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Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

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Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#101

Post by consumer451 »

deeg wrote: post #93
CalChris wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did this only become 'wild' when it applied to Elon? Also, this Elon that you speak of, isn't he the DOGE Elon? Isn't he the Nazi salute Elon? Or perhaps there's some other Elon that I'm unaware of. This is literally the Department of Goes Around Comes Around. Elon is Trump's Berezovsky.

I have absolutely no sympathy for Musk but the president--any president--shouldnt be able to do this.

The biggest self-indictment in that post by POTUS was "I was always surprised Biden didn't do it!"

I am not surprised that Biden didn't cancel all SpaceX contracts for political reasons, neither are most rational people.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#102

Post by yongjik »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #42

It's wild that a president can say, "I don't like Elon anymore, so out of retaliation, I'm canceling all his government contracts," and ~40% of the country doesn't see that as corruption in any way, shape, or form. Government contracts should not be based on whether or not the president likes the CEO, and the CEO says enough good things about the president. If you can cancel contacts not based on merit, then it shoul…

On the positive side, Trump is so unstable that he'll trash your business one day and then the next day he'll reverse course. So, "if people kiss your ass enough, they get contract" does not seem to be a long-term viable strategy. (Exhibit A: Musk.)

I'm 90% sure it will lead to America's ruin, but it might not quite be the same path that led the USSR to ruin. Hey, at least it looks more entertaining! :/

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#103

Post by mindslight »

steveBK123 wrote: post #72
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #42

It's wild that a president can say, "I don't like Elon anymore, so out of retaliation, I'm canceling all his government contracts," and ~40% of the country doesn't see that as corruption in any way, shape, or form. Government contracts should not be based on whether or not the president likes the CEO, and the CEO says enough good things about the president. If you can cancel contacts not based on merit, then it shoul…

July 4th we commemorate getting rid of one mad king overseas and replacing him with.. oh wait.

You should always self-host your foreign mad king. The latency to England is just too high.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#105

Post by rayiner »

mindslight wrote: post #98
rayiner wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a platform: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform . No taxes on tips was on the platform (#6) as was no cuts to medicare or social security (#14). Balancing the budget was not on the platform. There are republicans who care about the debt, but the party as a whole doesn’t. The economic libertarians have been thoroughly marginalized in the modern GOP, because economic libertarianism is unpopular. To be clear,…

That platform statement does not contain values or ideals! It contains goals , which could possibly be achieved in very different ways. Values and ideals are then trotted out in support of the specific policies that purport to achieve those goals, and my point is that those ideals are highly inconsistent and seemingly sum up to mere blind anger. Your individual assertion that you don't care about a balanced budget is…

Just because people don’t have a grand unifying theory tying their preferences together doesn’t mean their preferences are motivated by “mere blind anger.” Trying to fit your preferences into some internally consistent framework is a high-IQ fixation.

That’s especially true because society is hard to analyze. For example, I think it will be bad for society to encourage greater race and ethnic consciousness in a diverse society. I can point to all the sectarian conflict that exists in countries around the world as an example of what I seek to avoid, but that’s hardly definitive. Is the upshot that we have to proceed with a vast social experiment, because we can’t provide a closed form analysis of the proposal a priori?

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#106

Post by the_af »

mindslight wrote: post #67
the_af wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insane because of the implications: Musk was a major contributor to Trump's campaign, and a major advisor, and at the last minute he implies Trump is a pedophile? This means Musk knowingly contributed to get a pedophile elected! He couldn't have learned this at the last minute, he obviously held this ace in his sleeve. This already should "impeach" Musk (informally) in the eyes of his supporters: this is a guy w…

Wow, that is some amazing threading of the mental needle to focus blame on Musk. Doesn't this indictment apply to every single person who voted for Trump in 2024? Those pictures of Epstein, Trump, and Maxwell having themselves some grand old times have been popularly circulating for like a decade at this point. If the indictment doesn't apply, then why can't Musk play the same card of "I didn't know/believe/accept" w…

Why wouldn't I heap blame on Musk (as well as on Trump, mind you)? The guy's deranged and repulsive.

I don't think your objections are fair. Let's go over them:

The average Trump voter doesn't know much about Epstein, and certainly doesn't believe Trump was involved in anything with that scandal. Any evidence that may turn up would be considered "fake news" to them. Whatever you may think of Trump voters, and whatever things they really are to blame for, knowingly voting for someone they believe to be a pedophile isn't one of their sins.

Musk just implied Trump is a pedophile (or is suppressing certain documents because of his links to a pedophile). Musk also claims without him Trump wouldn't have been elected. These are Musk's claims, so he has thrown away any possible defenses of "but I didn't know/believe this" and "but I'm irrelevant in the grand scheme of things".

You also claim Musk could defend himself with "but I didn't know at the time". This is very, very weak. When exactly do you suppose he learned this? In the few days that have elapsed since this very public falling out, maybe even a few days before? Oh, please. You know you don't believe this, these two were heaping praise on each other and calling themselves friends for most of their collaboration since Trump's second term, and only now Musk found out about Epstein? What, an aide rushed this info to him just in time for their current breakup? Absurd.

Any way you slice it, Musk had this accusation up his sleeve the whole time, he just chose to deploy it now.

So again I must ask, what does this say -- in his fans' eyes -- about Musk as a person?

PS: You seem to believe I'm somehow defending Trump here. If that's your worry, let me be clear that I think Trump is a disgrace. I don't know whether he's a pedophile though, unlike Musk I don't claim to have seen any secret documents. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if both Trump and Musk are pedophiles, these aren't exactly examples of decent human beings.

PPS: it has also just occurred to me you could be wondering why I'm focusing on the outrageous things Musk has said, but not on the contradictory, absurd or just plain dumb things Trump is saying about Musk? Well, because Trump has an expiration date. I suppose he can do lots of immediate damage to Musk, but he must do so now. Musk, as the world's richest person, has a much longer shelf life and more time to do damage to the US and the rest of the world, and bizarrely, has a large cult following. So I wonder what his followers think.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#107

Post by the_af »

jmyeet wrote: post #66
the_af wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Musk is not implying any of those less-than-flattering things. Nobody knows what Musk actually thinks , but what he implied is pretty clear. He calls it "a bomb", and we all know what that means. And this matters, because Musk was a major campaign contributor and advisor to someone he has now implied to be a pedophile. What does this say about Musk ?

As per usual, every accusation from a narcissist is a confession. You know who absolutely is connected to Epstein? Elon's brother, Kimbal (allgedly) [1]. And while not related to Epstein but is just gross and in a similar ballpark, Elon's father Errol, had a stepdaughter from his wife's first marriage, Jana Bezuidenhout, who grew up in his house from age 4. He later went on to father two children with Jana (the first…

Didn't know these details about Musk's family.

It doesn't surprise me at all that a guy so gross in his personal life comes from a gross family. Everything about Musk is deranged.

Do you remember the (not so distant era) when Musk was the nerd's and hacker's darling? SpaceX, his genius, his vision! This was before we knew much about his personal life and opinions. It seems so long ago now... Before he took to Twitter to claim it was OK to coup countries for their resources, or started naming children like mathematical formulas.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#108

Post by the_af »

Geee wrote: post #79
the_af wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's also wild that someone who was a major contributor to the election campaign and a major advisor to the president now declares "well, the president is a pedophile" and nobody bats an eye either. I mean, Musk supporters now have to believe Musk knowingly supported a pedophile but only turned against him after he had a falling out for unrelated reasons? In the eyes of his supporters, what does this say abou…

He supposedly learned it after the fact. Also, he didn't say that, although he surely implied that. However, he only said that Trump is in the "files", which has actually been public information for a long time. It's known that Trump had some relations with Epstein, but there's no evidence he went to the island or did something wrong. It's quite obvious that Elon knows that Trump is not on the actual "list", i.e. the…

> He supposedly learned it after the fact.

When exactly? He was friends with Trump and working in his administration until a few weeks ago (they hugged in his going away ceremony), and he broke up for reasons explicitly not about any pedophile rings.

So to lob this accusation now doesn't seem like it's because he just learned of it.

I don't know what Musk really believes. The guy behaves like a mentally unstable person, but maybe it's an act? What is true is that accusing the president of the US of being linked to a pedophile ring is not the same as accusing some random scuba diver of being a pedophile.

The scuba diver cannot really fight back, but I think the president of the US might.

(Based on replies to my comments elsewhere, I feel compelled to clarify I'm in no way defending Trump. I think this is a fight between two nasty people).

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