Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.

[ImGod]

The more Musk is in the news cycle being a dick to people, the more he tarnishes his brands and himself. Not a good return on his investment so far.

He can''t rely on .gov to bail him out long term. The first thing a dem president could do is freeze all SpaceX launces from US territory while there is an extensive review of his contracts. Looking for waste and fraud off course.

I don't see his companies surviving as we get more and more politically polarized and vindictive as a society.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The more Musk is in the news cycle being a dick to people, the more he tarnishes his brands and himself. Not a good return on his investment so far.

He can''t rely on .gov to bail him out long term. The first thing a dem president could do is freeze all SpaceX launces from US territory while there is an extensive review of his contracts.

Seeing that SpaceX is currently the only player in town because Boeing sucks, that isn't an option. Musk is tarnishing Tesla badly, but not as badly as he is having the company wander the desert, for the riches of AI.

The longer this goes, the more Musk exposes himself as not being remotely the genius he has remarkably done a great job at convincing people he is. His DOGE has committed countless violations of the law and hasn't performed any actual analysis to this point on efficiency. So much for AI.

 

[ImGod]

The more Musk is in the news cycle being a dick to people, the more he tarnishes his brands and himself. Not a good return on his investment so far.

He can''t rely on .gov to bail him out long term. The first thing a dem president could do is freeze all SpaceX launces from US territory while there is an extensive review of his contracts.

Seeing that SpaceX is currently the only player in town because Boeing sucks, that isn't an option. Musk is tarnishing Tesla badly, but not as badly as he is having the company wander the desert, for the riches of AI.

The longer this goes, the more Musk exposes himself as not being remotely the genius he has remarkably done a great job at convincing people he is. His DOGE has committed countless violations of the law and hasn't performed any actual analysis to this point on efficiency. So much for AI.

SpaceX reusable boosters are a great step in space exploration.

SpaceX hasn't killed anyone yet so we'll see how that goes when they get to that point. Their last test didn't go well unless you like light shows over populated areas. Add a crew in that one. It's yet to be seen what happens if they can continue accelerated design and testing iterations with people riding along.

I won't have anything to do with Tesla products because they are one of the worst companies for user data collection and privacy. I guess to feed their AI?

I've minimized my digital footprint for decades and don't need Musk tech in my life anywhere. That was last year, before they got into government systems. Now it wouldn't surprise me if they are tapping in to all government records for long term personal gain. That's how little I trust Musk and the X, Tesla, and SpaceX employees working in Musk's DOGE group.

I'm not a luddite. In fact it takes more tech savvy to avoid excessive data collection. Of course, it's impossible to be totally off unless you are homeless.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Efficiency? Fire people hire them back. Maybe fire them again later.

Https://archive.is/Qbsh1

This kind of thing just keeps happening over and over and just demonstrates that this non-Department of Government Efficiency is incompetent.

While he was playing government, he lost $100 billion in wealth so far this year. If it continues, he'll have to charge too much for x users and that will drop too. Advertisers already are wary. He might end up crashing businesses if a backlash brews and Trump uses him as a scapegoat.

Trump still needs his money for the 2026-2028 campaign to eliminate voting.

The Republicans might do that with the SAVE Act.

 

[Elixir]

The Republicans might do that with the SAVE Act.

That thing is a garbage performance art. A distraction. No way will it pass with 60 votes in the Senate.

 

[ZiprHead]

General strike is being called for this coming Friday. Purchase nothing, especially from Amazon. Take the day off if you can without getting into too much trouble. More strike dates coming.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trump bouncing back and forth on Mexico and Canada tariffs. Saying it'll be March 4th again.

I rarely post YouTube videos, but Andrew Chang with the CBC produces some rather in-depth but relatively short (< 10 mins) pieces. Here is one he did regarding the metal tariffs by the US. Goes through the history of why the US/Canada relationship on car manufacturing is as it is, the failure of the first tariffs, into the latest...

 

[thebeave]

General strike is being called for this coming Friday. Purchase nothing, especially from Amazon. Take the day off if you can without getting into too much trouble. More strike dates coming.

This kind of thing never made sense to me. People will just buy what they need the next day. Or the day before. Has this ever had any substantial effect on a company's bottom line? If you purposely avoid buying a particular product for the long term (or forever), then yes, it can be damaging. Just look at Bud Light.

 

[Elixir]

Has this ever had any substantial effect on a company's bottom line?

That is not the intent. See upthread.

 

[thebeave]

Has this ever had any substantial effect on a company's bottom line?

That is not the intent. See upthread.

I did look, but I only went back a couple of pages and this thread is 53 pages long. Help?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

General strike is being called for this coming Friday. Purchase nothing, especially from Amazon. Take the day off if you can without getting into too much trouble. More strike dates coming.

This kind of thing never made sense to me. People will just buy what they need the next day. Or the day before. Has this ever had any substantial effect on a company's bottom line? If you purposely avoid buying a particular product for the long term (or forever), then yes, it can be damaging. Just look at Bud Light.

Indeed, the sprawled out US population and a "general strike" aren't very compatible. If the MTA, LIRR, and Metro didn't work one day, that'd be very noticeable... in NYC. And it'd be on the news, and it would impact the US a little bit. But it only would matter if it was continuous (like a week plus). NYC can't work without transit. That isn't going to happen. And a small number of people not working... otherwise, won't even be noticed. And what are we protesting? The illegal impoundment of Congressionally authorized spending? Yeah, it isn't legal, but that is above the average Americans' head and threshold of giving a fuck.

Nope, we are stuck with the shit show until the shit impacts people's wallets. Trump is working earnestly towards a recession, and he (via Musk) is making unemployment numbers rise. Typically, it takes a year plus for the economic actions of a President to matter.

 

[KCFlyer]

Musk is tarnishing Tesla badly

Tesla gets something like 38% of it's profits from the sale of carbon credits. And Elon has a chainsaw cutting thru government programs with terrifying efficiency. So one has to wonder....when he gets to "the Green New Deal" that his underling that is supposed to be his boss has decried many times, how does he wield a chainsaw without lopping off the most glaring goofy part of that program - the sale of carbon credits. Will he slash 38% of his revenues?

 

[ZiprHead]

Trump has removed the security clearances from Jack Smith's lawyers so they cannot defend him.

Any news organization that asks him hard question or challenges him are barred from the White House press corps. Wutta pussy.

 

[Elixir]

Has this ever had any substantial effect on a company's bottom line?

That is not the intent. See upthread.

I did look, but I only went back a couple of pages and this thread is 53 pages long. Help?

A significant one day revenue drop signals that the consumer class can act in unison; a signal to legislators and politicians.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/land-reform-south-africa-fact-and-fiction

A lot of good information in the article.

Apologists:

According to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), the proposed amendment would introduce greater clarity to existing expropriation provisions, though it would remove the stipulation “subject to compensation”.

In other words, they're going to steal it.

So if a thief steals a valuable piece of jewelry from your grandmother, does the thief's grandson get to keep it even though it's known it belonged to your grandmother?

Basically every bit of land has been stolen from it's original owners, generally many times. Specific objects from specific people, ok, return is generally appropriate. General objects from populations--no. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Most of the land on question has a clear paper trail, so why shouldn't the government recover it? Returning stolen property is not a second wrong, it's the righting of a wrong.

Your ethics are basically saying that redress for a theft should be impossible as long if the thief fenced or laundered the stuff they stole quickly enough, that they are no longer owned by the original thief. But that's not how the law works. If you know the Rolex is a fenced good, you're also on the hook for buying it, and the grandson of a thief should similarly be the hook for the stolen goods he inherits. On what basis does a current owner of a farm on stolen land have rights to it? They didn't pay for it, it wasn't granted to them, they didn't work for it. They just inherited a criminal enterprise, which is not a kind of type of "right" that a nation is morally obliged to honor.

Yeah, the land has a paper trail. What the left conveniently ignores is when that paper trail leads to a seizure/ethnic cleansing by the Arabs.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No, this is a very simple situation. They're stealing the land. This isn't about fairness, it's about theft. Exactly like Zimbabwe. Just because it's being done by someone who isn't white doesn't make it not evil. If it was not evil they would be paying fair compensation.

You are right, this is a simple situation of poor people desperate for access to land to be able to herd their livestock and barely make ends meet.

Your utter disregard for their needs and the gross disparity in who owns the land and how best to manage this inequity that will otherwise lead to violence is duly noted.

You are utterly disregarding what actually happened. Did the poor people get access to land to herd their livestock? No. Now in much of Zimbabwe there is the tsetse fly and thus no livestock at all. Did the poor people get access to land to farm? Pretty much, not. The bits that were given to the people didn't come with the capital and machinery needed to actually farm them.

The theft was presented as being in the public interest. It was not. The only beneficiaries were the rich. Look at The Felon's tax cut proposals.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

No, this is a very simple situation. They're stealing the land. This isn't about fairness, it's about theft. Exactly like Zimbabwe. Just because it's being done by someone who isn't white doesn't make it not evil. If it was not evil they would be paying fair compensation.

You are right, this is a simple situation of poor people desperate for access to land to be able to herd their livestock and barely make ends meet.

Your utter disregard for their needs and the gross disparity in who owns the land and how best to manage this inequity that will otherwise lead to violence is duly noted.

You are utterly disregarding what actually happened.

Now you are disregarding my actual posts.

Did the poor people get access to land to herd their livestock? No. Now in much of Zimbabwe there is the tsetse fly and thus no livestock at all.

Zimbabwe, at least according to my knowledge of geography, isn't part of South Africa. Nor was I speaking about Zimbabwe.

The theft was presented as being in the public interest. It was not. The only beneficiaries were the rich. Look at The Felon's tax cut proposals.

Trump is not part of South Africa.

Regarding the theft of white owned territory in South Africa, it'd be best to reference the theft of white owned territory in South Africa, not analogies.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/land-reform-south-africa-fact-and-fiction

A lot of good information in the article.

Apologists:

According to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), the proposed amendment would introduce greater clarity to existing expropriation provisions, though it would remove the stipulation “subject to compensation”.

In other words, they're going to steal it.

So if a thief steals a valuable piece of jewelry from your grandmother, does the thief's grandson get to keep it even though it's known it belonged to your grandmother?

Basically every bit of land has been stolen from it's original owners, generally many times. Specific objects from specific people, ok, return is generally appropriate. General objects from populations--no. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Irony is dead.

Many of the children of the people whose land was stolen are still alive.

Many who claim their land was stolen are still alive. Doesn't mean it actually was.

And when it was "stolen" that can generally be traced back to the fact that the Arabs would not agree to take an oath to not continue fighting if they were allowed back into Israel (after they had left of their own accord.)

And what about the even greater amount of Jewish property that was stolen?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/land-reform-south-africa-fact-and-fiction

A lot of good information in the article.

Apologists:

According to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), the proposed amendment would introduce greater clarity to existing expropriation provisions, though it would remove the stipulation “subject to compensation”.

In other words, they're going to steal it.

So if a thief steals a valuable piece of jewelry from your grandmother, does the thief's grandson get to keep it even though it's known it belonged to your grandmother?

Basically every bit of land has been stolen from it's original owners, generally many times. Specific objects from specific people, ok, return is generally appropriate. General objects from populations--no. Two wrongs don't make a right.

So don't support bombing innocent people.

When a country chooses war it's people tend to get bombed. If you prohibit this you are handing the world over to the most evil. In case you've forgotten: Hamas was caught arranging a protest to the Israeli response before there was any Israeli response. That means they knew what would happen and chose that path.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/land-reform-south-africa-fact-and-fiction

A lot of good information in the article.

Apologists:

According to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), the proposed amendment would introduce greater clarity to existing expropriation provisions, though it would remove the stipulation “subject to compensation”.

In other words, they're going to steal it.

So if a thief steals a valuable piece of jewelry from your grandmother, does the thief's grandson get to keep it even though it's known it belonged to your grandmother?

Basically every bit of land has been stolen from it's original owners, generally many times. Specific objects from specific people, ok, return is generally appropriate. General objects from populations--no. Two wrongs don't make a right.

So don't support bombing innocent people.

When a country chooses war it's people tend to get bombed. If you prohibit this you are handing the world over to the most evil. In case you've forgotten: Hamas was caught arranging a protest to the Israeli response before there was any Israeli response. That means they knew what would happen and chose that path.

Two wrongs don't make a right.