the son, he is aamof a Nazi. US officials are obeying orders coming from a Nazi.
oh yeah he made it pretty obvious for a while now hes a nazi too. i just thought it was already pretty obvious for everyone not on his cult of personality.
he's going full (kan)ye
I mean if there is no recourse for social murder of that scale, what do they expect? The original era of leftist terrorism (the propaganda of the deed) was in the 19th to early 20th century, but it was actually ditched for humanitarian reasons (all the while the first fascist regimes ramped UP their violence) and it was done more to bring about change.
What Luigi did (and he was not a leftist) is far more personal than political. While he did mention political reasons, the events in his own life really got him so pissed at the system that he shot that low-level CEO (He was a CEO. But the conglomerate that is United Health is so large that he was practically a middle-manager in terms of the internal predatory chain). It was mostly very personal, and I think this is what is even scarier to them than a revolutionary feeling. People killing for personal reasons will do so regardless of their overall political reasons.
He has been for a while now.
It's just becoming more obvious the more he is in the public eye.
Press freedom is a threat to
societyElon and must be stopped! Heil Elon!What a fucking moron. Why is no one stopping him.
You can't lay a finger on an oligarch, so no one bothers.
Law: He'll get pardoned, pre pardoned and whatever other bullshit he can think up.
Pitchforks: People have to unwillingly partake in the machine or the machine will crush their family. They can't risk going up against the security detail of one of the richest people alive.
Marijuana: sorry that's about as far as I can type for the night.
Main takeaway: That is a very good question that too few people will ask themselves before it affects them.
Elon Musk, the Nazi?
He's a bit of an expert on what's "disgusting and cruel."
Oh the little snowflake is feeling hurt...
Musk is more disgusting than anyone else other than his orange bf
He needs to be shot. Idgaf who sees this. Come see me.
I got warnings and a ban on reddit for saying he needs to be subject to capital punishment. Which I believe he does. Musk needs to be arrested and sentenced to death. He needs to be made an example of in that manner.
Yeah, main reason I dumped Reddit.
(Others being unsolicited photos of medical waste)
Huh?
Reddit has the great feature to show you post from subs like r/medicalgore. Doesn't even matter if you muted the sub or clicked "show me fewer posts like this", it just comes back
I've not had that issue, but knowing Reddit's algorithms all it probably takes is one accidental click on a single post and it will forever keep adding that to your feed after that.
I got banned for saying all 1%ers need to be Luigid. 🤷♀️
Welcome here! It's funny because it's the passphrase to enter lemmy parties!
The fucker started carrying one of his kids everywhere with him after Mangione did a Luigi on a POS. The poor tyke's name is "X Æ A-Xii". People are saying the kid is being used as a human shield...
Not that I am discouraging you or anyone from joining the Mario Party. It just highlights the sheer depravity that is Musk.
You see the shit kanye west wrote today?
Billionaires and their boot licking lap dogs are all beyond sick, its time we sharpen the guillotines, they live like royalty on our backs. Ive been on a strike for the last 5 years living in abject poverty because i will not work for wages not even providing me an existence worth living for. I would rather be broke and free than live as a slave deluded to believe in an illusory freedom while our lives are controlled by those who spend more money on weekend vacations than you or I could earn in a dozen consecutive lifetimes. All while dozens of homes per every unhoused person sit empty to artificially increase the value of property to the point where even renting a shitty 1 bedroom apartment is unaffordable and 1/3 of all food produced is thrown away because it cant be sold fast enough to make someone else more fucking money. I would rather die free and destitute then wake up and be psychologically whipped into obedience to make someone else passive income while i despise every second of my existence and wake up feeling psychological dread after the brief 1 or 2 day respite of the weekend or the 8-16 hours of sleep food and household chores between shifts. Thats not living its slavery with extra steps all these sick deluded fascist fucks and this system theyve built by destroying the social progress made in the 40’a 50’s and 60’s and worked tirelessly to eradicate to install a technocratic feudalist surveillance and police state it all needs to be violently dismantled and burned to the ground. Ballot box idealist bullshit doesnt work, they own the ballot boxes and the ballots, they own the news outlets they own the printing presses putting out educational material and have abysmally lowered the standards of what constitutes education today. There is only one side of the political spectrum in America. The democratic parry is right wing and blatantly enables the far right super fascist gop. But weve been so dumbed down that we believe the democrats are left, they arent, we live in a class dictatorship. There is no true democracy without economic democracy. I am MaGGA- MAke Guillotines Great Again.
Nah I've ignored him ever since his kardashian days. Not surprised by anything he would say though
Its basically a 50 tweet diatribe of the worst shit fascist billionaires could say. Basically poor people are garbage hitler was great and fuck the jews and thst he wants to colab with p diddy cause he is his hero. It almost makes elon’s fascist salute look mild.
A racist clock is right twice a year.
Lawful Evil slavery
Why keep specific humans constantly on your land like animals? When they finish their work you can send them off to feed and wash themselves and leave you alone. If one isn’t working you throw it back and grab another from the pool. I mean obviously YOU don’t, but somebody you enslave does.
When I hear stories like yours, I think revolutionary_fighters++.
We wouldn't be in this position if more people had enough common sense to see zero sum game for what it is and opt out of working. This would 100% be met with violence from the ruling class if enough people started quitting their jobs and refusing to participate. which would show the true color of our society and dissolve the facade of liberal democracy once and for all and show it for the class dictatorship it truly is. Any democracy that fights against economic democracy at all fronts is inherently and obviously anti democratic.
People may think i am lazy but that’s far from it. Ive always outworked my peers but been punished for my aptitude with an ever increasing job description and no increase in pay. Im auto didactic have taught myself automotive diagnostics and maintenance as well as music theory and basic construction and carpentry. I recently even considered getting a job as an automotive tech but hiring wages are a joke. Mcdonalds and fast food near me start at $16-17 an hour and youre lucky to find a job at a garage for $19-20 so for $4000-8000 more a year i can blow my back out, bust my knuckles and have toxic automotive fluids and solvents absorb into my dermal layer. meanwhile the shops charge on average $200 an hour for labor and sometimes even More (masarati/mini near me charge $295/hr even kia/hyundai are at $235 and the highest payed guys are making $45-60/hr flat rate and billing 2 hours for every one hour they work so they are making $90-120 an hour while the shop makes $470 its ridiculous. Multiply thst by however many garahe bays they average pccupied throughout the day and domenof these places are bringing in $2000 gross an hour ebery hour from 8 am till 3:30 People don't understand this is the corporate model, they aim for 500-1000% profit margins. While working class people say “fast food and other service industry workers dont deserve a living wage because i make what they want now and that would mean i would be payed less” instead of realizing those engorging themselves on passive income off of our backs are under paying us. Not to mention complaining that other working people who are deemed inferior dont deserve a living / thriving wage is nothing more than class traitor bullshit that is promoted in our society to distract from the true enemies of humanity. The wall street billionaire military and prison industry profiteers who view us all as disposable cattle to be ridden as hard as possible till we die in poverty so they can have another yacht every year.
And yes it does suck being broke, i miss out on new tool sales all the time, my phone has a cracked back glass panel, my wife and my pets live in a drafty 36 year old rv spending $30 on propane for heat every week till the end of winter so that we and our pets don't get sick but its better than the awful treatment I’ve endured at the 20 or so jobs I've had since i was 14 years old and got my working permit. While all the rich kids at the private school my grandmother sent me to in order to brain wash me into being a dumb right wing boot licker looked down on me for having a weekend job and taking the city bus. Im just upset i cant buy a few things at the harbor freight 30% off items $10 and under this weekend and the ryobi high torque impact wrench and battery currently $90 off. I could care less about fancy clothes or luxury items, i just like tools so i can fix things and keep my mind busy. It beats the hell out of staring at a clock for 4-5 hours out of an 8-9 hour shift because i finish tasks quickly and then have to avoid superiors who would make me do busy work to justify a trash garbage wage they feel i should be grateful for. Or deliberately slowing myself down on monotonous tasks so i can appear busy for longer periods of time. Fuck. That. Noise.
Meanwhile these billionaires are blatantly praising hitler and gesturing blatsnt fascist salutes while telling us the sky is green and espousing anti intellectualism/ anti working class fascist ideals with no fear of public retribution. Fascists have gotten far too comfortable. It seems like the wall street putsch/ business plot was just delayed but successful none the less. especially since one of the coup’s main architect’s son and grandson were both sitting presidents and our government is now blatantly controlled by an intersection of wall street economic and military industries who control a vast majority of the propaganda outlets masquerading as journalistic outlets. While right leaning centrists who think they are on the left just keep telling us to have faith that voting will fix things when that hasn't worked for 50+ years and what this country needs is a full fledged leftist working class revolution and not one tenth of a millimeter less.
These mechanics need some serious union…
The entire american working class needs collective organizing and bargaining but it seems that will likely be outlawed in the next 4 years as the us slips further into a fascist kakistocracy.
Ye is just pissed that Snoop for invited to the party and he got snubbed.
Edit: He probably stole MAGGA from somewhere, but I'll steal it from him.
I think ifs most likely he is just a piece of shit
I didnt steal MaGGA i mean odds are someone has said it before but go ahead and use that shit till it or some billionaires be dead. hopefully the latter comes first.
No, they are just two colors on a putrid rainbow of sin. We got jerks like Yarvin, and I am willing to bet a $1,000 that Bezos is going to join up with this lot.
He was at the inauguration, he already has. I'm still wondering what that yacht raid was all about, it totally got lost in the deluge of news and I don't believe the official story for one minute.
Get fucked Elon, you absolute piece of shit
you going to have to do better than that
My grandfather, a WWII veteran, would be rolling in his grave if he saw the rise of Naziism in this country.
And he was the type of person who would openly call for ass-whuppin' if he saw one in person.
Unfortunately propoganda is very effective and most of the people who would outright call for groups to be placed in concentration camps simply for their existence can't see any coorelation to them being like NAZI's.
Person I work with today, "I wouldn't want to to go the Superbowl because someone would drop a nuke on our heads". To which I responded, thankfully that has never happened. To which they responded, "Well people don't even know what sex they are anymore."
So attempting to unpack any of that leaves me starting with the fact that they apparently mistrust transgender people so much that they fear they have the means and motivation to launch a nuclear attack on the President of the United States. Kim Jong Un really might want to meet these people.
This person also calls every person of Hispanic descent we drive by an illegal that thankfully Trump will round up soon.
It's all blatant bigotry, but they can't see it themselves.
Sounds like your gramps was a good dude
The sooner someone Luigi's him the better, if only for the fact we would never have to hear the fucker speak again.
be careful reddit will ban you /s
I'm freeeeee now!
So glad I left that censorship shithole.
At least then his money will do something good in the hands of his family. That's assuming he didn't remove his children from his will.
What makes you think his children won't be just as bad if not worse than him?
Let's give them a chance, if they're shit heads too they can get Luigi'd too.
I'm all for giving them a chance, but I won't hold my breath.
I dunno. His kids are just going to inherit his wealth and feel entitled to have our kids serve them.
Think we need to take note of Luigi's heritage if we're truly going to go after these oligarchs; the Italian mob would also go after their families so there's nobody left to seek revenge.
The free speech absolutist at work
how are some people still hypnotized to believe this man is a genius? GOD i will forever resent the media for glazing this man for 15 yrs and convincing the public that he's anything more than a trust fund baby who could by companies and play pretend.
"It's easier to fool a man than to convince him he'd been fooled." -Mark Twain
Nvr heard this before. It's a good one
He bribed the IQ testers I swear
Yes, cry ketamine tears about your boy harem
Can he just take a bit more ketamine please? I feel it's not sedating him enough.
Turn that a-hole's k-hole into a black hole
Free speech for Musk means Musk gets to decide what people are allowed to say.
Oh my, this is how you destroy and erode democracy ever faster. Dismantle the media and stop any criticism of the leaders, and reporting of true events.
I saw this in a country once who’s name is North Korea.
India also
What a punchable face.
Business idea: make boxing bags or dartboards with his faces printed on them.
Sell bottles of gasoline with a promotional t shirt that sports the print, 'Not An Incindiary Device'.
🎯 face
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
What a fucking snowflake.
Too quick. Gaddafi treatment please
This statement was removed for "advocating violence" but it was only a statement about what an asshole deserved, a value judgement. Mods are a little out of pocket.
How about no and fuck you, fascist.
Don’t worry, JD Vance told Musk to rehire him then goose-stepped away.
Hopefully the outcome of the French investigation will be an international arrest warrant.
eh, can see how those are working great for the powerful people (examples: putin, bibi, the libya guy)
I'm not talking about an ICC warrant against a sitting president.
zero chance that dude resigned because of those tweets..
He realized how far over his head he was, and rather than admitting that to his overlord musk, he takes this lucky break, whines about harassment, and resigned.
when i saw the pictures the first thing that came to mind was how fucking terrified some of these kids might be. imagine just coming out of school and being appointed to be one of the main analysts for an oversight department to your favorite dictator in a major world power.
then getting access granted to major, and i say major, governmental systems with the expectation you fix it along with a handful of other kids with absolutely no prior experience doing it?
I have no sympathy for any of them, and neither should anyone else. The choices they have made will result in the suffering of millions. Whatever fate they ultimately meet will proportionally be infinitely merciful by comparison. They do not get some special dispensation for being naive.
It is possible to be both immature and abjectly evil. That is, most likely why Musk picked these young men. They have the hallmarks of sociopathic tendencies with the inexperience to be led into a fucking minefield. Here is hoping they trigger some explosions that don't take a billion of us with them.
100% agree. these kids are old enough to know right from wrong.
i do think its plausible that this resignation was just an attempt to bail.
Nazis gonna Nazi
Anybody can "demand" something. I am demanding the firing of the disgusting and cruel dumbass who runs the Department of Government Enshitification.
So uncovering the disgusting cruelty of others is in itself Disgusting and Cruel? That's just what a tyrant would say.
He really has gone from a wannabe Tony Stark to a wannabe Homelander hasn't he?
You don't get it, he HATES his trans daughter!
Oh no I know, and he hates me because he believes in a version of his daughter who is a gay fashion-loving stereotype who is Musk's token "Queen" friend, and instead of realizing this person never existed even prior to transition, he's blaming people like me for taking her from him.
Any sane country that wants to remain that way should be banning Twitter immediately.
It feels like insanity to me that they're watching what he's doing to America right now and not immediately reacting by banning the tools he used to do it here.
I find it very funny how the Internet switched from "net neutrality at all cost, websites shouldn't be banned!" to finally realizing that actually yeah, some websites are just bad for social cohesion and should be banned or at least under strict regulation!
Net neutrality is not what you think it is.
It also includes ISPs not censoring certain websites.
That’s not the same as net neutrality, more a free speech concern.
I used to be a free speech absolutist, partly on the grounds that people recognize lies, hatred, racism, sexism, and bs of every kind, so are generally not affected. We always ostracized the nut cases, so why wouldn’t we online as well? I had faith in my fellow citizens that letting extremists speak out would just shine the light on that extremism., expose the truth, correct the facts.
But we’re clearly in a world where none of that is true. We have people spewing forth all sorts of extremism, and people believe it. They’re gullible, naive, easily manipulated. Hatred, anger and lies have done serious harm to our society, economically, socially and politically.
The right to free speech only applies to government, and does not guarantee freedom from consequences. The root of the problem is online speech without consequences, but that’s a commercial entity, not government . If the service won’t rein in the worst speech, or provide consequences for speech that harms society then society doesn’t need the service. Shut ‘em down
I am a free speech absolutist myself: I like my enemies to out themselves as facist, and to be able to tell my like-minded comrades what should be done to those facists.
Elon is using free speech as a sword and shield, while not offering that freedom to others. He is first and foremost a coward, and secondly a hypocrite.
He’s probably the worst example. I don’t know if he was actually free speech in the beginning, but now he certainly seems deceptive, controlling speech, and using his platform to quiet any dissenters. Free speech is one thing but there should be consequences for harmful speech
But how do you rationalize the clear harm to society from misleading, divisive, violent speech? Where were the consequences for those instigating treason a few januaries ago? Where are the consequences for the illness and death caused vaccine and other health misinformation? Where are the consequences for being the fool that is manipulate into spreading these?
While I see your point and would have agreed for most of my life, speech without consequences has caused some serious harm to millions of people and the stability of our society. Free speech doesn’t mean freedom from the consequences of that speech, but so far free speech online seems to have mostly escaped consequences
If I had a family member die of COVID, I should be able to successfully sue for wrongful death whatever idiot persuaded her not to get vaccinated
And yes whatever idiot of a national leader deliberately and maliciously countermanded their medical advisors and and overwhelming scientific advice on a pandemic, and caused hundreds of thousands of additional death, should be tried and potentially guilty of every one of those deaths
3yrs ago, I was 39, if you found a racist tweet from 3 yrs ago, I should be responsible, who cares if 3 yrs ago the kid was in diapers and shouldn't have had access to the internet, that is likely a good enough reason they should never have been allowed near government systems. Wtf did Elon do, walk into a highschool graduation like "you boys wanna see the inside of the government?"
A short while ago (like less than a month) he asked for people who are willing to work for no pay and are super diligent. What he was looking for were people who were rich enough to not need to be paid (their families anyway) and at the same time were his complete and absolute simps and will do ANYTHING for him and to prove their worth to the guy.
All of his young cronies need to be arrested and given at least a mandatory minimum of 20 years and a lifetime prohibition on using computers.
For no pay??? Lmaooo, bunch of fuckin' Pick Me's
Hah. You think it's no pay. They went after OPM and the Treasury first for a reason.
Booohooo! Those big meanies hurt the widdle feefees of Muskyboi by pointing out things that are real! So disgusting!
Dude thinks that "truth hurts" gives him the right to get rid of someone for hurting him with truth.
No can do, stinky Musky boy. First amendment explicitly protects criticism of government agencies and employees. Which is exactly what you're claiming DOGE is.
The actual intention "free speech", not what these idiots think it means.
Goodness Gravy, you mean an investigative journalist did the fucking job they were hired to do? I know its surprising to Elon, because he's never actually done any work and doens't understand the concept, but holy shit he's earning that upcoming lead implant
But it's so much work writing emails to tell your underlings what they need to spend the next 2 years struggling to accomplish without overtime pay, flying on a private jet between public appearances with known criminals, and spending hours a day reposting misinformation on Twitter. It's so hard! Nobody understands how hard he works!
(Obvious /s)
Don't forget how hard it is to pay other people to play video games for you so you can call yourself an "elite" gamer.
Sounds like Katherine Long should sue the DOGE for infringing on her first amendment rights.
She can try, but I expect the Trump admin is expecting to lean really hard on that thing where you need the permission of the federal government to sue the federal government.
When it suits them, Musk is not a government employee. Also when it suits them, musk is a 'special government employee'
Free speech for me but not for thee
Elon Musk: "Famed Free Speech Absolutist"
Abolitionist*
Only if we are allowed to fire everybody who is disgusting and cruel.
My Chrystal ball says that Elon keeps realizing agenda 2025 until the resistance within their own ranks becomes unbearable. While Elon makes news Trump makes legislation to fuck over whoever he can. Only then, goat Elon gets scaped by savior Donald to appease Maga and everything is in shambles.
My money is on Vance removing Trump via the 25th amendment in spring of 2027, then firing Musk.
It will never happen. Vance is a tool, an the GOP has been clear, there is only one man they bend over for and it's Trump, I'm surprised Musk is this involved without him being shoved aside by Trump, but it is pissing people off and making people deeply anxious about if they have a country or not next week or so, and the panic and pain is the thing Trump loves most while he's looting the country, so many this is all just gravy for him.
Why would he fire Musk?
So he can be the guy who saved America. If he keeps his head down and looks like the sane one while Trump and Musk go full Nazi and he removes them from power, he'll have an insanely high approval rating, even if he doesn't roll back anything they did. He'd probably win the 2028 election in a landslide, and since he'd have served just under half of Trump's term he'd be eligible for re-election in 2032.
I can see the Trump removal scenario.
For Vance to get rid of Musk he needs to both
A) Disagree with Musk's actions and philosophies.
B) Be able to refuse the amount of bribe money Musk can throw at him.
I don't see either happening.
Vance is basically the Cheney, doing a lot more than anyone really notices and he might want to keep it that way.
Based on some stuff I've seen, Vance seems more the leader of Project 2025, and leading the mechanism that churns out those executive orders for Trump to rubber stamp. Trump is an odious man, but watching him sign the executive orders just calls to mind all those stereotypical images of a doddering clueless leader blindly obliging whatever the evil vizier tells him to. He barely is aware of the material of those orders (the details are too boring for him to care), but he knows they stroke his ego when he signs them.
In this scenario, it's not that he would disagree, it's that he'd want the appearance of "fixing" things that he would blame on Musk, even as he fails to materially undo the main part of his work. It's not about reality, it's about the story he'd want.
Trump is the once great man undone by his advanced age and resulting diminished mental capacity, but we don't accuse the great MAGA Trump of deliberate misbehavior. Things need to be blamed, and Trump is the face of everything and as such makes a terrible target for blame. Musk is the malicious manipulator that took advantage of that to advance whatever things PJ2025 needs to blame away. Musk is some obnoxious person with more money than anyone, a foreigner, advancing these leftist electric cars and solar, and is someone no MAGA fanatics asked for. Just the perfect person to throw under the bus to fit the narrative to take Vance from some background character in the minds of the MAGA fanatics to a worthy hero successor to what Trump was "supposed" to be for them.
Maybe they do some token unwinding of low priority stuff, or just some theater to make it look like they did.
Of course, I'm not sure if Vance actually wants the spotlight or prefers to lead from behind the curtain. So not sure if he'd advance himself or advance some other convenient face of the movement so he can keep eyes off of him.
Disagree, the asswipe Vance defended Elez and his racist comments about Indians. WTF, Vance's wife is Indian and his kids are half.
Reminder: Usha Vance clerked for Kavanaugh and Roberts. While she doesn’t deserve to be the target of racial abuse, she does not likely take issue with such language being used more broadly.
On the other hand, she didn’t vote Republican until doing so for her husband in the 2022 primary in Ohio, so she is a land of contrasts, likely being on whatever side gives her power or access to it. She is, at best, undergoing some cognitive dissonance (though we haven’t seen any such evidence thus far), but she is no victim.
Lmao get'em Katherine!
I always find the conservative "How dare you tell people what I said" outrage amusing.
Mald harder, Elon. We will not be ruled by your little band of incels.
Leon hitler would like the USA to turn into Russia, China and the former Apartheid South Africa. Fuck him and the MAGAts.
Real free speech absolutism there.
Space Karen.
Looks like he's trying to grow an Adolf moustache.
Along with a cringy edge-lord neckbeard.
Turns out, racists don't like being outed.
Elon should know.
So we can add Irony to the things he doesn't understand
It's soon illegal to not be racistin america.
He's an elf who hates his half-elf siblings.
I like the idea of a half elf that's racist against his own human half. A half-elf elf supremacist.
It's like Voldemort with half-bloods.
It's a medication for racists
They can be from Racistan, a "planet of hats" country with one very ugly defining feature.
A red armband?
For who people would like to see as an all powerful, intelligent and genius billionaire ... he sure has a thin skin
For anyone that didn't notice ... this is the power of journalists and why we should defend them, help them and support them.
Is this the same guy who’s been rehired already?
MAGA has a fucking hardon for cruelty unless it's directed at white men.
Fuck that small dick muskRat forever. My taint awaits his tongue.
Well of course, uncovering the crime is worse than committing it in this administration
People fixate on all the racist shit that actually qualified him for the position.
Dude got cancelled because he insulted Israel.
Please defend this guy and find out Mr Musk, the cult doesn't need to extract your wealth peacefully.
God damn, every time I think this douche can't get any worse... There's no bottom (well, to be fair Trump is his bottom}
Trump doesn't mind Elon being the president in the press, because they convinced him this time around that he's the fully insulated mob boss. Layers of others around him getting their hands dirty, so he claims "oh, I didn't know that. That's bad, you should probably arrest whoever did that crime".
That is if our systems survive them flooding the zone with bullshit and making weak attempts to dismantle them.
The only thing that seems to get to Trump is when he has a press conference and they just keep asking him about things Musk is doing.
He may be an actual villain.
I suspect think he’s consciously chosen to be a villain because he’s er seen it gets him more power, money, and notoriety than the techno savior thing he tried first. Or maybe he’s been planning this story arc for years.
He seems broken in the right sorts of ways to see life as an actual game of genetics, resources, and popularity.
Ah, yes. The champion of freedom of speech strikes again.
Funny, I thought HE was disgusting and cruel, but the rest of us can’t bully people using money and illegal threats.
Musk has ruined the reputation of the Shiba Inu. Thanks, you jackass.
Big balls attacks again
The stun-lock advances
He may have a fault or two but his work in USAID has been uncovering some serious corruption. If you refuse to acknowledge that then i don't know what to tell you.
Can you give some examples? Genuinely curious
So this is decades long waste and fraud, but a significantly higher amount of money for handouts for the ultra-rich authorized by Trump, including money piped directly to his family, is fine?
From the PPP program:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/12/02/new-ppp-loan-data-reveals-most-of-the-525-billion-given-out-went-to-larger-businesses-some-with-trump-kushner-ties/
Something that’s become evident, too, is that a lot of people really can’t grasp how much money is being stolen by the rich. When the administration says that DEI initiatives cost, let’s just say, $200 million, it’s easy to say “well that’s way too much money!” But that amount is a pittance compared to $250 billion into the pockets of 5% of participants of only a single program. Regular people are so far removed from these numbers that we can’t even wrap our heads around them when we hear them
This should be spam posted everywhere.
this is just one example:
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1887864991560192107
Source without an actual source.
Assuming it's all true. No shit money goes to organizations that provide aid. And the amounts that are being spent are almost nothing. For example in my job $100 million contracts are common for single locations.
The whole situation is literally the rich guy pointing at a poorer person and telling you to be mad they got pennies while the rich guy is shoveling billions into their tax breaks.
I think Trump supporters have a different definition of corruption than normal people.
While USAID definitely funds/funded many ridiculous things (such as this) they also provide much-needed food and medicine to a lot of people - for cynical politically-motivated soft-power reasons, but still. It seems very likely that abruptly cutting off those programs will cause some people to die. I really hope someone (the PRC seems likely) will step in and replace some of those programs!