April 7th, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iw1xmvEvAw

Jason Bermas, this video is an embarrasment for you from start to finish.

Is "nobody's friend"?

  • 80M Twitter followers would disagree.
  • He is not Putin's friend.
  • He is pretty friendly with China. Tesla Shanghai is doing amazing things.
  • He is pretty friendly with Germany as well as in he has capacity to get amazing things done in Germany.
  • He has Texas and California top talent.
  • Worldwide he is employing ~110,000 people.

Actively engaged in trying to start World War 3

  • If you ask people, why did World War 2 exist? I think a common answer would be to take out Hitler.
  • Putin is delegating his resouces to killing innocent people. Does that merrit intervention or not?
  • Elon Musk is not afraid of Putin because Elon Musk is the Lead Engineer for the most advanced rocket science company in the world.
  • Elon Musk took US launch contracts away from the Russians through SpaceX.
  • Elon Musk tried to open dialog with the Kremlin by inviting an open conversation.
  • With all of his Starlink Satellites, the probability is high that Elon noticed Russian troops accumulating before the rest of the world knew.
  • After Putin invaded Ukrain Elon Musk challenged Putin to "single combat"
  • Elon is trying to STOP Putin from killing innocent Ukranians.
  • Calling it "World War 3" is a scare tactic. A meaningless arbitrary title which could very well be "The Last War" or "The Ultimate War Year" IMO. Maybe call it the Musk Putin war.
  • Elon employs the worlds best engineering talent in no less than 3 major countries.
  • Who else in the world is in any position to stop Putin? Biden?
  • Biden would want to use this as political points. Elon is completely bypassing any political credit. As they would just go to Elon to make cool shit anyway (if they wanted it done the best).
  • Would it be a good thing if Elon put Putin in a position where he immediately ceases on Ukraine?

He launched what he says are "Starlink Satellites"

  • I have Starlink. It works great. Slightly expensive, but works quite well.
  • He launches rocket and brings satellites to orbit ~50 sattelites/launch. Then he lands the rocket.
  • He did, what Google failed to do with project "Loon" and Facebook's "Aquila", so you could say Elon is better at solving problems than Google and Facebook.
  • The are absolutely not fiction. They work. They blanket the Earth with internet.
  • DARPA's "Black Jack" Satellites, is DARPA's thing. Elon doesn't run DARPA, but would likely accept launch contracts as the *organizations who want things in space* is a pretty narrow market.
  • The title on the article reads "DARPA IS ABOUT TO LAUNCH A MILITARY VERSION OF SPACEX'S STARLINK". All this means is that DARPA gets a VPN on Starlink. That is a secure connection backed by Starlink Satellites (or their own Satellites or their own frequency (more expense)).
  • STARLINK is the most stable internet service provider in the Ukraine right now.

[These satellites are] openly being utilized for small drones to do kamakazi style attack on tanks in Russia right now

Citation? This is the first I am hearing of this.

Assuming this is true, I have all sorts of questions. I think we can agree, that tanks should not do this. My first question is, how are these tanks being destroyed by drones being selected. Next, do these attacks simply disable the tank? Are there casualties?

The last thing I want to see, is Putin backed into a corner where he feels he has to go Nuclear. I don't know where that line is drawn from Putin's perspective.

There is some risk to taking out Russian tanks in terms of escalation. And there is some risk not taking out Russian tanks in terms of escalation.

He is having fights with "members of parliment".

Elon Musk did not start any fight. These fights were started by Elizabeth Warren

Elon Musks opinion of taxing the rich more is that it doesn't make great financial sense to take money from the people who are best at spending capital effectively, and give it to the government who spends capital in the least effective way. Elon is employing 100K+ people, bringing internet all over the world, making cars that do not emmit noxious gas in your garage, trying to get humans to Mars, redesigning the road system underground, self driving vehicles (potentially no more drunk driving, no more text and driving accidents), transitioning the world to sustainable energy, making the worlds best truck, expanding production, attempting to solve human paralysis, cleaning the drinking water in Flint Michagan,

Elon Musk is going up against Big Oil, Big Auto, Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Lockheed and Boeing and the SEC. Who better to go up against Vladimir Putin?

Increased his fortune 600% during Covid. Did the best out of anybody.

How did Elon profit "off of Covid"? Covid has hurt growth overall on Earth. The truth is, if it weren't for Covid, Elon would have done even better. How Elon did from 2019 to 2022 was based on many factors. In 2018, Elon was attacked by the media and the SEC very publically which in turn took the value of Tesla's Market Cap from $70B down to $38B. In short succession after this happend Tesla began their vehicle ramp in China which was extremely proficable. The stock catapulted and demand for these vehicles has soared. In 2019, the Model 3 began ramping in 2 continents and grew and continues to grow exponentially. Elon's fortune increasing 600% was inevitable. The first 100% was just a correction to where the price should have been a year before. The next 100% was a correction of where the price should have been at the time. And the other 400% is because Wall St, which had been rating $TSLA with 12 sells and 1 buy, flipped to 8 buys and 5 sells. Elon Musk making 600% gains has a lot more to do with Wall St changing from punishing Tesla to jumping on the bandwagon. When Morgan Stanley, RBC, Bank of America, change their mind from shorting you to going long, it has a massive impact on the stock. All Elon did was open up China and continue a ramp. Elon made no effort to capitalize on Covid. In fact, he offered to put a team of engineers on solving "the resporator problem" for hospitals. Upon which the media misreported and spread that he "donated the wrong kind of ventilators".

"His biggest contractor ever is military industrial complex" So... bigger than a factory in China or Texas or Berlin, the US military contracts are bigger than those contracts? Not likely. Made up BS.

"Tesla is subsidized by the government" it's not so black and white. First let's see what subsidies there are. In 2008, Tesla recieved a loan from the government which they paid back early with interest and the US Tax payers made money on. Beyond that, GM lobbied for EV credits and these were awarded. It was $7500 for first 200K vehicles and then cut in half every 6 months thereafter phasing out in ~4 phases. This was a credit given to the consumer for buying an EV, not to Tesla. Tesla did benefit by having customers factor the credit into their purchase decision which increases addressible market.

So, Tesla isn't really subsidized by the government. However, they are subsidized. For example, Stellantis puchased billions of dollars worth of ZEV credits from Tesla over many years. A ZEV credit is a penalty for producing an internal combustion engine car. You see, in Europe, vehicle producers have to have some balance between ICE and EV cars produced. Stellantis decided to not bother with producting EVs and instead build only ICE cars. Tesla, produced on EVs and began to stockpile these credits which they couldn't use. By selling these credits to Stellantis, Tesla made billions. This helped Tesla become profitable and in turn created a fallout effect which flipped Wall St around on the stock.

DARPA has had their own brain chip thing for decades and Elon is doing Neuralink now. So what? Neuralink will attempt to solve human paralysis, anxiety, depression, Alzeimers and on and on. It may not succeed, but even if it solved one of those, it would be very valuable to very dabilitated people. What bad is coming out of Neuralink?

Are we slow? Yes. I am slow. There are a finite number of brain doctors studying brain interfaces on Earth and if DARPA has a project, and Elon has a project, there is potential for collaboration or even employees flowing from one project to the other. But you conclude this is bad. Why?

Do we not get it? Why because he tweets about "people should have free speech".

I am not entirely sure what the definition of having free speech is on platforms controlled by algorithms and moderators. I think harassment is bad and people should have some option to not be harassed. There should be a fair set rules, boundaries and limitations on a social media platform. I don't hold the social media to be in bad faith if repeat offending rule breakers get deplatformed.

Elon is as dangerous as it gets. Okay, so in theory Elon could turn the world into Carmageddon. He could launch rockets with weapons on them. He could delegate engineers to build harmful things. But as dangerous as it gets is not really fair. Should the person who invented the gun be responsible for every gun death for all of eternity? How is Elon Musk more dangerous than ... Dick Cheney? Name me one single act that Dick Cheney, or Hitler or Putin has done, that Elon has also done. If Elon is as dangerous as it gets, and he wants to stop Putin, who's side do you want to be on?

He is putting military equipment up in a war zone that is killing people. Yes, you said this already. He is launching equipment for DARPA and they are using it to take out Russian tanks. He invented a reusable rocket. Should he turn down the contracts? Would it be better if he were helping Russia or China with these same contracts? Because of the security clearance between Elon and the US, Elon is highly restricted in how he can help other countries. In short, he can't help Russia with weapons or China. He's not allowed. In terms of people pulling Elon's strings, this is one thing that he is bound by.

We have our blindspots. Yeah. Agreed.

2 Million people with brain chips right now? Who has these brain chips? How can I get one?

The brain chips, as mentioned before, are to take us to the next level. It's new territory and could yield new possibilities. Maybe you could always be eating an oreo in your brain. Maybe you integrate with external memory and it solves Alzeimers. Maybe you communitate with nerves wirelessly around a severed spine. Maybe cameras will restore blindness. There are many good things that could come of this brain research. It appears as though technology makes you uncomfortable. If you compare the humans we are, to the humans we were in the 1800's, we are evolved. We have new things that give us new capabilities as humans. In the next 200 years, we are going to evolve more. Technologies are going to get smaller and more powerful and this is going to open up new capabilities. Do you want us to stop inventing all together?

This guy is as dangerous as it gets. If you repeat it often enough, people will believe it more right? Hitler, Bush, remember those guys?

He manipulates false crypto markets on top of it what a great dude. He understands and is a fan of crypto. A sustainable crypto makes a lot of sense. Is he not allowed to have a favorite? Is there something wrong if he has Tesla sell items that you can only buy in Doge? He has the power to do it, and I don't feel like it is an abuse of power. If you invented a crypto that he isn't promoting, you could be upset by this and feel he is being monopolistic I guess. But I don't see a problem with somebody rooting for their favorite crypto. He has been very consistent. Tesla bought Bitcoin. Tesla accepted Bitcoin. Tesla changed their mind when it got to the point retired coal fired power plants were being brought back online to provide power needs to mine crypto. Getting mad at Elon for seeing value in a Doge is like getting mad at somebody for seeing value in a Mickey Mantle rookie card.

Elon bought Twitter to save it and he will sell it in a few months. This wont age well. Elon wont sell Twitter. He isn't buying Twitter to turn profit. He is buying it because he doesn't agree with the way it is being run and he thinks he can do better by being an internal member. I don't think Twitter will die without Elon. Elon hasn't had an impact on Twitter yet but he has had a few poles all of which I think could lead to improvements.

I'll give him one thing... "overpopulation is a myth". Agreed. The technologies are there and we could empower human beings. Who is empowering more human beings than Elon Musk with his plan to build solar roofs and battery storage? Look at what he did in Austrailia.

I don't trust him because the electric car has been around 30 fucking years. So?

Why did they let him not be profitable for over a decade? If by "they" you mean the entire planet, then the reason is because starting a new car company from scratch, purchasing a factory, doing research and development is expensive. Costs which will decline with scale. At some point scaling production works out financially in the companies favour.

How did he get the military industrial rocket contracts? Simple. He gets his rockets to orbit and then brings them back and lands them. They salvage as much of the rocket as they can and this drastically reduces the cost to launch. This cost to launch advantage is very compelling to clients who wish to launch payloads into orbit.

We are not going to the moon. We are not going to Mars. That is fiction. Well, if we were to go to Mars, it would be helpful to have a rocket that could bring way more stuff than what we can currently launch into orbit. As such, a rocket like the Starship makes really good sense. Why else build this rocket? What an amazing accomplishment to do if you think about it in terms of Guiness Book of World Records. If Elon doesn't go to the Moon or Mars, is that in any way a good thing?

Denish Bushinell - We are sending the robots that can do everything people can do cheaper and better. Agreed. This makes sense. Have robots make the planet habitable for humans. Sounds smart.

They look at us like insects. Elon has tremendous respect for humans. Compare yourself to Elon. Have you done more for humans than

These are examples where Elon has helped humans. What are some examples of where he is harming humans in a net negative way?

We are less than bugs. We deserve the humanus slavery they will provide. So, I can see how you might think that about Bezos, Zuckerburg and Gates. But assuming Elon is the exact same as them is just wrong. Elon is the best innovator on Earth right now. He is the modern day Nikola Tesla, Leonardo Divinci, Albert Einstein. He has aspergers disease. This gives him attention hyperfocus disorder which he uses to his advantage to do as much awesome as he possibly can in his limited lifetime. He is doing things that people aren't giving him any credit for. Like attempting to solve drunk driving. Attempting to make robots. You can be scared of him. You can want him to slow down progress. You can say he's like all the others but that is not true. He is the best rocket scientist and serial entrapreneur on the planet. He is attacking the most difficult problems on Earth and beyond.

Yes, he is publically going against Putin. Yes, he is trying to save Ukraine. Elon will not likely succeed in every thing he is trying to achieve.

Your best argument that Elon abuses his power is that equipment he sent into outter space is being used to purposfully slow an illegal invasion on an innocent country. Weak.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Software Developer always striving to be better. Learn from others' mistakes, learn by doing, fail fast, maximize productivity, and really think hard about good defaults. Computer developers have the power to add an entire infinite dimension with a single Int (or maybe BigInt). The least we can do with that power is be creative.