{"id":21684,"date":"2025-02-09T09:27:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T17:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=21684"},"modified":"2025-02-09T09:27:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T17:27:50","slug":"president-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2025\/02\/09\/president-musk\/","title":{"rendered":"President Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>1<\/p>\n<p>Move fast and break things. Isn&#8217;t that the credo of the techies?<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, they tell us to trust them. That they know what they&#8217;re doing. And the entire focus is on AI when in truth that&#8217;s a sideshow compared to the heinous activities of these bros. Ditto the focus on TikTok. If you think TikTok is what&#8217;s wrong with America, you&#8217;re probably a Democrat. And now you know why you&#8217;ve lost the faith of young people nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>The mainstream press is doing a very good job of covering Musk&#8217;s shenanigans.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t want to overload you with information, but here is the best description\/analysis of what Musk is doing in D.C.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In chaotic Washington blitz, Elon Musk\u2019s ultimate goal becomes clear &#8211; Shrink government, control data and \u2014 according to one official closely watching the billionaire\u2019s DOGE \u2014 replace &#8216;the human workforce with machines.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Free link: https:\/\/wapo.st\/3WRYJOQ<\/p>\n<p>I hope you take the time to read this, but it&#8217;s in the &#8220;Washington Post,&#8221; and like the rest of Big Press it has been excoriated to the point where both the left and the right ignore it.<\/p>\n<p>Big Press has been doing a great job of delineating the malfeasance of Musk and Trump, it&#8217;s just that most people are not paying attention to Big Press. And I am talking about the press, print, the NYT, WaPo and WSJ. As for the TV networks&#8230; They&#8217;re busy kowtowing to Trump who is suing them into submission. They want to protect their bottom line, they want to maintain good relations with the president. If you&#8217;re trusting TV for the truth&#8230;you&#8217;re not getting it, whether it be network or cable. Neither of which truly goes into depth, and on cable there&#8217;s no reporting, just analysis, which is oftentimes biased, and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Not that many people are watching.<\/p>\n<p>The boomers believe they&#8217;re still in control, but they lost power in the last five years and don&#8217;t even realize it. They think since they&#8217;ve got smartphones and money they rule, but they don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Just take a look at Musk&#8217;s minions in D.C. One is only 19. Ask your boomer friend if he can code, ask your Gen-X friend if he can code. They don&#8217;t even know the languages! And in truth you don&#8217;t have to be able to code to win in today&#8217;s marketplace, but you have to know what coding is and what it can do, along with AI and its hallucinations and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Too many people with too little knowledge burying their heads in the sand regarding the new reality.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>If you want to know about the Musk playbook, just read &#8220;Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter,&#8221; by NYT reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac. Ryan Mac&#8217;s beat at the paper is Elon Musk. That&#8217;s his job, reporting on Elon Musk.<\/p>\n<p>Instead people are getting their info about the man from social media wankers who have bought the image, but not the truth.<\/p>\n<p>And then there&#8217;s that Walter Isaacson biography&#8230; Musk ain&#8217;t stupid, he literally asked Isaacson&#8217;s advice re Twitter\/X, do you expect Walter to sh*t on him after the fact? OF COURSE NOT! That book is pure hagiography.<\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk destroys first and picks up the pieces later.<\/p>\n<p>Fine if you own the company, but what is your motivation otherwise?<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is X is now an unreliable cesspool with poor economics. Yet the fiction has been spread that Musk saved and improved the platform and he brought back free speech?<\/p>\n<p>OH YEAH?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When their names have been made public by news organizations\u00a0such as Wired, they have been scrutinized by online sleuths. Mr. Musk has asserted, falsely, that the exposure of their roles is a &#8216;crime,&#8217; and X has removed some posts and issued suspensions to those who publicize their identities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>From: &#8220;Young Aides Emerge as Enforcers in Musk\u2019s Broadside Against Government &#8211; Much of the billionaire\u2019s handiwork \u2014 gaining access to internal systems and asking employees to justify their jobs \u2014 is being driven by a group of engineers operating in secrecy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"Young Aides Emerge as Enforcers in Musk\u2019s Broadside Against Government\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/svc\/oembed\/html\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F07%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Fmusk-doge-aides.html#?secret=iklxeKaTU0\" data-secret=\"iklxeKaTU0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Musk is making up his own rules for his own benefit. Despite what he may say to the public.<\/p>\n<p>But he&#8217;s a hero to the bros.<\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>So why are young American men so disaffected?<\/p>\n<p>Well, getting a good job is not easy. Income inequality is rampant. Meanwhile, the Democratic answer is to get more education. But not everybody fits this mold.<\/p>\n<p>And good luck getting laid. For every guy behaving badly with women there are scores more who are afraid of interacting for fear of committing a faux pas. And they&#8217;re resentful.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying that women shouldn&#8217;t be protected. I&#8217;m just pointing out a reality that is denied by the Democrats. Who have lost control of everybody who is not college educated and\/or with a white collar job along with so many of the minorities they believe they&#8217;re serving. Turns out Latinos want a stricter border. Not every African-American puts race first. And I&#8217;m not saying that protecting the rights of the individual is unimportant, I&#8217;m just saying that&#8217;s not the primary fight today, while there is a horse in the hospital!<\/p>\n<p>Watch this John Mulaney clip, comedians always get it right:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DFrGytgth2E\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:500px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DFrGytgth2E\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/p>\n<div style=\" display: flex; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DFrGytgth2E\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\">A post shared by Aubrey Andy Smith (@aubreyandy1)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As for our elected representatives&#8230; In truth they&#8217;re not that different from the Republicans. These Democrats want to keep their jobs, first and foremost. And then there was the insane meeting to elect a new Chair, wherein you had to pledge fealty to DEI and acknowledge that Kamala didn&#8217;t win because of racism. HUH? What country are these people living in?<\/p>\n<p>4<\/p>\n<p>So like me, you&#8217;re probably numb. Sitting this one out.<\/p>\n<p>At least everybody has realized that physical protest is meaningless, Trump doesn&#8217;t care how many people assemble in the park, he&#8217;s ignoring them, they&#8217;ve got no real power.<\/p>\n<p>But Americans do have power. But they need a leader. A leader who is living in the present and is not afraid of offending someone in pursuit of the goal.<\/p>\n<p>Americans didn&#8217;t elect Elon Musk and most are not in favor of what Trump is doing in Washington. It&#8217;s just that the Democrats hid Biden&#8217;s decline and ran a 7th string quarterback for president (those are James Carville&#8217;s words). Can&#8217;t we admit we lost and realign?<\/p>\n<p>No. We keep hearing excuses. Trump didn&#8217;t win by that much. The voting public is ignorant. That&#8217;s like pissing in the wind.<\/p>\n<p>So first and foremost the left has to stop hating on the internet, tech and social media, they must embrace it!<\/p>\n<p>We need a left wing podcaster&#8230; In the mold of the right. Not someone who is didactic, but someone who lets their guest speak. The truth is so many podcasts are unlistenable, where is the one hosted by someone young and intelligent who has people from across the spectrum as guests? Not Rachel Maddow, smarter than everyone in the room, lecturing us while she smirks. Not even Chris Hayes, who called America illiterate on Bill Maher&#8217;s show on Friday, proving the point. No, maybe an athlete. Someone from show business. A Gwyneth Paltrow without the loopiness. We need a home!<\/p>\n<p>And we&#8217;ve got to flood the zone on Instagram Reels and TikTok. Forget Facebook. That&#8217;s like thinking that baseball will eclipse the viewership of football, when most young kids play soccer! Bernie Sanders is pretty good, but we don&#8217;t want someone who is advancing their career, we don&#8217;t even want someone who is advancing the cause of the party, we want someone who is speaking their truth. On a regular basis. Social media is all about frequency.<\/p>\n<p>And while we&#8217;re at it&#8230; We need to build a left wing alternative to X. Threads and BlueSky are not it. If we need money, ask the deep pocketed donors who are sitting on the sidelines after the Biden\/Harris catastrophe to pony up for this. We need a clubhouse of our own. That breaks news and brings people to it, without the trolls and falsehoods of X.<\/p>\n<p>And we need boycotts.<\/p>\n<p>Kid Rock and his cronies brought Bud Light to its knees and the company hasn&#8217;t recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Hell, Democrats should stop buying Teslas. Period. They&#8217;re not the only alternative. This is not that hard to organize. We&#8217;ve got to start hitting Musk where it hurts.<\/p>\n<p>And a pledge to not advertise on X. We can start with Ben &amp; Jerry&#8217;s and work our way up the corporate food chain. Make it a badge of honor to not be on X. We&#8217;ve got to play offense.<\/p>\n<p>And if you play along with Trump&#8230; We can boycott you too.<\/p>\n<p>Prior boycotts have not worked because they&#8217;ve been conceived of and run by the same lunatics who ran the Democratic party into the ground. People are not going to give up Amazon, it&#8217;s just too convenient, it&#8217;s baked into the fabric of people&#8217;s lives. Ditto on Walmart. You&#8217;ve got to boycott stuff that people can live without, where there are reasonable alternatives. And you&#8217;ve got to boycott for a very specific reason&#8230; It&#8217;s Musk controlled or it supports Trump&#8217;s over the top actions.<\/p>\n<p>And the Democratic party should anoint a leader, under the age of forty, whose job is to push back each and every day. Someone likable, but not afraid to speak the truth. Not everybody is going to adore this person, but that&#8217;s who we need. And instead of looking to mild, my hands are tied, I&#8217;m delusional Chuck Schumer, we can point to this person. Hell, in one appearance on Bill Maher&#8217;s show Stephen A. Smith garnered more attention and kudos than any Democrat in the past month, people keep talking to me about him, and he did this solely by speaking the truth, EMPHATICALLY!<\/p>\n<p>No musicians. No one riding the coattails for fame. No actors. They&#8217;ve all sacrificed their credibility. If they want to lead a boycott, great. If they want to be figureheads&#8230; No one is listening. I don&#8217;t want to hear Bruce Springsteen&#8217;s opinion, I just want him to tell us never to buy MyPillow or something else. Better yet, Chappell Roan. Someone young people can relate to. She can stand up to the record companies, can she stand up to Trump?<\/p>\n<p>5<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s much worse than you think it is. Much, much worse. And I sympathize with your reluctance and defeat. If the election were held again today, Trump would lose. This is not what most Americans want.<\/p>\n<p>And how about a campaign showing what you get for your taxes, what government does for the people, instead of pussyfooting and kowtowing to the right&#8217;s agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Where is the left&#8217;s agenda? Where is the rallying around the bad behavior of Trump and his cronies?<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic party is out of touch, but most of the public is on the same page. We want to live in peace, protected from disaster, as part of a world economy. Forget the rampant Trumpers, forget those who can&#8217;t stop talking about DEI. Let&#8217;s harness reasonability. Let&#8217;s not leave the playing field to the professionals, because they F*CKED IT UP!<\/p>\n<p>But first you have to harness the media and the message. That&#8217;s what Musk got with Twitter\/X. Let&#8217;s embrace the supposed left wing media. Let&#8217;s not question ourselves, but pick up the ball and run through the goalpost.<\/p>\n<p>This is doable. Assuming we DO, which now we are not.<\/p>\n<p>But we must start NOW!<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Move fast and break things. Isn&#8217;t that the credo of the techies? Meanwhile, they tell us to trust them. That they know what they&#8217;re doing. And the entire focus is on AI when in truth that&#8217;s a sideshow compared to the heinous activities of these bros. Ditto the focus on TikTok. If you think [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-5DK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21686,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21684\/revisions\/21686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}