[Philip Marlow]

I’ll be waiting until I can reserve it at the library, but the book under discussion sounds like a read-through-your-fingers mix of fun and ghastliness.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/bo ... ed-twitter

What really concerned Musk, however, was that people weren’t retweeting him enough. Teams of engineers were assigned to solve the problem of reduced engagement with Musk’s tweets. Matters came to a head during the 2023 Super Bowl, when he obsessed over the fact that a tweet by Joe Biden received several times as many likes as his own. Nobody dared suggest that the world just found their boss easy to ignore. Engineers were summoned from their Super Bowl parties to headquarters to fix the problem, which they did with a new line of code: “author_is_elon”, a tag that forced everyone to pay even more attention to the richest man in the world.

[Philip Marlow]

Dignity.

EDIT: Apparently a fake. My apologies.

[Philip Marlow]

I don’t think the Americans need Elon Musk, let alone the governments of Europe, bloated or otherwise. Or Europe itself. Or any of the people in Europe or America. Or anyone.

[Andy McDandy]

A few years back, there was a TV series called "The Amazing Mrs Pritchard", starring Jane Horrocks and revolving around a no-nonsense northern housewife who somehow becomes PM. I recall dreading it, as it threatened to be one of those things where she knocks heads together, implements common sense solutions, threatens the priapic US president with a cold spoon, and shuts down the dictator by saying she'll not put up with "any of his nonsense".

Thankfully it didn't go down that road at all, and did have her facing problems that couldn't be resolved in such a facile manner. Sally Wainwright doesn't tend to stick to cliche. But yes, the Mr Smith goes to Washington template has a lot of issues (and goes back a long, long way).

[davidjay]

A few years back, there was a TV series called "The Amazing Mrs Pritchard", starring Jane Horrocks and revolving around a no-nonsense northern housewife who somehow becomes PM. I recall dreading it, as it threatened to be one of those things where she knocks heads together, implements common sense solutions, threatens the priapic US president with a cold spoon, and shuts down the dictator by saying she'll not put up with "any of his nonsense".

Thankfully it didn't go down that road at all, and did have her facing problems that couldn't be resolved in such a facile manner. Sally Wainwright doesn't tend to stick to cliche. But yes, the Mr Smith goes to Washington template has a lot of issues (and goes back a long, long way).

That's pretty much what Thatcher did - ordinary housewife, balancing the family budget, common sense ideas.

[Andy McDandy]

[Youngian]

Politicians telling it straight is one of those things voters don't really want to hear once they do it. Australian PM Bob Hawke on a walkabout told a voter he was a stupid old bugger who doesn't known what he's talking about. Didn't go down well although Bob would have my vote.

[Bones McCoy]

[mattomac]

Politicians telling it straight is one of those things voters don't really want to hear once they do it. Australian PM Bob Hawke on a walkabout told a voter he was a stupid old bugger who doesn't known what he's talking about. Didn't go down well although Bob would have my vote.

Gordon Brown and the bigot woman.

[AOB]

I wonder if Musk has been outside of the USA this century. It's one thing buying Twitter, but imagine being a billionaire and spending all day every day tweeting. There's thousands of places around the world to go and visit, expand your mind, but instead, he gets a job with the government and spends all day on social media, which ironically is what Republicans and Conservatives say public sector workers do.

[Youngian]

Have a good feeling about Musk’s patronage of Farage backfiring on him if Labour are prepared to milk it.
The headbangers are in full whataboutery mode; George Soros, Starmer met Bill Gates, US banks bankrolled Remain blah blah blah. But little defence of the practice of a foreign billionaire buying up an election. And we know the motivations of Soros and Gates's philanthropy which is only controversial to swivel eyed loons.

[Abernathy]

There are rules about political donations, though, especially from foreign donors. Musk should be restricted in how much moolah he can slip Farage, even if he uses his UK based X operation to channel it through.

I think these are the rules that the government is going to look at tightening up (or should do).

[Youngian]

Musk will work his way round restrictions but what is this foreigner's motivation? is the question the government should be posing to the public

[Andy McDandy]

Carte Blanche for him and his businesses to act as he likes.

[RedSparrows]

Musk will work his way round restrictions but what is this foreigner's motivation? is the question the government should be posing to the public

This is something I don't understand isn't asked about more.

What is the end game for Musk and co? What virtue is actually being pursued?

For all the 'oh we must listen to the downtrodden' pieces churned out over the years since 2016, they never come up with a very good answer. We all know the answer, of course, but that answer and their shtick don't tally at all. So, come on: where's the rub?

[Killer Whale]

Musk will work his way round restrictions but what is this foreigner's motivation? is the question the government should be posing to the public

Weird* that Farage dedicated a good part of his life to ensuring that foreigners in the form of the EU didn't have influence over the UK. Yet here he is welcoming the idea of the mega-rich of an entirely different continent muscling in on our politics.

*not weird.

[Andy McDandy]

1. He's not really foreign as far as they're concerned. Anglosphere boy done good.

2. He speaks normal to them. No airs and graces. No funny intellectual stuff, unless it's big science words that show how smart he is. Bit like Johnson or Mogg with their Latin.

[Crabcakes]

It’s the exact same reason why Farage regularly attends and speaks at an organisation that is exclusively for the super-rich who want to move about the globe to avoid tax and rules that don’t suit them: he’s a racist hypocrite.

He doesn’t mind immigration one bit - as long as the immigrant is rich and white. And ideally, willing to slip him a few quid.

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/05/09/nige ... t-speaker/

[Crabcakes]

As for Musk, he is a teenage boy in a (rapidly decaying) adult body. His goal is the same goal as a spoilt 12-year-old playing Fortnite - he wants to win and call you a loser. That’s it. He doesn’t care if he cheats to do it. He doesn’t care if he upsets you. There’s no point trying to pigeonhole him in terms of political power, because he doesn’t even really care who’s in charge - it just so happens when the cunts are in charge they tend to let him do what he wants in exchange for a bung.

He just wants you to look at him while he tells you he is a winner. And that is why he and Trump get on so well, and that is also why they will 100% fall out spectacularly, because there is absolutely *no* space for 2 people to both be world king.

[kreuzberger]

I think that he just wants to be a rock star and has had to face the cold, hard truth that, regardless of his wealth, he is bereft of any discernable talent.

"I want doesn't" so he now wants to break things.