87 Comments

He doesn’t pay his workers a living wage and works them until they pass out, literally. He’s a horrible human being. Never actually had an original idea of his own. He exploited the system. He is an illegal immigrant from Canada on a student visa to go to school. He never went. And has profited off government contracts. He is a danger to our country and democracy.

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He’s not from Canada. He’s an immigrant from South Africa.

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Elon was born in South Africa. He moved to Canada with his mother at the age of 18 and acquired citizenship there through her, since she was born in Canada. He transferred from Queen's University at Kingston in Canada to the University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but never enrolled in classes.

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Thanks, Susan. I think the guy is evil on a stick, but I also think it's more important than ever to get our facts straight. Otherwise we're no better than the MAGA crowd...

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I want young hacktiviest to shut down X, Space X, and Starlink. Teslas too.

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I'm involved with wildlife protection organizations in Africa whose work would be severely hobbled if they lost Starlink. More elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and pangolins would be poached for trafficking. Lions would be killed. People in need of emergency care rely on Starlink too. Right now there is no reliable alternative for connectivity in those situations.

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Thank you.

You just triggered a zonk flash.

Long story, but back around the late nineties I found myself taking a SETI course with the Chairman of the Astronomy Department at Penn.

I thought it would be great fun. It was by far the hardest course I’ve ever taken. By far.

Chairman turns out was pretty well connected with NASA and Cornell and Voyager and he knew lots of stuff that he was determined everyone who took his class should know.

Last week I saw somewhere that Musk was quoting the Drake Equations and Kardashev Scales, and then you point out that Musk has degrees in Economics and Physics from Penn?

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I went to Penn for my masters degree, but I did not overlap with Musk and certainly not in those departments. ; ) I was in the Folklore Department and loved it.

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Actually, it was mid eighties.

I am a big fan of comparative folklore.

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Yes, it's fascinating stuff! I started there in 1986 but had to take a leave of absence in 1987 to have my daughter. I had been on track to get a PhD but life had other plans. I resumed my studies and got my masters. Sadly, Penn no longer has a folklore department. A couple of my beloved professors have died. During the pandemic, I took an online course for Penn alumni called Gods, Ghosts and Monsters. It was through the department of religious studies and it was amazing! It certainly helped me to feel less isolated during that difficult time.

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Where Mr. Trump codified his business persona at Wharton?

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Key point

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He's from both countries. His mom was Canadian and he has lived there too.

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Musk's attitude toward his line workers is a loud echo of something Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler said in an October, 1943 speech he gave in Posen, Poland to senior SS officials: "Whether or not 10,000 Russian women collapse from exhaustion while digging a tank ditch interests me only in so far as the tank ditch is completed for Germany."

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How long will the Feral Hog tolerate Musk stealing the limelight? At some point it will get under his skin that Musk is being referred to as the President. I would love to see the Hog turn on Musk and deport him.

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President Musk and First Lady Donald Trump.

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What an image. Makes my skin crawl.

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😂👍🏽😆

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The dodo (d_ictator o_n d_ay o_ne) can't say peep because all of a sudden his old reliable paymaster/puppetmaster can't afford the big payroll. Only Musk can keep him, his family and his enablers in golden toilet seats. He'll cave to Musk so he can spend more time with his golf clubs, I mean family.

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I don’t think he cares as long as he gets to not work but take the glory if things go well.

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When I read that Musk had Tweeted that the government should be shut down and later on Trump claimed he had told Musk to say that, I though, I'll bet he is claiming credit because people are already saying Musk is running the country not Trump, and I want to see if Trump is going to find a way to get rid of Musk, but it won't be easy. Musk is too aspergery to get it.

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Guaranteed ...what's the Vegas line?

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It's all the worse because so many Americans don't follow the news, so they won't know a shutdown would be the fault of the wannabe dictator, his pal the wannabe king, and the cowardly craven and complicit Congressional Republicans. Who will they blame? Guess.

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I think they might actually figure this one out, since it actually affects their lives.

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Not after Faux Snooze gets done with them. They'll suddenly "realize" it's all Hilary's fault, along with that guy, Ben Ghazi. And Her Emails. On the grassy knoll. Forcing people to have healthcare.

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And remember, Hunter Biden likes vaccines.

Americans loved the "The Godfather" movies and "The Sopranos," so it makes sense that they would love the Trump crime family and its advisor. Especially because they're beyond rich.

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Right, the emails! And Russia, Russia, Russia

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I think many of them might.

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Au contraire, which is not what they say in Trump-ill-vain-yuh. Dem folks do "follow" news, but what they get is "news" feeds on their phones, and if you think Fox "news" is bad...

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Right! I should have specified actual, factual real news, not the made-up !@#%&#! that many sources and sites create.

Lawrence, do they still make canned spinach? Yuck. Poor Popeye.

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Good question, so I looked at my local Ralph's Market website. Not only is there store brand (Kroger) canned spinach, but there's Popeye canned spinach, the image of Popeye himself gracing the label, courtesy of a copyright license from King Features Syndicate, owned by Hearst. The actual spinach in the Popeye brand comes from McCall Farms in Effingham, SC, which Google Maps shows is between Florence, SC and Coward SC. The eye (mine, anyway) can't help but note that just down the road from McCalls is a store selling Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts (Original, Cajun, Hot & Spicy, and Spicy Buffalo) in cans, on the label of all is the slogan, "Pop Open and Enjoy." Poor Popeye, indeed. Think of Musk and T***p as the modern-day equivalent of Bluto. Think of E. Jean Carroll and countless others as Olive Oyl.

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Everyone who is on X will have some idea that Musk is behind it. Shutting down X would be a service to the planet. Everyone should leave it and make it like 4Chan.

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And now Musk is getting a foretaste of the limits of his influence.

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He's already a lame duck and he hasn't even taken office yet. I hope the congressional representatives see their strength now!

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And so the madness begins.

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The madness started wirh Regeans Starve the Beast and continued in 2009 with GOP nutty tax groups. And now the totally insane psychopath MAGA party. There are not 10 REAL REPUBLICANS LEFT IN Congress.

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Except even the Real Republicans bend the knee to Trump. They grumble and moan and in private, admit he's not fit to be president. But in the end they bend the knee.

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No Emiliano Zapatas

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Right on Lucian. The Republican Party is beginning a predictable slide into a doom loop. This chaos just makes it more obvious. Now you have not one but two Big Kahunas running the show, pointing in different directions. Or besting in each other in outrageous demands. Todays vote is just the beginning of

gridlock. The good news for Democrats is that they don’t have the votes in the House to change much. Project 2025 is DOA in the House. All their planned DOGE fantasies are so much hot air. They can’t even get the votes to keep the government functioning , much less pass more radical ideas like privatizing the USPS.

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Love the term, "doom loop."

It'll all wind up in the MAGAT bird-brains that it's all Joe's fault.

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The frenzy is making my head hurt. Thanks Lucian, for prompting reporting on this mess so concisely. I keep reminding myself that Joe Biden is still the President for one more month, and I sure would like to hear from him sometime soon.

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Anything. Are we sure he's alive even?

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Joe Dunsel. On Planet Dunsel.

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I guess this may not affect me but the errant meanness affects all decent people. I think I am one.

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And how would Trump like seeing Musk as Speaker of the House? Of course, Musk would be out of the line of succession but I'm sure he'd be scheming to find a way to overcome the fact that he's ineligible for the Presidency by virtue of not being native born. Musk as Speaker would guarantee utter chaos and perhaps make it easier to take back the House in 2026 - assuming that there are elections.

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Mush would be 3rd in line after Dumpty's cardiac embolism and JV Vance's unfortunate sightseeing tour of the Grand Canyon.

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Can’t be. Not born here and a naturalized citizen. Thank goodness for that.

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Thanks gawd for small favors.

If there still is a Constitution by then.

It sure hasn't meant anything regarding insurrectionists holding office, (14th amendment clause 3) .

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Not in line at all. He's not native born. The only way for him to succeed is for the Constitution to be amended and that ain't going to happen to appease him.

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Not to be *too* negative, but how about them simply ignoring the Constitution? Remember, the country will be under martial law and T***p will have by Executive Act reinstated and invoked the Sedition Act of 1798 to jail anyone who gets noticed or heard criticizing him. Please keep in mind from your K-12 U.S. history classes that the four Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were the product of the Federalist Party, meant to criminalize the opposition party, the Democratic-Republicans. Was it an accident that the legal organization founded in 1982, which has populated the U.S. legal system with extremist right-wing judges, is called the Federalist Society? The motto of the Federalist Society is in Latin, and is as guarded a secret as the formula for (classic) Coca-Cola, but a right-wing news feed claims it translates to "Put your finger up your ass, then stick it in a liberal's eye." Digitum tuum pone asinum tuum...

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I like your "vision" for this excrement pair....

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And WTF? Who’s president elect here? Musk isn’t even a *******

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Where is Vance? Did he disappear? He doesn't know what to do!

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On a Snipe hunt in Russia, perhaps?

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It's just as well.

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Vance is like that piece of snot you can never flick off your fingers....

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😂

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😂😂😂

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Where's that great mandate to do all the things he promised to do? He can't even pass a simple reconciliation bill.

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Time to send the medicos for Musk and Bannons psychiatric ward lock down.

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You mean Mush and Banshee? Lock 'em up.....

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I don’t remember anyone voting for a South African named Musk.

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and so we live in interesting times...

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Ah, you, too, know the Chinese curse.

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Musk is sowing seeds of disaster, Trump will be held accountable, and come the midterms, it will be the Democrats' world. If we can survive that long. The amateurs are on their way to making a fine mess. Hard to believe, but then so is the worst incoming POTUS in the history of this country. Pass the hemlock.

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Judging from the present scene over the debt ceiling, nothing is going to happen AT ALL for two years!

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