Yes, friends, another day in Trump world, a place that is beyond the imagination of any writer. Which is a good thing, because any fiction writer creating a character and a story like this would be laughed out of publishing. Except for Kurt Vonnegut. He could have created Donald Trump but reality got there first. Today we have the world’s most expensive political ad falling on its face, namely the Musk/Trump *interview* on Twitter. If you weren’t there or haven’t heard, it’s a replay of the DeSantis campaign launch, namely Musk couldn’t get the interview to work for a while and blamed a cyber attack (by Democrats, we presume? Or the Deep State?) for his woes.

That’s part of the comedy for the set up that you’ll hear in a moment. The other part is that Trump is now flying around in Jeffrey Epstein’s old plane. Trump Force One had mechanical problems the other day in Montana, you may recall, and so Trump had to procure the services of a private jet. He *happened* to get one that used to belong to Epstein. Not the Lolita Express, that plane no longer exists. This was another plane in his fleet.

You go to fact check a wild assertion, by golly, you find out it’s as good as gold. I guess it’s karma or something that Trump ended up with this plane.

And that, friends, cost $32 billion dollars. Whut? Oh yes. When Musk bought Twitter it was estimated to be worth $44 billion now it’s guestimated to be worth $12 billion. That is a hell of a depreciation. Musk bought the platform for political reasons.

Musk’s ownership of X, however, gives him full control over its algorithm. According to a report by The Verge, Musk “created a special system” that promotes his posts “to the entire user base.” The new system initially “artificially boosted Musk’s tweets by a factor of 1,000 – a constant score that ensured his tweets rank higher than anyone else’s in the feed.” Musk himself posted a crude meme mocking the ubiquity of his posts on the network after the algorithm change. Although the artificial boost to Musk’s posts has been moderated somewhat, Musk continues to dominate the default “For You” feed of nearly everyone who uses X.

In recent weeks, Musk, who officially endorsed former President Donald Trump on July 13, has weaponized his account to flood millions of X users with pro-Trump and anti-Vice President Kamala Harris messages. Over the last month, Musk has published at least 173 posts supporting Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), or attacking their Democratic opponents.

Meanwhile, several accounts on X that are supportive of Harris “have been labeled as spam or restricted.” Musk also said he was involved in creating America PAC, a pro-Trump Super PAC. Musk says he will also donate an undisclosed amount to the group.

Trump clearly appreciates Musk’s efforts. At an August 4 rally, Trump announced he was reversing his longstanding opposition to electric cars because Musk also serves as the CEO of Tesla. “I’m for electric cars. I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Trump said. “So, I have no choice.”

Extend that logic out and anybody who “endorsed strongly” translating as putting up mega bucks, has to be praised and promoted. This is show biz, after all. Except it’s not. It’s politics in a democracy and Trump doesn’t fit. He’s toxic to democracy. And as of November, he’ll be voted into oblivion.

 

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6 COMMENTS

  1. We’ve gone from Vonnegut fiction of ‘Listen. Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time’ to a real world version of ‘Listen. Donald Trump has come unstuck from reality. And humanity.’ Not that there’s anything in his upbringing and mentoring by his father and the notorious Roy Cohn to suggest anyone tried to instill any basic human decency into Trump. But you get what I mean by altering Vonnegut’s opening line of Slaughterhouse Five.

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    • He’s got so used to ‘saying the quiet part out loud’ that he’ll stand in front of people and say, “I like electric cars now cuz Musk gave me big bucks so I have to.” A little different from, “I hate those brown furriners that steal our jobs. Yeah!” So Unstuck he sees none of it.

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  2. Something else just occurred to me. Did Musk ever even invite Biden to do such an “interview” on Twitter/X? Will he at least make the offer to Harris? (She’d be crazy to accept) You can bet the farm that Trump, with Elon cheerleading will crow about the size of the audience for that little propaganda stunt. THAT can be verified if it comes down to it in court someday but in the meantime it would be easy for a panel of experts to work out the value of what in effect was a lengthy campaign ad from an INDIVIDUAL to Trump. A campaign donation. For FEC and legal purposes (both in civil and criminal campaign finance law statutes) a contribution doesn’t have t be cash. ‘In Kind’ contributions are specifically cited and even some examples given. I’m quite sure this interview would fall into the “or any other thing of value” category and again since Musk owns the platform lock, stock and barrel it’s a simple donation to Trump. Directly. It’s for damned sure way the hell over the individual contribution limit or the one for couples too – Musk is married but I don’t know if he files individual or joint tax returns but no matter. The VALUE of what he gave Trump tonight far exeeds the 5k limit for individual donations to a candidate. And how the hell can it be called a contribution to a Trump PAC or Super PAC?

    Nothing will happen of course. At least not now. However if things go the way they should sometime next spring the FEC and DOJ need to show up with subpoenas for both Trump and Musk. And one to obtain Twitter/X records for August 12, 2024. At least make them sweat some. Also, Tesla isn’t totally owned by Musk and some over there long ago got tired of him. Anway put a pin in what I’ve mentioned. Especially if Trump keeps talking up his ‘perfect’ appearance on Twitter and how many people tuned in. He could win up being his own worst enemy.

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    • Brillifying! They’re petarded in their own noose.
      Elmo is already in a possible kettle of chum for his incitement to riot and violence on Xitter re. the RWNJ anti-muslim riots in the UK. It would be lovely to see the trend continue.

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  3. On my way to work this A.M. I saw one of those tesla p.o.s. pickups: my word it’s ugly. You don’t really get the full, slap in the face, ugly until it comes toward you while you’re waiting to turn. Sheeeit it is a whole lot of ugly.

    If it has the reliability track record of the other teslas, people stupid enough to spend the $’s will have ugly garbage to drive around. The last vehicle I saw this ugly was that Aztec thing a while back.

    I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the “interview” was WAY LESS than stellar given the other garbage space karen puts out.

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  4. Even if Muskrat was not spewing RWNJ lies and propaganda, I would never buy any of his crappy vehicles due to his screwing his customers in ways far to numerous to list here! If someone gave me a Tesla, I would sell it and donate the proceeds to Democrats campaigns!

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