@robson@Thumperchick Order of magnitude issue; The current Twitter stock value is still over $40 billion as of today’s trading. It has regained much of the share value that it initially lost after the buyout, but it’s still not right-side-up vs the debt that Musk took on, some of which is secured by his other assets. The lenders have a large and painfully vested interest in keeping Twitter afloat, but it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen in the next year.
“protect a pristine parcel of land on the US-Mexico border from racist billionaire Donald Trump’s very stupid wall.” Is that the same wall Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, says Mr. Biden will build up to 20 miles of? (NY TIMES Oct. 6, 2023) That makes Biden a racist too. Can we sue him as well?
@cjester66 Trump’s speeches have made it clear that he is a racist. Building a wall along certain problematic segments of the border with Mexico is a security measure, particularly where it is known that gun and drug trafficking is taking place. (I don’t know what the rationale is for the wall that the current administration favors.) However, building a wall along the entire border, as he had intended, could credibly be called a racist act, though it is mostly an incredibly stupid one designed solely to pander to the people who currently despise those whom he and many others have taken great pains to vilify for their own ends. (And yes, some of those people are truly racist or at least jingoist in their attitudes toward persons entering the US without documented permission.) The tactic of targeting powerless groups as scapegoats for multiple ills is neither new, nor historically unique to any political group or party. But it’s reprehensible behavior none the less. Trump is accurately described in the subject statement as a racist because he has shown himself to be exactly that, but including that unnecessary and irrelevant inflammatory qualifier is not justified; it implies exactly what you say.
I will add that US agriculture nationwide has a heavy dependence upon undocumented migrant workers, and all previous attempts to establish a useful method of tracking them without curtailing their availability have failed. Part of the reason for this is that they trust our government even less than the most radical right-wingers. I very much doubt that this immigration and “guest worker” mess will get sorted out anytime soon. There are fundamentally conflicting policy demands at high levels that aren’t amenable to compromise. And the mess that is “border security” will remain unsolved as a result. Yes, we need to permit ag workers to come in and perform the work where they’re essential. Yes, they need to be abused less. Yes, we need to be more selective about immigrants arriving here seeking economic and political asylum. But the current system is designed to not produce a good outcome for either the nation or the immigrants. And yet, it’s the best we’ve been able to implement in the face of stridently conflicting demands.
I will note at this point that TDS is claimed as a characteristic of the other side by both groups of partisans. Alternate (usually rude) decodings tend to devolve into namecalling.
EDIT Or do we need a guard Llama to keep order and run off the coyotes? (see related thread in search; yes, guard Llamas are a real thing this goat didn’t know about).
@pmarin We could do with a guard llama around my place even though I don’t have any livestock, but I really don’t have a big enough lot for one. They tend to want to have enough room to do some proper pronking when they’re happy. Plus, it’s WAY too hot for them here at sea level on the Gulf coast. I wouldn’t do that to one of them.
@werehatrack Hmm, I see. “Gulf coastal Llama” probably not a thing. Also kind-of afraid to look up pronking sounds NSFW. (though I don’t work anymore so maybe it’s OK). Are you far enough West on Gulf Coast to be away from primary weather impact zone? Monitoring my friends in Asheville NC; storms usually diverge East or West and weaken a lot if heading that way, but apparently many inches or rain already overnight, and main part not really going to hit till tomorrow.
@pmarin I’m in the Houston area, all we’re getting is a very pleasant cool breeze from the north. “Pronking” is the name for their all-four-feet bouncing gait that is entertaining to see. Some antelope do it amazingly high.
“was building some space thing nearby” I for one enjoy what SpaceX has done and MUCH prefer anything space/science related over CAH or board games in general.
@Cerridwyn@PooltoyWolf@tysontomko I think Elon Musk is creepy as F&$ but then again he did seem to make a pretty good car, and apparently the only one that can get us to space reliably.
I have read (listened to audiobook) about 1/2 of his biography so far: https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1982181281
It was an authorized biography including interviews with permission from his family and even an ex-wife I think. It does explain a bit more about what appears to be a very troubled childhood starting from South Africa and then trying to break in to Silicon Valley but couldn’t even get in to U.S. at first, then at one point rented a one-room office in Palo Alto but couldn’t afford a place to stay so slept on the floor for a few months. Created stuff that worked and stuff that failed, which he is honest about (including his rockets – “Yay, it blew up, we learned a bunch of stuff!”)
“X” was actually his dream from those days around year 2000. It didn’t turn out to be, even though he created and sold off ideas that became things like PayPal and MapQuest.
Listening to the biography I have a bit better understanding of his creepiness, and notoriety which he seems to enjoy (don’t want to say compassion). One thing I would say is that in general, he does not lie (unlike politicians). Sketchy business deals, yes, cruel and non-caring treatment of employees, check. Generally most of the “evil” stuff one might assume, except as I said for welcoming the criticism and saying if you don’t like me or the stuff I say, don’t buy my products; I don’t care. Around here Teslas are everywhere like Honda Civics were back 40 years ago.
@tysontomko I don’t have a problem with SpaceX (Although clearly braking the laws here)- I do have a problem with Musk, especially with his descent into megalomaniac madness the last several years.
Musk has always been a bit of a showman with all sorts of crazy unfulfillable promises, being able to get investors to keep investing while his companies teeter on the edge of extinction, until they make it.
He’s gone down a strange path lately, getting all mixed up in conspiracy theories and some questionable ethics and lost a lot of integrity.
Can’t say I have much respect left for the man, started with him calling a rescue diver a Paedo because they didn’t want his help and he just kept descending from there… but I am glad that SpaceX has been able to achieve where government Rocketry has not.
who should keep his trap shut. And hire capable people to speak and manage for him
I don’t disagree but it’s not like him to do that. It is part of the personality. At some point where he feels he’s done what he can with a product or company, he might sell it off and then those things you wish for might happen. But he had 3 things that have been his focus for 20 years:
make a multi-purpose platform called “X” that would eventually do a lot more stuff including financial transactions like PayPal and others do today. (still in progress, but anyway the name “X” was not a random thought but came from before year 2000).
make electric cars commonplace and (relatively) affordable. Despite causing anguish among major American and Asian carmakers, appears to be doing exactly that.
get to and colonize Mars (presumably with a harem of women a’la Dr. Strangelove).
@whattajoke pretty sure all the people at Cards Against Humanity have jobs at CAH. They are suing because Musk took over their land and is using it as if it were his own. It’s America. Only the government can take your land here. Plus the government must fairly compensate you.
@milstarr@whattajoke Pretty sure the new account is just one of those TDS people. H s d wn
n h s kn s w t ng t g t a m thf l of that Cr m f M shr m th x-pr s d nt d l s t t h s l y l c lt f ll w rs. [disemvoweled for obfuscation -vmod]
@milstarr@whattajoke@yakkoTDI I don’t eat kid’s cereal anymore so don’t know where to get the secret decoder ring (“always after me Lucky Charms; they’re magically delicious”)
I’ve never particularly liked Cards Against Humanity, but I have a grudging respect for the fact that they are a pretty influential fixture in the boardgaming world, and they do tend to follow through on their weird schemes.
I think I have a similar feeling about Mr. Musk—I don’t like how he comports himself, but I think that, for better or worse, he does facilitate some useful things.
That said, yeah, maybe check before you leave your construction stuff lying around.
@Yombleflobber I have to wonder what’s going to turn up if this suit gets into the discovery phase. I suspect that several somebodies at SpaceX are desperately trying to document that it wasn’t their fault. The likelihood that Musk was even aware of the CAH property’s existence seems small; that’s the kind of detail which I can’t see getting that high up in the information food chain.
@werehatrack@Yombleflobber I have no doubt that if Musk did know about the CAH property it wouldn’t have changed a thing… Trashing their property, especially because of the reason it was purchased is the kind of thing he would laugh about doing.
@OnionSoup@werehatrack@Yombleflobber Exactly. Though he has signs of racist tendencies (South Africa, after all), he does remind me of the classic Eddie Murphy saying “let’s see what we can F with next!”
[Note: a lot of swearing. line is about 3 min in]
/youtube
EDIT but it is likely he probably had no idea about any of the CAH stuff as it was happening. Though the response would probably be the same.
@Thumperchick Oh, that would be choice.
@Thumperchick @werehatrack
A day never goes by that we don’t need a laugh, This one counts today.
My daughter’s comment was “From the people who brought you literal bullshit for purchase. Good for them”
Hmmm I wonder
/showme Cards Against Humanity selling bull shit
@mediocrebot I like how the bovine excrement, a.k.a. bullshit, is organic.
@Thumperchick While Twitter is still worth more than $15M, thanks to Elon fucking it up also it’s not worth a whole lot more than $15M these days!
@robson @Thumperchick Order of magnitude issue; The current Twitter stock value is still over $40 billion as of today’s trading. It has regained much of the share value that it initially lost after the buyout, but it’s still not right-side-up vs the debt that Musk took on, some of which is secured by his other assets. The lenders have a large and painfully vested interest in keeping Twitter afloat, but it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen in the next year.
I got a deed saying that I owned a 1 square inch of land from CAH. Gotta see if it’s still around.
10Q Cerridwyn!
Gonna get in on that lawsuit. Big bucks.
Already signed up and posted on xitter.
Hope I don’t need to find the information from the original purchase.
Such a lovely thing to do.
I found my deed!
Liberal douchebags that make the world a much worse place versus conservative douchebags that make the world a much worse place.
{Vmod edited.}
@Dizavid You’re playing the “very douche bags on both sides” card, are ya?
Never mind that… what EXACTLY does “Vmod edited” mean, in this case?
@Dizavid @mehvid1 Vmods are “volunteer mods” who have editing powers.
@Kyeh @mehvid1 And that reminds me why I stopped posting here. Censorship is wrong.
@Kyeh Thanks for that. I’m sure I could’ve easily looked that up, but I didn’t edit my ignorance.
And yet… here you are.
It’s a private site, owned by a private company
@Dizavid @Kyeh @mehvid1 Keep in mind there is a big difference between censorship and enforcing the rules of a privately owned website forum.
@haydesigner Ah, you beat me to it, heheh
@haydesigner Good point. I think I’ll go ahead and delete my account at the end of this month.
@Dizavid @haydesigner Why wait? Don’t care if the door does hit you on the way out.
@Dizavid There is a separate thread for political bullshit. Even non-partisan bullshit.
@Dizavid If you leave now you can start getting the pornography back in the elementary schools since censorship is wrong and all that carp.
@Dizavid
@Thumperchick
The video that keeps on educating.
TMYK
I love everything about this, including the words used to describe the elongated muskrat on the webpage.
“protect a pristine parcel of land on the US-Mexico border from racist billionaire Donald Trump’s very stupid wall.” Is that the same wall Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, says Mr. Biden will build up to 20 miles of? (NY TIMES Oct. 6, 2023) That makes Biden a racist too. Can we sue him as well?
TC edit - FTFY - cited your source
@cjester66 Trump’s speeches have made it clear that he is a racist. Building a wall along certain problematic segments of the border with Mexico is a security measure, particularly where it is known that gun and drug trafficking is taking place. (I don’t know what the rationale is for the wall that the current administration favors.) However, building a wall along the entire border, as he had intended, could credibly be called a racist act, though it is mostly an incredibly stupid one designed solely to pander to the people who currently despise those whom he and many others have taken great pains to vilify for their own ends. (And yes, some of those people are truly racist or at least jingoist in their attitudes toward persons entering the US without documented permission.) The tactic of targeting powerless groups as scapegoats for multiple ills is neither new, nor historically unique to any political group or party. But it’s reprehensible behavior none the less. Trump is accurately described in the subject statement as a racist because he has shown himself to be exactly that, but including that unnecessary and irrelevant inflammatory qualifier is not justified; it implies exactly what you say.
@cjester66 @werehatrack
Good grief!
@werehatrack That was extremely ignorant and long-winded.
I will add that US agriculture nationwide has a heavy dependence upon undocumented migrant workers, and all previous attempts to establish a useful method of tracking them without curtailing their availability have failed. Part of the reason for this is that they trust our government even less than the most radical right-wingers. I very much doubt that this immigration and “guest worker” mess will get sorted out anytime soon. There are fundamentally conflicting policy demands at high levels that aren’t amenable to compromise. And the mess that is “border security” will remain unsolved as a result. Yes, we need to permit ag workers to come in and perform the work where they’re essential. Yes, they need to be abused less. Yes, we need to be more selective about immigrants arriving here seeking economic and political asylum. But the current system is designed to not produce a good outcome for either the nation or the immigrants. And yet, it’s the best we’ve been able to implement in the face of stridently conflicting demands.
@werehatrack well said
and i wonder how many of us ‘white’ folk have ancestors who came over illegally or falsified information on their immigration papers
/giphy raises hand
@cjester66 @werehatrack TDS??
@cjester66 @werehatrack @whattajoke Where do you see Trump Derangement Syndrome in here? [edited for civility -vmod]
I will note at this point that TDS is claimed as a characteristic of the other side by both groups of partisans. Alternate (usually rude) decodings tend to devolve into namecalling.
@werehatrack Can’t we all just goat along?
EDIT Or do we need a guard Llama to keep order and run off the coyotes? (see related thread in search; yes, guard Llamas are a real thing this goat didn’t know about).
@pmarin We could do with a guard llama around my place even though I don’t have any livestock, but I really don’t have a big enough lot for one. They tend to want to have enough room to do some proper pronking when they’re happy. Plus, it’s WAY too hot for them here at sea level on the Gulf coast. I wouldn’t do that to one of them.
@werehatrack Hmm, I see. “Gulf coastal Llama” probably not a thing. Also kind-of afraid to look up pronking sounds NSFW. (though I don’t work anymore so maybe it’s OK). Are you far enough West on Gulf Coast to be away from primary weather impact zone? Monitoring my friends in Asheville NC; storms usually diverge East or West and weaken a lot if heading that way, but apparently many inches or rain already overnight, and main part not really going to hit till tomorrow.
@pmarin I’m in the Houston area, all we’re getting is a very pleasant cool breeze from the north. “Pronking” is the name for their all-four-feet bouncing gait that is entertaining to see. Some antelope do it amazingly high.
This is awesome. Gift that keeps on giving.
DIPLOMAT! RAT-A-TAT! FAT CAT! AWESOME!
“was building some space thing nearby” I for one enjoy what SpaceX has done and MUCH prefer anything space/science related over CAH or board games in general.
That being said though LOL
@tysontomko
I don’t disagree. Musk is just one of those people who should keep his trap shut. And hire capable people to speak and manage for him
I actually like both
@Cerridwyn @tysontomko He should also never, ever again mess with social media companies of any type.
Give us the old Twitter back!
@Cerridwyn @PooltoyWolf @tysontomko I think Elon Musk is creepy as F&$ but then again he did seem to make a pretty good car, and apparently the only one that can get us to space reliably.
I have read (listened to audiobook) about 1/2 of his biography so far:
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1982181281
It was an authorized biography including interviews with permission from his family and even an ex-wife I think. It does explain a bit more about what appears to be a very troubled childhood starting from South Africa and then trying to break in to Silicon Valley but couldn’t even get in to U.S. at first, then at one point rented a one-room office in Palo Alto but couldn’t afford a place to stay so slept on the floor for a few months. Created stuff that worked and stuff that failed, which he is honest about (including his rockets – “Yay, it blew up, we learned a bunch of stuff!”)
“X” was actually his dream from those days around year 2000. It didn’t turn out to be, even though he created and sold off ideas that became things like PayPal and MapQuest.
Listening to the biography I have a bit better understanding of his creepiness, and notoriety which he seems to enjoy (don’t want to say compassion). One thing I would say is that in general, he does not lie (unlike politicians). Sketchy business deals, yes, cruel and non-caring treatment of employees, check. Generally most of the “evil” stuff one might assume, except as I said for welcoming the criticism and saying if you don’t like me or the stuff I say, don’t buy my products; I don’t care. Around here Teslas are everywhere like Honda Civics were back 40 years ago.
@tysontomko I don’t have a problem with SpaceX (Although clearly braking the laws here)- I do have a problem with Musk, especially with his descent into megalomaniac madness the last several years.
Musk has always been a bit of a showman with all sorts of crazy unfulfillable promises, being able to get investors to keep investing while his companies teeter on the edge of extinction, until they make it.
He’s gone down a strange path lately, getting all mixed up in conspiracy theories and some questionable ethics and lost a lot of integrity.
Can’t say I have much respect left for the man, started with him calling a rescue diver a Paedo because they didn’t want his help and he just kept descending from there… but I am glad that SpaceX has been able to achieve where government Rocketry has not.
@Cerridwyn @tysontomko
I don’t disagree but it’s not like him to do that. It is part of the personality. At some point where he feels he’s done what he can with a product or company, he might sell it off and then those things you wish for might happen. But he had 3 things that have been his focus for 20 years:
Perfect example of mental illness at its finest. It’s easier to try to sue someone than getting a job
@whattajoke huh?
@whattajoke pretty sure all the people at Cards Against Humanity have jobs at CAH. They are suing because Musk took over their land and is using it as if it were his own. It’s America. Only the government can take your land here. Plus the government must fairly compensate you.
@milstarr @whattajoke Pretty sure the new account is just one of those TDS people. H s d wn
n h s kn s w t ng t g t a m thf l of that Cr m f M shr m th x-pr s d nt d l s t t h s l y l c lt f ll w rs. [disemvoweled for obfuscation -vmod]
@milstarr @whattajoke @yakkoTDI I don’t eat kid’s cereal anymore so don’t know where to get the secret decoder ring (“always after me Lucky Charms; they’re magically delicious”)
I’ve never particularly liked Cards Against Humanity, but I have a grudging respect for the fact that they are a pretty influential fixture in the boardgaming world, and they do tend to follow through on their weird schemes.
I think I have a similar feeling about Mr. Musk—I don’t like how he comports himself, but I think that, for better or worse, he does facilitate some useful things.
That said, yeah, maybe check before you leave your construction stuff lying around.
@Yombleflobber I have to wonder what’s going to turn up if this suit gets into the discovery phase. I suspect that several somebodies at SpaceX are desperately trying to document that it wasn’t their fault. The likelihood that Musk was even aware of the CAH property’s existence seems small; that’s the kind of detail which I can’t see getting that high up in the information food chain.
@werehatrack @Yombleflobber I have no doubt that if Musk did know about the CAH property it wouldn’t have changed a thing… Trashing their property, especially because of the reason it was purchased is the kind of thing he would laugh about doing.
@OnionSoup @werehatrack @Yombleflobber Exactly. Though he has signs of racist tendencies (South Africa, after all), he does remind me of the classic Eddie Murphy saying “let’s see what we can F with next!”
[Note: a lot of swearing. line is about 3 min in]
/youtube
EDIT but it is likely he probably had no idea about any of the CAH stuff as it was happening. Though the response would probably be the same.