Elon Musk is in their sights
Elon Musk is now a threat rather than a Green hero. He thinks for himself and has a lot of money, and is attempting to gain more power over leftist instrument Twitter and end its bias. Therefore he is now a target of the left.
Here’s Glenn Reynolds’ take on it:
After Twitter censorship reached the point of ridiculousness, he responded by setting out to buy it. Now as a result of that effort, it turns out that Twitter is, well, kind of a sham. About half of President Biden’s followers turn out to be fake. (So do nearly a quarter of Musk’s.) Much of America’s journalistic and political agenda appears to be directed by bots.
And fools. Powerful ones, with an agenda – and I’m not talking about Musk.
The next step, of course, is the time-honored one of accusing Musk of sexual harassment (they’ve already done racism, because he was born in South Africa, although he was only seventeen when he left). They’ll investigate and investigate and investigate, and they’ll also accuse and accuse, working under Beria’s old mantra, “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”
Business Insider, a far-left rag, published a thinly sourced hit piece accusing Musk of exposing himself to and propositioning a flight attendant. According to the report, she was paid a $250,000 severance after filing a complaint with SpaceX…
As per usual with these types of media-led accusations, the documents in question are not shared in the story. The actual source is a single, anonymous “friend” of the woman who was supposedly paid off over the alleged incident. That makes it impossible to ascertain the veracity of the report. Are there missing details? What do the documents actually say? Was the account disputed or admitted to by Musk? What evidence was provided that the encounter happened as described in the story?
The allegations are six years old and were apparently kept under wraps by an NDA until this point.
Well, they weren’t considered useful or helpful till this point.
The timing of this questionable accusation is of great interest, coming just after his much-publicized statement of complete disenchantment with the party of pure insanity and of destructive malevolence (the operative slogans being “the worse the better” and “by any means necessary”). One might also question the timing of the horrific tragedy in Buffalo (the FBI had apparently been warned about the shooter’s mental instability, but might well have wished for something to happen, that the incident might then be exploited in the manner of Floyd and BLM, to say nothing of J6). It is, at any rate, undeniably true that the M.O. of the left is to use any crisis or difficulty or problem (whether legitimate or fabricated) for nakedly partisan ideological/political advantage.
And much like they did with Trump their attacks are driving him further to the right.
I still think there is a decent chance he backs away from buying Twitter but these kinds of attacks may only harden his resolve.
Griffin,
If he backs away from Twitter after exposing so much silliness, and this was his plan all along; it would be the greatest troll in all of history!
He can almost certainly back out of it now if he chooses. Twitter likely won’t be able to confirm less than 5% of accounts are Bots.
Great, great troll! But of course he’ll likely lose $10 – $15/share on the ~60 million shares he already purchased, so it would be an expensive ($600 – $800 million) troll, but hilarious none the less!
I have no great love of Musk who had done a fair amount of rent seeking however he also takes insults with aplomb and does seem to actually believe in free speech for everyone not just the left.
@j e
As to the FBI and the Buffalo shooter not only would I not be surprised that they left him to his own devices in the hope of the outcome we got. It would not surprise me particularly if they sent people into his circle to encourage him in his act. To say I no longer trust the FBI would be a massive understatement. Much of the DOJ has been coopted into serving the Democrats and the narrative.
Funny how these NDAs seem to expire when it becomes politically expedient.
Rufus T Firefly:
Not expensive for him, relatively speaking. The $1B breakup fee works out to about 0.33% of his net worth. For comparIson it would be $3,300 to someone worth one million, or $330 if you have a hundred grand. I say totally worth it.
DisGuested,
And his shares wouldn’t go to $zero and he’d get to wrote off a HUGE capital loss. I agree. Totally worth it.
Musk has also brought in other investors to buy Twitter with him so there is that to keep in mind.
Musk has done many other trollish things through the years and got in regulatory trouble for them but this would be on another level completely.
Musk seems to have taken the air out of the harassment balloon rather quickly with his brilliant labeling of the effort as “Elongate”. Master of the double entendre.
There is in addition physicsguy — and Elongate is indeed an exquisite reposte — some particular features of Mr. Musk which he believes are most certainly not “in their sights”, nor have ever been, says he, the which “parts” he challenges his accuser to describe in detail. If he’s truthtelling here, the accuser(s) may be nailed down quite well.
Oh, hello: https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1527732563569168385
Scroll the thread, up (short) and down (a touch longer) at least until you get to “I am indeed out for blood”
Re: Twitter acquisition
My bet is Musk has gamed this pretty well — heads, he wins; tails, they lose.
Like Rufus, I’m intrigued by the large bot follower statistics which have emerged:
______________________________________
Twitter has about 229 million daily users, according to the company’s own data. The platform has long held that no more than five percent of its accounts are bots or spam.
Musk challenged that assertion on Tuesday, claiming as many as 20 percent of Twitter accounts are inauthentic and accusing CEO Parag Agrawal of refusing to show proof of the company’s five percent claim.
‘My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%,' Musk wrote on Twitter.
He threatened: 'This deal cannot move forward until he does.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10829675/Almost-half-President-Bidens-Twitter-followers-FAKE-audit-reveals.html
______________________________________
So Musk gets a better price or can walk away. Twitter’s reputation is damaged and unless Twitter can prove otherwise, the company may face discipline or penalties for questionable financial data..
Musk is by far the most interesting Billionaire extant.
“And much like they did with Trump their attacks are driving him further to the right.” Griffin
Which is why… Musk delenda est!
Which is why… Musk delenda est!
Geoffrey Britain:
True, but … the left has lost its delenda’ing mojo.
Recently they have tried and failed to take out J.K. Rowling, a sorta-billionaire, and Joe Rogan, a pugnacious talker with far less financial/political clout.
Rowling and Rogan still stand. Musk looks good to me. The left is becoming a paper tiger.
____________________________
For the times they are a-changin’.
–Bob Dylan
Huxley,
Don’t forget Tucker Carlson. My theory is they have lost the power to take out people who have really done nothing wrong other than disagree with the crazy woke crowd.
There isn’t a normal person that would agree with taking out Rowling, Rogan, Musk, or Carlson for the things that outrage the wokesters.
Griffin:
Tucker Carlson. Good point!
I don’t keep up with him as well as I might, but I know he is fighting the good fight and lately he’s winning.
huxley,
They really, really tried to blame him for the Buffalo shooter.
huxley:
I think the left has tried to take out SO many people in such similar ways that the pattern has become more clear – and more tiresome and less convincing – to a lot of people.
Musk has pinned this Tweet to his page today:
“Tesla is building a hardcore litigation department where we directly initiate & execute lawsuits. The team will report directly to me.
Please send 3 to 5 bullet points describing evidence of exceptional ability.
justice@tesla.com“
Staying a few steps ahead is his signature I guess…..
Hes an ayn rand either reardon or roark , she was so on point about what a dumpsterfire the 21st century would become
I think the left has tried to take out SO many people in such similar ways that the pattern has become more clear – and more tiresome and less convincing – to a lot of people.
neo:
Agreed.
I generalize to a larger loss of credibility — not just cancel culture, but the patterns of deceit all across the board from diversity, equity, inclusion to CRT to trans activism to Biden’s and Harris’s deficits to Covid handling to the Jan 6 “insurrection” and lately inflation.
Democrats essentially needed to sew up the country under their brand of fascism in Biden’s first year. They tried hard and they worked blatantly. They failed.
Now the toothpaste doesn’t go back into the tube. Too many people in the middle see Democrats for what they are — lying, power-mad radicals.
Which is not to say a happy ending is guaranteed or the Democrats cease being a menace. It’s a different phase with different rules more favorable to conservatives.
As a techie, it’s fun to watch the speed with which the narrative can be shifted increase with tech advances over time, from the 1984 Oceania wars, to the 8 byte graphics of the Whole Earth Good/Ungood scorecard in The Goode Family, to this.
Toward lying at warp speed, Mr. Sulu!
The flight attendant’s “friend” has full knowledge that by speaking to the press, she has jeopardized the flight attendant’s settlement monies. This “friend” even spoke with the flight attendant’s attorney, who let her know the danger and strongly urged the “friend” not to make these statements.
The Bee Hive has intriguing reports on our friend Elon.
https://notthebee.com/article/tesla-the-electric-car-company-just-got-kicked-out-of-the-sp-500-esg-index-environmental-social-governance-and-that-totally-makes-sense-so-stop-thinking-it-doesnt
https://notthebee.com/article/there-will-be-blood-elon-is-putting-together-a-team-of-hardcore-streetfighter-lawyers-to-sue-people
https://babylonbee.com/news/ninja-level-move-elon-musk-switches-back-to-democrat-party-sexual-harassment-accusation-withdrawn
https://media.notthebee.com/articles/article-6286ad50a3051.gif